I often groan when I hear a celebrity answer the question about the secret of his/her success by saying something like “Na God O!” (i.e. “It’s God’s handiwork!”). You see, I also succeed with God’s help. BUT, I KNOW there’s more to success achievement than saying “Na God O!” suggests!
And this is where successful people in developed societies often differ from us.
Read an interview with them, and you’ll come away with practical ideas – sometimes step by step instructions – of how to proceed in trying to replicate the success they are celebrated for.
That is why they are able to write books that offer actionable advice on how to succeed the way they have. It is why they are able to demystify their own success achievement for those following them to learn from, and improve upon.
In our societies across Africa too many successful people rarely offer tangible insights into what made them succeed. But to be fair, sometimes they actually do not know – or have not given it enough thought to articulate it into any useful form.
The truth is NOT all those who say they worship God are able to produce performances that will make them become successful/celebrated personalities!
And that is because there are so many specific actions/steps that successful persons take that those NOT as successful do not take as frequently and/or as diligently.
When The Right Questions Are Asked, More Useful Answers Emerge
I believe that many of the interviewed authentic celebrities I refer to would have loved to give more insight into HOW and WHAT made them succeed, if the right kinds of “probing” questions had been asked of them.
Unfortunately, often times their interviewers are not alert to the need to do this for the enhanced benefit of their viewing/listening audiences.
Anyone who has read transcripts of the popular “Conversations With Millionaires” series will understand what I mean.
I refer to the ability of certain interviewers to ask “probing” questions that get answers OUT OF successful persons, IN A WAY that gives listeners more accurate insight into HOW and WHY the celebrities succeeded.
“Clearer Answers” which would then guide those aspiring to follow the same, proven path, even if with modifications or adjustments.
As they say, “Success leaves a trail…”
Our celebrities need to be “helped” to “remember” what they did (& how), in the manner I propose above.
This is because many of them never really sat down (after having succeeded) to THINK about what they actually did to get the results they wanted – and for which they subsequently became celebrated.
In Africa, We Do Not Currently Investigate & Document Achieved Success ENOUGH
This is a fact.
In our society, if we want success to happen for MORE people, MORE frequently, we need to establish and rigorously maintain systems to INVESTIGATE and DOCUMENT what makes celebrated members of society succeed.
This is so that others who aspire can use the information recorded to achieve similar or greater successes – FASTER and with LESS EFFORT.
One over riding benefit is that society will as a result develop faster, contributing to a better world.
The problem is that in our society, we are too much of “DOERS” – and LESS of thinkers!
Each person is so self focused that s/he hardly ever gives a thought to how s/he can make the journey shorter, and less difficult for those who follow.
Tell him/her to GO for a particular goal, and s/he will.
But most often it will be done in a haphazard manner, and with little or no effort to ANALYSE experiences and document lessons learned for future reference/guidance.
The Result of Doing So Much Without Thinking Enough is: Poor Repeatability & Reproducibility Of Achieved Successes
Following from the above, when things fall in place, s/he takes it in his/her stride without sparing a thought for HOW to make those same things fall in place like THAT again in future – repeatedly.
A direct consequence of that inadvertent oversight, is that when things eventually go WRONG, s/he once again has to adopt the trial and error approach used in the past, until, if s/he is lucky, ANOTHER break through occurs.
For many who use this haphazard approach, it possibly works often. However, compared to the alternative proposed in this article, it can be quite costly in terms of time, effort, and even money.
Summary: Below I list three (3) compelling reasons to AVOID using such a haphazard approach:
1. The stress/strain that will arise from recovering from the problems occasioned by the use of a trial and error approach will wear you down – making the “journey to success” more PAINFUL than it should be.
2. You will be inefficient – because it takes you LONGER and costs you MORE time, effort, resources etc, to get the same results.
3. You won’t improve significantly – meaning you may never become good enough to beat your own “Personal Best”. Look at it this way: Only a sprinter who measures and knows her best 100 metres time is 9.99 seconds can AIM to run faster and therefore cross the line at LESS than that time. To achieve that goal, she will then have to CHECK what she can do better or differently to INCREASE her running speed, then TRY it out, UNTIL she succeeds.
The above potentially negative outcome of failing to investigate and understand why you succeed, is that you will LACK the means to EXPAND or GROW.
This could end up giving critics and/or cynics an opportunity to “question” your success.
Evidence to confirm that what I have said in this article is true, can be readily found when one looks at the number of World Champion Long Distance runners that have come out of an African country like Kenya.
Almost yearly, that country produces World Class athletes who gain quick prominence in international circles.
This happens because Kenya has a SYSTEM in place that enables it to REPEAT and REPRODUCE its athletic successes. I have listened to interviews conducted with athletes from that country, and the answers they gave to questions asked confirm this.
Final Words: Check Yourself – Do You Know How to Reproduce Your Success?
If you were to look at yourself, your organisation, your society or your country from a similar perspective, is it possible that there are areas where the success(es) achieved in the past now appear to have been just a “flash(es) in the pan”?
IF YES, maybe it’s time you (and/or others concerned), sat down to INVESTIGATE and DOCUMENT why you succeeded back then, so that you can REPRODUCE it NOW and into the future.
NB: This article was first published Online via spontaneousdevelopment.com on16th June 2008.