There are countless blog posts and articles that talk about the key to success. Books have been written on the topic, life coaches and motivational speakers make a living discussing it. Talent, hard work, networking, being proactive, finding your passion, all of these and more get mentioned. And while they are all important if you want to have a successful career, I believe the key to success can be summed up with just one word.
Talent is important. Whatever you do, having a talent for it is important. There are spectacularly talented people in every field imaginable who have achieved great success. People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Tim Burton, Guillermo Del Toro, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, the list of exceptionally talented people within their field goes on and on. It’s easy to think it is their talent that got them their great success, but while important, it wasn’t the key to their success. Yet there are plenty of moderately and even marginally talented people in each and every one of these fields that you’ve never heard of that have achieved extraordinarily success. Don’t confuse fame with success.
Networking has always been important, and in today’s world I believe it’s more important than ever. The more connections you have, the more opportunities you will enjoy. And opportunities breed opportunities. Being well connected and great at networking is certainly significant, but all the connections in the world won’t make you successful. There are plenty of people with thousands of Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections, etc. who are not successful.
Being proactive is another useful trait to have. If you want to achieve success, you must actively seek it. Get out and network, practice your craft, take on projects that may be less than ideal in order to gain experience and build your credits, learn, do, then do some more. Sitting around and waiting for success to come to you is never a good strategy. You must be a go-getter. But even that is not the key to success. No matter how hard you work, you may still not get there. There is an element of luck involved and if you work hard but don’t get the breaks you won’t make it.
Finding you passion is certainly vital if you want to be happy in your career. They say if they find your passion and pursue it you’ll never work a day in your life. I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Even when you’re pursuing your dream career, there are always parts to your job that you don’t love and are just work. Don’t get me wrong, I think finding your passion is awesome, and I can’t recommend pursuing your passions highly enough. But there are plenty of people who aren’t passionate about what they do for a living yet they enjoy successful careers. So no, passion isn’t the key either.
I think the key attribute to being successful, the thing that separates those who succeed from those who don’t boils down to a single word – perseverance.
“Every no gets me closer to a yes” – Mark Cuban
Many of the world’s most successful people went through failures, challenges and difficulties before becoming successful.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” – Thomas Edison
The reason they made it is that they persevered. They never gave up. When things were tough, when things didn’t go their way, when they failed they kept on going.
“If you’re going through hell, keep going” – Winston Churchill
No matter how low things got, no matter how hard, no matter how long it took, they persevered and kept at it. They continued until they finally achieved their goals. For some success came fast, for others it took longer, but however long it took, it only came to those who persevered.
As long as you have enough talent in your field, and are willing to put in the work, the only difference between making it or not is perseverance. Those who give up will not succeed. Those who persevere and keep going, those who work hard, network, learn, practice, endure and do all these important things achieve success not because they worked harder, or are better connected, or more talented, but because they simply don’t give up.
“If you can dream it, you can do it” – Walt Disney
Now go do it, and keep doing it until you make it!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.