What billionaires say about success

The smart man learns from his own mistakes, the wise man learns from the mistakes of others, but the stupid man never learns.

I never go a day without thinking: “What on earth am I doing wrong!?”, and sometimes, to my neighbours’ confusion, loudly exclaiming it! Of course, with a few bad words here or there. It’s probably so, because this is common practice among software developers when things aren’t working .

I have to appreciate how it changes people’s psychology to run into so many mistakes on the daily, almost to breed the mentality of: “I’ve made so many mistakes, this shouldn’t be one I can’t solve; this isn’t the one to stop me!” Everytime I make a mistake, I almost feel my future presence behind me: “Good. Good. Let the hate flow through you. Learn. Learn the hard way – it’s how we got here”

I looked at some of the most influential things that some of the most influential people said about success. Most of which were from either computer programmers, engineers, creatives or people who had harsh backgrounds that seemed inescapable. I picked up a trend on their appreciation for mistakes and failure – and how surprisingly human they were in talking about them.

Words by billionaires
And my interpretations

Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX & Tesla; The Prince that was Promised)
“The single best piece of advice: Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself”

We die, not only when we succumb to the delusion there is nothing left of ourselves to improve, but when we become grandiose and blow our whistles forgetting about the areas that are overdue for improvement.

I understand this quote as assuming that we always have areas overdue for improvement – and that we should assume that. Our starting point is knowing those areas – and our goal is to find ways to improve them. Key words: find ways.

Bill Gates (My role model – that’s all you need to know)
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

Bill Gates is strong on the idea that it’s not getting something right that should be rewarded, but the process of struggling through the challenge and beating it.

In a video that was shared on his facebook page (that I can’t seem to find), a tip was given to parents that if a child is doing extremely well without effort, it is unhealthy to reaffirm that they are ‘genius’ and not present them with tougher challenges.

I’ve learnt that the real world is much much tougher than cramming words and equations and spitting them out on paper. If you think trying to convince yourself to work is difficult – try convincing another person. This is why C students become the bosses.

J.K. Rowling (British Novelist – Harry Potter)
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default”

Since she makes a living off of it, her words articulate the idea way more than mine could. If you’re not failing often, you’ve failed.

Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook)
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks”

Seems like the Winklevoss twins aren’t the only people Zuck took ideas from. This is the same sentiment shared by J.K. Rowling. It appreciates how rapidly the word is changing – and demands us to take risks, and learn very very quickly – so that we may take on more risks with less likelihood to fail.

Honorable mentions
“I have had all of the disadvantages required for success” – Larry Ellison (CTO of Oracle)

“No matter what your current condition, how or where you grew up, or what education or training you feel you lack. You can be successful in your chosen endeavor. It is spirit, fortitude, and hardiness that matter more than where you start.” – Jack Ma (Founder of Alibaba)

My personal favourites

“The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to, every evening, think what can be done better tomorrow” – Ingvar Kamprad (Founder of IKEA)

“You don’t learn to walk by following the rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson

The take away
There are a lot of requirements for success – and the game isn’t written down in paper either; but two sure things you cannot go without is continuous hard work and adaptability. Continuous work drags you across failure, and adaptability makes sure the ‘failure’ is meaningful.

For myself, perhaps – on top of “What on earth am I doing wrong!?”, I should add: “What can I do better tomorrow?”, and pester myself with that question until I’m poised to be better, and continue on the path of improvement.