What is success? What defines a successful person? What are the characteristics that make someone successful? How do the wealthiest business people get to where they are? How do the most successful athletes keep winning and progressing year after year?
These are a few questions that are important to ask when trying to define and promote success. Once you begin to study the subject, it is apparent there are many opinions and ideas about what the important ingredients are for developing a successful life. Here are four of them to consider as you think about what success means for you.
• Personal resiliency – While everyone deals with setbacks. When you experience one you bounce forward.
• Hustle – Admit you can sometimes be out-smarted but commit to never being out-worked.
• When you set a worthy goal, be persistent and relentless in reaching it.
• Most of all believe that you have what it takes to be successful, and you will develop the ability of blending successful strategy with purpose-driven action.
In my study, and as I thought about all these statements, I could easily see how success might be considered an outcome. However, it is more than just an outcome, it is a process and way of life. Rather than conceit and arrogance it breeds humility. The following words are not mine but come from an un-named successful business owner who says it like this.
“You see, neither my mother nor father was born in the United States. They grew up with nothing and because of that, appreciated everything. Although they worked tirelessly, their reliance on one another and their community taught me that most of the success we obtain relies on those chance opportunities provided, and the support of others. So, regardless of how successful I might become, I remember where I came from and all the people who helped get me here. It keeps me hungry to grow and grounded in what matters. So, odd as it may sound, my trait is humility.”
My friends, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. The other speakers I encounter, the triathlons I compete in, the long swims I do, are filled with highly skilled successful people. Yes, many of them are arrogant. Some of them can’t wait to broadcast and brag about their successes. However as I truly thought about all of my experiences and competitions throughout life, it struck me that the people that I remembered as the most successful, the ones that stuck in my mind for doing something great, are the ones who had humility. The ones who had accomplished so much, but even on the highest throne, remembered that they still sat on their own bottoms. When we can all do this, it doesn’t matter how many speeches we give, races we have won, or how much money we have, we can know that the best is yet to come!