Winning Strategies for Personal Excellence
Dr. Adalat Khan
July 25, 2007
Everyone of us was created as a winner and everyone of us can be a winner but the question is – is everyone a winner? Yes, some are winners who have achieved enormous results in their given fields. Great religious personalities like Prophet Muhammad, Jesus, or Buddha or renowned politicians such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or Deng Xiao Peng or sports and business personalities such as Muhammad Ali and Bill Gates, etc., can claim to be winners as they have reached their full potential.
The rest of us can easily be classified as non-winners or at worst as losers because we could have reached the highest level of our given fields but have not. The majority of us settles with mediocre results and thus do not fully deploy God-given potential and achieve the same or better results as compared to the winner. Isn’t it true that we could have achieved much more than what we have, we could have reached the peak of our performance, or we could have been much better than what we are today? The question then is why we have not achieved what some of the great people I mentioned and many more have achieved? One of the answers to this tough question is we are not thinking like them, we are not acting like them, and we are not using the winning strategies of the winners.
In order to achieve personal excellence we must understand and replicate the common winning strategies of the great achievers; chief among them are:
1. FAITH AND WINNING ATTITUDE
Faith and the attitude to win are the keys and by far the most important ingredients for success. It is the belief that we can and the attitude that we will be successful which serves as the starting point for our success. No battle is won without faith and a winning attitude, and very few battles were lost where people had faith and the attitude to win at all costs. Though notorious for his atrocities one of the greatest Army generals of all times, Genghis Khan, exemplified this quality and had sheer faith and a mega winning attitude. Born in 1162 as a son of a small chieftain, his father was killed by his enemies when Genghis Khan was only nine years old and out of fear his father’s followers defected to the enemies leaving him and his family as outcasts. Not only that but a rival tribe captured him and to prevent him from escaping they put a wooden collar around his neck. By dint of his faith that he was born to rule the world, he managed to escape from his captors and ventured out to conquer the world. The Mongol empire conquered by Genghis Khan and later extended by his successors was the largest land empire in all of history. Their domains included China, Russia, Central Asia, Persia and most of Southwest Asia. When he went into battle, he very clearly intended to win and win at all costs. Losing was not an option for him and he hated losers. Not only his, but the same spirit was equally shared by his followers. His people knew they followed a winner and that was the only thing on their minds. Of course, one will condone Genghis Khan’s killings of his opponents but the lesson here is that people with faith and a winning attitude achieve enormous results in their lives. They believe that they are engineered for success and deeply believe that they will succeed and achieve their goals.
Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer, once said that “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself”.
2. COURAGE AND PERSISTENCE
Courage and persistence are yet other weapons which are commonly possessed by all winners. Courage means confronting our fears and taking risks in order to achieve our goals. Courage is the fuel which energizes us to come out of our security and comfort zones in search of opportunities and venture out into risky areas. Life is full of risks which, if confronted and turned into opportunities, can propel people to fame and fortune. Starting a business poses the risk of making losses, enrolling in an unfamiliar course exposes us to the possibility of failing, leading others exposes us to ridicule and censure from others but if we do not take the risk, we will remain obscure and ordinary persons. Courage and persistence are the hallmarks of winners which differentiate them from losers and people who can be rightly called “ordinary” persons.
One of the most courageous persons of history was Prophet Muhammad who, by sheer dint of his courage and persistence, transformed the most backward, ignorant, tough, and dangerous people on earth to follow the most humane and the most wonderful ways of life. It was because of this quality that today every fifth person on this planet follows his teachings and are Muslims. When he started his mission everyone, including his close family members, vehemently opposed him. However, he did not give up and continued with his mission confronting with wisdom the dangers faced. He was always present in the battlefield during war, and when things became severe, he would be seen fighting in the front lines. He would remain firm even when other brave men would turn to flee. He never hesitated in the face of falsehood and never ceased to call to the truth, even when most people of the Earth were opposed to him. He never wavered on any of his principles but continued to enjoin what was right and forbid what was wrong.
