Wilson Ng started helping the family business since 9 years old. Since then, he had dreamt to be a successful entrepreneur, one who starts great businesses  ( he has started 7) from scratch with insight, guts and initiative. He keeps his focus on growing the business by creating value-- not on politics, or wasteful distractions. He brings the same focus to community service, teaching, life and family.

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	Monday, August 29, 2005

The Determination to Succeed (on business)    (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled) There are many reasons why some people succeed, and why some don't.  Of course, there are the usual reasons -- connections, talent, born with a silver spoon in the mouth, the availability of capital and opportunities and the like. I have been talking to a lot of people the past few days, and have become more and more convinced that the one of the most, if not the most important denominator would be an individual's determination to succeed.  This has been the requisite factor that I have been looking for when I look for partners or colleagues, and to a certain extent, I have been right most of the time.  The failure of most, and the success of some can, in my experience, be directly correlated to this 'fire in the stomach' factor. If you look at the biographies of successful titans of industry, the one who made it big in business, you will essentially find it that most entrepreneurs are usually first generation successes -- meaning that they came from circumstances that could be less ideal, and the main thing that allowed them to make good was simple determination.  They certainly don't have the network, the capital, nor the opportunity to go to better schools, or in many circumstances, not even formal training, but that determination has simply been the 'it' factor that allowed them to zoom past people with far better qualifications or opportunities for them to have made it. I was just talking to one of our sales executives.  He has an opportunity to close this big deal, and if he does, it would triple that month's take home pay.  I was getting frustrated because I really wanted him to have this opportunity, but nevertheless, it seemed that I was working harder than him on it.   He looked at me as if since I was the owner of the business, it was only right that I helped him -- as if I benefitted more than him for closing the deal.  On frustration, I showed him that he has much more to gain -- that mathematically speaking, closing the deal meant tripling his income that month, while hardly increasing my monthly income by more than a few percent.  Maybe it is that after a while, I gained the habit of making sure I do my best, and I think that would be an apt way to put it -- the habit that will get you to success should be cultivated. Some people just can't do it -- they have ceased trying hard for so long, that to remember an apt phrase -- they couldn't be made to work hard even if their lives depended on it. Of course, it is rather presumptuous for me to be so critical, I , who in other's eyes, seemed to have the right 'breaks' thrown at me.  However, I would give one example.  In our house, we have a helper.  She has been with us for sometime, but I do feel that notwithstanding her station in life, she does have the opportunity to move up if only she were a little bit more motivated.  A story that constantly plays out every few weeks illustrates the issue.  I usually move around with a lot of books, and ocassionally would put them in the bathroom, or in the other rooms, or leave it in the study.  That sometimes goes with my cell phone or my PDA or the charger, which the househelp was all familiar about.  When I do, I would ocassionally ask her to look for it in a specific room.  She would almost always come back empty handed and said she could not find it.  I would then go to the same room, and within a short period of time, find it.  Evidently, I can say I have better skills, and better education than her.  But I would think my success of finding my cell phone or my book boils down to a simple thing -- I was more thorough in searching, and my determination to find it ( even look at all the nooks and cranny) is stronger, and that is what gives me the ability to look for it a little bit more thorough -- with the result of success.  I don't think there was any skill involved in searching, only plain thoroughness and the desire to do even a very simple thing well enough. What does it all mean?  You look at countries like China, and you see poor people looking around, and seeing that everybody around them is doing better, and they get motivated to work harder and make it as well.  Then you see various other Asian countries whose economies are not as good, where fewer people succeed, and you see poor people in despair -- as if they are sure that no matter what they do in life, they have lost the chance to become better, and unfortunately like a self fulfilling prophecy, it does not disappoint. I am thinking that before anything else - giving these people skills or money, the very first thing we should inculcate with them is hope -- hope that if they work hard enough, they do move up.  Hope fuels determination, which results in success. So, how about you -- what is the scale of your determination to succeed?   8:06:09 PM     comment []   trackback []

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