04. Valuable Comments on the Concept of «Success»

Even ancient philosophies, writers and statesmen expressed their opinion about the ways of achieving your goals and success. They passed the test of time, became aphorisms and survived to this day.

It is enough to read these winged expressions once, so that a person confused in doubts acquires peace of mind and can make the right decision in search of the right path to the intended goal and confidently move forward. Some of these sayings can become a guiding light. I decided to bring to your attention a number of selected aphorisms on this subject.

«There are no open doors to the temple of success. Whoever wants to enter it will enter. This new door closes so tightly behind your that even your children will hardly be able to enter.»

C. Marden

«Fortune is not for those who fear, but for those who fight.»

J. Kopp

«The greatest victory is to let our rival understand that we will succeed.»

M. Gandhi

«To achieve good luck, one must either be smart or be able to use the stupidity of others.»

J. Labruyere

«Better go ahead than expect.»

M. K. Ataturk

«Those who do not see further, run in place.»

R. Baker

«The most difficult thing is the ability to manage your desires.»

Buddha

«Respect and approval are different concepts. Respect is generally expressed to a person, while approval is expressed only to the winner.»

A. Dumas

«Good luck loves sane people.»

Euripides

«Luck makes us intolerant of defeat. Defeat makes us intolerant of luck.»

W. Feder

«When I think about the price of success, I feel disrespect for it.»

G. Flaubert

«There are more people who surrender than those who fail.»

H. Ford

«Whoever believes in victory is lucky.»

C. Goebbel

«The needle is given to someone who knows how to sew.»

A. Hoffman

«When in the flower garden, do not look for the one who sows thorns around the world.»

J. Rumi

«Nothing is impossible for someone who does not lose his heart.»

Khagani

«The greatest success in life is to find happiness.»

A. Camus

«Courage is the first condition on the path to achieving victory.»

A. Cambell

«Those who know the secrets of life succeed.»

J. Collins

«Your mind is the wealth, so rely solely on it.»

N. Ganjavi

«He who achieved success and hasn’t become conceited will continue to be lucky.»

H. Laski

«I don’t know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.»

A. Lincoln

«We do our best to succeed, but we do nothing to become happy.»

Lucian

«What is more important to succeed?» They asked Hugo. «Money, work or reason?» «Imagine that you have a 3-wheel car. Which of the wheels is more important?» He answered with a question.

Anonymous

«Great patience is required to succeed.»

Napoleon

«Both fortune and love befriend the bold.»

P. Ovid

«Success goes to your head, failure goes to your heart.»

L. Peter

«Every man is the architect of his own fortune.»

G. Sallust

«To defeat nature, you must surrender first.»

M. Sksiro

«If you want to climb to the top, you should start from the bottom.»

J. Simonis

«Man's life is governed by success, not wisdom.»

Cicero

«Do not be arrogant because of small successes.»

Socrates

«Fortune you’re not worthy of might be disturbing.»

G. Spencer

«Great people have achieved their goal through incredible work.»

J. Taylor

«When a man did everything he could, don’t blame him even if he failed.»

J. Washington

«You need a little indifference to succeed.»

German proverb

«Show action to get a reward.»

Azerbaijan proverb

05. Luck is a Common Concept Inherent to Every Person

When people predict your failure or don’t believe your luck, try to stand firmly on your feet, be strong and don’t let them destroy you. The secret of leadership is self-confidence to the last, even when noone believes you.

Michael Jordan

Never let yourself think you’re incapable. Parents, never tell your children «they will never amount to anything». The shirt of luck is dimensionless, so everyone can wear it. Having desire is enough for it. I really liked the statement of the world-famous basketball player Michael Jordan, the standard for the winners, and I believe that the words I quoted above can serve as a guide for the young on their way to winning.

At the beginning of his sports career, this man complained of having bad luck. Having mobilized all his strength, determination and, most importantly, self-confidence, he could later become the best defender in basketball history, two-time Olympic champion and six-time NBA champion. He plays a huge role in promoting this sport around the world. Imagine that in 1984, Nike manufactured a custom sports shoe for Michael named Air Jordan. Currently, this company operates as a well-known brand with a large volume of trade. Today, this person is the head of Oakley Inc. and the owner of the Charlotte Hornets basketball club. They even made a movie about him, as well as a monument in the city of Chicago. That's what you can achieve when you have confidence in yourself!

Don’t think successful people are granted with luck. They all passed a thorny path. The road to success is by no means dotted with roses.

