By O’Brien Uzoechi
The identity of a success is what we all crave for every day. Often times, this leads us to engage in an unhealthy self-comparison with peers and others alike. What kind of car is he driving compared to what I am driving? Does he live in a mansion and I am living in a bungalow? Or what choice area in the city is he living compared to where I am living. At other times, it could be like, does he have a Harvard degree and I am struggling to earn one from an off-the-cuff school? We want to see our company measure to the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc., before we can satisfactorily give a nod of approval to ourselves that we are indeed a success. But the thing about this kind of mind set is that, if we are not careful with such defeatist thoughts, it could plunge us into a deep pool of depression, and most likely get drown in it.
But how can success really be measured? What is success? What are the metrics employed in measuring success? If I am a billionaire, does that alone make me a success? If I am wealthy running a lucrative business and my staff barely survive on lean take home, does that also really make me a success? Is my environment or world impacted positively by my success? These and other contemplations prompted the research into the concept of the 4 Ds to success. It is a result of deliberate brainstorming and inquisitiveness into unraveling those engagements that engenders a state of success that gradually evolves from one state of success to another in order to achieve a total whole of success.
Success is one of the English words that possess several definitions. On one hand it means “an event that accomplishes its intended purpose”. On the other hand, it also means “an attainment that is successful”. Yet again, it means “a state of prosperity or fame”. And yet again, it is “a person with a record of successes”.
According to the world renowned Preacher and Pastor, Chris Oyakhilome PHD, success can be measured in every stage of our lives. There are success paradigms that communicate how impactful we have developed from our formative stage to our adulthood and towards our dreams accomplishment. Now that we are all grown up working in our dream jobs and doing the business of our passion, what can we ascribe to as the driving levers that propelled us into the success that we can say we are today? In this instance, success could be seen beyond personal achievements in its self, but rather a creative and thought-through process that iterates from one level to another level until a final accomplishment is attained. But yet in all of these stages is a linked process of one level of success leading to another. In that light, a success can naturally lead to another success until a final predetermined successful line of accomplishment is achieved holistically.
According to Edward de Bono, in his book Tactics, The Art and Science of Success, success is simply defined as “to set out to do something and to succeed in doing it”. In this sense, success has a note of finality only at accomplishment. But yet there is a ‘setting out’ which connotes undertaken levels or stages for accomplishment. And, in all of these grades of ‘setting out’ is a success of its own. There then lies the four D’s to success that are intertwined sequentially from the first D to the last D. and in all of these Ds is a display of one level of success leading to another and higher level of success. Success is therefore integral to a total whole.
Dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction is one fundamental success disposition that has propelled and enabled our world from the early cradle of civilization through the dark ages and to the extraordinary and outstanding development that we witness today in our present world. Look at it from the Bible days, darkness was not a pleasant phenomenon to God. He utterly was dissatisfied with darkness hovering on the face of the deep. Hence He declared light into being to dispel and dislodge the deep sitting pervasion of darkness prevailing the whole earth.
This same passion of dissatisfaction was the one that gripped Thomas Edison. And, he doggedly immersed himself into discovering the incandescent light bulb to put light on the face of the earth perpetually, even though he stumbled several times. The Internet we enjoy and have commercialized today was borne out of the dissatisfaction with just serving specialized needs and thus was radically engineered to enhance and serve global interconnectivity. In fact, it will be spot on to say that; innovation itself is a calculated onslaught against unsatisfactory status quo, and to change it, in order, to create a better satisfactory living condition, continually.
I remember how we started our beamaque business. Poor water quality is a situation that has consistently plagued our water utility system in our city metropolis. Water borne disease was a common occurrence resulting in several deaths especially among infants. At one point, water was threated and processed into mini sachet bags. Most of the treatments were done through chlorine which often leaves taste and odour in the water. In order to improve on this unsatisfactory state, we ventured into bottled water using Reverse Osmosis and Ultra Violet Filtration, voiding odour and taste and thus creating a pleasant drinking experience. And now even beyond that, we entered into water purification using POU (Point of Use) dispensing water coolers that kills bacteria to 99.9999%, ensuring total bacteria free water for a healthy drinking experience. All of these were possible because we were dissatisfied with the status quo of consuming poor quality water, and resolved to change it to a better one.
Discover
At the point of dissatisfaction, is a deliberate yearning and an earnest quest to discover a precise satisfaction. And as with any scientific approach, this requires a hypothetical inquiry to seek out a panacea to make good a distasteful state. This is where creative energy is fully unleashed, and strategic thinking, critical thinking skills play out to the optimum. All of these are strategically geared towards problem solving initiatives and capabilities. It is at that point of ‘Aha’ moment when we experience a knowledge explosion, of a revelation, of the laying bare of that which was seemingly veiled, but now uncovered to bridge a gap deficiency.
Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, in their delightful tale book How Stella Saved the Farm, A Tale about Making Innovation Happen; masterfully narrate how dissatisfaction with a status quo can creatively lead to a discovering of an innovative business experiment that turns out into a multi-million dollar business success. The hypothetical Windsor farm in the tale has survived over the years on sheer hard work of being “faster, stronger and more efficient”. But as time wore on, it became clear that the new farm leadership requires a new kind of innovative leader, “someone creative, someone courageous, someone capable to taking the farm in new directions”, to be able to withstand and survive the present harsh competition. Ultimately, this new challenge of dissatisfaction leads to a big idea hunt, the culmination of which is the emergence of innovation leader that has to work on executing a “disciplined experiment”. And, guess what, the experiment turned out a huge business success that saved the farm from liquidation and buy out. That’s another great level of success.
Develop
The domain of ‘develop’ falls within the frame work of strategic execution. At the point of ‘discover’, a vision born out of ideation is formulated and creatively outlined in a systematic actionable strategy. In essence, an idea must be developed otherwise its intrinsic success value would have been atrophied. And that is why, according to Mark Hurd, former Chief Executive of Hewlett-Packard as quoted in Successful Strategy Execution, How to keep your business goals on target by Michael Syrett , “vision is nothing without execution”. We are all too familiar with Thomas Edison quote over a century now, that “Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration” How true! From the book, The other side of Innovation, solving the execution challenge, the authors aptly stated, “that much ballyhooed burst of inspiration is merely a starting point. The real innovation change lies beyond the idea. It lies in a long hard journey-from imagination to impact”. Vision must be tied to a frame work of strategic execution plan through a conscious commitment to actual development.
Again, drawing from our previous reference to the hypothetical Windsor Farm in How Stella Saved the Farm, the big idea of producing luxury wool from alpaca would have just remained at that, a big idea, if it was not painstakingly developed into a tangible marketable reality. Deidere, in the tale, has to strategically invest from the lean fund accruing from the farm, she has to seek for more funds, and she brilliantly handled Bull to align to the idea, she keeps adjusting the organizational chart in order to assemble the right team with the appropriate portfolio to develop the idea, because she believes in the success of the idea. And was it worth it? Absolutely, she pulled it off and developed the idea. That is another great level of success. This means success requires dogged commitment to develop a vision through a workable strategic plan otherwise there is no success in it.
Distribute
Here is the arena of impacting. And this is the level where we can humbly say “I am indeed a success”. Now that your strategy execution has achieved its primary objective, and your big idea is now turned into a running huge business, how impactful have your business success affected your world. Your success can thus be truly measured based by society’s impact of it.
In our present world of self-centered success; self-actualization, self-fulfillment, self-development, self-realization…it becomes difficult often to see beyond our self-serving needs and really reach out and distribute to the need of others. Why do we run and operate business in the first place? Is it just to make money and become rich for the sake of it? Or is there something more fulfilling in business success than just making money?
According to Patrick Dixon in his book, Building a better Business, the simple reason for every business is encapsulated in these four words: “building a better world”. According to him,
Each of us is unique, and building a better world also mean
different things at various stages of life,
but it’s essentially about a better life in some way for yourself,
or perhaps for those you care for, for family and friends,
or for the community you live in and beyond.
Thus, success is not complete until there is a rub off of your success on your environment, the people around you and the world as a whole.
We are all too familiar with Bill Gates’ philanthropy all around the world, impacting the world not only with his creative prowess but more meaningfully by distributing kindly gestures to the world through his business success. The Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. Launched in 2000, with the global primary aim to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, especially in Africa, and in America to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation is said to be the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world.
Now, I think, that is success! He was dissatisfied with the old operating system, and so he commits himself into discovering the right software to make our PC usage an easy task. But he did n’t stop there, he went ahead and developed it. This development brought about business success and prosperity. So what now, he now positions himself to distributing his wealth to impact our world in a positive way; talk about building a better world. I think this is absolute success.
Tata Group, created by Jamesetji Tata, and whose core value is focused on “what India needs next”, is another exemplary reference of a true success company that has vigorously and positively impacted her world. According to Gurnek Bains et al, in the book, Meaning Inc., The blueprint for a business success in the 21st century, companies like the Tata Group belong to the classification of Meaning Inc. companies that has distinguished themselves with “an invigorating sense of purpose that goes beyond business success and which makes people feel they are changing society as opposed to just servicing needs”. Throughout its history, Tata has not just treated people well, it has been an innovator in employee benefits-for example, introducing paid leave in 1920 and funded benefits in 1923. A company that has, though, cut its workforce in recent years, yet agrees to pay all its ex-workers their salary until retirement. I think there is nothing as impactful as that, of a company distributing beyond the needs of the people to impact its world.
Conclusion
I know and understand someone should be contented in his or her own personal successes and be very ok with it and may not have impacted the world as I indicated above, which is, of course, good. I am simply showing that we can actually see success beyond ourselves to include how our success can evolve from just being dissatisfied with a situation but innovating to develop and creating a change and letting that change affect our world through an effective distribution engagement. And for the purpose of this writing, I am saying that is true success.
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