Success formula = C x A!

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Success formula = C x A! / 072, 15 Apr 2023

Success is rather elusive. It is also relative when compared to others. We all chase success in various forms, and there is no secret sauce to achieve it. However, clear focus on our competencies and our acceptability will help us achieve more success. That is the theme for this article, do read on!

The most important requirement for success is competence. In all fields, whether management or sport or arts, while we appreciate the final result, what we rarely see is the sweat, dedication and single-minded focus over many years which has helped a person achieve the heights of competence. In his bestselling book ‘Outliers’ author Malcolm Gladwell explains the ‘10,000-hour rule’ – for mastery in any complex cognitive activity, on average, 10,000 hours of mindful practice is needed to gain mastery. If we have the talent and persevere with practice of a new skill for 2 hours every single day, then we would still need about 13.7 years on average to achieve that level of competence which will help us stand out in a crowd.

But that’s not nearly good enough! Apart from the hard skill of competence, we also need the soft skill of acceptance to succeed. After all, real competence, like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder. It is our team, peers and leaders who get to experience the nature and impact of our competence. Having good acceptability motivates others to approach us and collaborate with us. Today, in business, results are largely achieved through teamwork. Even a supremely competent person (say 100%), with a low acceptability (say 50%), has only a 50% net resultant chance of success, using the success formula of Competence X Acceptance. Whereas a less competent person (say 80%), having an acceptability of 80%, has a 64% net resultant chance of success!

We all have areas to improve. If we are already at a high competence level, let’s focus on improving our acceptability; and if we already have a high acceptance level, let’s focus on improving our competence. After all, our success is dependent on the combined effect of both competence and acceptance!

I hope you enjoyed reading this one, and as always, I request you to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments section. Let us build a conversation on this topic!

Warm regards, Krishnakumar.

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References:

Outliers (book) - Wikipedia