How to Take the Elusive Out of Success

I've worked in a variety of professional occupations over my lifetime (movie consultant, logistics manager, teacher, home builder, pilot) and have met with some limited success. However, I have never achieved any notoriety on a grand scale. I'm not disappointed in any way, but in my travels I have often wondered what is it that propels people into the spotlight of success. I've developed a few ideas that may prove beneficial to some other actors on this grand stage of life.

I think success is often based on a willingness to take risks. Risks, not tackling impossible odds, like purchasing a lottery ticket, but calculated risks that provide an above average opportunity for achieving a good outcome. I watched a good friend of mine that was of average intelligence, but willing to take a risk accumulate a million dollars in less than three years. He carefully watched the trends that were occurring in the local real estate market and took advantage of an opportunity to purchase some land that had potential. Of course he increased his chances by speaking to local builders about their their plans and noted that they were eagerly awaiting an opportunity for additional building lots. Armed with that information, he searched the local tax maps that were available on-line and noted several parcels that were a bit outside the local area, but accessible and in the corridor that seemed to be expanding. He wrote letters to the owners and expressed interest in a purchase, connected with one and made a purchase with the absolute minimum amount of credit - in fact he had to visit several banks before he found one willing to finance his investment. As they say, the rest is history. He is now a multi-millionaire, because he possessed local knowledge, researched an opportunity, was willing to take a risk and committed himself totally to the endeavor.

I think visibility is also a key to success. By visibility, I mean a willingness to step out from obscurity and get yourself noticed. This also entails some risk, because it means extending your head above the ruck - those that follow rugby will know exactly what I mean. I recall that I was serving in a large corporation that solicited junior managers to volunteer to provide a presentation to a very senior executive that was fond of asking very tough and pointed questions during meeting presentations. He would often "chew up" subordinates that were not able to provide thoughtful answers to his demanding questions. Few were willing to take the chance of being embarrassed by this senior executive and only one individual was willing to step forward (not me). In fact he was the most junior of the junior executives. He prepared thoroughly, anticipated the tough questions and delivered a magnificent presentation. A week later, he was offered a job as a special assistant to the vice-president and has since moved on to a very high position.

I asked him why he took the risk and he said "visibility". "I knew he was a demanding and would try to point out any weaknesses in my presentation and attempt to make me nervous and jittery, but I also recognized that I could work here for years and never get noticed. I decided that the opportunity to gain some visibility out weighed the risks and if I failed - well, I'm young and I can recover or go somewhere else."

These are two "real life" examples of people that removed the word elusive from success and recognized that taking a calculated risk and seeking visibility are two important aspects of achieving success. There are other strategies for success that I hope to share in the future, meanwhile, maybe you can put these two lessons to work for you.