Success

Michael Edmondson

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781631574221
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

To improve an individual's capacity to process information, the self-help genre has a tremendous need for a publication that both summarizes the latest research and provides case studies. This book meets both needs and is valuable for any person interested in achieving personal or professional success. Divided into seven chapters, this publication examines the theory and practice of success and includes research from history, psychology, sociology, cognitive neuroscience, animal behavior, and other areas.

CHAPTER 1

Have a Bias Toward Action

Introduction

In a world where three billion people rely on advanced mobile technology and powerful computers to engage in real-time messaging, news reporting, and picture sharing, success is the one constant that still requires persistence. Any examination into success needs to recognize the preponderance of technology, its continual adaptation and its reach around the globe. Just because the technology we have today allows us to do things faster than our parents or grandparents does not mean there is such a thing as overnight success. Understanding there is no such thing as an overnight success is one of the most important stepping stones to use throughout life for personal growth and professional development. The idea of overnight success continues to exist as a prevalent cultural myth. It keeps many people from understanding and appreciating what it takes to build a meaningful career and establish purposeful influence.

As Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson noted in their best-selling book Rework: “You know those overnight-success stories you’ve heard about? It’s not the whole story. Dig deeper and you’ll usually find people who have busted their asses for years to get into a position where things could take off.”¹ Fried and Hansson concluded that slow, measured growth and patience are the two key traits a person needs because “you have to do it for a long time before the right people notice.”² The pursuit of goals, regardless of size, requires constant commitment and unwavering persistence, especially in the face of obstacles and setbacks. “The best-kept secret in the startup world is that there is no such thing as an overnight success,”³ wrote George Bradt, founder of executive onboarding group PrimeGenesis. Echoing the authors of Rework, Bradt observed that “success typically takes six to seven years–if you survive the first three.”⁴ Grinding work out over an extended period of time with the intention of making adjustments in order to keep moving forward requires a high level of self-awareness coupled with what researchers have labeled grit.

MacArthur Fellow Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, identified this grinding out as grit—the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals and equips individuals to pursue, especially challenging aims over years and even decades.⁵ Duckworth noted that people who “accomplished great things often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take.”⁶ Duckworth recognizes that the essence of grit remains elusive as it has hundreds of correlates, with nuances and anomalies that include, but are not limited to the following characteristics: courage, conscientiousness, follow-through, resilience, and the pursuit of excellence not perfection.⁷ The field of publishing is a good case study of authors who have had to practice resilience in order to get their work published.

Throughout history authors have had to demonstrate grit amidst multiple rejections by publishers. The reach and frequency of rejections is so common of a phenomenon that there is a website dedicated to bestsellers that were initially rejected - litrejections.com.⁸ “The halls of the literary establishment echo with tales of now-revered writers who initially faced failure.”⁹ Stephen King is just one example whose Carrie was rejected 30 times before being published. In 1973, before Carrie was published, King, his wife Tabby, and their toddler and newborn lived in a doublewide trailer. King drove a rust-bucket Buick held together with baling wire and duct tape. King’s wife, Tabby, worked second-shift at Dunkin’ Donuts while he taught English at a private high school.¹⁰ King also worked summers at an industrial laundry and moonlighted as a janitor and gas pump attendant. Dealing with constant rejection and criticism from publishers and readers from the articles he did get published in the nudie mag market, King grew frustrated at his writing. He even through a draft of Carrie out in the trash but Tabby found it and told him to continue writing. They both had a bias towards action. With that King finished his first novel and after 30 rejections sold it to Doubleday.¹¹

There is a caveat, however, to this bias towards action with a reliance on grit; the action steps one takes need to be focused on a specific goal and not just busy work. It is easy to be busy. It is far more difficult to practice the trait of grit. All too often people obsess over how busy they are without any sense of accomplishment. Researchers have recently examined “idleness aversion and the need for justifiable busyness.”¹² Some people are busy just for the sake of being busy. These people are not grinding it out nor are they working towards a specific goal or translating theory into action. They are merely justifying how busy they are. Be careful not to fall into the busyness trap. As Tim Kreider wrote in a New York Times editorial people who have self-imposed a label of ‘always busy’ on themselves do so out of their addiction to busyness itself and dread what they might have to face in its absence.”¹³ Grinding it out for long periods of time require one to have a bias toward action and often involves engaging in deliberate practice, demonstrating the characteristics of a maverick, and exhibiting courageous behavior.

