Volumes have been written in the business community on the keys to success. Watch the following lecture by Richard St. John on his rise to, fall from, and subsequent rise back to success.
In the comments section, answer the following questions:
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
Deadline to comment is Sunday, 10/18/2009, 11:59pm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I believe my personal steps to success match Richards for the most part. I understand that if I do not push myself and think of new ideas, I will not succeed. Sitting back and wishing for success or thinking about success will not lead to success. I often try to do things to exercise my mind, trying new things and contemplating new ideas. This often leads to me wanting to work harder and get even better results. I have almost reached my goal of successfully graduating college, and will continue to find new things to learn for the rest of my life. I have a successful relationship with my boyfriend of the past nearly 7 years, and will continue to work to make it the best it can be for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteTo maintain success once achieved, as the speaker said, one must understand that success is not a one way street. It is a circle of ideas and work, and the only way it will end is if you stop circulating. If you continue to do what you love and think of new, innovative ideas, you will be successful.
Money does not equal success, but happiness does. I believe one has truly achieved success when they are enjoying their daily activities and are sincerely happy. Striving for more is not a bad thing, but enjoying yourself while you are doing it is the key.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteMy personal steps are very different as his story describes an apparent workaholic, who thrived at doing everything himself and became overwhelmed. The volume of work from his clients reached a point where he needed assistants that he didn't consider in his big picture and was impacted by the inherent changes of taking on employees. I see myself as part of a group sharing in success, and makes a very different circumstance.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
In a solitary circumstance, one can look towards reaching new ground to continue with the efforts achieving the position of success in different ways. Keeping the day to day fresh and challenging makes success sustainable without having to crash.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
My definition of success is the achievement of assets providing for one's happiness and family as it may be. Being that our Constitution says "pursuit of happiness" and not private property, success would be when I work in a position of which I enjoy my work and do not have negative stresses revolving around how I will survive.
My personal steps to success mirror Richard's very closely. I must admit however that I sometimes have difficulty pushing myself to work hard all the time. Every once in a while I find I just do not have the energy to work as hard as I know I can. Over the past few years I have been striving to develop a better sense of self discipline which I believe is paying of as evidenced by my upcoming graduation.
ReplyDeleteAs Richard outlined in his presentation the steps to maintain success are the same as those needed in order to achieve it. I found this portion of the lecture interesting because I have never considered the need to continue to work hard to continue to reap the benefits of your hard work. The image of kicking back and taking it easy after succeeding has been in my mind for many years but this presentation has definitely forced to reexamine that notion.
Personal success for me has always been happiness in what I am doing. The intrinsic value of any activity I preform is of the utmost importance. When I enter the work force I will know I have succeeded when I believe in what I am doing and derive pleasure from preforming whatever task may be required from me on a daily basis.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI think the my steps to success are for the most part very similar. I understand that it takes effort to succeed, that I have to maintain a level of work in order to keep my success. I also think that you have to change the things you are successful at. Once you have achieved a level of success at one thing move onto the next goal or step.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I think a step that people can use to maintain success it to always have a new goal to work toward. If someone lets themselves just plateau in the things they are trying achieve they will become stagnant. By constantly working toward success with something people won't become bored or dissatisfied with their lives. I also think people need to remain focused. Many times people get pulled of the path of success because they lose sight of what they are trying to do and lose their success without realizing it before it's too late.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
I define success as meeting my personal goals. I also make sure I have some new personal goal to meet. Even the little things can be a goal, like making the perfect cup of tea. I won't ever fully achieve it, success should be something that a person continually works toward their entire life. It's like working out, if you stop, you get out of shape.
1) I think Richards steps to success are on point with my steps. Passion, Work, focus, push, ideas, improve, serve, persist are all very important to reaching one common goal. The most important thing about these steps to success is that it is continuous. You never can just stop, or your success will stop.
ReplyDelete2) Once success is achieved you still need to do everything it took to get their. You still need to be focuses and push yourself everyday. Having new ideas can only benefit your success and it will keep you on your toes. If you loose your passion for success you will not be focused and your work will suffer. It’s a continuous circle and all these steps are needed to maintain success once it is achieved.