Albert Einstein, the famous author of the theory of relativity, could not speak until the age of 4. He could not read until he was 8. When the ingenious Sigmund Freud first began to tell scientists about his theory, he was pushed out of the scene. Winston Churchill, the brilliant political leader of the twentieth century, took up his position when he was 65. Only then did he become prime minister. Davis Cup winner Sten Smith was called clumsy as a child and was not honored to even carry balls at tennis games. Bruno Mars, American pop star, could not declare himself and was considered mediocre. Together with his family, he lived in a house without floor and ceiling. Henry Ford, a giant of the global auto industry, tried to test his strength in farming first. His attempt failed, and he was then known as a loser. Seid Mirbabaev, a famous Baku millionaire, was a singer and lived in poverty for many years. The world famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was expelled from the university for poor performance. Franz Kafka and philosopher Vasily Rozanov were not recognized during their lifetime and died in poverty from a serious illness. These people received a worthy rating only after death. Their works went from hand to hand.

All these stories of success are very different, but in all of them there are two components that pass from beginning to end: faith and determination.

No wonder I began this chapter with Michael Jordan’s epigraph. It sounds beautiful: «The secret of leadership is self-confidence to the last, even when no one believes you». I myself started everything from scratch. It was a time when I had no idea about the rules of conduct, nor about conducting business negotiations, nor about how to take the first steps. I started with an empty wallet and the desire to be independent and free and not depend on anyone. Most importantly, I believed in myself and was determined.

You should be decisive too. Then you will succeed, and success will find you!

06. The Formula of Success

We now have a general understanding of what success is. According to a university graduate, luck or success means to find a good job. For an entrepreneur it means to launch a project that will bring good income, success for a writer is a popular bestseller, for lovers it means to connect with each other, for a soldier success means to become a general, for a patient it means to recover. Shoemakers, hatters, firemen, astronauts, in a word, everyone has their own object of success.

Everyone wants to succeed. Having succeeded, people share their secrets about the ways to achieve it. Speakers write books on this topic. Over the years, more and more formulas for success appear. As long as humanity exists, similar formulas will be born.

If, figuratively speaking, we make an extract from all these formulas, we will get something like this:

Formula for success = desire – set a goal – plan – prepare – take action – achieve results.

You simply need to desire and strive for a goal, waiting for life to present a chance. It may not turn up that soon, but it doesn’t mean you should abandon your efforts. Being successful means being happy. It’s a state of mind in which a person can enjoy the harmony of life.

Don’t think that wealth is the measure of happiness. I know a man who owns millions and has a successful career, but is experiencing serious problems and is unhappy in family life. I also know someone who owns kilograms of gold and enormous wealth sufficient for all his descendants, but suffers from an incurable disease and therefore walks like a ghost. Money gives a lot, but cannot solve everything. The happiest person is a person who has his favorite job, normal living conditions, a good family, good health, and who knows how to hit the target and succeed step by step.

1. Desire

«Grasp your desires tightly. Do not let them go». No wonder the famous American psychologist and psychotherapist Marden Orison said that.

All major goals and all achievements are born in the form of desire. If you want to live better, the first thing to do is decide what exactly you want. You must first create that very best life in your dreams. He who thinks daydreaming is a child’s occupation is fundamentally wrong. A person should always be able to dream. Anyone who does not know how to do this should immediately try to restore this lost quality. We should dream about the implementation of our desires and, as we wish, we should know ourselves better and better understand our strengths, be able to hear our inner voice well. The main secret to achieving success is to take full responsibility for your life and be able to manage it. Not everyone is given the chance to be the master of their own destiny; this is a fact. Many people go to work, eat, watch TV, read newspapers, surf the Internet or communicate with their near and dear ones just because it has become their habit. In their monotonous and stereotyped life, everything repeats day by day. Such people lack the ability to dream. In the gray book of life, it is impossible to find either the plot, the denouement, or the climax.

Unleash your dreams so that they can be born, grow and blossom. Wish yourself not only a wonderful life, prosperity or good work, a latest car, a luxury villa and other material values, but also good friends, great success in art, scientific inventions, sports achievements, in short, dream of being on top. Remember: the dream marathon starts.

2. Set a goal

If a person dreams of something in the first stage, he should set himself the goal of achieving this. A dream remains a dream if it is not achieved. There are many people who dream a lot but don’t follow their dreams, nor try to make them come true. An illiterate shepherd grazing sheep in a distant aul can build illusions and have a desire to be president, but his dream cannot come true. Setting this as your goal is absurd. Goals are dreams that match human potential and do not contradict the environment.

A goal is the most important tool we have for selection. There are abstract and specific goals. Always try to set specific goals for yourself. Remember that there are positive and negative goals. Always try to set yourself the goal that you want to get hold of, that is, devote yourself to a positive goal. Never focus on negative goals such as getting rid of something.

And again, do not pursue a goal that would make someone else suffer for your benefit.