Another personality which epitomizes persistence is Tamerlane. Tamerlane used to relate the following anecdote to his friends, “I once was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where I sat alone many hours. Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell 69 times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the 70th time it reached the top. This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson”.
3. SUPERIOR COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our communication skills. Everyone, anywhere and all the times, either communicate with themselves or with others. Our success to a greater extent will be determined by our success in communicating our ideas to ourselves and to others. In a survey conducted by one of the top executive search firms in the USA for executives making more than $250,000 a year, the executives were asked to rank the factors to which they attributed for having made it to the “big time”. The number one factor identified and which they attributed towards their success was their communication skills. Whether it is convincing masses to get united and achieve freedom, transforming nations or organizations, communication and rather superior communication skills will be one of the key factors contributing to our success.
4. LEARNING ATTITUDE
High achievers are also good learners and continuously keep learning. In today’s fast changing world we must learn on a continuous basis. Learning is the ability to learn new ideas, skills, and attitudes, unlearn bad and self defeating attitudes, and re-learn to reinforce one’s existing capabilities. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, highly said that knowledge is more useful than wealth as knowledge could protect you from disaster, while wealth needs to be protected from disaster. Learning is not only good for a person but nations as a whole can achieve tremendous progress if they learn. The major reasons for the economic progress of developed countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, etc., are their insatiable thirst for knowledge and a very high literacy rate. The birth of new business giants like Microsoft, Netscape and Apple computers during the recent past has proved the point that knowledge is power and those who possess it can create great business entities. This trend has changed the conventional business wisdom where capitol, land, and labor were considered to be the necessary ingredients for starting and sustaining businesses. Today, knowledge has become the key determinant for business survival and growth. Those who acquire and continuously improve it can stay in business and those who don’t must say good-bye to the business world. Rightly propagated by Alvin Toddler, every one of us must have a learning attitude which not only includes learning but also consists of un-leaning and re-learning.
5. MASSIVE HARD WORK
There is no substitution to hard work and no one has died working hard. A person with average intelligence but a hard-work ethic will achieve better results than the person with enormous intelligence but not putting forth any hard work. To accomplish anything in life, one must work extremely hard and shall achieve their goals. On the other hand, lazy people who avoid hard work and try to go for the short cuts surely achieve nothing and loose everything. Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, once said, “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied. At the end it’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it”.
6. TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
One of the most beautiful words in the English dictionary is responsibility – your ability to respond. Why? Because when we take responsibility, we create our own destiny and, in most cases, a better destiny. Responsible people do not blame God, the government, parents, relatives, or bosses for their failure; rather they take the blame themselves. By doing so they focus on themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and look for ways and means to improve on their short comings. Responsible people confront the worst circumstances and turn these into their advantages while irresponsible persons misuse their resources and turn victories into losses. By understanding that our life is the net result of our actions and taking personal responsibility for making things happen, we, too, can become winners.
7. SOLID CHARACTER
Character includes traits such as honesty, integrity, fairness, and dependability. It also includes the six traits earlier mentioned here. People of good character want to win probably by all costs but not all means. They forego unethical and short-lived results for ethical and long-term goals. In this fast-paced, cut throat, and materialistic world, sadly character has taken a back seat and people are driven by greed, selfishness, and short-cut approaches toward getting financial and material gains. However, winners and, in fact, real winners do not join the crowd; rather they act in a very dignified and ethical manner even in times where they suffer temporary setbacks. People of such traits do not mimic the crowd but become an example to the crowd that, in spite of a characterless culture, they can carve their own niche and succeed.
Winning is part of the game, and that game is life. Winners do come from all walks of life. Great conquerors such as Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great, historical personalities such as Prophet Muhammad, Jesus, or great reformers such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela were also great winners. How did they achieve such spectacular results and realize the things which may seem impossible to the ordinary soul? There were many reasons which spiraled them to the Zenith of Excellence but one reason common to all; that is, they all possessed all or three or more of the qualities mentioned here. Our life mission may not be the same as theirs but whatever mission we have we can greatly benefit from the winning strategies they used for personal excellence. Let us reflect about the winners’ lives, let us understand their strategies, and most important of all, let us own and use these strategies and be the winners which we are created to be.
