The Four Seasons of Success

The Four Seasons of Success

                                                                                                                                                                      

I’m writing this with the aim to dispute the claim of overnight success that’s being sold to us on daily basis, and I think this is most dangerous phenomenon since global warming. We live in a world filled with endless possibilities; there is Lotto, Politics, Tenders and Crime that can change your status from an ordinary Joe to a millionaire or billionaire status overnight.  But I still reason  that this is not overnight success, in fact in my books overnight success doesn’t exist, let me tell you why.

One of my hobbies is people watching, yes I watch people, on TV, magazines, books and in other platforms but theres only one breed of people that interest me; Successful people. One would ask what is my definition of a successful person? To me these are ordinary people doing extra ordinary things, and leaving extra ordinary lives. These are entrepreneurs, musicians, athletes, and some of them are richest people in the world, such as Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckenburg.  Watching these so called successful people means reading up about them and their life stories. My fascination for trying to understand what sets them apart has made me come up with the concept of Four Seasons of Success.

To me success starts with a seed conceived inside you, this seed can be your talent, passion or a need to make a difference. In the topic of talent, sometimes we think a talent needs to be something that your do extra ordinary or something that exclusive to you. Let me tell you talent does not have to be exclusive, you just need to find something you are good at compared to other things, sometimes you won’t even be great at doing something but you just love it. Use that passion to drive you in the right direction.

Once you have that seed inside then it’s time to do something about it, now you go out and hunt for land to cultivate this seed of yours.  This means finding the right environment to cultivate your talent or passion. Once you find the land, now you need to take time and look for the right spot for your seed. This is the time where you take your hands off your pocket and get down in your knees to feel the soil, touch it, and feel its roughness. This means having faith, this means believing in your dreams, visualizing your seed grow into a plant. This is the first season; this is when you start doing something, theres action taking place. This part I’m very passionate about, taking action is the number one requirement to get results in whatever you do.  

·         You need to start DOING, once you start doing you need to keep DOING,

·         Do till you start Seeing it,

·         Do some more until the results expand and blossom into a beautiful flower you can be proud of.

Now we need to find that perfect spot for your seed, finding the perfect spot for your seed is very important, different talents require different environments. You need to make sure the spot you choose will get the right amount of rain and sunshine for your seed. Now you need to collect your tools and get ready to get dirty, start digging, dig , dig.

·         Theres action going on…..you cultivating your seed, you allocating time to your talent.

 This process is very import, remember if you dig a shallow hole your seed might not make it to the next season, same as if your hole is too deep that seed might suffocate and die. Yes you cannot spend years and waiting for things to happen, that talent, that passion will die with its fruits.  It’s important that you make sure the hole is the right depth for your seed, if you are digging right now in your life you need to make sure you do it to the best of your ability. When you put that seed in that soil you need to know that your efforts were beyond great. Day in day out, you need to make sure whatever you are doing, you do it to the best your ability. This is important so that tomorrow when looking back you don’t look back with shame and guilt; you look back with pride sense of achievement knowing whatever you were doing you did it to the best of your ability.

Now you have planted your seed, but this is not the end, this is just the beginning, you can take this time to breathe for second but don’t stop. Now because you planted your seed in right land and in the right spot you trust the sun and the rain to bring it to life. For the first time you will see that first leaf, now those are small results you will start to see as you taking action in your life, a new season is upon you; the second season of success. Now you smiling but you know it’s still the beginning.

When your plant shows above the ground I call this season the season of take off. Now picture yourself in flight taking off, when a plane takes off, things start to shake, its uncomfortable. This season requires you to get out of your comfort zone, you need to buckle up and hold on tight. For entrepreneurs this is the time when you have established that business but all you do is to invest more money and you not getting any returns yet, faith and vision keep you going. This can be both a painful and a happy time, as in this point you can see some results but things are still unstable. This is the time where you take care of this plant and give it water if the rain doesn’t come.

·         Action after action, time after time you putting all the work in, that plant will grow taller and stronger.

At this point this point things are stable this is the third season of success. In this season you have processes in place, you have a time table everything is normal to you, you are doing all the right things at the right time. But this is not success yet, so you keep doing what you need to do until that plant bears it first fruit. The fourth season is the joyous season when your seed has grown into a plant and now bearing fruit, now you think you are successful. But no this is not success, success is not the results, it’s not about the fruit.

·         Success to me its action

 Success starts from the first season when you digging the hole for you seed, second, third, fourth season and beyond that is success.

Success is about you doing something with talent and your passions daily, success has no beginning and has no end.

·         Success is yesterday, today, tomorrow and beyond. Success comes in seasons, and each one requires different mind sets.

·         Couch you brain, anticipate the four seasons, be ready and leverage on your strengths.

You might read this and say there are ten or four or two seasons of success, that’s also correct as long as theres is planned action taking place I support you. Overnight success does not exist.  

“Great results are a product of a great plan well executed”