The New Road To Success You Have Yet To
Drive On
What hampers
successful people and companies from automatically becoming very successful?
Some companies that were once sought after by hedge fund managers and the
pundits at Wall Street have succumbed to failure. Think of technology pioneers
like Nokia, Nortel, Blackberry, Barnes & Noble, Honeywell, and so forth.
Their spectacular failure brings us to the central tenet of Greg McKeown’s
Harvard Business Review article the
disciplined pursuit of less (or lack thereof). Greg, a serial author and accomplished speaker, thinks
that most successful companies and personalities are susceptible to what he
calls the “clarity paradox.”
The
Clarity Paradox
The concept assumes
that a successful person or business goes through 4 distinct stages: the first
phase when one has clarity of his or her purpose, leading to significant
success; the second in which success leads to more opportunities and options;
the third where increased opportunities and choices lead to diffused efforts;
and the last phase whereby scattered efforts hamper the clarity that led to
success in the first place. Loosely put, according to Greg Mckeown, success is
the catalyst for failure.
What
causes the clarity paradox?
According to Jim
Collins in his book How the Mighty Fall, the clarity paradox is as a result of
what he calls the undisciplined pursuit of more. It’s when you lose focus on
the things that really matter – what you are really passionate about, your
talents, and your true career path. This way, you can continue on an upward
momentum in your career.
Apply more
extreme criteria to avoid clarity paradox
According to Greg,
applying more extreme criteria can allow us to take advantage of our brain’s
sophisticated search engine. It’s only this way that we can explore the right
questions: what makes use of my talent most? What am I truly passionate about?
How can I change the world? By applying more stringent criteria, we are
“looking for our absolute highest point of contribution.” With that in mind,
you can then ask “what’s essential?” Conducting a thorough life audit can help
you to sift through what’s essential in your life, and eliminate the rest.
Watch Out
for “endowment effect.”
The endowment effect
entails one’s tendency to value something more when you own it. If you need to
have career clarity, you must avoid endowment effect at all cost. You don’t
want to place more value on an item that’s not really worthy.
Brian Lee
http://www.lifehack.org/643859/the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less?ref=mail&mtype=daily_newsletter_v2&mid=20171127&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&utm_source=daily_newsletter_v2&utm_medium=email&action=click&user_type=member&sub_time=775
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