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By Richard E. Goldman

Author of Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World

 

Decide right now that you're going to be successful, and decide right now that you're going to be able to handle that success when the time comes.

"Ha!" you might say - "I should be so lucky! I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." However, if you want to design your own luck and put yourself on the path to success, start planning for it now. The graveyard is full of successful people who didn't know how to handle their success. There's no need for you to join them.

Use the following tactics to prepare for success:

1) Decide what success is, really: Maybe a good place to start is to articulate what success isn't. It's not a big house, a fancy car, or a bunch of bling. It's not the American Express platinum card or the limousine. Success isn't easy, and once you have it, there is no guarantee that you'll keep it. So prepare for success by accepting that success does not equal significance or security. Success is, quite simply, peace. Peace of mind that you've done the best that you can. Peace of heart that you are part of something - perhaps a family -- whose members support you, love you, and will always be there for you.

2) Ask what success might look like: Is it giving your all? Is it doing your best? Is it getting the job done? Again, it's none of the above. Success is much more about the journey than the end of the road. It's about the experience of your passion. It's the satisfaction you can get from planning and then doing, and then watching the seeds of your planning and doing take root and create something that wasn't there before. Real success is the ability to embrace the discoveries and enlightenment you encounter along the journey in whatever it is that you do. Crossing the finish line is inconsequential. Or, as late singer Harry Chapin once wrote, "It's got to be the going, not the getting there that's good." You will never arrive; you're always, and only, just "here."

3) Decide who defines your success: We all measure success differently. The best measure and the only one that really counts is how you define it. Before beginning a project, decide what you think a successful outcome might look like. Use that as your barometer -- nothing else.

4) Consider what you are going to do once you're successful: Once you've done well, redouble your efforts to do good. Once you've become successful, you might have the money to give some back. You'll certainly have the expertise, so part of what you can give back is the knowledge that you've gained on the way to being successful.

Remember those who helped. At any point on the trail to success, and at many points after, there is always the temptation to take the easy way out. If you've achieved some success, chances are you already know that there aren't any shortcuts. But once you've achieved this success, you have to remind yourself of how you got there in the first place; surely it wasn't a single-handed effort. Remember to thank, appreciate, and reward the people who have helped you along the way. Have the self-discipline to do the right thing, rather than the easy thing, and hopefully integrity will intersect the two.

Appreciate your success, and move on. With success comes privilege. While I would love to contest that, it's a reality that is far bigger than I am. It's important to keep in mind that the greater our privilege, the greater our obligation to avoid acting special -- more importantly, to avoid even feeling special. If you're successful, then good for you! But just let it end at that. And move on. Nobody's that special.

Don’t lose sight of your connections. Sometimes the road up the corporate ladder can be so consuming that you miss your original goal. You push and push to get that next raise, that next promotion, and one day you turn around and you've lost touch with yourself -- and in many cases, you've lost touch with your family. You don't always need the next toy, that bigger house, or that office with the big window and great view. None of it is worth it if in the process you lose sight of who you are or lose your connection with the people most important to you. All of that is a danger if you subscribe to the theory that success equals money.

5) Be Realistic: Are You Really Going to Be the CEO? If you think being the CEO will bring you happiness, there's another bubble that may burst. If you've envisioned yourself as the Big Kahuna, don't bet the farm just yet. So many people want (or at least think that they want) to lead. But the numbers are against them. By definition, there is only one captain, one quarterback, or one CEO and a limited number of teams and companies. Given that, what do you do?

Realize that there are leaders and there are followers. For the vast majority, the question is, how can you be a good follower and still have that role be consistent with the rest of your life? How can it be consistent with your values and your dreams? A great way to start is to attach significance before you attach meaning: be absolutely clear about what your objective is when you're getting into a job. If your values and your dreams are more important to you than a title, then it should be pretty easy to accept that you might not be the CEO.

It's clear that the work part of your life is going to take center stage. And once that you've entered that arena, the next hurdle is management -- both management of yourself and yourself as a manager. After all, one day, somehow, some way, you will be called upon to manage. There is no time like the present to start preparing for that success.

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Author Bio: Richard E. Goldman, author of Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World, started working on the sales floor of a small clothing store, it had annual sales of only a few hundred thousand dollars. Over the years he helped grow that one store into the emerging and now omnipresent Men's Wearhouse. By the time Goldman retired early in 2002, there were 680 Men's Wearhouse-affiliated stores across the United States and Canada, the business was known nationally and internationally, and had annual sales in excess of $1.27 billion.

Widely recognized as the marketing mastermind behind the success of Men's Wearhouse, Goldman has also been a quiet force in business, education, and volunteerism. His luck - luck that he has actively created - has expanded his life in ways and directions well beyond anything he might have imagined as a child in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, or later, as he began contemplating the larger world and his future in it.

To learn still more about Luck by Design, how you can incorporate luck into your future, and to share your own "lucky" experiences, visit www.richiegoldman.com.

 

Reprinted with Permission. Copyright © 2009 Richard E. Goldman, author of Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World

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