The Secrets of Success

I've noted that people who are "successful" at anything (getting good grades in an exam, rising in the ranks at work, spreading Islam to every corner of their neighborhood, finding themselves...however u wanna interpet success) usually possess two dominant attributes. One is intelligence, and I don't necessarily mean the E=mc2, IQ-measured intelligence. Indeed, I've met people who can't read or write and are sharper than nails when it comes to being smart. I've met others who've flunked exams despite all their study efforts, and yet they possess deep, logically-driven insights to life. In fact, I contend that everybody in this world has this intelligence, despite what our shallow perception tells us.

The other attribute is drive. Ambition. Determination. Want more synonyms? How about motivation? To some extent, I'd say that motivation is more important than intelligence, because without a sense of drive, without ambition to keep your pistons firing and gears turning, well, intelligence is just about as useful as a ferrari with an empty gas tank.

And these two attributes do cover everything else don't they? With intelligence, you'll know your strengths and weaknesses, your friends and enemies. You'll be able to ascend over the potentially destructive forces of emotion. You'll know what's in your power to achieve, and where you'll have to seek help - the same way somebody with a broken leg overcomes his handicap by compensating with his other muscles and using a crutch. And I don't count vision as a third attribute because I think it comes under determination...you have to be determined for something, don't you? Otherwise you'll be like a car revving in neutral.

I know people around me, people who are close to me who have tonnes of drive, and I really really admire them for it. I look up to all the great leaders in history (dubya, anyone?), who've used their intelligence and drive to carve out new maps. I look up to the ill who've stayed positive during unimagineable suffering. I look up to children born without homes, some of whom are never hesitant to smile despite all their hardship.

Yup, there are a lot of people I derive inspiration from. The list is probably as long as Massachussett's I-93.

One thing I realized the other day while reading a book by Stephen Covey, which shows the power of determination (coupled with intelligence, of course). People who are emotionally driven often blame their environment for whatever happens to them. Such people become gloomy when the weather is bleak, are happy when people are nice to them and things are going well, and become depressed otherwise. What Covey contends is that your response to all such external stimuli is, to a large extent, under your control. Every person walks the lands between stimulus and response, and well, it's up to him what he wants to do with them. People who revoke this free will become emotionally driven. And well, of course it's not fully possible to logically channelize a stimulus to a certain response...but there are degrees to which you can do it, and I know people who don't do it at all. Period. Zeroeth degree.

When I read the chapter, I remember feeling a certain sense of disbelief. What was Covey saying? That I was irresponsible? That I was selfish? And then, when I flipped back a few pages in my memory, I realized I could have acted differently in a lot of situations. I chose not to do because...well...a multitude of reasons, which mostly all boiled down to emotions. With this realization came the spark of possibility. Allah has given me control. I know a lot of people disagree with this notion...hell, I strongly did until a week ago, but I've been toying with this thought over and over in the context of all logic I'd employed in the past, and I've begun to realize that it's true.

As somebody wise I know once said, "With your mind, you can conquer the world, and with your heart, you can let it all slip away."