The Single Secret

Sometimes the most powerful notions are the ones that are also the simplest. So is there a simple notion that is also a powerful path to success? Such a possibility would be a game changer indeed! This is my attempt to decipher this 'Single Secret', hope you would see it in the same light too.

The 'single secret' of career success is in my opinion are the following words. Drum roll please....

'I will take care of it'

Yes, just that. Those very words. That's it! This took a lot of thought and I had to really convince myself on it. Am I over simplifying it? I was asking myself over and over again. Finally I had to just agree that it is just that, these are words of great power. Now think how many time have we have used this statement in our career? Most of us don't or worse we just cannot. 

'I will take care of it' - So simple yet so uncommon!

Why is it that we find it hard to accomplish this? and very few of us can stake claim to having consistently applied this mantra. The following are some of the reasons I could think of;

1. Taxing effort

The effort to follow this mantra is considerable. This is because you need to be ready to spend phenomenal amounts of energy sometimes to go over and above what you are responsible for to succeed in delivering on it. Most of us weigh this unconsciously and decide that it is not worth it. It does not measure up in short term gain calculations we quickly run through our mind. Why even do it then? fair question but as with many paths to success, this is an unintuitive one too.

2. Skill boundaries

We determine that our current skill levels are not going to be sufficient to deliver on this commitment. The safe boundary of our current skill set is put to risk by stating this mantra and that is a 'no no' for many of us. We even convince ourselves that it is unethical to commit to things that are not clearly within our obvious capabilities. If we can only do what is within our skill set then how do we enhance it? Pushing your skill set boundary continuously is an essential success trait.

3. Confidence

It calls for a huge leap of confidence most of the time to commit to this mantra. It requires us to get into this almost unrealistic and foolhardy mental state to utter these words. There are so many things at stake here and we need to go by our guts into convincing others and mainly ourselves into believing that we will deliver on it. Confidence is the backbone of success. Seeding it and nurturing it carefully will always reap a bountiful harvest.

4. Breaking the chain of command

Organizational culture that promotes a chain of command that is built to encourage escalation is an external factor which inhibits the possibility of employees uttering this mantra. Anyone who wants us to employ the mantra is taking considerable risk in breaking this culture. The strange thing however is that even in such organizations the person who does this is rewarded with success. It is like a garden wall that is keeping you away from entering a paradise meant for the select few.

5. Am not paid for that

This is similar to the notion of taxing effort but a bit reverse. The latter is about you having the right intentions but not seeing short term gain. While this is just about not having the intention at all, I keep measuring my output to the ounce and always ask myself if I am already paid for it. This is the anti-thesis of the 'single secret' and more like a 'single secret' of how to tie your career to a rock and drown. It is once again an unintuitive rule of success, money is always a by product and not the core purpose.

6. Fear

Fear! This perhaps is the major reason than anything else listed above. The fear of failing, fear of being humiliated, fear of job loss. Many layers of fear that cement together to form one mentally unbreakable wall of constraint. Frozen to the point of giving up on everything, fear indeed is at the core of all stagnant careers. Fear and Confidence are two horses drawing your career chariot, keep them in the same direction and you can conquer worlds.

Summary

The 'Single Secret' interestingly finds mention in work culture across language boundaries. In Tamilzh, the divine poet Thiruvalluvar eloquently puts it as follows;

"?????? ???????????? ???????? ???????

???? ?????? ????."

"Wealth will find its own way to the person of incessant action and energy."

So the simplest mantra to success is to be able to boldly say 'I will take care of it', take the challenge and deliver beyond expectations, every single time.

Are you game?