All your intentions should be related to each other and have the same focus. Your intentions should not go against your main life credo. Alternate all your goals as they are important and choose the most basic one.

Try to keep within the time and determine the «minimum program» – goals that you think you must implement first, and the «maximum program» – distant goals that you want to achieve. Your main goal will be a strategic goal that requires more time.

3. Plan

Planning is the optimal allocation of resources on the way to achieving the goal. The main argument of this function from a mathematical point of view is the distribution of time. Without planning, it is impossible to achieve the goal and succeed. Since I am elaborating this area separately, I intend to consider it in detail in one of the following parts.

4. Prepare

You dream, you set a goal, you plan. The 4th step is preparation. It is important to enrich knowledge on the target that you want to hit, and to acquire a large amount of information on this matter and the necessary material resources. You should also adapt to the necessary social and administrative conditions, identify partners who can help in this matter, and liken your image to the image of a person striving to achieve his goal.

First, you must learn to manage your state, feelings and emotions. Visualizing the goal and creating images in your imagination are directly related to emotional state. There is a well-known expression: if you want to be rich, pretend to be one. If you want to be healthy, forget about the disease and doctors and imagine yourself healthy. If you want to become happy – so be it! Never be ungrateful; thank the Lord for what you have. Create a good mood, optimism and positive attitude towards everything. Good thoughts will arouse good in you, while bad thoughts will provoke evil.

At the preparatory stage, it is necessary to strengthen a sense of self-confidence. Never doubt your abilities. If a person is not confident, and doubts of his success, he will never be able to achieve it. A person must make his own decision. This is a prerequisite for success. It is also necessary to be decisive. After completing all the preparations, you must create your perfect image, get rid of destructive emotions (fear, anger, hatred, resentment, envy, etc.) and learn to love. The energy of love gives strength and supplies with vital energy.

Self-confidence, love, ecstasy, optimism, faith and self-esteem – together all these qualities create a deep inner energy. On the contrary, feelings like doubt, sadness, fear or anxiety deprive us of energy.

Carlos Castaneda said: «We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.» In this case, why spend your strength on making yourself miserable?

Our physical condition is also associated with our feelings and emotions. Therefore, it is very important to sit and walk with an even posture, and try to smile at people.

Health is another important factor on the way to achieving the goal. Healthy lifestyle and sports, healthy diet, regular medical examinations – all these are necessary measures. Reading motivational books, listening to light and fun music, singing karaoke, dancing, laughing – all this will give you an additional incentive.

Remember: to be successful in life, you must be able to develop inner intuition. You should adjust your ability to think, as well as develop the ability to instant decision making and sharp reaction. Listening to silence plays an effective role in intuition development. A person should stay alone at least half an hour during the day, ending the internal dialogue.

What is intuition? Sometimes psychologists call it the inner voice, sometimes the sixth sense. In any case, intuition should not be considered something mythical. In 1981, American neurophysiologist Robert Sperry received the Nobel Prize just because he was able to prove that intuition is not some kind of super sense, but a normal function of the right hemisphere of the human brain. Thus, he proved that the left brain is responsible for logic and abstract thinking, while the right brain has the ability to receive information in the form of images and to investigate. In short, intuition is an alternative subconscious mind. Basically all people have it, but some have it more developed than the others. Therefore, it can be developed with the help of training. How?

– Make friends with your intuition. First of all, find out what signals your subconscious sends you;

– After you learn how your intuition originated, learn to use it at the right time;

– Unleash your intuition, putting forward unimaginable assumptions throughout the day. The number of correct assumptions will increase over time;

– Try to break beyond logic, more inclined to creative imagination.

The next important factor that can positively influence thinking, analysis and the ability to make decisions instantly is a game of chess. It can be ordinary games, in a state of time pressure, or blitz chess.

I am very grateful to the game of chess for my current ability to think and analyze deeply, as well as for my sharp response.

5. Take action

You can start acting anytime. Even if you are ready to go towards the goal, you will not succeed without the right time and conditions. The Azerbaijani writer Varis Yelchiev has an aphorism: «Save your most powerful blows for the weakest times.»

Therefore, to begin a focused activity, it is necessary to wait for a convenient time and conditions. As soon as perfect or close conditions appear, one can act with might and main to achieve his goal.

It is very important to take at least one step forward, to get closer to the intended goal at least a little.

And most importantly, one should not be afraid of defeat. We must only think about victory.

6. Achieve results

Only after fulfilling all the conditions can you achieve your plans, make your dreams come true and become a successful person due to your formula for success.

I presented to your attention the most common formula for success. When reading the book, you will become acquainted with the six steps to success, as well as with other steps, as well as with various opinions and positions on this subject. In the meantime, I’ll tell you this: beginning is ahead of all things. No need to hesitate, just get started.