TLI Staff
New Delhi: “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.”
Then why some of us despite being bright and taking seemingly correct steps towards success fail to achieve our goals?
We have seen people with ordinary educational backgrounds who have achieved massive success and we also know of people coming from well-off families with good education failing to make their mark.
According to Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, there are certain factors that hold you back from success.
We all read about setting goals and achieving them in order to be successful. But when it comes to applying this rule, how many of us have a well-defined purpose that keeps us motivated day and night, for months, for years. The lack of purpose in life often leads us to failure because we do not have in our mind to accomplish something that takes us ahead in life.
People make this mistake to not step out of their comfort zones and expecting success to come in their direction on its own.
Hill attributes lack of discipline and self control for your failure. There are certain negative attributes in our personality that stop us from being successful. We all know more or less the things that we need to change in ourselves but fail to do so due to lack of discipline.
“Discipline comes through self control. This means that one must control all negative qualities. Before you can control conditions, you must control yourself. Self mastery is the hardest job you will ever tackle. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self. You may see at one and the same time both your best friend and your greatest enemy, by stepping in front of the mirror,” writes Hill in the book Think and Grow Rich.
Some people acquire unfavourable tendencies during childhood which they find it difficult to modify in their adulthood.
Procrastination is one of the most common causes of failure. It seems quite tempting to postpone things that seem difficult to achieve. We set goals but procrastinate working on it waiting for the right time. But it never comes.
“Most of us go through life as failures because we are waiting for the “time to be right” to start doing something worthwhile. Do not wait. The time will never be “just right”. Start where you stand and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along,” writes Hill.
Even if you make a good start, persisting and finishing what you aimed for are equally important. People who abort a task at the first sign of defeat would never achieve anything in life. “There is no substitute for persistence. The person who makes persistence his watch-word, discovers that, “Old Man failure” finally becomes tired and makes his departure. Failure cannot cope with persistence,” he wrote.
Hill has also stated how people with negative personality often repel people while success comes through the application of power and that requires one to be a good leader.
Indecision is a close ally of procrastination and can come in the way of success. Also, if you have made a wrong selection in choosing your life partner, success can elude you as your basics in life are not right and you aren’t in a happy state of mind in order to be motivated for striving for success.
People who do not take risks never succeed. At the same time people who take excessive risks also are doomed to failure.
Hill also writes in his book that choosing the right vocation is important for success because no one can succeed in a line of endeavor which one does not like. He also lists lack of enthusiasm, ego and speculation as causes of failure.
In order to do anything in life, one needs to have enthusiasm. We often see how infectious the positive energy is in people who are high on life. These people are highly likeable and are more likely to achieve success.
People who have huge ego or those who are dishonest cannot be successful in long run. These are also the people who won’t cooperate with others.
There are people who rely on guesswork and don’t dig deep for facts. These people are bound to fail.
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