What is your definition of Success?
We tend to focus too much on the outcome when we talk about “Success”. People want to know “WHAT” you have done, rather than “HOW” you did it. If you also think in that way, you’re missing the point.
A few days ago, I went to a seminar called ‘Redefine failures’. The speaker, Mr. Daryl Dore, shared his career experience and gave us his insight on how to deal with failures.
He started the talk by introducing his hobby: Ultramarathon.
Ultramarathon is a running-race which is longer than Full-marathon ( 42.195 km ). The longest distance of Ultramarathon is 160 km long. He shared some of legendary stories about Ultramarathoners who never give up in extreme conditions. Even for me, who hates running, these stories were really inspiring.
Then it came to the main part of the talk, the career experience. His career started in BlackBerry which used be one of the best Telecommunication companies in the world. He worked there for over 10 years as a leader of the business system. And now, he is working in University of Waterloo (Canada) as a Director of ERP systems. By just looking at what he has accomplished, the career looks going great. But as he explained, the career path has been anything but easy. He had to go through a lot of pains. Failure in getting a fabulous internship, getting laid off and unemployment period.
The secret is, however, he sees a failure differently. In his eyes, it is an opportunity to make a difference. And that is the idea lead him to where he was, and where he is right now.
This connects to Ultramarathon as well. He just can’t take enough of challenges.
He wrapped up his presentation by sharing his core beliefs:
100 % of the handwork is still the key, but it cannot control the outcomes; you need to focus on the effort and what you do.
Never stop learning things that interest you.
Anything is possible with enough time and the effort.
Fun can be found in any activity: you should remind yourself that you have a choice.
I like his last message the most. It’s easy to forget that we are the ones who are making every decisions for ourselves. Whatever things you’re doing right now, it was your decisions to do it in the first place.
And that leads to self-responsibility. If I am the one who’s making decisions, it also should be me who has to take the responsibility of the outcomes. And when I face the outcomes, my eyes should always be on the positives, just like Daryl did in his career. Every results are just failures until I can find something positive in them.
Concluding thoughts
We tend to focus too much on the outcome when we talk about “Success”. What I learned from Daryl is, however, we’ll never be able to be successful, until we focus more on the process. Commit yourself 100% and never forget being resilient.
The outcome never defines Success, it is your commitment and resilience that counts.
Nobu’s blog 
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