Success is sum of small efforts
It is everybody’s desire to make it big in life. Actually, we harbour bigger dreams. But, in the case of many people, the dreams they harbour elude them like soap bubbles. It is not that the dreams are impossible to achieve; it is all just because we do not have the patience to travel the rugged path to the dreamland. We actually deceive ourselves that, having graduated from the university, we will rise quickly to top positions. We deceive ourselves that the moment we embark on a business, it will grow unprecedently fast such that the world would be amazed with us. That is where we get it wrong. Success is but the long process of building blocks, one at a time.
People management expert Siphiwe Moyo was right, “if you keep doing the right things every day, in small quantities, success is inevitable”.
The painful truth we have to live with is that hard-work produces success and that nothing will ring itself to you simply because you have the desire and ambition. Stop just setting goals, Moyo lectures; life demands more than that. It requires and demands action.
Michael Jordan did not just become an overnight Most Valued Player in Basketball. Actually, he was dropped out of the college basketball team. But, by practicing, little by little, challenging himself each and every day, he became the best basketballer the world has ever seen.
We narrow it down to the local scene. Mike Mlombwa built a business empire from the tiny scratch that is selling plain papers, paper by paper. Now he owns Countrywide Car Hire. Dr Thomson Mpinganjira did not just create one of the biggest banks in the country in the name of FDH. It all started as a discount house, then one banking branch followed. With time, other branches were born until bank grew and swallowed the Malawi Savings Bank, which had the widest network of all banks in the country. Success is the sum of small efforts.
If we have to be successful, we have to learn from children. We were not born walking or talking. We learnt how to walk, step after step, falling and rising up till we mastered the art of walking. When we were born, we only had one voice – the voice of crying. Then we learnt how to speak, word by word, and now we speak eloquently as if talking has always been that easy. It is through building our vocabulary word by word that we play around with language. Such is the trend in life. Take one step at a time. Do not be in haste.
You may probably not have time to read the book Bulls And Bears: Life Lessons From The Financial Markets. Moyo perfectly puts it: “You devote yourself to work each day and every day. You take step-by-step actions each day to develop yourself and the qualities defining and signifying successful people. If it is hard-work determination and drive, you start now. It must be reflected in the little things you do. Just like dividends, these little habits you cultivate each day will sustain you in the long run because they are what will get you where you want to be and beyond that, they will keep you there.
“They will sustain you because success does not just happen. Remember there is nothing great and strong that can be built in one day. This is why it is significant to be patient and not rush things but to take one step at a time. Never underestimate small efforts repeated day in day out. Ask any successful person and they will tell you because this is one of the most significant and imperative ways to make it in any area of your life.”
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