The Alchemy of Success : Combining ancient wisdom, modern management & inter disciplinary research
Attaining success is not simply a matter of luck. We hear inspiring rags-to-riches stories of an entrepreneur who rose from the bottom all the way to seemingly unreachable heights once in a while, whereas we hear many times more stories of failed ventures. Similar situations are visible in other fields like sports persons, students in higher education, and employees in the corporate world. 20 years ago, a thought came to my mind to study success, mediocre and failure stories of individual (not "failed individual", as I firmly believe, person is always successful, either from achievement of desired goals or learn from not achieving those goals, either ways, person is successful) to find out all probable reasons to facilitate people to work on those areas to bring necessary change.
My objective of this two decade long research (also an ongoing research program) was to come-up with a framework which could be adopted by any individual or organizations for self-assessment and bringing objectivity in decision making. I decided to conduct in-depth research of individuals / organizations who approached me to facilitate them in their change program to achieve desired goals during coaching / counseling / consulting engagements.
For all such analysis, I follow a unique approach (1) Look at ancient Indian wisdom (written a few thousand years ago) and also (2) Look at modern management principles and inter-disciplinary research to compare, contrast and combine them with real life data & information of individual or business ventures to prepare a roadmap for change.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV 4.5 about destiny:
"You are what your deep, driving desire is, As your desire is, so is your will, as your will, so is your deed and As your deed is, so is your destiny"
Modern Management about achievement of vision & goals:
"Vision, aspiration and goals, planned & executed well with focus, patience, and determination, allocate required resources, will bring results (success)"
Though both these wisdom highlights many important points to achieve success in any endeavor, there were still many other factors that played its own part in those unsuccessful outcomes. Below is the pentagon that combined both wisdom and also additional factors that one should keep in mind to bring the change.
How one can apply this framework:
If you are starting new endeavor, you can start with Desire/Goals, keep high level of determination, keep vigil on motives, identify & assess important traits required to achieve success, prepare action plan, gain knowledge & sharpen skills, allocate required resources, analyze positive & negative impact of decision taken and actions implemented, analyze results which will change your self-reception/self-image.
If you are starting from analysis of results/outcome to find out why you couldn't achieve desired goals, you can analyze on desire, values, attachments, traits, motives, resources, external environmental factors, knowledge, skills & time to find out route causes, so you can focus on work only of those areas, which required improvements to save time, money & efforts.
If you are in the middle of project, career or business goals, you can start at any of the interior angles of the Pentagon and continue the rest of the steps in an anti-clockwise manner.
This framework validated our few hypothesis points. Few important inferences are (1) "there is no one size/solution fit for all" as every individual and other factors are totally different (2) Solving problems / challenges and achievement of goals are possible for everyone, if an individual/organization strengthen all these points, as any one or more of these points can prevent achievement (3) whether luck exist or not, by application of this framework and implementing change project, our client achieved their desired goals and became successful in other's perception (4) Can be applied in all profession / sectors / individual. as this tool helped sports persons, higher education students, small & medium size company entrepreneurs, professional experts or employees of companies (5) With right diagnosis and identifying correct reason for falling short of desired goals will help to work only on that area to save cost, time, resources
If you or your team wishes to know more about the framework, contact for a complementary 30 minute webinar between your team and me. It will help them to understand the causes and effect of these important points in analysis of past not-so-successful situation or plan future and create awareness about this holistic framework can help them in achieving success as an individual, a team or as an organization. Do share this article in your network to help as many people as possible.
........................................................................................................ This article is authored by Ketan Gandhi, CEO, KgGuruji.com, connect with me on any of these medial platforms.
