Basic Factors Of Success

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Before talking about the specific details of success and the determining factors relating to that, I wanted to put forth a fairly universal idea of the factors of success. In the article "9 Success Factors For Personal Growth: Moving Forward To Achieve Your Best Life", author Brian Tracy states what he believes to be the top 9 most important factors in leading up to success. 

#1 Education- Knowing more on average can make you better off in various aspects, specifically when applying for jobs. This is why people spend majority of their live trying to better educate themselves.

#2 Skill- Tracy talks about how your specific skill level can make it easier for you to move towards a goal and continue to further your level of results.

#3 Contacts- Knowing people who are able to open up opportunities for you.

#4 Money- Having money gives people the opportunity to pursue careers and lifestyles of their choice.

#5 Good Work Habits- Good work habits can allow a person to accomplish more in a certain amount of time, making their overall life more efficient.

#6 Positive Mental Attitude- By developing a positive mental attitude a person is able to accomplish more by thinking of whats is good to come, rather than what is bad.

#7 Positive Image- People tend to judge one another based off their image and by presenting a positive image, it allows a person to be open to more.

#8 Creativity- Creativity contributes to accomplishing more by unique means.

#9 Character- A persons overall character goes into all of the ideas presented above, in the sense that one's character can affect the way people perceive you.

Overall all of these are important, personal factors describing how to make the most of success, but in my future blog posts I will be addressing the factors outside of personal traits that are just as important.

Timeless Advice

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In my last post I talked about factors outside of personal aspects that can alter the chances of success, such as pure coincidence. My next source does pretty much the exact opposite. The novel How to Win Friends and Influence People author, Dale Carnegie presents ideas about ways that a person can alter their personal traits in order to make others like them. He also address social situations and the ability to convince others during them. He does this through the use of various principles.

• Begin with praise and honest appreciation
• Call to attention people’s mistakes indirectly
• Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
• Ask questions instead of giving direct orders
• Let the other person save face
• Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise”
• Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
• Use encouragement. Make every fault seem easy to correct
• Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest

I think that these are very applicable to day to day actions but I would have to say that between Outliers and How to Win Friends and Influence People, I think that the factors determining the overall well-being of a person are more affected by surrounding events.

In my next and final blog post I’ll be concluding all of my research as a whole of factors of success and the importance it can have.

Outlier: n. Something That Lies Outside the Main Body

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After reading the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell I have gained a certain perspective to the idea of success. Gladwell’s purpose throughout the novel is to argue the idea that in analyzing the lives of those who have become successful, we should look at what surrounds them rather than their personal aspects, such as their personality. Also, what I took away from the novel was the idea of pure coincidence.

In a portion of the book, one way that Gladwell puts forth this idea is by the 10,000 hour rule. The idea behind this is that to truly become an expert in anything one must exercise any activity for a total of at least 10,000 hours. His example of this was none other than Bill Gates. As a child attending a wealthy private school in Seattle, Washington, Gates had the access to a computer terminal in school and later at the University of Washington. Which was not far from his home, allowing him to log 10,000 hours by an early age. This example also deals with the idea that is presented of coincidence. If Gates was not as privileged or had not lived nearby University of Washington, chances are he would not be the Bill Gates that everyone knows today.

These ideas presented by Gladwell tie into what we have recently discussed about how opportunities largely help to shape the success (and SES) of someone rather than solely one’s hard work and determination. I think that it is interesting to think about factors outside of the personal traits of a successful person because anyone can develop certain traits, but to look specifically at individual moments that have significantly altered the outcome of a person’s life in comparison to others.

For my next blog post I’m going to talk about and analyze the ideas in the book How to Make Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie.  

Moral Success

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The idea of furthering oneself in their overall state of life is a topic highly controversial in the sense what is moral and immoral in doing so. Earlier in the quarter we discussed utilitarianism, the idea that the best moral action is the one that brings the most people success no matter the consequences. Tied to this concept is the Machiavelli’s belief of “the ends justifies the means”.

In the article “Be Powerful”  from Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context the author talks about the opinions of Machiavelli and his viewpoints on the successfulness of mankind. He concludes to the idea that Machiavelli believed that the only way to become successful is through greed and evil, and that being good and kind always leads to one’s destruction.

I both disagree and agree with this because I think that the idea of power and success can and has made people lose sight of their original goals, whatever they may be, but at the same time people, maybe not as many,  have also become successful without breaking any moral rules.
In my next blog post I’m planning on addressing the impacts of simply being talented in contrast to outside factors, which is discussed in the books Outliers.

Aspects of Success

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• Briefly explain why you are interested in studying your topic:  

I’m interested in this topic because the ultimate goal is to be successful in the future and the more knowledgeable I a the better off I believe I will be.

• The overall question I plan on answering by the end of the project:

Haley: What allows people to be successful?

• Sub questions I will need to answer in order to answer the overall question: 
• What is success defined as?
• How does the value of success in our society affect people?
• What do all successful people have in common?

• My plan of research (what specific Library Databases, specific websites, names of authors, people, etc. will I pursue to find the answers to the questions above):

In order to answer my topic questions I am reading the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, which discusses the factors outside of personality and upbringing, that affect future success. In addition to that I will include points of views from various articles from databases such as CultureGram and Gale Student Resources in Context.

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