The Path to Success — Qualities Needed for Success

“If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius,” said Joseph Addison. These are indeed some basic qualities, required to be successful in life. People possessing these qualities, are successful in whatever they do, while others bear the ignominy of failure in almost all activities they indulge in. Success therefore does not come naturally, behind it is perseverance, experience, caution, and a never say die attitude.

Success is indeed ninety nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration. There are many rags to riches stories of people achieving great success, by sheer dint of hard work and determination. Abraham Lincoln and Lal Bahadur Shastri, rose from very humble beginning to become the President and the Prime Minister of their respective countries. Some of the richest businessmen like Dhirubhai Ambani and Bill Gates also came from very humble background. However their zeal and enthusiasm made them establish great business empires.

Such great men besides hard work and perseverance, also possess a keen and sharp mind with a clear vision and goal they want to achieve in life. This ambition acted like a beacon of light, impelling them to relentlessly strive towards their goal. They also had the courage of conviction to move away from the beaten track and blaze a new trail for others to follow.

Besides the above qualities one must exercise caution and patience in dealing with problems. Just as a rolling stone gathers no moss, similarly rushing from one action to another without thinking of its implication gets one nowhere. There is therefore need to spend some time with the problem, seek the views of elders and peers, use past experience, before coming to a decision. Decision once taken must be implemented patiently. This is for all good things take time to happen.

The last but not the least prerequisite is a positive attitude and mindset. This enables one to have an optimistic approach to problems and seek opportunities in them. Such a person is not easily disheartened and his perseverance pays off in the long run.

Agreeably there is no short cut to success and it does not come by chance. One has to assiduously work for it, with dedication and perseverance. This is for in the words of H.W. Longfellow, ‘Life’s battle does not always go, to the stronger and the fastest man, But sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can’.