Smart Emmanuel: In the Pursuit of Success, is Hard Work Enough?

As we journey towards the success we desire, it’s important to note the tools we need to succeed. Every turn we make, we see successful people screaming hard work as an important factor for success. Research shows this is true but is hard work alone enough to achieve success? There are billions of hard working people across the globe and success as judged by societal measures is achieved only by a few. It’s important to note that success is simply achieving a set goal. It could be as simple as becoming financially free and independent or as big as solving extreme poverty for all humans.

Why do some people achieve the clear, achievable and audacious goals they set and others seem to miss? It can be frustrating to work very hard daily towards an important goal yet at the end of life, we realise that it remains a dream. We have very limited time on earth so our goals must be achieved within a realistic time while we still have energy to work and enjoy the success we have worked so hard for.

Hard work is a very important factor in our quest for any kind of success but it is not enough. Hard work is a dependent variable, we can be hardworking and be unsuccessful but we cannot be successful without hard work. Clearly hard work is a common denominator found in successful and yet to be successful people; it is therefore important for us to find out the other factors that bring about success. Knowing the tools we need for our success journey helps us make the best use of our productive years and energy.

For us to experience success, very important lines have to align in our favour. There are too many important skills we need to ensure these lines align. It’s almost impossible to list all the skills needed for success because it’s always evolving, however, one very important skill is self-improvement. Self-improvement envelopes the many other skills we need to achieve our goals. There’s communication, loyalty, ambition, strategic thinking, resilience and so much more but we cannot have it all in the beginning of our quest for success. The goal is to keep improving ourselves.

A very hard working carpenter may not have the best skills at the beginning of his career but if he consistently improves his skills daily, someday, he will become the best at his craft, and life will reward him with fortune and more. When we swallow the bitter pill of temporary setback or failure, we must take note of the attributes we lack and improve on them. Self improvement is a journey and even when we achieve our goal, we need to continuously improve ourselves for our new goals.

Consistency is also an important factor. The consistent person experiences a lot of good fortune and luck that the inconsistent person misses. The world notices consistency and rewards it with trust and fortune. There will be hard days, very hard days and it’s easy to give up on those days. On such days, our dedication to the achievement of our goals is tested. A hard working chef that is given to self improvement but is inconsistent will miss a lot of opportunities that could transform his outcomes. We never know when good luck will show up so we must remain consistent so that when our day of reward comes, we won’t be absent.

Being consistent is like watering the seeds of hard work and self improvement. Having a personal and strong reason for the goals we desire will help us keep going when the challenges of life try to discourage us. It doesn’t matter if we plan to give every human on earth money or if our goal is to create personal fortune, there will always be challenges. What will keep us going is our mission statement – why we decided to walk this path, and why it is important to walk this path. Sometimes we don’t know if success is possible anymore but we must keep going and in the darkness of uncertainty, light will shine.

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