The media loves to highlight individuals who suddenly become successful. Certain individuals are portrayed as sudden beneficiaries of success, as if success were an event. Who can forget:
- Justin Bieber’s You Tube videos as a teenager that launched his singing carer.
- Joe Namath when he the Jets won the Superbowl in 1968.
- JK Rowling in 1997 when Harry Potter became an overnight success.
- Elon Musk when his Falcon rocket became the first privately built rocket to reach orbit.
The media grabs on to sudden success stories. They portray success as some pivotal event forever changing the lives of certain individuals overnight.
Reality is not so exciting, however. While success is occurring, the “event” goes completely unnoticed for most successful people. It’s invisible while occurring. Successful people don’t see the pivotal points of their success when they are occurring because they are not obvious during the success journey. Only in hindsight are they able to rationalize the moment of success.
This is because for most successful people, success is not an event. It is a process; a progression of one thing to the next, completely under the radar of our consciousness. You just don’t see success happening, even when it’s happening, because the events are subtle progressions.
The point I’m trying to make here is that, barring the rare exceptions, “success” is not an event. It is the culmination of progressing from one goal to the next, from one dream to the next, from one minor success to another minor success. It is very much like show falling on the side of a mountain. You don’t see the snow accumulating and the snow bank growing. Then one day, there is an avalanche. Success may reward you financially with a windfall but it is a windfall that does not occur overnight. It the byproduct of years and years of devoted focus, hard work and persistence. The “event” is just the aftermath of all of those years of devotion to your dream or purpose.
About Thomas C. Corley
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