Friday 10 May 2013

THE OPPOSITE OF 'SUCCESS' IS NOT 'FAILURE'

'Failure' is not the opposite of 'Success'
Remember 'Words and Opposite' in English classes when men were kids and those gorgeous ladies around were but lil' girls? Yeah...not sure it was a favourite for me back in the days even though I inevitably grew to learn the antonyms of words. However, I can confidently inform you that, contrary to widespread insinuations, 'Failure' is NOT the opposite of 'success'.
If you go about thinking you need to stay away from Failure to succeed, then think again. This exact way of thinking is what has robbed countless potential entrepreneurs of the joy and fulfillment that would have accompany their-now aborted- dreams and visions.

It's more of a conundrum: You have to NOT fail to succeed, yet you cannot succeed UNLESS you fail. Many will think it a vexing conundrum even, yet to have any chance of sustained and progressive success, you must mature to the point when you no longer live by the fear and dread of failure.

Mind you, the idea is not to make you a comfortable failure instead, or add a viable point to your over-used reasons for continuously failing at the things you do. Rather, it is to engrave upon your heart and imprint deep into your consciousness the golden fact that Failure carries with it keys and secret recipes to Success. Your mission is to disect how, why and where you failed and LEARN how, why and where NOT to fail. This knowledge will become invaluable in your drive to become successful. Moan, blame yourself or others and you lose the lesson and the knowledge inherent in the failure necessary to aid your success pursuits.
'So, how is Mr. Nika Burga so sure he's correct?' You seems to ask me.

Simple. The greatest successes are also the greatest failures. Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Walt Disney and on and on and on...
Plus, if you ask any successful man about Failure, he certainly will be quick, and firm, to inform you that he wouldn't have become as successful as he now has were it not for the lessons learnt in the times of failures.

Note that success does not lie in failure; it lies in the effective and efficient use of the lessons learnt from failures. If you fail, learn nothing useful to propel your success drive or you choose not to apply the lessons learnt, you will fail over and over and each time get farther away from Success. Failure may not be the opposite of Success, but it isn't- by itself- Success' best friend either. Again, it is in the application of the positive lessons learnt in failures that successes are born.

Now, you have a choice to view challenges and failures in a different, more useful, light that will flame your passion to succeed and actually help you become successful. The vital question remains: Will you take the choice?

Good Reads?
Giving Up on Giving Up
Bill Gates Was Once a Failure
Too Determined to Lose
Failures of Famous Entrepreneurs

Wednesday 1 May 2013

IS SUCCESS A CROOK?

All my life, I have hated dishonesty. Safe to conclude that there was a heavy dose of parental panel-beating to ensure this but then, as adults, we ultimately chose whether to stick with the things we heard and saw when we were children or to accumulate other habits we consider appropriate to whatever it is we want to make of our lives.
Other than ‘love’, I cannot think of something else that people so openly and hastily pursue every day yet with most having little, if anything, to show for their dissipated virtues. Success has become an abami (a creepy thing) or an enigma if you like.
Many have fingered it as the reason they killed loved ones, ruin the lives of fellow humans, destroy another’s career, abandoned marriage vows, make a mockery of parenting, held-on illegally to authority and power, impoverish several people and even turn against the Supernatural. Many more have admitted that they will do anything to have a slice of Success- anything!
Yet, Success remains elusive. It appears he enjoys seeing able-bodied men rise while cocks are still dozing and sweat it out all day long trying to figure out the path to his doorsteps. Really, he does feel on top of the world sheepishly flashing the ‘Most Sought-after’ sign on his designer shirt while humanity engage in all manner of things under heaven to arrive at his fabled golden gates.
Do you think you can find a near accurate estimation of how much money have been spent trying to track Success and find the easiest path to his kingdom? What’s the worth of the books published in his honour or the value of the seminars held at his instance? I doubt even the computer can accurately count the numbers of ‘success tips’ being brandish around the universe or the sheer numbers of souls that have perish in their quest to have their names mentioned in the same sentence as Success.
Why would Success do this to us? Why afflict us this much? Seeing that humanity is seemingly in love with him, why does he leave most of us with Failure when we would rather be with him? Why will he give us false hope of progresses and illusory victories yet stay far aloof when we seem so near? Why?
If you ask me, “Mr. Nika Burga, what do you think?” My answer will simply be this:
“Success is a crook!”
Or, are we?