Success breeds success
I don’t know what you think but I believe there is far too much focus on failure these days. Maybe failure is on the increase because more people are trying out new things, which is not a bad in itself. But all too often failure is simply a tool for an excuse. Personally, I think failure gets undue attention and we should be talking more about success.
In 1968 American sociologist Robert K. Merton coined the term ‘Matthew effect’ to describe the fact that a success often leads to a string of subsequent successes. Sociologist Arnout van de Rijt describes it as a ‘lucky break’ setting in motion a success cascade. Anecdotes abound in support of this concept, about high achievers in business, sports and academia describing how one critical success paved the way for what they became.
‘Success breeds success’ is not a new concept and is actually a phrase that was a restatement of Greek philosopher Aristotle’s thoughts by American philosopher William Durrant. In principle it is assumed that success generates confidence, which then increases the likelihood of success in subsequent activity. Whereas repeated failures are expected to lead to diminished future achievement. Maybe that’s why we like talking about failure so much, as it lessens the impact of subsequent failures, as something that should be expected.
I am a great believer in what I call ‘Little steps that lead to BIG changes’ and when you start those small steps and find success, how it makes the next steps so much easier on the journey to you want to achieve. But of course what success means to you may not be the same for someone else and age is no barrier.
When you are successful, it's easy to be more successful. For example we have all heard that it's easier to make £2 million if you already have a £1 million in the bank. We all know of people who have a string of outstanding businesses and those successful in one sphere that achieve great success in another, together with those who fail to experience even a single success no matter how hard they try.
When you are successful other successful people and the opportunities for you to be more successful are drawn to you, and you to them as ‘everyone loves a winner’.
As American football coach Vince Lombardi said: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
Success gives confidence and drives you to greater success. Surely it is better to celebrate success and ignore failure, but learn from both. Success gives us ammunition for the future regardless of merit, talent, aptitude, or social networks. When something succeeds, we learn what worked — and we can do it again. And the next time, we’ll probably do it even better.
