Benjamin.my … and his miscellaneous takes on life.

How To Determine If You Will Be Successful? Know Thyself

The thing with ambitious people is that, it is very easy to fall prey to your own ambitions and become delusional. It is important to recognize that, having big dreams that no one else dare to think of, is only the first step. You may have all the faith in the world that you are going to succeed eventually, but are you? Hence, it is important to be aware of your circumstances, to know how likely that you are going to succeed, and if there is anything you can do right now at this moment to add onto the probability.

You see, being successful is by definition about being better than the other people. How successful you are, depends on how much better you are compared to the rest of the population. I don't mean it in a superior/inferior way, but more of... what can you do, are able to do, that the other people can't? In other words, is there any unique contribution that you can provide to the world that the others cannot? The more unique and important your contributions are, the more valuable and successful you will become!

Let's compare a few hypothetical examples. Consider a few persons below:

1. A commerce graduate from a local university who can speak only okay English.
2. A commerce graduate from a local university with good results, who can speak only okay English.
3. A commerce graduate from a local university who can speak fluent English.

I bet you will have no problem point out that, person 2 and 3 would have better chance to succeed than person 1 right? In fact in Malaysia, where so many of the people can't speak fluent English, the ability to converse fluently and confidently in English is a quality that really stands out and sought after. And I would personally say that person 3 would be more successful than person 2 if the circumstances don't change.

Now let's move a level up and compare these examples:

1. A commerce graduate from a local university who can speak fluent English.
2. An engineering graduate from a local university who can speak fluent English.
3. An medicine graduate from an overseas university who can speak fluent English.

Do you have a problem in identifying who is more likely to succeed in the future? I mean assuming that the commerce degree is not a professional degree like accounting or finance, it would pale in comparison with a professional degree like engineering because while engineering people can take up commerce easily and replace them, it is not as easy for the commerce people to do it the other way around. Then there is the even more specialized degree of medicine.

Of course, to compare things like that are over-simplifying and would hardly be accurate. But let me just make my points first.

Assuming that you are this commerce graduate from a local university, who can speak only okay English, and you meet all these overseas engineering/doctor/pharmacy graduates who can speak fluent English confidently, it is easy to realize that if you want to be more successful than them, then you better have qualities that they don't have to get ahead!

You can begin by taking up an English course and really brush up your language skills. Now you may be equal to them in terms of English, but how about their professional background? Good news is, you don't have to match their everything. This world is abundant enough for you to be unique and be successful in your own ways. You can perhaps, build strong connections and networks. Study and master inter-personal skills (something professionals, especially the technical people often lack in), or other expertise that will help you with your career.

Since the possibilities are unlimited, I will leave the details to you. But the important point to note is that... If you are one of the very ambitious people, it is vital to not be delusional and always review your own probability to succeed. We all have to start somewhere. After graduating from university (or even, without graduating from university) you may find yourself ahead or behind the rest of the society. It is not important where you are at right now, but where you are heading.

A lot of the young sales people I see in Malaysia (and boy these are the people who are highly ambitious but also easily delusional) keep looking for the next great product or networking business opportunities to join and to make it big. They want to be in the top tier of the society, they want to drive BMWs and Mercedez just like their boss. But what they don't realize is that, that's almost like praying for their fortunes to fall from the sky. Yes there are some very successful salesmen and they earn a hell lot. But do these fresh graduate salesmen have the same qualities to succeed like them?

I admit that some do. Their enthusiasm and determination are unbreakable. Others however, are arrogant, can't speak proper English, untactful, pissy, dishonest, and they think that being like that would get them ahead? No way! Those are not unique and important contributions. Those contributions are easily replaceable by other idiots of the society. In fact, the internet is steadily replacing all the needs for a salesman, as witnessed in more developed countries like Australia. So you can say that the contributions of salesmen are really, replaceable.

When an ordinary sales person develops and improves on his skills, he transcends and becomes a business development executive, an online marketer guru etc... His skills and contributions would be unique and hard to be replaced. He will become highly valuable and sought after. Guess what comes after that? Success.

The reason why it is a common phenomenon to specialize in the world currently is that, having specialized knowledge is a shortcut to allow people to be unique and irreplaceable. Then, success has to come when they are highly sought after. :) You may not want to specialize for any reason and that's okay. You just need to realize that, having big dreams doesn't automatically get you ahead the rest of the people. You need to match it with good attitude, good mindset, good skillset, and any other things that would set you apart from the others. If you don't have them yet, start working on it. :)