14 ms·

Attitude Determines Your Success

58 points by nazka 5y ago

tux3 5y ago
Be mindful of survivorship bias. Lest people on twitter start posting pictures of the hypothetical WW2 planes that came back.
tome 5y ago
Think and Grow Rich in three minutes.
armchairhacker 5y ago
Attitude really does determine your subjective success. Because if you have a good attitude you can find optimism and success in almost anything. Trained for a half-marathon, only to get sick and miss / fail it? On the surface that looks like a failure, but it's really not. The real success is the training, the weight you lost and fitness you gained. Or even if you didn't lose weight, the muscle and habits you gained which will make it easier to lose weight later. Or maybe you don't even need to lose weight anyways, especially since you probably lost fat. The big race is only a demonstration of your training results. Spent 6 months working on an app but never released it? That it can actually be a big "success" if you learned a lot from development. I can vouch that I've become a much better developer by making apps which were never released, and learned concepts from functional programming which I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise, because I wouldn't have seen the point. Built a company only for it to go bankrupt? Same as above, you get experience so that you'll do better next time. Idk how much attitude affects your objective success. Attitude won't help if your goal is flat-out unachievable or you don't have the luck / skill. I think the real reason attitude determines success is that, if you have a good attitude, you can basically change anything into a success.
- lazide 5y ago
  There is also the reality that looking at things in that positive light tends to surface opportunities, more than looking at things negatively. If you’re feeling like you’re doing well (despite the occasional hiccup) and will be successful, it’s easier to be open to a new advisor, or a new employee, or a new investor. If you’re constantly obsessed with how it is going wrong, you’re constantly going to be focused on how these too could be a disaster. As with many things in life, it’s a balance. If you never recognize a risk, or recognize bad decisions as what they are and the factors behind them, then you’ll get scammed a lot or constantly be blundering around repeating mistakes (potentially). If you hyper focus on them, you’ll cut off all your opportunity and be constantly trying to guard an ever shrinking pie.
- pwdisswordfish8 5y ago
  "When you fail... pretend you had... a different goal... all along." Okay, got it.
  - xkeysc0re 5y ago
    When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
  - tenfourwookie 5y ago
    The Pivot Doctrine.
  - 8note 5y ago
    Turns out, the original goal sucked, and I shouldn't have set it
- Barrin92 5y ago
  I'm not really sure what the point of living in this permanent copium state of mind is. If you can change anything into a success then success is meaningless because it cannot be lost, it has no value. It's a sort of cowardice or unwillingness to accept genuine failure upfront. You don't need a good attitude, you need a respect for truth. Built an app and turns out you wasted a year of your life? At least accept that fact because there's more honesty in it than trying to rationalize it away.
  - ornornor 5y ago
    That’s a struggle I have at my current employment. I work in a county where failure is not accepted at all so we all have to pretend every project is well planned, has ample time to complete all features before the deadline, and be optimistic about it all. These things are never true but no one wants to say the emperor has no clothes. So instead we go full steam ahead towards the wall and whoever brings that up gets lynched. The result is always the same: we deliver a subpar software product, that barely works the way it was expected to, after a few weeks or months of crunch, it is very hard and costly to maintain, the customer is pissed, and we’re all told by our managers that we suck. How can you cope then? I’d think it’s healthier to see the monumental failure for what it is (and thus, not sound optimistic, especially when you’ve seen this happen in other projects before). Or should you hide your head in the sand and keep pretending like everything is peachy and this time it’s different, the project won’t fail like the dozens before it?
pdar4123 5y ago
Good thing I grew up in zip code with super positive vibes
- nickthemagicman 5y ago
  Underrated comment. People in third world countries just don't have good attitudes apparently?
  - d_silin 5y ago
    They do, but it is hard to make it on good attitude alone. Afganistan is a country of 30 million people but 0 VCs.
  - 8note 5y ago
    Who says people in third world countries aren't successful?
TrackerFF 5y ago
But what influences your attitude? One thing I noticed when I studied with predominantly upper middle class people (business school) was that they all had what I like to call a competitive "winner" mentality. Most went into new situations determined to win/succeed, and when I questioned some of my peers on this, I was told that most of them had received positive feedback (albeit being pushed) since they were kids, in most aspects of life. School, sports, social life, etc. I guess that if you've had cheerleaders around you since you were 5, it must have affected your self-esteem in some positive way. Now, what I wonder, is how regular people can develop such attitude, more or less on their own. Fake it 'til you make it? Incrementally become successful at things?
- corty 5y ago
  Have rich parents shielding you from any negative consequence and providing a financial fallback.
  - pc86 5y ago
    This seems overly dismissive.
    - corty 5y ago
      If you think so, please elaborate why and provide alternative explanations. Just dismissing my statement without any discussion is not only overly dismissive. It also is not a productive way of discussion, it doesn't add anything of value.
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    My experience says otherwise: children and young people who could rely on their parents' wealth tended to be complacent and bored, or spent their time doing some expensive hobby for fun. They had their life secured, so why bother. But there were exceptions, too. My grandma used to say that someone was born with a "propeller up their backside" [0], e.g. totally relentless. I met such types of all classes. Not everyone concentrated on business, but they all had a lot of drive towards their goals. [0] It rhymes in Czech: "s vrtulí v prdeli".
rubicon33 5y ago
For me, the bigger issue is really energy. I usually want to work, study, etc. How often do I have the mental spark of sufficient strength to tackle tough programming problems, or read really technical material? Certainly less often than I'd like. IMO attitude is important, but equally important is managing your energy levels and optimizing your life around the ups and downs. Find habits and routines that promote energy, and avoid habits and routines that drain energy. This can actually be harder than it sounds to figure out.
- thevagrant 5y ago
  I struggle with fluctuating energy levels. When my energy level is good I can excel. When my energy dips, I have to put a lot more work than the average person to keep moving forward (or even stay awake). When I was younger I had an overly optimistic attitude. I'd end up planning a lot during a phase of high energy only for the gas tank to empty. On days/weeks/months with low energy, it led to a lot of stress.
- rkhassen9 5y ago
  Rubicon - wondering if you can recommend any readings, links or books on energy management. What you described is the crux of my life limitations. When I have energy, I can do almost anything...and when I have no energy...can't do much of anything. All of other factors become secondary, and proper management of energy is not something I'm very conscious of, nor have good strategies for.
  - thevagrant 5y ago
    I don't have any good books but this is exactly how I feel about myself. I spent a decade trying to get better with my management of energy. Apologies if these are too obvious or basic. * Sleep is important. Not too much. * Sleep on schedule is helpful, if you can do that. * Food and diet play a factor. Don't rely on processed food/sugar too much or it will bite you down the road. * Exercise. The fitter you become the better your energy level. My body is like a battery. I need to recharge with exercise or the battery capacity will deplete. * Mindfulness (be aware of thoughts and stressors, don't let them consume the thought process) * Meditation can help you learn to relax * Momentum. Small progress daily can make you feel good and is more sustainable than big bursts then burnout. Keep the ball rolling. * Develop habits and routine * Identify your weaknesses and chip away at those with small habitual adjustments or scaffolding * Work systematically so you can work when your energy is low * Life balance - we can't be a machine. You may need to recharge in nature or around people. * Surround yourself with people who are positive (vs negative) and have lots of energy. Their enthusiasm can be helpful. * I used to use copius coffee or stimulants or supplements or whatever worked in the moment but nothing will fix this. Save some of those aids for those days when you need them. I never mastered this. I got a bit better at life, however I had to realise, I can only work to my strengths.
SerLava 5y ago
This article is aggressively stupid.

