3 Pillars of Success & Failure

The word Success is probably the most aspirational word in our world. And yet it just might be the most difficult to achieve. There is enough research behind achieving success and still it knows how to, and does its best to evade us.

In the last 10 years, I have trained and coached thousands of executives and entrepreneurs and in this time I have had an up close and personal encounters of both success and failure, that too of my own and my clients.

Today, I have this absolute belief that success does not come from any one thing. Strategies alone cannot create success nor can the will power alone do it. Success is a combination of who we are and what we do.

Those who have achieved success in life and whatever success may mean to them, have knowingly or unknowingly figured out the right combination of inner being and outer doing.

There is one such combination that has helped me in my journey from going from complete struggle to being in a comfortable place in life and today, it is my intention to share this 3 pillar combination with you. The Why, The How and The Environment

The Why Pillar

Knowing why we want to achieve what we want to achieve is perhaps the single biggest element of success. This is the foundation on which everything else stands.

We often start with things, it my be the gym, might be a training or even an association. And the way life works, it is almost a guarantee to hit a tough phase. When this phase comes, we want to give up, let it go and when we do, the success also goes along.

Success is doing the right things, long enough.

When we have a clarity of why we are doing, the bigger deeper reason for it, this why becomes our reason to keep enduring, persist and stay the course. We start with the right things, it's the long enough where we miss.

The How Pillar

Once we are clear about the Why, the next step is to know which direction to go in. This is the How. This may seem like too simple of a point to be even mentioned but note that a lack of clarity on how can steer us in the wrong direction.

There are always wrong ways of doing the right things.

Look at most of our conflicts, most of our altercations are a result of saying the right thing the wrong way. And the result that follows is a result of how something was said and not of what was said.

For success, we need to carry people along with us but often due to barriers like ego and judgement we leave them behind. Our inner growth is equally important but we end up focusing more on the outer world. These are classic examples of the How gone wrong.

The Environment

The people that you surround yourself with, what are they saying, what is their belief system, all that becomes your environment.

Ever heard, you are the sum total of the people you spend time with. It’s true!

But your environment is not limited to the people you have around you. What do you do in your free time? What are you reading? What are you watching? What you listen to in your car when you are on the road? Everything you choose to surround yourself with becomes your enviornment.

To be successful we need to know that success has no one formula rather it is a combination of a few things, things that may vary from person to person. While you are on the journey of success, keep looking out for your combination. This is a journey, not a destination.

To your Success

Paritosh Pathak