In The Trenches
student without one.) Your cost is
usually measured in work, risk,
money, and sacrifice. Being an "A"
student costs mostly work. You
spend time on a lot of all-nighters to
ace those exams. Being a poet,
musician, or writer is risky. Your success depends on others appreciating
your work. Money is often a component in success. It costs more to get
into a major university than a community college.
Obviously, you'll have a better
chance at success with a business
degree from Yale than from
Whatsamatta U. Sacrifice is a generic term. This refers to the intangible
things you have to give up to pursue
a goal, for example, less time with
family and friends, a small TV
instead of a big plasma screen on
your wall, or, often, ridicule. This is
because successful people tend to
be independent, driven, and self-confident. This can be seen by others as
unconventional, narrow-minded, and
arrogant.
Psychology of
Success and Failure
From my experience, there are
two types of successful people. The
first I call "gifted". These are people
who have been marked as being successful from an early point in their
life. They've always been supported
by their parents, teachers, professors, coaches, etc. They are expected to always do well by themselves
and with others. They go to special
schools, have special classes, and
are treated in a preferential way.
They never fail.
I say "never" because, if they do
fail at something significant, they
tend to have a very hard time with it.
Failure is not something they understand. They are hurt, angered, and
bewildered by failure. Sometimes
they never recover from a single big
failure. I'm sure you've heard an
announcer say, "If they pull that
young quarterback now, he'll never
get his confidence back." These people tend to have a strong but brittle
ego. Like Humpty Dumpty, once it's
broken, it's hard to put it back
together.
The other successful type I call
"relentless". These are self-driven
people who have had no support
group. These people tend to be
extremely self-reliant and self-confident. They view failure as a challenge. They use failure as a learning
tool. These people just never stop.
The old saying "Nine times down and
ten times up," is their motto. Or perhaps, "Never make the same mistake twice."
Most of us probably don't fit into
the "gifted" group. But you don't
have to be gifted to be "relentless".
You can learn this. Realize that fail-
F
o
r
E
l
e
c
t
r
o
n
i
c
s
NUTS & VOLTS
E
v
e
r
y
t
h
i
n
g
88
FEBRUARY 2004