3) Success to me is more of a personal thing then a money thing. I know I will have reached success when I have a wife, kids, and health. Money is also important, but it is not going to be first on my list. I can imagine it now, everyday I’m going to get home from work to my home, park in my garage, and walk inside to see that I am already successful and need to just keep it up.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI think, as far as he described them, my personal steps are probably similar to his. And, like his, I don't expect my steps to success will ever end. I don't believe I'll ever be able to "sit back and relax" at any point, but that's okay; I enjoy the process of creation and change in itself.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I think one of the most important things, aside from innovation, is constant critical thinking and self-examination. The only way to maintain success is to keep improving, and the only way to keep improving is to keep evaluating what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
Success to me basically consists of happiness and physical comfort: a good life and a roof over my head. My personal requirements for my success include running my own business well enough to be comfortable. I don't need to be wealthy to consider myself successful; I just want to be able to meet my needs and have a little fun while doing what I love full-time.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI do believe in many of Richard's points. Hard work and dedication are everything in this world. You reap what you sow. So if you work hard for your goal you will eventually get it.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
Once you have reached a certain level of success you need to realize what you did to get there and keep strong in the right direction.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
Success is really your own personal definition. Life is about having dreams and goals and once you have reached them or are heading in that direction, you will have succeeded. Success is being happy in what you are doing and focused on your future.
1) Yes, I think my personal steps to success match Richard's. Once I figured out the goals that I was striving toward, having the passion, ideas, and drive to keep working toward my goal were much easier.
ReplyDelete2) I think it is important to keeping doing something that you genuinely enjoy and have that passion for. I think that if you have a passion for something, working for it and creating new ideas should be easy. I don't think you should ever assume that you have reached the top.
3) For me success and happiness go hand in hand. If I can wake up every morning and like where I am going to work then I think I am in good shape. As long as I am not financially struggling and I am happy with the life I am leading, I don't think money is as big a factor when defining success.
I think my personal steps to success have many of the same steps, but I probably would order them much differently, i.e. putting Serve as number 1, Persist as number 2, and probably put focus before and after work and passion. I think to serve others is the ultimate form of reverence and joy, and the sooner you start to serve others, the sooner you can experience such joy.
ReplyDeleteI think one step to take to maintain success would be have a picture, an item, or some kind of visual object that you can see everyday to remind you of where you came from and that being successful is more like a privilege that can be taken away at any time.
The way I define success (for the purposes of this class) probably sounds similar to many others’ definition, but I define it as such: Being a dedicated and happy father and husband, living very comfortably in a stable career with no debt. I think I will know I have achieved it will be somewhat easy, because I have basically put my goals in a list and once I have accomplished each one, I can check it off. I think the first steps I need to take are to finish school and get a career. Ideally, the rest will come after that.
Mine are very similar to st. John's. This is due to me believing that the path for success has to start with passion. everything after that can vary but you cannot force yourself to love to do something.
ReplyDeleteThe way you can maintain success is to be humble. To remember where you came from, what inspired you in the first place. To remember to give back to that which once gave to you.
Success to me is stability. To be able to do what you want, when you want. When you can do that, you are successful.
For the most part, Richard St. Johns personal steps to success match my own. Passion, work, focus, push, ideas, improve, serve, persist, are choice verbs that may encourage individuals and lead to success if the verbs are put into real life action. Thus, the idea of the words being put into CONTINUOUS ACTION rather than one at a time is similar to the way I would describe success. The only differences are in the words. Example: I would use the word HAPPINESS or CONTENT as one of the eight principles to reiterate the very reason success is important.
ReplyDeleteLike Richard said in his speech, “success is a continuous journey”, and it requires maintenance. Success cannot simply be achieved, it must be sustained. The steps required for one to remain success involve taking time to figure out personal principles, goals, and morals. Without those (knowing how you define success and how you plan to get there), efforts to attain and sustain success could be wasted.
I define success as being able to sit back and appreciate personal accomplishments (work, relationships, and riches) with integrity and pride.
