How hard is it to succeed in business?
Sometimes we need to peel back the layers of the onion — the hype, the verbiage — to get at what’s basic. So I have some basic questions for you.
This blog is about doing business better (for yourself, for your organization) in today’s world of work. My tendency is to talk about all of this at a high level, e.g. by discussing the implications of permanently higher petroleum prices, or at an immediate level, e.g. by discussing what you personally can do during hard times.
But some questions transcend scale. And here are a few I would love for you to answer in the comments:
How hard is it, really, to succeed in business?
How much of success rests on knowing WHAT to do,
and how much of it rests on the APPLICATION of that knowledge?
Do you already know what you need to know to succeed?
Is it working? Or do you need to know more?
“Hard” is a loaded term, and it might be useful here to point to an earlier post about the difference between things that are cognitively complex, and those that are difficult emotionally.
So, tell me what you think: how hard is it, really?
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(Image by Todd Ehlers.)
Category: The working life3 Comments so far
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The first question seems rhetorical, even if not intentionally. It doesn’t seem to matter how hard something “really” is, but how hard it is practically (taking your “really” to mean something more philosophical than pragmatic). As a general principle, I think the ratio of success to failures in business (indeed, in anything) suggests that it is really hard to succeed. It may be easier for some than others, and that’s another question: What makes it easy, or easier for some to succeed than others?
The third question is just scary because of what I think the answer to the second question is, so I won’t answer that one.
This second is the most interesting question, to me, because it’s the most revealing and deceptive. I think success rests not on either of these things, but in a truncation of the second option, or a third option, if you will. Success rests less on KNOWING WHAT to do or on the application “of that knowledge”, but simply on application.
Listen to any inventor, scientist, and probably most big success stories in business and we find that they simply DID. They APPLIED themselves often when they didn’t KNOW WHAT to do. It’s the old saw you bring out (and with which I agree) of success via failure, or — by extrapolation — just *doing*. Many a successful person (Will Smith comes to mind) have held the tenet that 90% of success is merely turning up. DOING.
I could go on with examples and dissections and digressions (as I started to in the final sentence) of this philosophy, but I think the point should be clear.
Chris makes some excellent points on questions which, properly considered, are tough and painful. Business is tough but fun, when done properly. And it’s not like we have a choice. It’s too bad most of us don’t learn the lessons of sustained discipline, effort and focus that sports - at their best - teach us. As well as persevering thru setbacks. That’s life.
My experience is that I had no idea of what I needed to know but could build on that capital store and keep on acquiring new knowledge and skills. Would that every 20something was presented with a better introduction to the real world than most have and take decades to accumulate. So at the end of the day you do the best you can and “keep those feet moving”.
The question you don’t ask is what’s the biggest hurdle - and the answer is the running of the organization. The triumph of internal politics and in-fighting is, all too often in my experience, the biggest barrier to overcome. Which then suggests that an essential additional skill is communications, and perhaps leadership.
Chris and Dave — Thanks for these thought-provoking comments. No big thoughts in reply for now, but I’m going to ponder these more and return to them.
Now that I think of it, some of what we’re talking about here — “merely turning up” and “keep those feet moving” — I touch on in the post I just made about “Grinding it out.”