Effort is the #1 ingredient in success
Today’s Idea:
Effort is the #1 ingredient in success. The true magic of Sisyphi is to make you love that ingredient.
Why It Matters:
Most people only dream of success, but don’t embrace the effort it takes to achieve it. Sisyphi is the only tool that enables you to love and celebrate your everyday effort and journey, so you can go much farther than those who only enjoy the destination.
The Story:
Some people call me the Rejection Guy. I don’t know whether it’s a compliment. Honestly, I’d rather be known as the diamond guy, the flying on Mars guy, or the turning-ocean-water-into-sea-food-buffet-guy. But you know what? I’ll take it. It is cool to be known as someone who can own a subject matter, whether it’s “rejection” or something more glamorous.
Now, there is another person who is synonymous with a word. Her name is Angela Duckworth. She’s a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. And she’s known as the Grit Lady, because of her research on how to have, well, grit! Based on her years of research, she came up with a formula for success in life.
(You heard that right: formula for success in life! When I first heard her saying this, I was blown away. Suppose such a formula indeed exists, and she was actually the one who found it. In that case, that’s a massive discovery, one that rivals Issac Newton discovering the first law of motion, or at least Colonel Sanders founding KFC. I wondered why she wasn’t already given a Nobel Prize or crowned the Queen of Belgium).
The formula goes like this:
Talent x Effort = Skill
Skills x Effort = Achievement
Or
Achievement = Talent x Effort ²
Sure, this formula is way too simplistic, and life is too complicated and dynamic to come down to a simple formula. She didn’t account for any luck or randomness, which also plays a vital role in our success.
That said, I LOVE THIS FORMULA. If this formula were a woman, I would petition Tracy to allow me a polygamous arrangement with the three of us. However simplistic or imperfect, it beautifully captures the role effort plays in our lives:
Even if you only have limited talent, your effort can take you to places. (think about the basketball player who is not that tall and has limited athletic ability, but goes balls to the wall every game and wins you games by sheer will).
Even if you have a lot of talent, giving no effort will take you nowhere. (think about the guy who’s tall and athletic but is lazy and addicted to drugs and never shows up to practice and games).
And if you have lots of talent and work extremely hard, you can go to insane heights (think of Kobe Bryant).
The formula implies “talent” has a linear effect on our success, while “effort” has an exponential one.
So what’s the secret in life? Work hard!
Of course, hard work doesn’t guarantee success. Again, talent and luck play important factors here. But if you look at all the successful people in the world and around you, they all have one thing in common - they are all hard workers.
And that’s also why most people in this world aren’t successful. They dream of success - money, fame, and glamour. But they spend all their energy and dopamine on imagining the destination but hate the everyday steps and mundane actions that will get them there.
And this is the true magic of Sisyphi, and why I have built daily check-ins and tracking spreadsheets. You see, I don’t celebrate your achievements. I only celebrate your effort. Because I know: if you can develop winning habits and put in the effort, achievements are inevitable.
And when achievements come, you will celebrate them enough yourself, and hopefully with loved ones, eating KFC, or seafood buffet.