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Chapter 1 The Nature of Success
“Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine. “
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Do you really appreciate and understand the notion of success? You seem to want it. Some of you can even taste it. Few of you can even feel its fire ignite your soul. You feel the need to awaken from the natural slumber that keeps the downtrodden still in their desolation.
I don’t have to know who you are but I know one thing about you - you crave success, you desire it and you feel you deserve it. You do. You deserve the whole nine yards of it and somewhere along the lines of this book, you are going to have your eureka moment because the answers to all the questions are already in you. That much will be clear.
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To really be successful requires that you know your art from within the depths of its soul. If you are a musician, then you have to know music from its whisper to its crescendo and all its secrets in between. If you are a Wall Street trader, you need to know each company from an organic perspective - so much so that its innermost secrets are obvious to you, but hardly anyone else.
Success is composed of two parts - inspiration and tenacity. Have you noticed people who are truly successful can be successful in anything they do? Not only are they the Jack of all Trades, they are literally the Master of all Trades. That’s because they have tapped into the real power of success. The two parts of success are inspiration and perspiration. That means you have to imagine with your soul, move with your body, and power that with your soul.
Too much inspiration and not enough perspiration and you are just a thinker and not a doer. Too much perspiration without inspiration and you are a foot soldier. You need to develop more, you need to get off your laurels and energize your body as much as you energize your mind. That energy comes from your spirit.
The thing about nature is that it gives each of us different powers and diverse predilections. And amongst that, we find that our tastes and strengths vary. However, what we accomplish is not necessarily determined by our natural gifts. It is determined by what we fancy, and what we nurture and what we are willing to risk to see that ignite.
Let me offer some evidence for those of you who are skeptical about the diversity of our desires and the independence from our gifts to see it take flight.
Richard Branson, whom you should know, is one of the world’s famous billionaires and the founder of the Virgin Group, which among other things has an airline business, a space travel startup, budget hotel businesses, telecommunications businesses, and a handful of other businesses which are not related in the obvious way when it comes to skill sets. Think about it - what does an international airline business have to do with a national telecommunication business? The answer is nothing - if you look at it with a common eye.
But the point that this provides credence is that success is not about mere skill sets, it is about understanding the nature of success - and that cuts across all earthly disciplines.
You should read about Sir Richard Branson and get beneath the story to understand the mindset that propelled a man with natural-born impediments that ordinarily results in mediocrity, or worse.
While you are at it, find a good book on the history and life of Ludwig von Beethoven. His final Symphony, the 9th, is inarguably one of the best symphonies of all time. It is one that even raises the soul of a person who is not into symphonies. Even if you disagree that it is one of the greatest compositions, you will certainly agree it is one of Beethoven’s best.
He composed it over the span of two years and on the evening of June 7th, 1824 it was performed for the very first time in Vienna where the final note was greeted with thundering applause.
The symphony is composed in four movements and brings together more than 20 instruments and the four different vocal pitches to deliver a buildup of musical genius that spans just over an hour. The depth of each movement is unparalleled. But the irony is he never heard it played because in 1796, 28 years before it was performed in Vienna, and 26 years before he composed it, Beethoven became deaf.
For Beethoven, deafness was just an obstacle to overcome.
Can you imagine greatness more than the ability to compose a symphony that has towered over all else for over 250 years, while being deaf? He pulled it off because, by the time he went deaf, he was already acquainted with the secrets and the nature of his art. Mere deafness could not derail that. That is the measure of success you need to think about.
Are you getting a feel for what success looks like yet? Whatever you think you have, it’s not there yet. You can’t just be guided to fully know what success is until you experience it. Until you have paid the price, the true measure of success will always elude you. That price is paid by your effort and your resolve of never giving up but by learning from every lesson that is thrown your way.
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Chapter 2 Preparing for Success
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
Thomas Jefferson
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Success is never about the rewards. Material gain and material wealth are just forms of rewards and are not successes. You need to have that one point straight in your mind. Success comes before the reward and it is...
