Legend says, “money goes where money is” implying that those valuing and using money efficiently are likely to receive more of it. The morality of making money notwithstanding, some aspects of life attest to this adage, explaining reasons the rich often get richer while the poor are getting poorer. Seemingly, success follows the same principle. The counteractant to success is complacency, overconfidence, presumption, and trivialisation of priorities. For success to follow success just as money going where money is, one must be on the guard always to things acting against success intent on bringing about failure. Failure is overcome through sustained achievement of success just as darkness is pushed away by constant light. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 24 July 2023.
Success must be striven for, nurtured and sustained to ensure it does not become a once off occurrence. It can be easily lost, though gradually, when one no longer takes care of things and activities one did to secure that success. Sometimes changes in situations may require one to focus on higher-level activities while letting others take care of supporting tasks. Expansion necessitates that some responsibilities be delegated to others while one takes on other responsibilities. Delegation does not mean that one must stop supervising the completion of delegated activities.
Supervision differs from micromanagement, and it ensures accountability and integration of efforts for reaching common goals. Trivialising such responsibilities or activities could result in the beginning of failure. Failure lurks success, and like a virus, once activated, it may take greater effort to undo its adverse effects. Success often comes from resolving discomfort felt. Failure can then be said to be setting in the moment one becomes too comfortable and complacent about their situation, failing to press harder after reaching the first success.
Failure lurking success in the background acts as an opposite force to success as though it aligns with Newton’s third law of motion that “for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.” By this, every action taken towards reaching success having an equal and opposite force to counter that success and a misstep resulting in a flurry of bad experiences. Because of the potential adverse effect of failure, one cannot afford to take one’s eyes off the bigger goal. To ensure repeated successes, new goals must be defined when old ones have been reached to ensure success always breeds success.
Though we need not induce or tolerate anxiety in our lives, we should never be too comfortable to stop feeling the discomfort of wanting to reach the next level of our development and goals. Even if we are content with our achievements, it helps also, to think about succession and our legacy. We may not have direct descendants to inherit from us or expand on our achievements, but we can inspire others to learn from us. Perhaps to overcome the cycle of poverty and ensure generational wealth, we should adopt some aspects of the mindset of emperors without desiring to lord it over others. Having the “kingdom” mindset might help in ensuring we always think expansion and enlargement in all we do. This mindset would ensure that we never stop seeking to reach more goals.
Success cannot be reached and sustained without decisiveness. Indecision breeds weakness. So does lacking principles and courage to exercise discipline for wrongdoing by those under our supervision or leadership. Allowing prevalence of wrongdoing counters the good done to attain success. People dislike following or working with those perceived weak or showing weakness and under such circumstances, success will become ever more elusive.
Be strong, decisive and on the guard. Always seek opportunities to reach more goals despite your station in life.
