In Business or Life, by Tom Nies, Expert Access
There are four factors, or ingredients, that are absolutely essential for success in any and every pursuit. These four factors, which may be considered like the four points on a compass for success, are:
- Desire to succeed
- Knowledge that provides the foundational ability to succeed
- Behavior - habitual and disciplined behavior that produces success
- Love of the pursuit that stimulates and supports the desire for success
Desire
Those who teach the sciences of marketing and sales have long emphasized the acronym AIDA. This acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. It is these four aspects that must be developed if one is to successfully market or sell any idea or product.
Of course, the key idea is desire because it is desire that motivates, or moves, the potential buyer's action to choose and to commit, which wins the sales success. Desire is also the stimulating force that triggers the pursuit of success in any endeavor. As Vince Lombardi, the legendary American football coach, relentlessly insisted,
"You've got to pay the price."
Great companies that succeed will do "Whatever It Takes" to help their customers succeed in their pursuits. These two ideas are, of course, the same; that is, that there is sacrifice or effort needed, indeed demanded, in order to succeed. We must be willing to make the commitments needed to gain the prize sought.
In more recent times, these ideas have been sloganized as "keep your eyes on the prize." But for one to make the necessary sacrifices and efforts, first there must be the desire. And the greater the success desired, the greater must be the resolve. "I want something; therefore, I need to do various things." I want; I need.
All great champions in sports and other competitive pursuits quite regularly and openly say "I want to win." And these great champions are willing to do "Whatever It Takes" (within ethical limits) to accomplish their goal. And, as they achieve successes, these successes not only provide the gratification sought, but at the same time, they stimulate and increase the desire to seek still higher successes, while increasing the confidence needed to seek to achieve yet greater goals.
Knowledge
Just what is knowledge?
Photo courtesy of JV Kua
Simply, knowledge is a body of knowing about a specific focus or discipline. The greater the body of knowing, the more knowledge one is said to possess. This possession of knowing is a key idea. The pursuit of any possession requires an effort, more specifically a human effort. A human effort is one that demands a willful act of free choice.
This free human choice in pursuit of knowledge also infers ignorance. To so focus oneself on one endeavor of interest in order to gain increasing knowledge, one must of necessity ignore, or remain ignorant in, other areas of potential knowledge. So, as knowledge is developed in a certain area of specialized interest, one becomes increasingly more dependent on other specialists who can support or provide for the lacking or ignorance of the knowledgeable specialist in other ignored areas of need. This, of course, implies not only the need for TEAMWORK, but also the realization of one's own limitations and dependencies.
Knowledge Isn't Power
Francis Bacon was a widely respected intellectual contemporary with Shakespeare. Bacon's dictum, "Nosse es Posse," spoken in the Latin infinitive, is precisely translated as "To know is to be able." Unfortunately, this is usually translated incorrectly as "Knowledge is Power." Knowledge really is not power; it only provides the ability to perform, to do, to accomplish, or to have the potential power necessary to achieve or succeed at some task or mission.
Simply said, "Nosse es Posse" means that one is knowledgeable. This word contains three elements: knowing (know), a body of knowing (knowledge), and an ability (able). But we all have known many who may seem to be knowledgeable enough, yet never seem to accomplish very much. We tend to call these people "underachievers."
Of course, teams of people, organizations, and nations too, can be, and too often are, also underachievers. Still, knowledge is necessary to success.
Sun Tzu, recognizing this, taught thousands of years ago that,
"It is foolish to expect success from untalented people."
It is also unwise to expect success from an unknowledgeable person, or team. To be successful, emphasize the pursuit, acquisition, performing and sharing of knowledge.
Knowledge must become activated in order to actualize any potential reality or pursuit. This idea leads directly to the third factor.
Habituated and Disciplined Behavior
Perhaps the reason that so many New Year's resolutions are so quickly broken is that there was never any true resolve in the resolution. The "act" portion of the above words is emphasized to draw attention to the very real demand for human action. All human action demands a combination of the intellect and the will. We must first know what we seek to do, and then we must freely act to achieve this end. Strong actions demand great resolve.
The more consistently we act in a certain way, the more habituated becomes this behavior. But habits, or habituated behavior, can be either helpful or harmful. One who always acts truthfully becomes known as a truthful person; one who even occasionally lies becomes known as a liar. We become as we behave. So, while we possess knowledge, we become accomplished through our actions.
Socrates stated this as follows:
"Act the way you want to be and soon you'll be the way you act."
Again, we become as we behave.
So, to become accomplished, we must behave in a disciplined manner, which becomes habituated. A disciple is one who has learned from a teacher and then consistently and faithfully acts according to these teachings or learned knowledge. Of course, teaching and learning are not the same things. The teacher tries to help another to learn, but the learning is something that takes place within the learner who is gaining knowledge. But learning is not a passive process.