58 points by nazka 5y ago

tux3 5y ago

Be mindful of survivorship bias. Lest people on twitter start posting pictures of the hypothetical WW2 planes that came back.

tome 5y ago

Think and Grow Rich in three minutes.

armchairhacker 5y ago

Attitude really does determine your subjective success. Because if you have a good attitude you can find optimism and success in almost anything. Trained for a half-marathon, only to get sick and miss / fail it? On the surface that looks like a failure, but it's really not. The real success is the training, the weight you lost and fitness you gained. Or even if you didn't lose weight, the muscle and habits you gained which will make it easier to lose weight later. Or maybe you don't even need to lose weight anyways, especially since you probably lost fat. The big race is only a demonstration of your training results. Spent 6 months working on an app but never released it? That it can actually be a big "success" if you learned a lot from development. I can vouch that I've become a much better developer by making apps which were never released, and learned concepts from functional programming which I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise, because I wouldn't have seen the point. Built a company only for it to go bankrupt? Same as above, you get experience so that you'll do better next time. Idk how much attitude affects your objective success. Attitude won't help if your goal is flat-out unachievable or you don't have the luck / skill. I think the real reason attitude determines success is that, if you have a good attitude, you can basically change anything into a success.

lazide 5y ago
There is also the reality that looking at things in that positive light tends to surface opportunities, more than looking at things negatively. If you’re feeling like you’re doing well (despite the occasional hiccup) and will be successful, it’s easier to be open to a new advisor, or a new employee, or a new investor. If you’re constantly obsessed with how it is going wrong, you’re constantly going to be focused on how these too could be a disaster. As with many things in life, it’s a balance. If you never recognize a risk, or recognize bad decisions as what they are and the factors behind them, then you’ll get scammed a lot or constantly be blundering around repeating mistakes (potentially). If you hyper focus on them, you’ll cut off all your opportunity and be constantly trying to guard an ever shrinking pie.
pwdisswordfish8 5y ago
"When you fail... pretend you had... a different goal... all along." Okay, got it.
- xkeysc0re 5y ago
  When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
- tenfourwookie 5y ago
  The Pivot Doctrine.
- 8note 5y ago
  Turns out, the original goal sucked, and I shouldn't have set it
Barrin92 5y ago
I'm not really sure what the point of living in this permanent copium state of mind is. If you can change anything into a success then success is meaningless because it cannot be lost, it has no value. It's a sort of cowardice or unwillingness to accept genuine failure upfront. You don't need a good attitude, you need a respect for truth. Built an app and turns out you wasted a year of your life? At least accept that fact because there's more honesty in it than trying to rationalize it away.
- ornornor 5y ago
  That’s a struggle I have at my current employment. I work in a county where failure is not accepted at all so we all have to pretend every project is well planned, has ample time to complete all features before the deadline, and be optimistic about it all. These things are never true but no one wants to say the emperor has no clothes. So instead we go full steam ahead towards the wall and whoever brings that up gets lynched. The result is always the same: we deliver a subpar software product, that barely works the way it was expected to, after a few weeks or months of crunch, it is very hard and costly to maintain, the customer is pissed, and we’re all told by our managers that we suck. How can you cope then? I’d think it’s healthier to see the monumental failure for what it is (and thus, not sound optimistic, especially when you’ve seen this happen in other projects before). Or should you hide your head in the sand and keep pretending like everything is peachy and this time it’s different, the project won’t fail like the dozens before it?