Although I want more for myself, I already consider myself a success because I have many accomplishments that I am proud of…
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI believe that my personal steps are similar to Richards. I don't think I have ever taken the time to lay them out in quite the same manner as Richard has. Of course have touched on each of the listed steps , but I don't know if they always appear in that exact order. for example sometimes the passion is enhanced by improvement or the push to succeed rather than vice versa. Also more often than not persistence is the key to the biggest steps to my success.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I think the most important thing a person can do to maintain success is keep their passion. Without passion everything we do is just work. I also think that work without passion ends up void of all the other steps that were listed as well ultimately leaving no success
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
I define success as the point in your life when you can enjoy life, periodically travel, and not worry about how you're going to pay your monthly bills. I don't believe that you have to be rich to be successful. However, I do believe that you have to be happy with the job you've chosen to perform and the life it allows you to live.
I think that Richard lists several great steps to success. They are all important and must go hand in hand to achieve the best end result. You cant expect to reach your goals with just an idea. You also need to focus and push to get ahead. I also believe heavily on the element of passion. If you do not enjoy what you are doing then I don't think you can reach your true potential. I think that I try to employ most of Richard's 8 steps and will continue to do so.
ReplyDeleteOnce you feel that you have reached a satisfying level of success you can't quit and sit back. You need to keep working to maintain that success. If you let yourself fall behind you will likely find yourself back where you started. It is important to keep working to better yourself and look towards the future. Never accept that you are as good as you can be, you can always grow.
To me there is no ultimate end goal for success. There is always more that you can learn or get better at. You should set goals and work hard to reach them then set new ones once you do. The general idea of success to me is the use of this goal driven lifestyle to better yourself and also feel good about yourself in a positive way resulting in true happiness.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different? And How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
ReplyDeleteI think that they match with Richard’s completely. I think that the idea of success to most people which is disagree with would be like the ladder Richard’s showed and we are all supposed to be climbing it until we reach our goal. As well as I think that idea is what puts the idea of a timeline on our life. We are suppose to do this by twenty and that by twenty five and in the mean time we all end up marrying people we don’t like and getting degrees in things we don’t care about or want to purse for our lives. The way that Richard’s perspective changed is exactly how I feel about success. It is not something that you just achieve one day and that is it. I plan to live my life trying to achieve different types of success.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I think that a way to maintain success in the things you have already achieved is by always still striving to be better and even to incorporate new ideas and things with it. As well as never to forget that there is always room for improvement and never stop looking for ways to improve yourself, basically learn to be interdisciplinary in all aspects of your life.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI never thought in-depth about ‘personal steps’ to success as Richard’s perspective highlights. I think all of his 8 steps are valid and would contribute on different levels. I think an important factor is that one has to be correctly suited/talented--for that particular field/job in order to be successful—this would validate the passion and endurance of a career. I feel that passion is extremely important. However if one doesn’t like the job or where they are working--or that field, it would be hard to keep this passion focused and productive toward success. Success starts from the inside out and making the right choices to get the right job (inner fulfillment) is paramount. Then once the right position is obtained, I could see employing the personal steps to develop and nurture this success.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I would suggest never becoming complacent. I’ve seen instances where complacency can be toxic. To maintain success, always try to keep busy, try new things, get involved in the community, committees. Without a little risk, creativity and motivation could be squelched and thus future success. And always keep an eye on the future where you could stay relevant, cutting-edge. Surround yourself with honest people, not yes-people.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
I once asked my father (when I was age 6) the “secret to his success”. Without blinking, he immediately said, “sincerity and humility”. At age 6, it was daunting for me to hear this—but I never forgot it. As I grew older, I learned that what he said was true. Be true to your God-given talents, be honest, sincere, and humble.
I think you will know when you’ve achieved success when--you are respected by your peers/employer(ees), family, and community—success isn’t just quantifiable in dollar signs.
