Theories of Success: Success in Life

Success in Life: Additional Secrets of Success

Success has been and will remain an intriguing phenomenon. That's the reason why a good number of scholars time and again have studied and researched it. Particularly the researchers have probed into the reasons that make a person a successful person.

Various theories have been put forth for success. The scholars and researchers  make their own hypotheses and scoop out the data and information to prove their points fairly convincingly though the inferences and conclusions may or may not be statistically valid or scientific. However they do guide the people who read them provided the people being guided by them do not use them as gospel truths and use them just as some good indicators.

Success has been attributed to many factors, some of them being sheer personal talent and determination, extremely long hours of practice (practice make a man and woman perfect), support of a favorable period of technological or economical or other types of opportunities during which one's career took off, born with a silver spoon in mouth etc. I wish to add three more reasons of my own understanding here. Again these reasons may or may not be statistically correct or scientific. These are purely based on my studied observations of a good number of successful people.

First I offer the reason for the rags to riches stories. It is often the fact that the persons who rose from the ashes had nothing to lose. They were already at the bottom of the pit. If at all, their any action, at worst, would keep them at the same low level. But some of these people had determination, hunger (for success, money, recognition, name and fame), ambition, willpower, grit, readiness to do hard work, no fear of losing any prestige or suffering the identity crisis (they had no identity to talk about). So they could try their hand at several things. Failures did not bother them. They could start very small things, they could toil day and night, they wouldn't lose face if made to wait long hours by their business associates, egos had no place in their daily routines.  But all these small actions they took made way to additional actions that kept them going to taste early successes. Then they went on building on those small bouts of successes to one day achieve the large scale successes. On the other hand the people who are educated and start off pretty decently have a lot to lose if they fail. So they go ahead cautiously. They dare not take even the calculated risks. So their progression is pretty luke warm over their entire life span- they remain 'also ran'.

My second theory about the success is that the people who have no alternative options in life and but have to make their living on just one option can make it big. The people with options may have tendency to put less of their heart and soul in their existing career because they know that if they do not do well there they can continue with their lives fairly squarely with the other options in which also they are so good.  However, the person who has just about one option or one skill-set is aware that if he has to do well in life he has to put himself lock, stock and barrel on that one option or he will get nothing. He will be out of job since he is no good with other options of life. This compelling and driving force motivates him to excel in his only option available to him and he is likely to be more successful than the persons with more options.

Persons with outright unscrupulous behavior, cunningness, scheming, no qualms for ethical values and exploiting others may land up amassing tremendous wealth and power and therefore perceived as highly successful by almost everyone. Such people have an uncanny grasp over even the media and the media paints them in that light for their own selfish reasons. Large numbers of such people don't even get caught for their misdeeds as they have the ways and means of silencing those who try to expose them. However in rare cases when few of these people get exposed for their misdeeds and brought to justice, they land up behind the bars or executed by the masses- they then turn from heroes to zeroes.

Life Management: Approval Addiction

A large number of people do things for others' approval. They feel good when others give affirmation to what they do or about their appearance. They are out to please others. They think they are good or appear nice or are successful only if others say so.

Their success criteria is that others should put a stamp on their succes. Without it they feel like a failure. If others do not approve of them, they feel that they are not up to it. They feel bad about themselves. They feel inferior.

So such people are out to do things that look good in the eyes of others even if to self many of those things may look outright incorrect or inappropriate or not self-pleasing. They even do those things that they do not want to do at all.

These approval addicts cannot appreciate their own selves even if they are sure that what they did or how they appeared was worthy of being appreciated or praised. Even after achieving what they could call as their success in their own eyes or in their own assessment they constantly keep eliciting the approvals from others. If they don't receive recognition of their succes from others they start believing they are losers.

This behavior may be an outcome of doubts about the self, low self-worth, inferiority complex, insecurity, loneliness etc. It also comes because of a thinking that if others start saying that I am successful and more is the number of people saying so, I get brought into limelight. So I keep pleasing more and more people whose approval will benefit me in putting me on the pedestal.

