Change your expectations, change your luck, change your life.

Because if you fail after making a half-effort, at some level you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that you didn't fail at something while giving it your all - after all, if you self-sabotage a little, there's your excuse for failure, which might be embarrassing but probably not so ego-crushing as knowing that you gave it your absolute all and failed anyway.

I don't think it's really a fear of success so much as a fear of putting yourself as much at-risk as you may feel you need to be, in order to achieve that success. Plus, major success in a lot of fields - maybe in any field - means a paradigm shift in your life, for better *and* worse. People tend to gravitate to the familiar; if mediocrity is where one finds one's safe, familiar balance, then pushing past it to unfamiliar territory may seem like a scary venture into the unknown.
 
Zak Forsman said:
i'm not trying to be holier than thou here, i just don't understand what's so scary about it.
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I don't get it, either...Maybe it's more fear of the responsibility that comes with success. Also, people who succeed too early, before they really know what they are doing, get scared because they don't really know how they got there.
 
Barry_Green said:
... Reminds me of THIS.
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I AGREE
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Which, in turn, reminds me of this:

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I AGREE


...which happens to have been created by the same Professor Wiseman who wrote the article you linked to in the OP!
 
Barry_Green said:
Disagree 100%. How can you say the opportunities will "never" be as good? Opportunities are what you make of them. Granted, those born poor will never have "success" handed to them on a silver plate, but then again, we don't value what we're given anyway. We value what we work for. Look at the dynasties created by the major industrialists, whose family members squandered it or lost their way. It's all in the attitude. ALL. Ain't in the pedigree.

Again, I know many millionaires and successful businesspeople. But I can't think of a single one I know who has a "famous" last name (or, if the name is coincidentally the same as a 'famous' one, they sure ain't related).
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Okay, but by qualifying your answer to Batutta with "not in America" you're making my point for me.

It's relative.
 
4100xpb said:
I highly recommend the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell to anyone with an interest in this topic. He looks at dozens of success stories of people, and specifically focuses in on how they got their opportunities and how they took advantage of them. And Gladwell is a really enjoyable writer to boot.
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Great book...The stories on Bill Gates and The Beatles are especially memorable. While the stories don't do much to lessen the role that chance played in their success, they also fully exploited the opportunities they got. In Bill's case it was being fortunate enough to attend the ONLY (literally the only) middle school that had a computer terminal in it. In the Beatles case it was having the opportunity to play endless, 7 days a week gigs in the underground, German rock club scene. Both the Beatles and Bill Gates worked non stop at their endeavors until they developed unrivaled expertise in their fields.
 
Mark Harris said:
Okay, but by qualifying your answer to Batutta with "not in America" you're making my point for me.

It's relative.
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If someone was born in India as part of the lower caste, then yes they will have far fewer opportunities to them in life.

As long as they stay in India, that is.

The point remains -- it's not what happens to you in life that matters. It's what you do about it, that makes all the difference.
 
Interesting, I also think there is an inherent flaw in the test. I think it defines a pretty narrow band of fortune, limited to a very narrow set of expectations. Defined pretty much solely by money.

Does this mean Van Gogh was a failure as an artist? If he was "lucky" he would have known that he could have taken advantage of certain opportunities, painted things that would have made him successful, gotten rich and been "satisfied."

Was Galileo a failure as a scientist? If he hadn't "sabotaged" himself into house arrest by the Church, and taken more opportunities presented to him, we might be a hundred years(or more) behind in astronomy right now, and not even be sitting here having this discussion...

If Cobain wasn't so busy sabotaging himself, would his music have been any good?

Good topic! But I think it deserves a little more scrutiny is all.
 
Barry_Green said:
If someone was born in India as part of the lower caste, then yes they will have far fewer opportunities to them in life.

As long as they stay in India, that is.

The point remains -- it's not what happens to you in life that matters. It's what you do about it, that makes all the difference.
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Right, and on that I agree with you. You decide how to play the hand you're dealt.
 
'Success' for a scientist - in terms of being a successful scientist - is judged by contributions made to the sum of practical human knowledge. Galileo was absolutely a successful scientist (even if the term wasn't in use at the time). Toadying to an organization that can threaten you just makes you a successful toady.

I don't know how familiar you are with Van Gogh's biography but in terms of pursuing, developing and communicating his artistic vision, he was a success. In terms of making money off the work, no, not really. But while he certainly would have *liked* to have earned more $$$ I don't believe that it was the primary metric by which he judged success.

re: Cobain...well, I guess it depends upon the degree to which one finds that his work is much good, one way or the other. He certainly succeeded commercially, at least to the degree that he could afford a decent shotgun. I guess that counts for something.
 
Back on the original topic, the article was on those who perceived themselves as "lucky" or living a "charmed life", versus those who perceived themselves as "unlucky" or that "everything bad always happens to them."

That's not really worrying about a measuring stick for "success", so much as it is an easily quantifiable and <improvable> attitude, which can have massive repercussions throughout the rest of your life.
 
Sure. Although it's a little surprising that people actually need to be told this, or that research is required, to make the point...
 
Barry_Green said:
Back on the original topic, the article was on those who perceived themselves as "lucky" or living a "charmed life", versus those who perceived themselves as "unlucky" or that "everything bad always happens to them."

That's not really worrying about a measuring stick for "success", so much as it is an easily quantifiable and <improvable> attitude, which can have massive repercussions throughout the rest of your life.
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I think the most useful part of the article is about people who deliberately go outside their comfort zone to make things happen, something I need to do more of, especially on a social basis...as much as I like talking to you fools I probably spend too much time online.
 
lhryshko said:
:kiss:You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? ...
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bbt.jpg
 
Nah, just another failed attempt at a joke (or successful suicide attempt).

I remember that you're twelve foot nine of chiseled steel or something like that, right?
 
Great article

I 100 % agree with Barry and Batutta

I think generally speaking, the standard, is that being born into privilege greatly helps and predicts where one may end up. These people have a huge leg up, people that are put through college with help, people that are given jobs or opportunity based on who they know ....

But Barry is correct as well. There are countless stories where people have risen from ashes and become Kings (so to speak)

But that is not the norm.
 
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