How do we become really successful?

Let me crisply answer this fundamental question, using my experience as a guide. When we talk about MBAs – managers – what do these guys really do? Even before that, just who are these guys?

Well, the “who” ratio is approximately 20:30:40:10.

20% are entrepreneurs – totally self-driven and in-charge of their own destiny. 20-30% are intrapreneurs – they are entrepreneurs inside an organisation. 40% are executives – they carry out things really well. 10% are eternal crib-nannies – the world fails to see that they are god’s gift to mankind.

I have worked with dynamic and successful people from all categories above, the least being from the fourth. The one common thread in all successful people is long term vision. They were all thinking and acting really long-term.

So what’s that? What really constitutes long term vision? A distractor intelligently said, “in the long run, we are all dead.” So for him there is no point in anything that’s long-term. But what is long-term? Five years? 15 years? 50 years? In my opinion, “long term” in any decision situation is a sufficient enough time period that you allow all players in the game to have their full effect on the situation. The subject (the manager or you) waits patiently for the final effect to display itself.

Here are some precise points

When someone is in the first stage of her/his career, it pays to remember that it is precisely that – the first stage. Their whole life is yet to happen! The first job, or the first 5-6 years of your job are your foundation years when you must focus on these four things above everything else.

Greedily learn actual professional skills that matter – not just basic stuff like smart paper-pushing, PPT-making and glib-talking. Slog your bones off so you learn more – your body can support it now (in your twenties). It will be too late after you are 30. Overlook the money you are making, focus only how much you are growing as a professional whose opinions people seek. It changes your entire perspective.

Try working with the toughest bosses, not the easy ones. The tough bosses will force you to grow completely out of your comfort zones, and you will thank them for the rest of your life. I feel that 9 out of 10 successful people did many of these things in their earlier years, knowingly or unknowingly. Let me be honest, while we are in the daily rut, it is difficult to get a 30,000 feet view like the one I have propounded above. But focus on the job’s content, not payoffs. And taken to the extreme, if you get a chance to work with a super boss, a guy who can totally change your professional calibre, maybe it’ll be a good idea to do it free of charge :).