The Attitude at the Center of All Successful People

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Image by Razvan Chisu (unsplash.com)

No Excuse.

Moved by the need to save the diminishing bees population, five-year-old Huston Texas native, Mikaila Ulmer, began selling lemonade at her parent’s house.” The lemonade was prepared with her grandmother’s 1940s recipe, using honey from local beekeepers. In 2015, she appeared in the television show Shark Tank, where she successfully received a $60,000 investment from Daymond John to support her idea and growing business.

At a tender age, Yash Gupta became dependent on his eyeglasses. In high school, he broke his eyeglasses and was forced to wait for a week to replace them. In that week of waiting, Yash realized the transformative impact eyeglasses had on his education. On doing some research, he learned 13 million children around the world lacked eyeglasses because they couldn’t afford them. Subsequently, at only 14, he founded Sight Learning, a non-profit organization that, to date, has collected and distributed more than $1.1 million worth of used eyeglasses to students in countries such as Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, India, and the United States.

At 16, Greta Thunberg became a global ambassador for climate change. On Friday 15 March 2019, through her efforts, she mobilized 1.6 million people worldwide to hit the streets in support of the Fridays for Future climate change movement, the biggest day of global climate action we’ve ever seen. In the same year, she was invited to speak at UN’s annual assembly to world leaders on the danger of ignoring climate change. What can we learn from Mikaila, Yash, and Greta? The remarkable stories of these young movers-and-shakers can teach us in spite of our backgrounds we can do great things. You have no excuse to be a success story.

The Money Question

What would you want to achieve if money was not a problem? Before we look at successful people, and the attitude at the center of their success, we have to address what prevents most people from succeeding. Money is one primary resource that we need to achieve many things, but it should never stop us from fulfilling our dreams. The more I pursue my dreams and find ways to be impactful with my life, I am discovering a simple but profound truth about how successful people overcome the shortage of resources such as money in doing what they want to do. Successful people in the marketplace and ministries such as churches have discovered that it’s not the lack of resources such as money that stops success, but rather it is the lack of resourcefulness. When you become resourceful, the floodgates of resources open up to you. You soon realize that your attitude towards success becomes better. So, how do you define success?

Success is something that everyone wants but is often elusive to many. While I am sure there are variations in how we define success from person to person, I believe that the fundamental elements of success are the same among all cultures and across different generations. At its most primal level, success is seeing the fruits of our effort. “Success is really nothing more than the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” Earl Nightingale said, and added, “any person who knows what they are doing and where they are going is a success. Any person with a goal towards which they are working is a successful person.” With this definition as a background and also knowing that we hold the key to success by being resourceful, we can now look at the major attitude behind every successful person.

Make a difference

Have you ever heard the phrase, “behind every successful man, there is a woman”? I grew up hearing adults say this, but I wondered what is behind every successful woman. While it is essential to have an important partner to be a success, I believe that there is an attitude that transcends gender or age, which is the driving force behind every man or woman: Make a difference attitude. It is this attitude that was behind Mikaila’s drive to do something about bees, that drove Yash to do something about children without eyeglasses, and definitely behind Greta pushing for the world to do something about climate change. Make a difference attitude is what is at the center of all successful people.

I occasionally enjoy watching Shark Tank, the TV show Mikaila was able to get the investment that led her lemonade to be sold nationwide in different stores and chains. By observing all the winning contestants like Mikaila, and other successful people like Yash and Greta, I have learned that a make a difference attitude does three important things that enable success. First, it allows whoever has this attitude to adjust their perspective when facing any challenge. Remember we saw that  a good perspective is at the bedrock of a general great attitude. Second, with a make a difference attitude, you position yourself to make a difference with whatever you have. Most people fail to achieve their goals because they focus on what they don’t have and lose sight of what is in their hands. For example, most people reference the lack of money for not progressing with their goals. When you position yourself to make a difference, resources will flow your way. Third, you ignite your faith and believe in making great things happen. A make a difference attitude not only initiates success, it also sustains it by creating in us a servant’s heart.

Servant’s heart

Do you want to be great? If your answer is a resounding yes, you have to find a way to serve people. Successful people have learned that the only way to go up is by helping others. Making a difference in the world by giving yourself to global courses such as climate change or meet people’s needs like Yash Gupta, who is continually providing eyeglasses to students in need through his organization, boils down to possessing a servant’s heart. I believe that when we serve others, we find our purpose and fulfillment in life. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Also, a person with a servant’s heart will always have an abundant mindset. And with this mindset, you will not only expect good things to happen, but you will also be a miracle creator in your life and the lives of others.

In summary, when you have an I can make a difference attitude, there will be no limit to what you can achieve. You won’t make an excuse for not having resources, but instead, you will be resourceful to others in service.

What’s Next…

Here is a question to ponder: What dreams have you put on hold because of lacking the required resources? Next, we will look at how to be resourceful by serving others. Since being resourceful holds the key to our success.