How badly do you want to succeed? Think about it for a moment. Be honest with yourself. How much are you willing to do to be more successful than you are today?
Perhaps “success” for you at the moment is getting into shape or improving your financial situation; perhaps it’s being a better spouse, or getting a promotion at work, or taking that idea you’ve been sitting on and launching your own company. Whatever success looks like to you, how far are you willing to go to attain it?
Are you willing to do what others aren’t?
There’s a famous Latin maxim, audaces fortuna iuvat, commonly translated, fortune favors the bold. The adage appears in various forms in Roman literature, but the meaning is the same: success comes to those who are willing to act.
Virgil’s epic poem, Aenied, might not have been so epic if antagonist Turnus declared, “Fortune favors . . . the complacent,” or “the well-intentioned but lazy,” or “those who talk about doing things but never do them.”
I know many successful people, but I don’t know anyone who became successful by doing nothing. Every successful person I know fought for their success. They didn’t shy away from hard work, inconvenience or personal sacrifice. They all experienced setbacks. They all invested a lot of time, and some risked a lot of money. They understood they had to sacrifice in the present for future reward. And their success notwithstanding, they’re not content to remain where they are today. They strive for improvement.
Contentment tends to breed complacency. And complacency is anathema to a good marriage, a career, a corporation – just about everything. Complacency never inspired growth, innovation or advances in anything. The ground is always shifting under our feet, and perhaps more dramatically so in business than elsewhere. If you’re content in the business world, you might soon find yourself on the way down, or on the way out.
Fifteen years ago, I was hired by a forward-thinking, entrepreneurial CEO of an American company to set up a sourcing operation in China. My job was to identify and capitalize on efficiencies that would make my new employer more viable in an increasingly competitive market, and establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in Asia.
On my first trip to China it was obvious that life was harder there than in many other places. But I also saw the country’s profit potential, especially for someone willing to operate in that environment. I was traveling with two colleagues and a client. We toured several factories and workshops, had tea ceremonies and dinners with Chinese business owners, relying on interpreters for everything and struggling with
chopsticks at every meal eating things we never thought we’d eat. It wasn’t convenient, it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t fun.
Along the way I asked one of the colleagues I was traveling with, a father of three children like myself, if he’d be willing to move to China. Appalled at the thought, he responded abruptly, “No way!” and looked at me as if I’d been a fool to ask.
Perhaps he was content where he was. Or perhaps China was simply too difficult, too foreign, or too far from home. China was, and still is, all those things. Yet, everywhere I looked I saw opportunity. I knew there was a lot of money to be made for someone willing to face those challenges – to do what others wouldn’t be willing to do.
Within six months of my first visit, I’d established the wholly-owned subsidiary and opened an office in Shanghai for my employer. Shortly thereafter, the forward-thinking CEO who sent me to China – that company’s greatest asset – was summarily dismissed by a short-sighted board of directors. A few months later a business partner and I launched our own design and manufacturing company, competing
for customers in the same space as my former employer. I moved my family to China and ended up spending the next twelve years there – and it still wasn’t convenient, it still wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t always fun.
The American company that first sent me to Asia, without the leadership of its visionary CEO, closed its doors in 2014 after nearly a century in business. All along the ground had been shifting, and the company’s board failed to adapt. And my colleague who was content where he was found himself out of work.
Meanwhile, our company grew steadily. We capitalized on the efficiencies of both countries, and constantly adapted to the changing landscape. We built a team of bright, capable people, posted higher revenue year after year, and boasted a client list that included some of the biggest names in retail. I’ve since sold my interest in the company, but it continues to thrive to this day.
Oh, and the forward-thinking CEO who hired me? Undeterred by adversity, he took his vision to another American manufacturer and quickly established his own successful operation in China.
There’s more than one lesson in this story, but the point I’m making here is that success doesn’t just
happen, it comes at a price – and it comes to those willing to pay that price. Success is reserved for those who act. So many great opportunities go unrealized because we don’t have the initiative or courage to undertake the challenge. Fortune doesn’t favor the content, the fearful or those deterred by adversity. It favors the bold. It favors those who are willing to do what others aren’t.
What does success look like to you, and how badly do you want it? How far are you willing to go to achieve it?
