MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 6: They are Consistent

‘The problem with success is that you have to keep on being a success’ (Anon).

If your goal is to be a one-time success, to do well at one thing and give up in the rest, then you have a thwarted idea of success. Successful people have a strong desire to remain successful. They always believe in improvement. And that is the bedrock of consistency – having that strong faith that you can always do it again and again; and better and better.

According to John Mason, the road to success is always under construction. Men of success keep building but each time on a higher level. When you being to think you’ve had enough, your mind tells you it’s stupid to try more. Then you either reverse or turn around – anyhow, you start going back.

You should know that in this information age, you have to keep moving otherwise, others will move past you at such speeds that you begin to fall back steadily. Keep doing those good things. Keep modifying your ideas. Keep managing your successes and failures. Consistency is the greatest single factor that keeps you on top.

‘Big shots are only little shots who have kept on firing’.

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 5: They Like Feedback

‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions’ (Anon.)

Successful people work in closed loops. That is, they operate such that their next input is a function of their last output. An open loop is the direct opposite of this. Take a hunter as an example. If his first shot misses target he adjusts his aim. If he hits target he stops shooting. The information obtained from the last output which affects the next input is what is called feedback.

This is what success-minded people like. Dr. Mike LeBoeuf wrote in ‘The Greatest Management Principle in the World’ that the four most important words in American English are ‘What is your opinion?’ If you think that is not true then you must be a machine or a robot. You can’t ever be the best judge of what you do, observers are. That’s why most corporate bodies hang suggestion boxes in their reception lobbies. Even several authors now ask for feedback.

At times feedback could be cynical or discouraging. Whichever way, make the most of what people say about the things you do. With experience you will discover that most people that make cynical comments about certain things are those that have failed in those things. Or what do you expect a senior that failed a course to tell his junior? It’s either the course is irrelevant or the lecturer is bad!

‘He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it’ - Karl Ludwig von Knebel