There are no secrets to success – Colin Powell

There are no secrets to success: It is rather exciting to write about success and failures. The backdrop for this post comes from my previous experiences and notions about success and failure. You see, for a long time, I have viewed success and failures as definitive events. When I was a student – success was about getting the top rank – anything less than that would be a failure. As I grew up, the bar only extended to getting the highest salary, becoming an IAS and so on. Lots of these were dreams – some of which I am very happy that I didn’t succeed on.

You get the picture right? I don’t need to bore you to death with my life history. It’s not that exciting after all. But, I’ve been constantly fascinated by the definitions of success, failure and most importantly – how they affect our personal outlook. Perhaps, that’s the most important thing in the melee of all the rat races we participate in piling up one goal after the other.

Today’s quote analysis is on the thought – there are no secrets to success. For this, a key motivator is this lovely quote about success from Colin Powell.

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.”

– Colin Powell

There are No Secrets to Success:

To be brutally honest with you, I’m fed up of reading articles, videos and infomercials about being successful in life. Everyone seems to know the one secret that’s guaranteed to give you all the success you need from life. The ridiculous list ranges from magic pills to sound advice, therapy sessions and what not. In fact, I can see an avenue for a huge business model around this and the truth is -there is one.

Having said that, it piques my curiosity about secrets to success. There must be something in the outlook or approach which contributes for people to come up with successful strategies. Most of my sample data has been through discussions and interviews with people who’ve done big. It is also equally important about people who gave up because the goal wasn’t rewarding enough. I would like to classify some of my experiences to the latter. After all, not all goals are worth pursuing, sometimes – there are far more important things that come into our daily purview.

Common Secrets to Success

Well, as much as there is a cynic in me, I do appreciate that there is a common theme in answers I got from successful people. The most common and inspiring items are:

• Clarity in vision – being able to look at the end result and find ways to achieve it
• Being adaptable in planning – knowing fully well that means is only a way to get to the end result. We cannot afford to be stuck about the mechanics alone
• Focus on work and constant improvement – Hard work has no substitute
• Taking help from people when needed – asking the right questions and constantly working towards improvement

I can probably go on. But I’m sure you’ve come across hundreds of articles which do this already. I would like this post to focus on one common theme – there are no secrets to success. In fact, this post is purely about feedback to me.

The Single Secret to Swear By

Personally, think this is the single most important thing. Yes, all the so called secrets do play a part, but success or failure is all about attitude. The end result is only a part of the journey and our goals keep changing. We can’t keep clinging to the ghosts of our past.

Our goals, success criteria and personality is on a constant road of change and we can only focus on growing from one strength to another. This doesn’t mean that we will ignore all the problems. But, it means that you will focus on resolving the ones that are important to you and ignore the ones which are not. All this however, needs to be done with your consciousness and knowledge. After all, it is in these moments of decision making where your true results stem from.

If you look at all your experiences in life so far – it is a constant feedback look. True, your goals have changed. It is also true that you have succeeded in some goals and failed in some others. But the mental, emotional journey is quite the same.

Is Success one single event?

I refuse to accept that success or failure is one singular event which defines everything. If this is the case, then you are truly missing the multiple successes which contribute to a result which is acknowledged by the rest of the world. And if you are looking at that – perhaps that’s a horrible standard to live by because acknowledgement for your success is defined by someone else and you have no control on it. This means that you very well have a huge chance of disappointment even if you do extremely well because of the external validation.

I would rather internalize this whole journey of success and failure. There is an awful lot of sense in breaking down success into smaller, tangible aspects. This is not to reduce your goals/ambitions. This is not even about feeling good. It is about ensuring that you are constantly checking on your journey. The journey is filled with fantastic feedback – some of which needs to be absolutely celebrated. At the same time, there is also feedback which gets you to work and change things to reach your final goal/destination.

Instead of looking at one huge thing – break everything down, look at your journey. There are no secrets to success, but there are patterns. Data is a beautiful pointer as to where you are headed. It usually tells you whether you are going to succeed or fail well before the final event.