The Mathematical Formula For Success…
Success is elusive. It’s also completely subjective and widely misunderstood. I’ve broken it down in a mathematical formula, which I believe, in the rules of mathematical equations, holds. And in the style of 5 Minute Finance(http://www.leightaylforth.com/2017/06/about-me-5-minute-finance.html) aims to take financial, mathematical and economic principles and apply it to everyday terminology and principles.
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If one was to read widely, be it physical books or the litany of business articles circulating online, they would be convinced that the equation for success would be something straight out of A Beautiful Mind, with thousands of variables needing to be input for the success equation to hold true.
Not to mention the millions of ‘social media professors’ giving their two cents on everything from politics through to business hacks. Even half an hour on LinkedIn would give you an extra thousand variables to throw into said equation.
OVERWHELMING? Sickeningly so.
CONFUSING? Absolutely.
INCORRECT? Most of it.
CONTRADICTORY? Bet your ass it is.
My favourites for a laugh are the articles on how early risers achieve the most. Only to be followed the next day by an article about how night owls are the highest achievers.
Some commentators swear by working 4 hours a week and some by working 104. Some talk about ‘grinding’ and some talk about only working when you feel creative. You can really go through every variable and you will find someone taking each side of the argument. If you’re lucky, you might even get thrown some broscience for good measure.
What’s a person to think about this information overload and rabid contradiction in advice we are faced with on the daily?
My advice (and this is my advice for almost everything in life) — SIMPLIFY.
‘Success’ is one of the most misunderstood concepts within the modern context. The unenlightened will tell you that is about how much money you earn. The patrician will tell you it’s about your social following and philanthropist will tell you that is about having the means to ‘give back’. Who is right and how do we judge?
Well, first, we need to understand the term and then we should probably look to people who have reached the peak of their chosen field.
First, the definition. The good old Oxford dictionary gives us the following:
success
səkˈsɛs
noun
noun: success; plural noun: successes
the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
What? No mention of money, fame, following or even philanthropy?
Nope, it simply focuses on task achievement, which leads perfectly into my kindergarten level mathematical equation and title of this blog…
SUCCESS = TIME INVESTED x FOCUS
That’s it. No need to make an equation (or your pursuit of such a novel achievement) any harder than what it needs to be.
Time invested is a pretty easy concept to grasp and is easily measurable, so I won’t focus too much on it, except to say that you should chuck away any concepts of a four hour work week. Stop trying to outsource your life and please, please stop trying to hack your time (sorry Tim Ferris), stop trying to hack your growth (sorry Sean Ellis) and stop trying to hack your brain (sorry Dave Asprey).
If you want to achieve an aim, purpose or task (see above definition), there’s no surer (or shorter) way than the proverbial rolling up your sleeves and putting in the work. My Grandfather used to say to me, ‘if you want it, do the work’ and I really do believe it’s that straightforward.
Focus though, is a more difficult concept to articulate, understand and achieve. It bears an equation of it’s own, which I have broken down as follows:
Put simply, focus equals your application multiplied by FLOW squared, minus distractions, being time watching tv, time online and time on your phone (cubed because it is the ultimate black pit of distraction).
For those who have not heard of flow, it is a psychological concept, while came to light in the 1980’s via the Hungarian researcher by the name of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It is at the heart of focus and achievement and is spoken about often by people we regarded as our highest achievers). There is plenty of immersive reading out there, if you are unfamiliar and you may also want to look into a novel called DEEP WORK, by Cal Newport. Thank me later :)
Focus is where people are getting lost. I have no reason to think that work ethic has dropped off considerably but focus, in a world of pure distraction, is where we are losing our way and why we are seeing the concept of success as further away than ever.
Back to our original equation. If you are passionate about something and want to achieve success in that task or field, then look no wider than TIME x FOCUS. Master these two variables and the equation will hold.
For the economists out there, you will be aware of the term ‘decreasing returns to scale’. This is how I view reading and even self improvement, as tools towards achieving your goal. When you first start reading, it benefits your pursuit but as you go wider and read more (or practice self improvement), you hit the contradictory, over analysed and even factually incorrect and the benefit (in comparison with the time invested) is reduced. I would argue heavily that the endeavour can even damage your pursuit, which is called inverse returns to scale and is where time invested in not only beneficial but damaging.
So in summary, MAKE YOUR GOALS BIG but KEEP YOUR FORMULAS AND PRINCIPLES SIMPLE.
For the best views on success that I have come across, I would recommend Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans, where his collection of interviews is split into three sections (healthy, wealthy & wise) and interviewees are asked about their views of success and who they perceive as successful. The responses are both surprising and refreshing.
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