pdar4123 5y ago

Good thing I grew up in zip code with super positive vibes

nickthemagicman 5y ago
Underrated comment. People in third world countries just don't have good attitudes apparently?
- d_silin 5y ago
  They do, but it is hard to make it on good attitude alone. Afganistan is a country of 30 million people but 0 VCs.
- 8note 5y ago
  Who says people in third world countries aren't successful?

TrackerFF 5y ago

But what influences your attitude? One thing I noticed when I studied with predominantly upper middle class people (business school) was that they all had what I like to call a competitive "winner" mentality. Most went into new situations determined to win/succeed, and when I questioned some of my peers on this, I was told that most of them had received positive feedback (albeit being pushed) since they were kids, in most aspects of life. School, sports, social life, etc. I guess that if you've had cheerleaders around you since you were 5, it must have affected your self-esteem in some positive way. Now, what I wonder, is how regular people can develop such attitude, more or less on their own. Fake it 'til you make it? Incrementally become successful at things?

corty 5y ago
Have rich parents shielding you from any negative consequence and providing a financial fallback.
- pc86 5y ago
  This seems overly dismissive.
  - corty 5y ago
    If you think so, please elaborate why and provide alternative explanations. Just dismissing my statement without any discussion is not only overly dismissive. It also is not a productive way of discussion, it doesn't add anything of value.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  My experience says otherwise: children and young people who could rely on their parents' wealth tended to be complacent and bored, or spent their time doing some expensive hobby for fun. They had their life secured, so why bother. But there were exceptions, too. My grandma used to say that someone was born with a "propeller up their backside" [0], e.g. totally relentless. I met such types of all classes. Not everyone concentrated on business, but they all had a lot of drive towards their goals. [0] It rhymes in Czech: "s vrtulí v prdeli".

rubicon33 5y ago

For me, the bigger issue is really energy. I usually want to work, study, etc. How often do I have the mental spark of sufficient strength to tackle tough programming problems, or read really technical material? Certainly less often than I'd like. IMO attitude is important, but equally important is managing your energy levels and optimizing your life around the ups and downs. Find habits and routines that promote energy, and avoid habits and routines that drain energy. This can actually be harder than it sounds to figure out.

thevagrant 5y ago
I struggle with fluctuating energy levels. When my energy level is good I can excel. When my energy dips, I have to put a lot more work than the average person to keep moving forward (or even stay awake). When I was younger I had an overly optimistic attitude. I'd end up planning a lot during a phase of high energy only for the gas tank to empty. On days/weeks/months with low energy, it led to a lot of stress.
rkhassen9 5y ago
Rubicon - wondering if you can recommend any readings, links or books on energy management. What you described is the crux of my life limitations. When I have energy, I can do almost anything...and when I have no energy...can't do much of anything. All of other factors become secondary, and proper management of energy is not something I'm very conscious of, nor have good strategies for.
- thevagrant 5y ago
  I don't have any good books but this is exactly how I feel about myself. I spent a decade trying to get better with my management of energy. Apologies if these are too obvious or basic. * Sleep is important. Not too much. * Sleep on schedule is helpful, if you can do that. * Food and diet play a factor. Don't rely on processed food/sugar too much or it will bite you down the road. * Exercise. The fitter you become the better your energy level. My body is like a battery. I need to recharge with exercise or the battery capacity will deplete. * Mindfulness (be aware of thoughts and stressors, don't let them consume the thought process) * Meditation can help you learn to relax * Momentum. Small progress daily can make you feel good and is more sustainable than big bursts then burnout. Keep the ball rolling. * Develop habits and routine * Identify your weaknesses and chip away at those with small habitual adjustments or scaffolding * Work systematically so you can work when your energy is low * Life balance - we can't be a machine. You may need to recharge in nature or around people. * Surround yourself with people who are positive (vs negative) and have lots of energy. Their enthusiasm can be helpful. * I used to use copius coffee or stimulants or supplements or whatever worked in the moment but nothing will fix this. Save some of those aids for those days when you need them. I never mastered this. I got a bit better at life, however I had to realise, I can only work to my strengths.

SerLava 5y ago

This article is aggressively stupid.