A theory of Success
By Mr PENSET
Hello, how are you today? I hope you are well. I call myself MR. PENSET and I have been invited to write an article or two for the HOLISTIC HOME OFFICE located at ‘www.homeoffice.studio.’ I am told to write something useful, interesting and entertaining, but to keep it short. To start with, then, I shall saythis, not everything I say will be useful to you, but some things that are new may be of interest to you. It is up to you to decide which is which. This said, and keeping the article short. I want to discuss A THEORY OF SUCCESS.
First, I open the massive Webster’s Third (2662 page) New International Unabridged Dictionary printed in 1993 and I put my finger on the word ‘success’ (see page 2282), and this is what it says: “Success: to turn out well according to plans and desires.” Very well. Second, let us put our finger on another word in this dictionary, namely ‘Motivation‘ and we read on page 1475: “Motivation: an active force or interest in something.” Very well. Third, we want to know what ‘desire‘ means and in the same Webster’s Dictionary on page 612 it says: “Desire, To wish for ernestly.” Very well. That is to say we clearly now know what the words Success, Motivation and Desire mean and it is all there in the Dictionary for everyone to see. This said, let us now create A THEORY OF SUCCESS.
Let us say this, and just follow along: How about this theory: (1) If we have no motivation but have desire, then we will obtain success. But we shall say this theory is also clearly false because we must have motivation, meaning we must physically do something and we must have an “active force or interest” in something to ever have any chance of success. “I want to succeed but I am not physically doing anything to get it.” This is wrong thinking. Clearly physical activity is required for success.
Let us say this, and just follow along: How about this theory: (2) If we have motivation but have no desire, then we will obtain success. This theory is also false. Imagine saying this: “I have a lot of motivation to make money but I have no desire to do so.” That simply makes no sense; you need both physical motivation as well as the ‘earnest wish‘ to do so; and only then can you succeed to make money. Clearly, if you have absolutely no desire to succeed, then you never will.
And this theory: “I want to succeed but I have absolutely no desire nor motivation.” This is foolish talk. This would simply make you a ‘slob‘ (see the Webster’s Dictionary, page 2145). In particular, let us think about this: David Beckham is a world famous football star, and let us see if our THEORY OF SUCCESS can be mapped onto his lifestyke. For example, David is physically active (has motivation), he loves football non-stop (has desire). and therefore “things have turned out well” (has success). I think this THEORY OF SUCCESS is well-worth thinking about. Let us summarize our THEORY OF SUCCESS. Meaning this, I have argued that you must have both motivation and desire in order to succeed. This is what I say.
But I want to talk about one addendum to the theory; motivation needs money. Yes. You need shoes, a home , food, a phone, a bus-ticket, a pen,a hairbrush, fragrances, socks, pants. You need some real money in your pocket to be motivated. I am saying this: if someone says “He is not very motivated” remember carefully, very carefully, that it costs real money to be motivated: Some may say this: “Looking the part helps a great deal in getting a job, so give me some money to buy the clothes.” The reply to this statement is either ‘yes I will give you money’ or ‘no I won’t give you money’; but do not say that he lacks motivation if his basic financial requirements aren’t met.
Clearly most of what I have said in this article is common knowledge. In this article I have offered A THEORY OF SUCCESS and in closing I always say this: not everything I have siad in this article will be useful to you but some things that are new may be of interest to you. It is up to you to decide which is which.
Sincerely, MR PENSET
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