Dr. Adalat Khan is the president of Mina Resources Sdn Bhd, a leading training and consultancy company who can be reached at mina@streamyx.com, Phone: 05-2415722
The rest of us can easily be classified as non-winners or at worst as losers because we could have reached the highest level of our given fields but have not. The majority of us settles with mediocre results and thus do not fully deploy God-given potential and achieve the same or better results as compared to the winner. Isn’t it true that we could have achieved much more than what we have, we could have reached the peak of our performance, or we could have been much better than what we are today? The question then is why we have not achieved what some of the great people I mentioned and many more have achieved? One of the answers to this tough question is we are not thinking like them, we are not acting like them, and we are not using the winning strategies of the winners.
In order to achieve personal excellence we must understand and replicate the common winning strategies of the great achievers; chief among them are:
1. FAITH AND WINNING ATTITUDE
Faith and the attitude to win are the keys and by far the most important ingredients for success. It is the belief that we can and the attitude that we will be successful which serves as the starting point for our success. No battle is won without faith and a winning attitude, and very few battles were lost where people had faith and the attitude to win at all costs. Though notorious for his atrocities one of the greatest Army generals of all times, Genghis Khan, exemplified this quality and had sheer faith and a mega winning attitude. Born in 1162 as a son of a small chieftain, his father was killed by his enemies when Genghis Khan was only nine years old and out of fear his father’s followers defected to the enemies leaving him and his family as outcasts. Not only that but a rival tribe captured him and to prevent him from escaping they put a wooden collar around his neck. By dint of his faith that he was born to rule the world, he managed to escape from his captors and ventured out to conquer the world. The Mongol empire conquered by Genghis Khan and later extended by his successors was the largest land empire in all of history. Their domains included China, Russia, Central Asia, Persia and most of Southwest Asia. When he went into battle, he very clearly intended to win and win at all costs. Losing was not an option for him and he hated losers. Not only his, but the same spirit was equally shared by his followers. His people knew they followed a winner and that was the only thing on their minds. Of course, one will condone Genghis Khan’s killings of his opponents but the lesson here is that people with faith and a winning attitude achieve enormous results in their lives. They believe that they are engineered for success and deeply believe that they will succeed and achieve their goals.
Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer, once said that “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself”.
2. COURAGE AND PERSISTENCE
Courage and persistence are yet other weapons which are commonly possessed by all winners. Courage means confronting our fears and taking risks in order to achieve our goals. Courage is the fuel which energizes us to come out of our security and comfort zones in search of opportunities and venture out into risky areas. Life is full of risks which, if confronted and turned into opportunities, can propel people to fame and fortune. Starting a business poses the risk of making losses, enrolling in an unfamiliar course exposes us to the possibility of failing, leading others exposes us to ridicule and censure from others but if we do not take the risk, we will remain obscure and ordinary persons. Courage and persistence are the hallmarks of winners which differentiate them from losers and people who can be rightly called “ordinary” persons.
One of the most courageous persons of history was Prophet Muhammad who, by sheer dint of his courage and persistence, transformed the most backward, ignorant, tough, and dangerous people on earth to follow the most humane and the most wonderful ways of life. It was because of this quality that today every fifth person on this planet follows his teachings and are Muslims. When he started his mission everyone, including his close family members, vehemently opposed him. However, he did not give up and continued with his mission confronting with wisdom the dangers faced. He was always present in the battlefield during war, and when things became severe, he would be seen fighting in the front lines. He would remain firm even when other brave men would turn to flee. He never hesitated in the face of falsehood and never ceased to call to the truth, even when most people of the Earth were opposed to him. He never wavered on any of his principles but continued to enjoin what was right and forbid what was wrong.
Another personality which epitomizes persistence is Tamerlane. Tamerlane used to relate the following anecdote to his friends, “I once was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where I sat alone many hours. Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell 69 times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the 70th time it reached the top. This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson”.
