On success
From Knowledge @ Wharton, How Successful People Remain Successful:
Knowledge@Wharton: You interviewed a number of remarkable people — or ‘builders,’ as you call them — for your book. What were your initial findings and how did these individuals think about success?
Thompson: We found that three fundamental principles drive lasting success; these need to interact with one another and also to be integrated and aligned. We describe them in our first chapter in a diagram with three intersecting circles — meaning, thought and action — and the bull’s eye is where they all come together. We found that individuals across the spectrum of professions were striving to find something that mattered to them in a very fundamental way. This prompted them to drive their thoughts to frame a way of producing those results — and then acting on those results.
If you take any one of those principles away — for example, if you take meaning away from thought and action — you might be successful in the short term. This is because you have a plan in your head and execute against it. But if your plan is disassociated from meaning, it might not matter. And it wouldn’t have the meaning which sustains you through the inevitable challenges and difficulties of trying to create a career. That fundamental step of finding meaning, finding the passion that matters to you and that drives your behavior, is often skipped.
When we interviewed people for our book, we learned that whether you are Jack Welch or the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous not to do what you love. If you don’t have a level of passion that drives your thinking about what you’re doing day in and day out, there will be others out there who are passionate who will overtake and outrun you. People who care will take the initiative away from those who are half-hearted. So loving what you do is a competitive imperative, not simply a nice thing to have.
Certainly any success that I’ve been fortunate to enjoy in life, be it in business or sports or school or relationships, has come when I have been passionate and excited and energized about what I was doing or hoping to achieve. It might seem blindingly obvious, but I think everyone has experienced how hard it can actually be to follow your instincts and your passions consistently in the face of inertia, complacency and peer pressure.
I wonder what the evolutionary imperative of wanting to make a difference and needing something to believe in is?
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(thanks again hugh!)
