The Trade-Off For Success

You may have come across one of these inspirational posts on your social media newsfeed: “Success favors the bold”; “Success comes after several failures”; “Success is gained through hard work.”

Everyone has his own idea of success, but it just boils down to this central notion: there is a trade-off for anyone to succeed. It’s a pattern that occurs everywhere. Inventors have their own sob stories with their innumerable failures before arriving at winning formulas. Some famous wealthy families have their own rags-to-riches stories.

The trade-offs

Some successes were brought about by certain sacrifices. These are lessons we all need to learn, especially for business owners and professionals.

Physical boundaries. We see athletes train and strain their muscles just to get better in the sport they play. And it’s all because they want to succeed and win in the competitions.

Entrepreneurs must realize that this is the same in business. Those who want to gain the lead in the market need to exert more effort in dealing with clients and research extensively to adapt to consumers’ needs. Those who are willing to trade off rest are the ones who get the lead.

Time. Success takes time. Athletes spend a lot of time training. Actors spend a lot of time memorizing their lines and internalizing their roles. Success does not come easy. Some spend years before succeeding in their endeavors.

Entrepreneurs must be willing to sacrifice personal time. Work-life balance is extremely challenging. Success in business will almost always require you to spend more time for work than for personal time. The competition is harsh, and wasted time can sometimes cause more than what you expect.

Persistence. It takes a lot of willpower and patience to succeed. Holding your temper and keeping calm is one such trade-off. Success requires you to keep going despite your being on the verge of breakdown because of failure. The most famous story to illustrate this, which most of you are familiar with, is the creation of the light bulb. Remember how Thomas Edison was said to have failed 10,000 times before coming up with a useful lightbulb? Of course, if you keep on failing it might mean you have to change your approach or take a new path altogether.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. CC-4, Sunday, May 17, 2015. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.