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Best shortcut to success is dogged perseverance
By Wang Yong |
February 23, 2013, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AS the saying goes, there's no shortcut to success. Entrepreneur Mark Hopkins disagrees.
"Timing, perseverance and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success," says Mark Hopkins in his just-published book, "Shortcut to Prosperity: 10 Entrepreneurial Habits and a Roadmap for an Exceptional Career," quoting Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
Unlike many of us who regard a "shortcut" as something requiring little effort, the author equates "shortcut" with "perseverance" or, in Thomas Edison's words, "99 percent perspiration."
Don't take the book's title as a hint of overnight prosperity. The author's message is: Don't meander through your life. Don't dawdle. The shortest cut to prosperity is created by those who persist and perspire for many years or even a lifetime, not by those who hem and haw, fishing for quick success.
The book alerts us to the ills of a market society in which we increasingly find ourselves: pursuing instant fame.
The book reminds me of three teenage nieces of mine.
Two of them learned piano for around three years and gave it up. Then they took up the guitar, which they also gave up.
A third niece learned guqin (a seven-string zither) for five years. She has kept her chin up in the face of ever more difficult compositions and skills. Now she can perform solo concerts before a large audience.
When I began to learn guqin at the age of 43, many of my acquaintances thought I was just in it for fun and that my passion would be short lived.
Now, nearly four years into practicing guqin, the very instrument Confucius played as a medium for philosophical reflection, I can play quite a few melodies composed more than 500 years ago, even 1,000 years ago. No other musical instrument renders us access to such a rich reservoir of centuries-old Chinese melodies.
'Crippled'
Why do I learn guqin?
My college education and work experience so far are all about things Western - the English language, Western media theories, Anglo-Saxon law.
As I get older, I feel "crippled" as a Chinese man of letters. Before I turned 43, I knew little about guqin, the basic art that an ancient Chinese man of letters would have to study.
Many of my fellow countrymen complain that today's China is lost in a sea of modern Western things and ideas, but they hardly study tradtional Chinese culture themselves. They talk the talk of Chinese tradition and walk the walk of modern Western life.
I could have dawdled away the past four years in such empty talk, too, if I had hung around with those long on talk but short on action. Fortunately, my wife and a few like-minded friends encouraged me to learn something new.
As Mark Hopkins says, "Just starting, just making that decision to do something, will differentiate you from many of your peers who everyday avoid making that decision."
Don't fear change, says the author, but to change for the better, you need to "know thyself" - who you are and what you want to become. If you define youself as a man of letters, try to adapt yourself to a simple, frugal life. Don't dream of overnight success.
But as the author notes, if Albert Einstein could do it, so can you. Einstein claimed he had no special talent and attributed his success to "curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance."
Indeed, if we have no special talent, at least we should have curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance. Otherwise, we will come a long way for naught.
10 shortcuts to prosperity
1. Do something different.
2. Exploit your natural curiosity.
3. Know thyself.
4. Build creative tension. Creative tension keeps you focused on your goal while being aware of your fiscal realities.
5. Learn from the best people.
6. Earn an "I can do anything" attitude.
7. Recognize opportunities.
8. Care about other people. People who you treat with kindness will be kind in return.
9. Partner wisely and broadly. Team up with a partner who complements your innate gifts.
10. Find a mentor, or three.
A mentor can open doors for you that would be difficult for you to open yourself.
"Timing, perseverance and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success," says Mark Hopkins in his just-published book, "Shortcut to Prosperity: 10 Entrepreneurial Habits and a Roadmap for an Exceptional Career," quoting Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
Unlike many of us who regard a "shortcut" as something requiring little effort, the author equates "shortcut" with "perseverance" or, in Thomas Edison's words, "99 percent perspiration."
Don't take the book's title as a hint of overnight prosperity. The author's message is: Don't meander through your life. Don't dawdle. The shortest cut to prosperity is created by those who persist and perspire for many years or even a lifetime, not by those who hem and haw, fishing for quick success.
The book alerts us to the ills of a market society in which we increasingly find ourselves: pursuing instant fame.
The book reminds me of three teenage nieces of mine.
Two of them learned piano for around three years and gave it up. Then they took up the guitar, which they also gave up.
A third niece learned guqin (a seven-string zither) for five years. She has kept her chin up in the face of ever more difficult compositions and skills. Now she can perform solo concerts before a large audience.
When I began to learn guqin at the age of 43, many of my acquaintances thought I was just in it for fun and that my passion would be short lived.
Now, nearly four years into practicing guqin, the very instrument Confucius played as a medium for philosophical reflection, I can play quite a few melodies composed more than 500 years ago, even 1,000 years ago. No other musical instrument renders us access to such a rich reservoir of centuries-old Chinese melodies.
'Crippled'
Why do I learn guqin?
My college education and work experience so far are all about things Western - the English language, Western media theories, Anglo-Saxon law.
As I get older, I feel "crippled" as a Chinese man of letters. Before I turned 43, I knew little about guqin, the basic art that an ancient Chinese man of letters would have to study.
Many of my fellow countrymen complain that today's China is lost in a sea of modern Western things and ideas, but they hardly study tradtional Chinese culture themselves. They talk the talk of Chinese tradition and walk the walk of modern Western life.
I could have dawdled away the past four years in such empty talk, too, if I had hung around with those long on talk but short on action. Fortunately, my wife and a few like-minded friends encouraged me to learn something new.
As Mark Hopkins says, "Just starting, just making that decision to do something, will differentiate you from many of your peers who everyday avoid making that decision."
Don't fear change, says the author, but to change for the better, you need to "know thyself" - who you are and what you want to become. If you define youself as a man of letters, try to adapt yourself to a simple, frugal life. Don't dream of overnight success.
But as the author notes, if Albert Einstein could do it, so can you. Einstein claimed he had no special talent and attributed his success to "curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance."
Indeed, if we have no special talent, at least we should have curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance. Otherwise, we will come a long way for naught.
10 shortcuts to prosperity
1. Do something different.
2. Exploit your natural curiosity.
3. Know thyself.
4. Build creative tension. Creative tension keeps you focused on your goal while being aware of your fiscal realities.
5. Learn from the best people.
6. Earn an "I can do anything" attitude.
7. Recognize opportunities.
8. Care about other people. People who you treat with kindness will be kind in return.
9. Partner wisely and broadly. Team up with a partner who complements your innate gifts.
10. Find a mentor, or three.
A mentor can open doors for you that would be difficult for you to open yourself.
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