Lisa Beni
I have never really thought of the individual steps in my life that has and will lead me to my own personal success. I think Richard’s steps to success are very similar to the path I strive to stay on constantly. These factors are all so important passion, work, focus, push, ideas, improve, serve, persist and success. When I think of success in my life I definitely break it down into the different aspects of my life, such as a successful job (maybe not the best job in the world, but you are happy to go everyday), successful relationships, successful family life, etc. I do not relate success directly to money which is the feeling I got from Richard’s presentation.
ReplyDeleteIn order to maintain success I think you constantly have to be focused and ready to act on behalf of your ultimate goal. Once you and your activities become stagnate I feel your drive and motivation to improve will weaken. I do think there is a time when you should sit back, reflect and be content with your success. However, the duration of your success will depend on how long you sit and bask in it or will you continue to get up and work to maintain and expand your success.
I define success as being able to sleep at night and get up in the morning. I think you are successful if you love going to work every day and love coming home to a wonderful family at night. Success is feeling healthy, mentally and physically. Success is something that will never let you rest for too long or else it will pass you by. Success is staying behind to continue to work and achieve your goal. Success is many things but most importantly it should only be judged by you.
I feel very sucessful in my life thus far, and look forward to achieving new levels of sucess through out my life.
I would say that my personal steps toward success match up fairly well with Richard’s. One way that I would say that they are different is that I haven’t taken a fell from success yet; however, I haven’t gotten high enough to fall enough to notice. Every few weeks or so I think to myself, how can I improve my performance at work? I know I'm doing a good job, but how can I do better? I believe that you should constantly be striving to improve. Getting your self one step ahead of you competition will always be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteJust as Richard say in his speech the best way to continue your success is a continuum process. Once you have gotten where you want to be, it will take just as much hard work if not more to keep that level of success. Work, push, improve, persist, and repeat over and over. While it is important to have down time to relax, it is just as important to not allow yourself too much time to relax. Once you have retired you will have plenty of time to sit back and relax.
Success for me is just like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. What I would consider as being successful might seem like a horrible life for others. I believe that success is enjoying what you do, while making enough monetary compensation to provide a comfortable life. I believe that I have achieved a small level of success already but not enough to say that I am successful yet. I will know that I am successful once I have a family of my own, and my children say they want to be just like me when they grow up.
1) I believe my personal steps are, to an extent, a reflection of Richard's. I understand that success is not a one way street and that if I want to pursue a creative career, I have to be willing and able to both fail and succeed, persisting regardless. I know now that as absolutely ridiculous as it sounds, it is important to have personal goals- there is always something to pursue.
ReplyDelete2)I think you have to maintain your passion to maintain success. As seen in the video, once you stall out, it might take a crisis to get things going again. It's easy to get comfortable, it's easy to get lazy in light of success, relaxing after the hard work.
3)
I think success is usually set on a personal standard. Well, personally, I just want to be happy, but I'm still not sure how to achieve that. I'm still trying to even figure myself out as a person and what I would like to do with my life. I think it will be easier to define my success when I have a more prominent goal.
1) I feel like in one way me and Richards' personal goals for success are very intertwined. Like Richard I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best at work and kind of am a workalholic. I think the difference however is I also put success on little things such as making a good dinner, or finding the perfect shirt. I guess to me success is also about the little things in life.
ReplyDelete2)I think the speaker makes it clear that once success is achieved to maintain one must contine to be innovative and find new ways to continue that successful trend. The speaker says success is circular so to me that means same path in different and new ways.
3)I really define success as waking up and realizing that your happy. I think that I have already achieved success but must maintain it.
