I've often thought about what personal factors contribute to success. To clarify, I'm not talking about the big SUCCESS, but a smaller success at any tasks that one may face. After a long period of consideration, I arrived at a set of three factors which I hold to be quite important to attaining any type of success.
The first factor is perhaps the most obvious, talent. This needs little explanation; there are always those who are born more athletic, or intelligent, or just so particularly well suited to some peculiar task. Talent offers greatest advantages, but it is the greatest tragedy that talent cannot be acquired.
For the rest of us, we most often rely on the next factor for success- effort and hard work. For almost every task, continual effort put in towards improving one's ability would eventually yield some success. True, it may require vastly more time and energy than one born with some talent, but success attained in this fashion will be more respected and admired.
Everyone knows about talent and effort; it is indeed true that they are very important. However, much fewer know about the last factor for success- method. What is method, one might ask. Method is the most efficient and most tailored way of performing a task. Method makes the difficult task easier; it uses your strengths and avoids your weaknesses. Some use their wits to derive method; others just chance upon it. But method is important, nonetheless. We often see people putting in hard work almost fruitlessly, because they have chosen an incorrect place or way to apply effort. Conversely, we sometimes see the obviously talented being defeated by the ordinary man who adopts some queer approach the same problem. Method is about taking the smartest shortcuts to success.
Now, I present these three factors in an illustration, in the form of a triangle.
Now, having just one of these factors is often enough to guarantee some measure of success; it is enough to deny that one is an absolute wastrel or imbecile. Having two is possibly enough to attain distinction; but still, without talent, one will always lack the spark to attain true greatness; without effort, one will not be held with true admiration as someone doing full justice to his abilities; without method, one will always be frustrated with the lack of greater achievements despite having both talent and putting in great effort.
To attain the pinnacle of success requires all three. Talent is the spark, the initial anointment to the path towards the final goal. Effort is the driver, the force that makes progress on the road to success. Lastly, method is the skilled navigator that selects the paved road, the fastest route, such that the greatest and farthest distance can be traveled. Only with all three can the greatest that man can achieve be revealed.
The first factor is perhaps the most obvious, talent. This needs little explanation; there are always those who are born more athletic, or intelligent, or just so particularly well suited to some peculiar task. Talent offers greatest advantages, but it is the greatest tragedy that talent cannot be acquired.
For the rest of us, we most often rely on the next factor for success- effort and hard work. For almost every task, continual effort put in towards improving one's ability would eventually yield some success. True, it may require vastly more time and energy than one born with some talent, but success attained in this fashion will be more respected and admired.
Everyone knows about talent and effort; it is indeed true that they are very important. However, much fewer know about the last factor for success- method. What is method, one might ask. Method is the most efficient and most tailored way of performing a task. Method makes the difficult task easier; it uses your strengths and avoids your weaknesses. Some use their wits to derive method; others just chance upon it. But method is important, nonetheless. We often see people putting in hard work almost fruitlessly, because they have chosen an incorrect place or way to apply effort. Conversely, we sometimes see the obviously talented being defeated by the ordinary man who adopts some queer approach the same problem. Method is about taking the smartest shortcuts to success.
Now, I present these three factors in an illustration, in the form of a triangle.
Now, having just one of these factors is often enough to guarantee some measure of success; it is enough to deny that one is an absolute wastrel or imbecile. Having two is possibly enough to attain distinction; but still, without talent, one will always lack the spark to attain true greatness; without effort, one will not be held with true admiration as someone doing full justice to his abilities; without method, one will always be frustrated with the lack of greater achievements despite having both talent and putting in great effort.To attain the pinnacle of success requires all three. Talent is the spark, the initial anointment to the path towards the final goal. Effort is the driver, the force that makes progress on the road to success. Lastly, method is the skilled navigator that selects the paved road, the fastest route, such that the greatest and farthest distance can be traveled. Only with all three can the greatest that man can achieve be revealed.
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