All of such behavior will never allow you to become what you really are or what you are really capable of becoming one. You will stop doing things that are important to you. You will never please yourself. You will remain dejected and downcast most part of your life.

A day will come when looking backwards you may feel as if you got exploited by others all these years. That feeing would be terrible. It will hurt your conscience. The hollowness of not having achieved will haunt you. And by that time it will be too late.

If you wish to correct this tendency, do it now. Start today. There is no need to do things to seek others' approval. Improve your capabilities and do things that you think are right even if those may or may not attract others' affirmation or praise. This is the only way to stop getting into approval addiction. Stop your approval addiction now as it is a psychological killer.

Are You Really Successful?

Check Out Your Score of Success After Reading This Article

Success: Wide Spectrum Paradigm

Success paradigms have a very wide spectrum. Seen as rich, turning into celebrity, becoming popular, getting known, seen as influential or recognition of your high status are pretty common success criteria for a very large number of people. In a way, this means that you tend to feel successful when other people acknowledge that you are successful. It may be out of your approval addiction. Even if you are not approval addict, you, on your own (irrespective of what others think), may also feel successful if you achieve certain degrees of any one or more of these things. However, even in here, if large majority of others think that achieving the degrees of success you have achieved in the parameters listed above are not good enough for you to be recognized as successful, your own assessment of yourself as being successful may get diminished in your own mind. Again, approval addiction, may be of lower order.

Also, if you have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) as per your assessment and others also recognize that you have achieved all of these but your own child thinks that you have neglected him/her all through his/her life and he/she hates you for that; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) as per your and others’ assessment but you have treated your spouse in a such a derogatory manner that she/he is on the brink of asking for divorce or running away with another person; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but when your father or mother needs you most in his/her sickness or any other trying situation and you are away on your business all the time and grossly neglect him/her; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but fight tooth and nail with your brother(s) and/or sister(s) to meet some selfish ends and severe all the relationships, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you did not look after your children's education, development and growth and because of this negligence, they ended up without any decent education, grew with skewed values, got into drugs and other bad habits, have become irresponsible and undisciplined, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you wife has not grown much after her marriage with you since you have not supported her enough as a husband, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have not acquired and assimilated the proper education to develop yourself into a cultured and refined human being and constantly brag about yourself, belittle others and are in a habit of ill-treating and insulting the people, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have fallen into becoming a drunkard, a junkie, a womanizer, smuggler, bootlegger etc (even though the charges might not have been legally or socially acknowledged or confirmed), are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have got into habit of saving your face by impressing upon people that you are successful or better than them or many others and in the process you have to act, pretend, fake or camouflage (meaning that you are not a genuine person), are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but a large section of people also throw rotten eggs or shoes at you or in extreme case, plan to kill you or even kill you because you have antagonized them harshly, unreasonably and unethically; are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have been corrupt and greedy and have amassed money illegitimately (though may or may not have been caught doing so by law or by people); are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but have misguided the people dependent on you, manipulated and exploited them to achieve your personal interests, took wrong decisions affecting the people (and have not been caught by law or by people), are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have been responsible for hurting people physically or mentally or financially because of which those people suffered grossly in their life (and you have not been caught by law or people and you still live a high brow life shamelessly), are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led to careless accidents, skirmishes, battles and wars killing civilian and military people, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led to provide, illegally or legally, such goods and services whose production, distribution, disposal and consumption pollute the environment and adversely affect the people health wise and economically, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led the prices of basic human requirements like essential food stuff, water, education and health care soar sky high to the extent that the citizens of the country/world cannot afford them, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have, in fact, bought all of these by manipulating/lobbying unscrupulously the power, the people and the media and it has not come to you by adopting natural, ethical and legal course, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you are not able to look after your health due to variety of reasons though within your control and therefore, you are perennially physically, intellectually, mentally, emotionally or spiritually sick causing troubles to yourself and people around you, are you really successful?

Read the "inside" stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/