Engage in Deliberate Practice

Two books that specifically examine the theory of deliberate practice are Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success and Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Over-rated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. Both books examine how individuals achieved world-class mastery that put them at the top of their field. Gladwell’s chapter entitled “The 10,000 Hour Rule” identified that world-class performers, The Beatles, for example, spent approximately 10,000 hours working at their specialty to arrive at the top. These were not overnight successes or people who merely exploited natural talent. Rather, they spent years focused on perfecting one thing. Colvin further supports Gladwell’s point and states three very important conclusions. First, “everyone who has achieved exceptional performance has encountered terrible difficulties along the way. There are no exceptions.”¹⁴ Second, “what the evidence shouts most loudly is striking, liberating news that great performance is not reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.”¹⁵ Colvin also concluded that talent, IQ, and experience, once thought to be the three pillars of success, play a less important role than previously thought when compared to one’s drive, decisiveness, and grit.

Both authors believe that “great performance is available to you and to everyone.” Deliberate practice research indicates that long-term success requires a minimum of 10 years of engagement, coupled with grit, or the ability to persevere difficult situations and a willingness to adapt to challenges as they arise. Larry Bird’s career as a basketball superstar is a case study in deliberate practice. Bird settled on basketball as his primary sport in high school. When he realized he might excel in the sport, he began to practice day and night. “I played when I was cold and my body was aching and I was so tired,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I don’t know why, I just kept playing and playing . . . . I guess I always wanted to make the most out of it.”¹⁶ He also thrived on learning and playing with people who were better than him from such a young age. That attitude would be one of the key ingredients to his long-term success. Bird started for French Lick/West Baden’s high school team, Springs Valley High School, where he left as the school’s all-time scoring leader.

Following a sophomore season that was shortened by a broken ankle, Bird emerged as a star during his junior year. Springs Valley went 19-2 and young Larry became a local celebrity. Fans always seemed to be willing to give a ride to Bird’s parents, who couldn’t afford a car of their own. As a senior, Bird became the school’s all-time scoring champion and about 4,000 people attended his final home game. Bird’s high school coach, Jim Jones, was a key factor to his success. “Jonesie,” as Bird called him, would help Bird and his friends practice any day of the week. Bird would demonstrate deliberate practice by often going to the gym early, shooting between classes, and staying late into the evening. It was during this time that he played with the older students working at a nearby hotel.¹⁷

Bird received a scholarship to play college basketball for Bob Knight and the Indiana University Hoosiers in 1974. However, he was overwhelmed by the size of the campus and number of students and was not mentally ready for this stage of life; according to Bird, “It didn’t take long to realize that I was out of my cocoon.” He dropped out of Indiana after 24 days, disappointing his mother. Bird returned home to French Lick where he enrolled in the nearby Northwood Institute before dropping out. He had a short marriage that ended in divorce. To support himself and his daughter from that marriage, he took a job with the City Department of French Lick. He drove a garbage truck and helped pick up trash and to maintain parks and roads in the district. During this time, he also played AAU basketball for Hancock Construction.¹⁸

Bird faced personal loss during the same period when his father committed suicide. After that tragic event, he decided to return to college.¹⁹ This time he went to Indiana State in Terre Haute, where he was coached by Bob King. He had little confidence in his academic abilities, but felt th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• How to Read This Book
• Forward
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Have a Bias toward Action
• Chapter 2 Engage with Others
• Chapter 3 Commit to Life Long Learning
• Chapter 4 Increase Your Self-Awareness
• Chapter 5 Remain Open to the Possibilities
• Chapter 6 Create Options
• Chapter 7 Maintain a High Level of Energy
• Conclusion
• Index