Success is Not an Entitlement

Commentary:  I came across this essay and thought it has some value.  Success is not a right, entitlement, or privilege. Success comes from hard work and making the right choices more often that not according to Misner. I agree.

Success is Not an Entitlement

By Ivan Misner, PH.D.

Everyone wants some degree of success. We might want it in different forms, but I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to be successful at something important. This is good. I believe everyone is entitled to pursue success. But success itself is not an entitlement.

Success is determined largely by our hard work and our choices. I don't know many people who work hard but make bad choices. It’s amazing how many of them think they deserve to be more successful because they worked hard for it. On the other hand, I don’t know how many, if any, successful people who made good choices and didn’t work hard.

Working hard is only the first part of success. Making good choices is the second part. It takes both to achieve success.

I knew someone who was constantly lamenting her “bad luck.” She wasn’t happy with the various jobs that she had over the years, and her personal life was a shambles; she was almost 30, hadn’t completed college, and constantly had money problems. She often blamed situations or other people for the various predicaments she was in. However, the glaringly obvious truth was that, although she worked fairly hard, she continually made horrible choices. One day she would complain about money, and the next day she’d be buying something totally extravagant and completely unnecessary. The next week she’d complain about not being able to get a good job while showing up to work an hour late for personal reasons (which happened regularly).

From time to time, she talked to me about her issues, and I’d point out the choices she’d made that led to the problem at hand.

Each time she’d pay lip service to acknowledging the connection, but the truth is she never took ownership of the real problem – her choices. She once lamented, “Why me? Why me? I deserve better!” I did not offer my opinion on this question, but what I wanted to tell her was, “Everyone she ‘deserves better’ at some point in her life. Get over it, stop complaining, and start doing something about it. Work hard and make better choices!”

I’ve worked with thousands of people who have experienced some degree of success in their lives. One recurring theme I’ve seen is that successful people plan their work and work their plan. They think through their options, make the best decisions they can with the information they have, then work hard to carry out their choices. As the CEO of an international business, I know that my choices can affect hundreds of employees, franchise owners, and associates, as well as tens of thousands of clients around the world. Years ago, I was talking to a friend about some tough decisions. I had to make and my concerns about them. He gave me some great advice: “Not every decision you make has to be a good one. Just make sure that you make more good ones than bad ones – and when you make a bad one, minimize the impact by fixing it quickly.”

Wow! This is great advice. It squarely hits the point about working hard and making good choices. Not all the choices you make have to be on the mark, just enough of them to produce the results you want. Some of my biggest lessons in business have come from not my successes but from my losses – neither of which had much to do with luck but with the choices or commitments I had made. Not long ago, I was talking to someone I’ve known for years about the growth of my business and some other personal goals I’ve recently met. He said, “Man, you’re lucky! It must be nice.”

“Yeah, I’m lucky,” I responded. “Let me tell you the secret of my ‘luck’. First, I went to college for ten years. During that time, I started my own business, and for the next two decades I worked really long hours. Along the way, I mortgaged my house a couple of times for the business, and I wrote six books. And if you apply that kind of effort to whatever you do, you can be just as lucky.”

He laughed and said, “OK! OK! I get it!”

Did he really get it? I don’t think so because he hasn’t changed his behavior or started making different choices.

For most of my three decades of hard work, I didn’t feel very lucky or incredibly successful. It took time, effort, and decent choices before I felt a modicum of success. The problem is that many people want to go from point A to point Z and bypass all the challenges in between. They work hard, so they ‘deserve’ the success they want.

Success is not an entitlement. It is not a right or a claim that we should have. Yes, people have a right to pursue success, but that’s it. Success is most often earned, not handed over because you are entitled. If being successful were that easy, everyone would have the success he thinks he deserves. I think I was in my thirties before I truly understood and internalized that idea.

I’ve been trying to instill this wisdom in my 9-year-old son by teaching him the “mantra of success” The other day I asked him, “Trey, what’s the secret to success?”

He said, in a young boy’s slightly bored, singsong tone, “The secret to success without hard work and good choices is still a secret, Dad. Can I go out and play now?”

Okay, maybe nine is a little young to start the training.

But maybe not.

Comment: These are a few other posts I have made disscussing leadership.

Leadership and Success

Tattoo on Your Soul

Aliens Cause Global Warming

Carnegie All In One Post

References:

Misner, I and Morgan, D. (2004). Masters of success: proven techniques for achieving success in businessand life. pp 50-52. Canada.