3. SUPERIOR COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our communication skills. Everyone, anywhere and all the times, either communicate with themselves or with others. Our success to a greater extent will be determined by our success in communicating our ideas to ourselves and to others. In a survey conducted by one of the top executive search firms in the USA for executives making more than $250,000 a year, the executives were asked to rank the factors to which they attributed for having made it to the “big time”. The number one factor identified and which they attributed towards their success was their communication skills. Whether it is convincing masses to get united and achieve freedom, transforming nations or organizations, communication and rather superior communication skills will be one of the key factors contributing to our success.
4. LEARNING ATTITUDE
High achievers are also good learners and continuously keep learning. In today’s fast changing world we must learn on a continuous basis. Learning is the ability to learn new ideas, skills, and attitudes, unlearn bad and self defeating attitudes, and re-learn to reinforce one’s existing capabilities. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, highly said that knowledge is more useful than wealth as knowledge could protect you from disaster, while wealth needs to be protected from disaster. Learning is not only good for a person but nations as a whole can achieve tremendous progress if they learn. The major reasons for the economic progress of developed countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, etc., are their insatiable thirst for knowledge and a very high literacy rate. The birth of new business giants like Microsoft, Netscape and Apple computers during the recent past has proved the point that knowledge is power and those who possess it can create great business entities. This trend has changed the conventional business wisdom where capitol, land, and labor were considered to be the necessary ingredients for starting and sustaining businesses. Today, knowledge has become the key determinant for business survival and growth. Those who acquire and continuously improve it can stay in business and those who don’t must say good-bye to the business world. Rightly propagated by Alvin Toddler, every one of us must have a learning attitude which not only includes learning but also consists of un-leaning and re-learning.
5. MASSIVE HARD WORK
There is no substitution to hard work and no one has died working hard. A person with average intelligence but a hard-work ethic will achieve better results than the person with enormous intelligence but not putting forth any hard work. To accomplish anything in life, one must work extremely hard and shall achieve their goals. On the other hand, lazy people who avoid hard work and try to go for the short cuts surely achieve nothing and loose everything. Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, once said, “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied. At the end it’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it”.
6. TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
One of the most beautiful words in the English dictionary is responsibility – your ability to respond. Why? Because when we take responsibility, we create our own destiny and, in most cases, a better destiny. Responsible people do not blame God, the government, parents, relatives, or bosses for their failure; rather they take the blame themselves. By doing so they focus on themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and look for ways and means to improve on their short comings. Responsible people confront the worst circumstances and turn these into their advantages while irresponsible persons misuse their resources and turn victories into losses. By understanding that our life is the net result of our actions and taking personal responsibility for making things happen, we, too, can become winners.
7. SOLID CHARACTER
Character includes traits such as honesty, integrity, fairness, and dependability. It also includes the six traits earlier mentioned here. People of good character want to win probably by all costs but not all means. They forego unethical and short-lived results for ethical and long-term goals. In this fast-paced, cut throat, and materialistic world, sadly character has taken a back seat and people are driven by greed, selfishness, and short-cut approaches toward getting financial and material gains. However, winners and, in fact, real winners do not join the crowd; rather they act in a very dignified and ethical manner even in times where they suffer temporary setbacks. People of such traits do not mimic the crowd but become an example to the crowd that, in spite of a characterless culture, they can carve their own niche and succeed.
Winning is part of the game, and that game is life. Winners do come from all walks of life. Great conquerors such as Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great, historical personalities such as Prophet Muhammad, Jesus, or great reformers such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela were also great winners. How did they achieve such spectacular results and realize the things which may seem impossible to the ordinary soul? There were many reasons which spiraled them to the Zenith of Excellence but one reason common to all; that is, they all possessed all or three or more of the qualities mentioned here. Our life mission may not be the same as theirs but whatever mission we have we can greatly benefit from the winning strategies they used for personal excellence. Let us reflect about the winners’ lives, let us understand their strategies, and most important of all, let us own and use these strategies and be the winners which we are created to be.
Dr. Adalat Khan is the president of Mina Resources Sdn Bhd, a leading training and consultancy company who can be reached at mina@streamyx.com, Phone: 05-2415722
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