THE SUCCESS TRIANGLE

THE SUCCESS TRIANGLE  (Part 1)

  By  James Gwee T.H., MBA 1

As I had mentioned in my previous article “The Secret of Success”, the more I read, the

more I attend seminars, the more I listen to successful people, the more I realize that there

are no “secrets”. It’s all about getting the BASICS right. In fact, getting the basics right is

one of the most difficult things to do. Mastering a few “tricks” is easy, but mastering the

basics is much harder work. Just like Steven Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective

People”. It takes us perhaps one or two months to finish reading the book and know about

the 7 habits that make people so effective and consequently so successful. But it takes a

WHOLE LIFETIME to practice and hopefully master those 7 habits !

However, once you have mastered the basics, you will be competent in most things for

the rest of your life ! So it’s definitely worth the effort because the pay-off is long term !

While Steven Covey explains in terms of the 7 Habits, Jerry Clark (Peak Performance

Trainer & Coach) summarizes it in “The Success Triangle”. I find his explanation useful

and relevant. This is how “The Success Triangle” looks like.

 

According to Jerry Clark, there are three important areas that determine the success of a

person in whatever he does. It could be business, selling, investment, painting, etc.. To

be successful in whatever we want to do, we have to MASTER (menguasai) these three

important factors. We have to master our Internal Communication, our External

Communication and Technical Know-how.

Before I explain each of these areas in detail, notice that Jerry used the word “Master”.

He did not use “Aware”, “Learn” nor “Know”. He used the word “Master”. To master

something means you already have it inside of you and you can use it anytime you need

to use it. This means that you are “in control” of it.

Sounds so nice! To be in control of something and to be able to use it anytime we need it !

Great ! However, we all know that to master something usually requires these 4 things :

1.      Time.

In most cases, you cannot master something instantly. It requires TIME. You

need a length of time, perhaps one month, one year, five years, ten years, or

sometimes one whole lifetime ! It depends on the skills that we want to master and

how well we want to master it. We have to be patient. This is what we call

“DELAYED GRATIFICATION”.

2.      Energy.

To master something, we really need to put in the effort. Nothing worthwhile

is every achieved instantly. I remember when I was in school, and I started to get

interested to play football, I was still not a good footballer and could not even be

selected to play in my class team ! I was so determined that I practiced very hard.

Every afternoon after I had done my homework and studied my lessons, I would take

out my football and did all kinds of practice. I would practice the same thing again,

and again and again for at least 2 hours a day. My skills started to improve and within

6 months, I was selected to join the class team, and by the next year, I was selected to

play for my school ! Yes it was a lot of effort.

However, “Energy” does not mean only “effort”. It also means “money”. Often, you

have to spend the money first. IK did not just practice my football skills very hard. I

bought a football, I bought a pair of football boots, I bought some books that

explained to me what skills I needed to learn and how to practice those skills. I did all

these BEFORE I was even selected to play !

3.      Frustration.

Oh yes, this is so true. The road to mastery is often paved with

frustration ! Nothing great ever comes easy. That’s why so few people are successful.

They are not prepared to go through the frustration (and “suffering”). I remember

very clearly even till today how many times I missed hitting the target during my

football practice, how many times, I dropped the ball when I was juggling, how many

times I just couldn’t do even the most basic skills of an average footballer. Yes, those

were frustrating moments indeed. But I endured the frustration, picked up the ball and

tried again and again.

4.      Change.

To me, this is absolutely the most important area of all. Many people want

to be successful, but they are not prepared to change. Change in what ways?

·        ƒ Change the way they think about themselves

·        ƒ Change the way they think about success

·        ƒ Change the way they think about their work and their profession

·        ƒ Change the way they do their work, change to a different tactic, change their

“style”, etc

·        ƒ Change their habits, change their daily routine

·        ƒ Change the way they dress, change the way they speak

·        ƒ Change….

Indeed, no change in the way of thinking, no change in the way of doing work,

definitely will have no change in results !

It’s so simple and yet many people do not seem to realize this ! Many people want to

enjoy better results, but are not prepared to change ! Impossible !

OK, so let’s recapitulate what we have learnt from Jerry Clark so far. To succeed in

anything we do, we should MASTER three important areas :

·        ƒ Master your Internal Communication

·        ƒ Master your External Communication

·        ƒ Master your Technical Know-how.

In order to MASTER anything, you need to :

·        ƒ Spend TIME (nothing is instant)

·        ƒ Spend ENERGY – this is often in the form of EFFORT and MONEY

·        ƒ Experience some level of FRUSTRATION ( I like this part very much because

    not many people are down-to-earth and honest enough to admit that it IS

    frustrating to master new skills)

·        ƒ CHANGE the way you do things

In the next article, we shall discuss in great detail about “Internal Communication”. In the

meantime, prepare yourself mentally to invest in time, energy (effort and money),

frustration and change for a MUCH BETTER and VERY SUCCESSFUL !

Happy Selling !