Get Active
At Cincom, we hold "Learning Labs" that seek to both transmit ideas and understandings, but also require labor by the learner. The word Laboratory combines both the ideas of Labor, or active participation, and Oratory, or verbal presentation. Effective and efficient learning requires both teachers and active learners.
cAtive learning is greatly aided and facilitated by practice, discussions, workshops and active interactions of various types. Practice also includes rehearsals and repetitions. These efforts help to clarify and confirm understandings and skills in a safe and non-threatening and less risky environment than does the "real" performance, encounter or competition.
Compete
(Photo courtesy of Konderminator)
It's the same with all other skills.
Our capabilities and mental powers are tested most when they are placed under stress. And like the chain that always breaks at its weakest link, whenever we are weak, we will tend to fail when under stress. Those who fail to prepare are preparing to fail. But while practice may not make perfect, it does make permanent. So, as we practice, it's important to do so under the guidance of or assistance from learned coaches or teachers who can aid and assist accomplishments.
These learning ideas all revolve about the need for discipline. We must study carefully and continuously what we are seeking to accomplish, or become proficient and accomplished in. And it helps greatly to study under knowledgeable teachers who demand disciplined performance. To add to Sun Tzu's dictum, one might say, "It is foolish to expect success from untalented, unlearned or undisciplined people."
Love of the Pursuit
Over the years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to meet and personally discuss their careers with quite a few highly successful persons. One of the key ideas I always pursue is to ask what is it that this person feels was the most important factor in their success. Inevitably, the answer is phrased in the following way:
"One must find something that one truly loves, and then commit oneself totally to that pursuit."
So often and so convincingly has this been said that I believe that one could lay down as a first principle that a deep and abiding love of one's pursuits is the shortest and surest way to attain the end sought, and to gain the knowledge and develop the skills and behaviors necessary for the successes targeted.
(Photo courtesy of Lala Lisa)
Just as one who truly and deeply loves another person always seeks the best interests and happiness of the other, so too does one who truly loves one's profession, or vocation, always seek to honor and fulfill those pursuits to the greatest degree possible. Quite rightly has love been so often likened to a burning fire.
As the fire consumes the fuel, it burns brighter and more strongly. And so, larger fuel can be added to a fire as it grows stronger.
There is no limit to the size or appetite of a fire. Similarly, the more one knows and loves one's pursuits, the greater becomes the appetite for more knowledge, greater challenges and more significant ways to serve one's pursuits. Knowledge, love and service—these three ideas are intimately interrelated. The more one knows another, the more one can and usually does love another. And the more one loves another, the more one seeks to serve and to sacrifice oneself for that other.
It's the same for a pursuit, a career or a vocation.
One simply cannot and will not give oneself totally to anything that one does not truly love. But when one does so love, then one seeks to unite with, or to surrender oneself to, that other person or pursuit.
For example, the professional golfer does not also try to concurrently pursue a career as a tennis player. Rather, the professional wants to give himself or herself totally and completely to that profession. Without the intense focus that total commitment demands, one cannot excel at one's career, profession or pursuits. This intense focus, or total abandonment, and commitment demands a deep and brightly burning fire of love. Those who work only for money may become satiated when enough money is gained. But those who truly love never become satiated. As long as the love grows, the desire to know more and to serve better grows as well.
In the End
In the end, it's not really money that motivates us.
The Olympics, which are built upon the idea of amateur competition, are a par excellence example of the love for the sport being the driving force that knows no bounds. In fact, the word amateur is derived from the Latin word amare, which means "to love." And the more one loves one's work, the more fun it becomes.
Think about that.
We love our profession, it's fun, truly great fun, and besides that we get paid for doing something that we love and enjoy doing.
What more could one ask?
Tiger Woods says "I love golf" as frequently and fervently as he says "I want to win."
These two twin desires are in fact simply different aspects of the same thing—a love for one's pursuits. It's the same with all great achievers. They love, truly love, what they do; and so they want to do what they love as well as possible. The Olympic Gold Medal, or the trophy won, is not the prize; rather, it is the symbol of the prize. That prize is surpassing excellence achieved. And note too that Tiger Woods does not say, "I want to win for the money involved." Even though large amounts of money usually accompany great successes, the money involved is not the primary motivator of truly great achievers.
Conclusion
Top earnings, prestige, celebrity status, the respect and admiration of others—all of these, and more, are by-products or fringe benefits for those who achieve eminence in their careers.
But it is the four factors of
- Desire
- Knowledge
- Behavior and
- Love
that are the drivers and energies that produce the excellent results that are so universally admired and respected.
