Let me begin with the story of this guy, Farouk, who immigrated to the US with a master’s degree from a prestigious university in Ghana. Farouk spend the first two to three years in the US scouting for a job in line with his degree but nothing turned out as he anticipated. He found himself doing the type of job that did not require a degree and watched his paycheck with displeasure. Even though he had a master’s degree, he says “I was not doing any better than my colleagues at work who had never been to college”
Still hoping to find something more in line with his educational background or anything that would possibly pay more, Farouk attended a job fair and listened to a presentation focusing on currents growth trends in the US job market. The take home message in the presentation was that, with the aging US population, careers in healthcare and related areas would continue to be in high demand in the comings years.
To cut the story short, Farouk enrolled in a college nursing program, and started attending classes with, as he put it “college students and studying together with folks who could be my students”. He put his master’s degree under the table and took the hard, risky decision that he thought would provide the type of job security and fulfillment he dreamed of. As I write this, he has both. He’s completed his nursing degree program, full-time employed and happy at work and home. He is rising in his new career like crazy. Because of his previous education and experience, he is constantly tasked with greater responsibilities which come with greater rewards. Farouk was fed up with the average; he wanted to do more with his life. The decision Farouk took is what others called Leap of Faith.
It takes no extra effort for you to get up each day brush your teeth, get a good breakfast and run routine errands. This is what the average person does. To most people, including Farouk, average isn’t good enough. In fact, I personally don’t want to be classified as average in anything, because, in reality, the average is the worse amongst the best, and that’s not something that I can be proud of.
In order to be out of the average category, you got to be doing something that drives you out of your comfort zone. You got to be attempting new things that challenge your thought process, improve yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually.
By taking risk, I want to simply explain that as doing something that is outside of your comfort zone. Striking a conversation with the stranger you met in the elevator, starting a new business from your home or from the trunk of your car, starting a new relationship after vowing to stay out of all relationship due to bad experiences from the previous relationship; these are all risky steps because you would rather skip each of them.
When you look at the most successful people in the world, either in business, academics, relationships or leadership, you find people who are risk-takers. They are the type of people who see failure as a necessary ingredient in the recipe for success. These people are willing to try something, even if it means making mistakes because they consider mistakes to be part of the learning process.
Success time and again requires constant habit of risk taking. Any enterprise has the potential to fail, but often the bigger the risk of failure, the greater the potential rewards. The average person’s philosophy is to play it save. Playing it safe will minimize your failures, hopefully, but it will also minimize your potential success. Making tough decision and being prepared to accept responsibility of the consequences is what separates the genius from the average person. That’s what Farouk did.
Earlier in the Series
- Introduction: What Do the Most Successful People Have in Common?
- What the Successful People Have in Common, Part 1: Breaking Rules
- Success Qualities Part 1b: Blowing Your Own Horn-How to Do it Right
- What the Successful Have in Common: Passion
