I have often asked myself the question, what’s the difference between success & failure? Indeed a very interesting question. Whether one is a student, professional or an entrepreneur at some point we do think about our ability, intelligence, diligence, the decisions we make etc.
Lee J. Colan in his book, Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence, quotes David Corttell, who says, “Frequently, the difference between success & failure is the resolve to stick to your plan long enough to win”.
Lee talks about sticking to a strategy long enough, to win the game. Many of us are tempted and do change strategies all the time. Sticking to a strategy long enough, is what he calls, Adherence. Mathematically he shows a very interesting correlation between Strategy & Adherence and how it equates to Success or High Achievement Levels.
He explains that: Strategy + (Competence x Passion x Focus) = Achievement Level
<------------Adherence------------>
He talks about COMPETENCE as, being the sum of Skills + Experience + Knowledge + Attitude. An average performance coupled with Consistent Execution will certainly yield Excellent Results. What this means to me is, if one has the required skills & knowledge of a topic or subject, relevant experience in it and a positive go-get attitude, the competence level increases. For e.g., many successful Sports personalities or other successful individuals we may know of, have high levels of COMPETENCE coupled with a great strategy, which helps them achieve high degree of success in what they choose to do.
Speaking of PASSION, I remember this great story of these 3 people whose job is to crush rocks all day….indeed very monotonous and hard work. So, one day someone asks these 3 men, “What’s your job?” they all gave 3 different answers: The first said, “I do what I am told for 8 hrs a day”. The second person said, “Well, I crush Rocks”. The third person proudly said, “I am building a cathedral”…..that is what passion is about, love doing your job and know the big picture and have appreciation for the work you are doing.
FOCUS is, keeping things simple and learning to say a ‘NO’ at times. A good example that Lee quotes is the focus that Walgreens Store management had with their strategy. Walgreens is a very big convenience drug store chain across the United States. At one point they had 500 restaurants. The Walgreens management at the time took a strategic decision and said ‘No’ to the restaurant business as they wanted to ‘FOCUS’ only on the convenience drug store strategic business. Sure enough, their stock outperformed the stock market 15-fold from mid-70’s to around the year 2000.
I recollect knowing this good family friend of ours, a young energetic go-getter, who initially chose to get into the technology field and also managed to get a good position in of the leading Software Company. But he soon realized his passion for medicine was much more. He re-mapped his career goals, strategized an approach and got admission in med-school. With his ardent desire to be a medical professional, all thru’ his med-school journey he raised his competence level thru’ the opportunities he got and kept great focus on outcomes. Today, he is well on the way to becoming a doctor in Southern California. Sure, he too had challenges along his journey – as they say, nothing is a bed of roses – but he stuck to his planned strategy long enough and success is following him in what he chose to do.
-Rakhi and Janaki