1)Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI think the keyword is “personal” so I don’t think it’s exactly matching Richard’s personal steps… However, the eight steps: passion, work, focus, push, ideas, improve, serve, and persist are all correct and successful qualities to have in order to have the outcome be successful. I have definitely used all of them to be successful as well. I would also say that it’s mind over matter in a lot of situations when it comes to wanting the result to be successful. On a personal level, I believe a person has to reach rock bottom in order to have the motivation and desire to be successful.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I believe that once someone has successfully achieved his/her goals, the next step is to successfully maintain it. It’s important to find the means for making goals or desires happen on what once seemed impossible. I feel once someone has experienced that, then success can only keep going and maintain on having successful life.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
Creating a future in your own design is a simple way to define success. In my opinion and personal experiences I would define success by bringing positive and permanent changes in the value of your own life. I think once these certain changes are realized by the beholder is a significant sign of achievement. Also, achieved success is when the direct cause for a new and different kind of lifestyle and power we really do have is in our control.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI believe that my steps to success are those of Richards. Richard tells us that you have to always be thinking of new ideas and setting more and more goals as time goes on. When I got out of high school I set a goal and that was to graduate from college. This is my last semester in college until I meet that goal. Instead of reaching it and then slacking off im going to keep going and set more goals for my future. This is the mistake that Richard went through.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
In order to maintain success that you have earned you must focus at all times and think of more ways that you can improve or do better. There is always room for improvement it just takes allot of good thoughts and determination.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
Success to me is accomplishing something that I have worked hard on to reach that goal. There are many opportunities for success as it happens over and over in everyday. Once you reach a point in your career where you feel really comfortable then you reaches success. The main thing here is to keep doing what you are doing and make it better and better.
1) I personally would have to say that I've never thought about my own steps to success, or any steps really for that matter. If I were to make up steps to success of my own however, mine would be very similar, if not identical, to Richard's steps. I think the most important thing to remember no matter what you do is to remember to keep doing what you did to get to your success or nothing will be happening to keep you there, a very important point made. Of the actual steps I think the most important are the first two, passion and work. Without passion how can you truly enjoy what you are doing, and without work how can you expect to get any further?
ReplyDelete2) As mentioned before, the main thing to remember is to keep doing what you did to get to success. If times are changing and you must change your strategy to go with the times you just need to start at the beginning again and go through the cycle to become as successful as you were.
3) To me success is accomplishing your goals to the fullest extent of your abilities and being happy with it. I will know I've achieved these things when I,first of all really define what it is I want to do and complete that.
After watching the video I have to say that the steps that Richard uses are very good and almost everyone uses those steps in ways to become successful. I my self fallow these steps.
ReplyDeleteone step that can be taken to ensure is persistence. The reason being that if you keep it up and going then you have no reasons to stop.
My definition is being able to not second guess your self and just be happy with whats going on in your life. A sense that you need nothing and want nothing.
1) Do your personal steps to success match Richard's? In what ways are they similar/different?
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience as he did in his path. I set a goal for what I was going to do and when I acheived that goal, I stopped. I found myself anxious and bored. I became depressed and I wasn't enjoying my job or any time off. I felt like I was cheating myself. So, now I'm on this journey. I've decided that success is a continuum. You don't have one end goal, just multiple changing goals and keep working towards them. There isn't one final acheivement.
2) What steps can one take to maintain success once achieved?
I think you keep finding more steps. Once you achieve a portion of success, you have to make a new goal. You have to figure out what can be added and what can be taken away. You have to keep growing and changing.
3) How do you define success? How will you know when you've achieved it?
I don't know how to define success. Success in work? Being happy to go to work, I guess. When I feel I am making a difference and I'm appreciated and happy to go to work, I will be successful in work.
It's hard to give a definition to the word "success", mostly because it is rather subjective. I imagine it could most generally mean achieving whatever it is that you envision for yourself. We often think of success in relation to a career or "making something out of yourself". I think it can extend much further. One of my goals? Well, just being a good human being is one of them. So for me, success is pretty much being proud of your accomplishments. You'll know you've gotten there when you feel good about what you're doing.
ReplyDeleteMaintaining success once achieved should involve evaluating your procedure. What did you do that worked well to get you where you are now? Give yourself a pat on the back, and continue this. What was a challenge, or what did you have to rethink? Succeeding is a continual process, and there's always room for improvement. Its not a simple as goal, then accomplishment. Once you achieve something, you're going to have new goals, aren't you? We're always revising and thinking of new ways to better ourselves, and this is what you need to stay on top of. So, maintaining success means that you leave your critical thinking skills on, and stay open optimizing your life and what you do with it.