I heard about this young guy. He came up to a successful man and he said, “Sir, I really love your success, I was wondering if you could teach me how I too could be successful.” The successful man looked at him face-to-face and said, “Meet me at my house by the poolside at 5pm.” At 5pm, no doubt the young guy was there by his poolside. The pool was large… it was the most beautiful clear, pool of water reflecting in the sun. The successful man said, “Come with me into the water, I’ll give you a quick lesson there.” So they both went into the pool and walked until the water was shoulder deep. Just before the young guy could say a word, the successful man held the young guy’s head under water. The young guy at that moment was struggling to get out of the water, but the successful man kept it down under the water. Then, just before the young guy was about to pass out, the successful man rose his head up from under the water and said, “I’ve got a question for you.” “What is the question”, the young guy replied angrily. The successful man asked, “When you were under water and struggling for survival, what was the thing you needed most at that point in time?” The young guy answered sarcastically, “To breathe.” The successful man answered, “Well spoken. If you want to experience the sweet smell of any success, then you must get to the point when you want success as bad as you need air to breathe.”
Many of us want to become successful, but we need to understand that:
1. The man who becomes successful must come to the point where he wants success as much as he needs air to breathe
You want to become successful, yet you spend hours or even days talking about the latest movies, video games, football scores, sleeping, shopping, clubbing, with little to no time for the things you need to do in order to become successful.
If you want to keep on getting what you are getting, then by no means continue to do what you are doing. But to experience the sweet smell of success, you must do something that leads you towards your success every day. You must continue to add value to yourself and master information in relation to where you are going every day; for many times, while you may have a superb attitude, your aptitude could be very poor.
Also, remember, that it’s only when opportunity clashes with preparation does it lead to success.
As a great speaker once said: “It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared…”
2. The man who becomes successful is the man who recognises that, with a bit of imagination, the small stuff really makes the big difference
What do I mean? Well, two men see the same thing. It looks ordinary to the human eye. The successful guy takes that small thing and, with a bit of imagination, he creates something that is extraordinary out of a thing that once looked ordinary. The unsuccessful guy looks at that same thing that looks ordinary to the human eye and says, “So what?”
The small stuff we are talking about here is what makes one hotel suite more expensive than another hotel suite. It’s what makes a Maryland cookie more expensive than an Asda or Tesco brand cookie.
As a great speaker once said: “History is being read, but it is also being written with people with imagination…”
3. The man who becomes successful is the man who has learnt to respond and perceive failure in a positive light
Some of us admire the likes of Michael Jordan. What most of us do not know about him is that, in his year 11, he was deemed too short to play for his high school basketball team. When that happened, Michael didn’t give up; instead, he increased his training intensity and every day before 7am, as recalled by a teacher in his school, he would be seen playing basketball.
Michael Jordan’s ability to rise above his peers is captured in his very statement: “Body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline.”
4. The man who becomes successful is the man who focuses on the big picture
A great speaker once said that the only reason why men fail is broken focus. Thomas Edison, the great inventor of the light bulb said, “Many people think I’m a genius, well that’s not really it. While many people focus on many things all at once, I focus on creating this light bulb all day long.”
Many times, we are busy chasing after so many things all at once. Now ask yourself, are all the things you are doing right now the things others expect of you, or the things you really want to do?
To lose sight of the big picture is getting distracted on the small stuff. Imagine the big picture as the destination you need to get to in a car safely. The moment you get distracted by the small stuff, how many of you know that it can lead to an accident? When you are looking ahead, you also need to occasionally look at your rear mirror. Why? Because, as a great speaker once said: It’s important for you to replay success memories…” For instance, when David faced Goliath, he replayed his success memories – the killing of the bear and the lion, and that was one of the things that gave him the courage to face Goliath.
5. The man who becomes successful surrounds himself with the right kind of people
There are two kinds of relationships. There are the nurturing relationships, and there are the toxic relationships.
Nurturing relationships nurture you, bring out the best in you, challenge you, and keep you focused. They believe in the God-part of you.
Toxic relationships toxicate you and drain you. There are just some people you won’t be able to get into business with. Why? Because they know too much about you, and they don’t believe in the God-part of you.
Whatever relationship you find yourself in, you need to ask yourself a question: What’s this relationship doing for me?
Finally, in closing, a great speaker once said: “The richest place in the world is not in the oil mines in Saudi Arabia or the gold mines in South Africa, but the richest place in the world is in the graveyard.” There are the ghosts of great international best-selling books never written, great leaders never to have emerged, great speakers, great singers, great businesses, great presidents and prime ministers, all surrounding the body of the person who refused to give life to those ghosts inside the grave.
Remember, the man who becomes successful is the man who wants success as bad as he needs air to breathe.
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