Why some succeed and others don’t

BY DANIEL COLE

Mark Twain has rightly said, “There are a thousand excuses for failure but never a good reason.”  Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others? Why do some live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority? While there are many reasons you and I could think of, the truth is, of all these reasons, the lack of self-discipline trumps them all. People argue for their limitations. They give excuses for not getting ahead in life. Somebody else is always responsible for their failure. If it is not the government, it will be the politician. If it’s not the politician, it will be because of some few who have hoard or probably unlawfully accumulate wealth. While politicians need to be held accountable and wealthy people in society should not be excused from any form of illegalities, my point is, none of these should be an excuse or deterrent to living a successful, meaningful, and productive life. “If you cannot change the direction of the wind, you need to adjust your sail.” 

Very few people start off with many advantages. I was raised in an average income earning family in Lagos, Nigeria, where almost everything is a struggle. We don’t have much, but my parents strived to make sure we went to school and got a good education. Through all the inadequacies of my upbringing and all the odds stacked against me, at thirty-two years old, with the help of God, combined with dedication, focus and self-discipline, I had written and published two books. I have spoken at TEDx event, consults for organizations, founded a Personal Development Training Institute in South Africa and a couple of others. Why am I sharing this? Irrespective of the cards that life dealt you, you need to learn how to play them well. Self-discipline and resolve have no substitute in your journey to success and significance. “Winter comes for us all.” In the words of the great Jim Rohn, “Don’t wish things were easier, wish you were stronger.”

Somebody somewhere has a similar excuse that you have, but they still went on to make their life count. You can as well if you are willing to pay the price.

Elbert Hubbard, one of the most prolific writers in America wrote, “Self-discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education, and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.

Self-discipline requires delayed gratification, the ability to put off satisfaction in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term. Most people do what is expedient, what is fun and easy, rather than what is necessary for their success. The expediency factor states that “People invariably seek the fastest and easiest way to get the things they want, right now, with little or no concern for the long-term consequences of their behaviors.” Every day, and every minute of every day, there is a battle going on inside of you between doing what is right, hard, and necessary or doing what is fun, easy and of no little value or significance. You must resist the pull of the path of least resistance if you truly desire to become everything you are capable of becoming.

In the words of John Maxwell, “You can pay now, and play later, or you can play now and pay later. But either way, you are going to pay.”  Why not pay now and then play later.