Secrets of success

Introduction

Judging by the recent surge in activity in GTD and Startups, articles on how to organize your life and your work, find happiness and achieve success are highly popular on our favorite IT resource. It is understandable, where else can technology specialists look for answers to such questions? Not astrologers and fortune tellers. Therefore, I share one more life experience and personal thoughts on the topic of success. Post philosophy

Story

Once I wanted a motorcycle for myself. I liked them since childhood, but I liked them just like pirate ships and robots — that is, passively, I was not interested in any of this, but I would really like to receive it. Motorcycles reminded me of myself when I started watching the Dr. House series, the story of which tells of a doctor with a sore leg moving on an orange Honda CBR1000 Repsol Replica . “If even a sick doctor rides a bike, then why not ?!” - I thought, and I really wanted a bike.

At that time I did not have personal transport and therefore those who already had a car could not keep their “expert” opinion with them. If we exclude those who said that “Motorcycle is cool!”, All opinions boiled down to one thing: “Buy a car. Motorcycle - it's dangerous! Motorcycle is not convenient. Luggage can not be transported. And how to drive in the winter? But I thought that a motorcycle is really cool, and people around are just jealous of me, especially millions of people use motorcycles. And I bought it. Of course, not an orange Honda CBR1000, but a black Yamaha FZ6. Because the sports bike has an uncomfortable fit and is too high for a beginner, and the FZ6 was an urban model with a calm character.

Of course, at first my delight knew no bounds. It was summer and I went out on cool nights just for fun. The first fall taught me that a motorcycle is really dangerous. Although on the moto forum I was warned that “At least once, but 100% of motorcyclists are falling,” I did not believe this indisputable fact, considering that sloppy or crooked pilots are falling. After the first moto season, I learned a few more things: 1. In winter, the bike is deadly cold 2. You can ride in bad weather, but wildly dangerous and uncomfortable. 3. In life, you always need to carry something and the bike does not cope with this task at all.
')

The essence

The bottom line is that most people want to learn how to work, learn how to achieve success, learn how to live, preferably without getting up from behind a computer, and look for this knowledge. Looks for them in the biographies of great people, in speeches of speakers, in thematic articles and publications.

But I do not know a single person to whom this would be of substantial help. And the most interesting thing is that I don’t know a single great person who would resort to such methods at all :)

Reasoning

About people

I hold the opinion that the person, memory, conscious and unconscious person can be expressed in the form of information. That is, a person is a unique set of information that has a biological envelope. And the composition of this information is constantly changing through cognitive processes. This is not invented, it is quite a scientific justification.

That is, all actions, thoughts, views form our information content. You know, they still say about children that they “absorb everything like a sponge”. Adults also absorb, only more skillfully.

But it is somehow too complicated.

Let's better imagine a person like a glass filled with water.
What kind of lifestyle we lead, how we work and how successful we are determines the contents of the glass.

About someone else's experience

The motorcycle story has taught me that someone else’s experience is a rather useless thing.
Firstly, because we do not take the experience of others seriously, it does not seem completely real to us. Secondly, because the experience of others is relevant only for its owner. Indeed, despite the fact that the bike was very uncomfortable for me, it is a convenient means of transportation for a very large number of other people.

Someone else's experience is filling your glass by contemplating someone else's glass. This is when you look into the glass of the late founder of Apple.

When you start to do something, sometimes you manage to recall a good quote or fact from a biography, you try to use this knowledge. But it does not help you. You just looked into someone else's glass - it does not have a big effect on you. Soon you will forget what was in that glass.

This is not an effective method.

About abstract thinking

Abstract thinking is quite effective. You can read other people's arguments, you can think for yourself, think through tactics and strategies, think over and think over the information inside.

But this is mixing water in your glass, by contemplating imaginary glasses :) This is when you read this and other articles.

Did you notice that despite the fact that you thought a lot about something, you applied only a small part of the knowledge, for some reason you left the other, and you could not remember the third?

And articles, books, movies? They do not flow into you exactly, did you notice? And you do not follow what they contain. And most do not even remember. This is normal. Informational materials simply have little effect, remain a slight echo, dissolving in your glass.

This is a good complementary method. But by itself it will never lead you to anything.

About your experience

Our experience is the way we are used to avoiding. Now, in the age of seminars and motivations, this is not popular. This is a traumatic and costly way. But this is the most effective way to make the contents of your glass better. Direct infusion.

You don't need to remember your experience - it is always in the subconscious.
Your experience is relevant for you.
Your experience is what truly fills your glass.

And this is the only thing that great people used. And, of course, they were all a bit lucky :)

About dragons

In many games there is a character experience that is measured in levels. Having met a dragon that is older than you on 5 levels of experience, full knowledge of it, stories of experienced people and quotes of famous knights about dragons will not save you from inevitable death :)

Conclusion

You are your content. And the only thing that can truly do it better, to do you better is your personal experience. Accumulate it. Try new. Create yourself a new experience constantly and learn. It is impossible to learn how to do design, reading the biographies of designers. It is impossible to learn how to program without programming, but reading Habr. There is no secret of success. There is only you.