The beauty about life is that we are all unique. Our differences make life such an awesome beauty to behold. Little wonder variety is the spice of life. The different ways we do what we do is what makes like awesome. Life would have been so boring if we all had to do the same thing always to get the same results!
Variety is what keeps life going. Adding two to two would give you four. However, adding one to three would still give you four. There are many ways to get the same results. There are a variety of means to reach the top. All you need to do is to find yours.
Others may climb success’ ladder from the bottom. Others may join in midway. For us to achieve what we desire to, there’re no compulsorily laid down procedures we need to follow. Talent may not be enough. Hard work alone may not be enough either.
Success is the end product of so many factors complementing each other. Character is one of such factors. Passion is another; even opportunity. All of these factors may come to play at different levels in different people at different times and that’s why success can’t ever have a single route.
A variety of routes lead to success. The beauty of life is that the road to success is not a one-way journey. You don’t always need to follow ONLY one particular course to reach the height of your ambitions. Success is a multiple-route destination.
There are, of course, some key hurdles which can’t be ever ignored when running the race of success. However, one needs to know that what worked for others may not always work for them, too. We are made to be unique. Success is unique, too.
Though hard work, for instance, is an integral ingredient in the success recipe, one needs to know which other factors to consider to reach the top. One needs to know how unique they are and how they can take advantage of their uniqueness. We ought to know that bitter truth about success— what works for everybody may not necessarily work for us!
The fact that Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to pursue their dreams doesn’t mean you should do same to be a success. If every school dropout became rich and famous, none of us should have wasted their time and money on education after all. Truth is, what worked for Bill somewhere in US may not work for another man somewhere in Accra!
It may be less risky to take some leaps, like leaving college to chase your dreams, when you have a sound financial background. Having a degree in this part of our world doesn’t guarantee you a job let alone not having any. Not everything that worked for others will work for you.
The fact that some successful entrepreneurs today left their jobs some time ago to chase after their passion… and shortly after became a success… doesn’t mean everyone who quits their job reach the top soon after. Know what works for you. Success has many routes. Find yours!
Back in high school and even university, I could barely study in a library like everyone else did. Anytime I tried to join the bandwagon of library goers, I ended up only going to sleep there. Studying in the library was not my thing.
Strangely, I preferred to comfortably read on my bed no matter how noisy my room was. That was me. That was how unique I had been made… and I passed my exams that way. It is always about finding that “strange” route that leads to your success.
The more we try to fit into society and be like others, the more we lose our true selves. Who we truly are is what we are when we don’t force to be like others. We have all been made to stand out in our own “weird” way and it is by so doing that we will discover our greatness. We were not made to fit in. We were not made to be others’ copies. We are made to stand out!
Discovering yourself is the first step to success. Knowing who you are is as important as knowing who you are not. Knowing your strengths is as important as knowing your weaknesses. You don’t need to be a mirror copy of someone else to be a success. You need not be another’s wannabe to be great.
Many of us today are fashioning our lives today like those of others. We want to talk or even walk like they do. We are religiously following some “10 keys to success” of theirs. Little do we know that some or most of the keys can open doors in their lives… but not ours. There are many keys to success. We ought to find ours!
Success has many routes. Like a delicacy, it has several ways of being cooked. Success is not a straight-jacketed destination. One needs to always know how to reach this destination with what they have at hand. Know your strengths and take maximum advantage of them.
We all do not necessarily need to chart the same course to find our way to the top. There are so many ways to be the best of ourselves. It’s all about admitting our uniqueness and making the best out of it.
Know what works for you. Know your environment and its associated risks. Success has so many routes. We can reach where we desire to in so many ways. We don’t necessarily need to uncomfortably follow another’s past to reach our future.
Embrace the “you” inside of you… and make it great however you can. Cheers!
By Kobina Ansah
The writer is a playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com).