Social media is filled with pages that “specialize” in motivational quotes. The tragedy though, is, the fact that very few of them are about the basic ingredients of success like hard work, authenticity, and objectivity. Most of them are mere irrational thoughts about quick success, jealousy, luxuries, etc. Thousands of likes and comments on every quote, clearly because they are easily flattering and “cool”. An effective catalyst in diverting the budding minds from hard work and real success to an imaginary quick success!
"Everyone wants to go to heaven, no one wants to die" has more relevance today than it had at any point in the entire human history. Social media, which probably started with a noble intention of keeping people connected, has evolved into a big imaginary world where all people do is pretend, mostly to appear more successful and happier than they actually are. A vague sense of their own reality that automatically takes a problematic shape in the long run of life.
The concept that becoming successful is all about having big ideas in mind, and believing that execution is someone else’s task, is supremely flawed. Execution is a mandatory discipline and has to be deeply established in the core of a person’s values and an organization’s culture for even minor successes. In the book “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done”, Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy describe it as a continuous process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.
But who wants to undertake such a long tiresome journey when your mind is tuned to feeling successful and content by sharing a post?
Dreaming big is essential. But so is understanding the fact that along with smartness, intelligence, and luck, it will take RAW hard work to achieve that dream. It will take accepting the truth, confronting the brutal reality of your situation, and improving till you achieve what you aspire.
In “Good to Great”, one of the most phenomenal books ever written on management, the author Jim Collins has described an amazing concept called the “Stockdale Paradox”, named after Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was a United States military officer held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was tortured more than twenty times by his captors, and never had much reason to believe he would survive the prison camp.
And yet, as Stockdale told Collins, he never lost faith during his ordeal: “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”
Then comes the paradox.
While Stockdale had remarkable faith in the unknowable, he noted that it was always the most optimistic of his prison mates who failed to make it out of there alive. “They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
Time and again, the most successful people in the world have repeated that there is simply no substitute for hard work. To be successful in any venture, on any path of life, you must work tirelessly towards it, with utmost obsession. You must always follow your path, and your data, and never the trends and fads set by others. Your entire process of planning and execution must be infused with the brutal facts of reality.
Face these hard truths and rivals head-on, and you will emerge stronger and more resilient. Flee from reality, and you will keep turning yourself weaker and dispirited and ultimately shattered.
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