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If we put together every study and opinion piece on what makes success and combined them into one genetically modified ideal human it would be like watching a t

If we put together every study and opinion piece on what makes success and combined them into one genetically modified ideal human it would be like watching a twitching, drooling maniac trying to do everything all at once. I don't think there is success formula for an individual - just that if the termites nest of humanity throws enough bodies at the wall, one will bounce through. It's not purely luck. But I think the only predictor of success, is to be in the game.

withinboredom 4y ago
The only thing that really works is being at the right place, at the right time, knowing the right people… and/or sheer luck.
- sammalloy 4y ago
  > The only thing that really works is being at the right place, at the right time, knowing the right people… and/or sheer luck. I really think it’s this. There’s an almost measurable synergy that occurs when you put yourself out there.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  I mean all the high-ranking politicians and businesspeople grew up under entirely different circumstances than the average joe. A bunch of the new tech billionaires had a different path, going through certain US universities at the right time for example. But nowadays there's also this new community of startups that happen to live in the right location and get the right amount of access to investors.
- 6stringmerc 4y ago
  This I can affirm as well after years of personal study. Some are self-aware and humble, others, well, let them have their little reality distortion field. As long as it doesn’t seep into my “you know back in 1990 when I was alive and sentient there was still the threat of global nuclear war” context of history at any given point in time.
- dghughes 4y ago
  Being tall and having hair also helps quite a bit. I've never known a manager or executive who wasn't tall and with a full head of hair.
  - Spooky23 4y ago
    Totally true for dudes. I’ve noticed that women in similar roles are often noticeably shorter than average. It’s funny that the exceptions I can think of really stand out. One sales exec team I worked with consisted of short bald guys with similar names. It stands out a decade later! Even then, their boss was a Ivy League bro with a beard and good hair.
pigtailgirl 4y ago
-- comment reminds me of Roosevelt: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. --
- lifeisstillgood 4y ago
  I did think of saying "in the arena". And Teddy was definitely someone who jumped in the game.
- moviewise 4y ago
  “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston S. Churchill "I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It's because of them I'm doing it myself." ― Albert Einstein From: https://moviewise.substack.com/p/there-is-no-bad-news-there-are-only https://moviewise.substack.com/p/there-is-no-bad-news-there-...
imtringued 4y ago
The problem is attributing success to a single individual. Tesla and Amazon have thousands of employees but people only remember Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
- Schroedingers2c 4y ago
  Reminds me of "A Worker Reads History" by Bertolt Brecht: ------------------------------------------------------ "Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses, That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend The night the seas rushed in, The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves. Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who triumphed with him? Each page a victory At whose expense the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper? So many particulars. So many questions."
  - zR4B 4y ago
    - zR4B 4y ago
- lifeisstillgood 4y ago
  Yes. Plus the capital structure massively over emphasises this. I am definitely not for throwing out the industrial revolution baby with the Victorian capital structure bath water, but looking at the robber barons that crop up with each generation I wonder if there is a different way of allocating capital, decentralised decision making that can more properly / equally reward effort and contribution. Giving almost all the wealth to the financiers does not seem the right approach. Then again, I wish Warren Buffet ran my pension fund.
Helmut10001 4y ago
I agree and I think it would be more important to focus on maintaining a baseline of productivity, by helping people to get through life _at all_. We are loosing too many humans on their way through life, more than we loose by not everyone being 100% productive all the time.
oxfordmale 4y ago
There was a study asking men to select the female face they found the most attractive. The researchers then tried to create the ideal female look. However, they just ended up creating something very close to the average of all faces in their database. The key to success is to know your weaknesses and compensate for them by hiring the right people, combined with a large amount of luck. For example Mark Zuckerberg didn't deliver a marvel of Engineering when he developed what would later become Facebook. He was just there at the right time and place.
- moffkalast 4y ago
  > Zuckerberg didn't deliver a marvel of Engineering Of course not, they made React after all.
  - mellavora 4y ago
    Somehow I don't think Zuckerberg wrote the React library all by himself. Though it is possible that he: > [knew his] weaknesses and compensate for them by hiring the right people, combined with a large amount of luck. hired one or two good engineers
    - moffkalast 4y ago
      You got that backwards, I'm saying React sucks :D
      - agumonkey 4y ago
        What's so bad about react?
        cpurdy 4y ago
        It is an ideal representation of what JavaScript can do. Some people will think that is a compliment. Some people will recognize that as an insult.
papito 4y ago
Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, according to the legend, would skip computer science classes to later ace the tests. So, by all accounts, they are brilliant - and driven, but if you look at their background, they are also the people who won the birth lottery. Bill Gates was an impossible child who was shoved into an ultra-lux boarding school that happened to have a computer. Zuckerberg does not know the life outside of Westchester, Harvard, and his compound in California. How many brilliant people are out there who have to waste their brilliance on not taking risks? On just making sure they can pay rent? We all want to go to the Moon, but some people are born in orbit to get a solid head start, and the rest need to overcome gravity first, before they even get a shot.
- urthor 4y ago
  It's still undeniable the common trait is drive. Focus and drive is the ticket to even get into the ballpark.
  - papito 4y ago
    Focus, drive, and the ability to take risks, fail, and try again. That is a luxury.
giantg2 4y ago
"But I think the only predictor of success, is to be in the game." I don't think this is true. In my experience, the most successful people are overwhelmingly good at social skills. Without those you won't be a manager, won't hit the C-suite, won't make the big bucks (with a few exceptions, but even the best engineers have to have the social/comms skills to work in a team or lead a project).
- urthor 4y ago
  Socialization is absolutely the same? Do, exactly, what Roosevelt said. Give 100% of your attention to pulling your socks up. Most introverts I meet are merely frozen with terror. They're paralyzed by fear of their weakness. Most highly successful people, are highly successful because they've worked bloody hard at it. Cocktail parties are a nightmare, sadly it's like going to the gym.
  - Auracle 4y ago
    I don’t agree with that. I had friends growing up that were extroverts and could enthusiastically engage in small talk from an early age. They didn’t need any practice. That’s not to say you can’t get better at it. I’m an introvert photographer and I’ve gotten better at socializing over the years, but I’ve also learned to play into my strengths.
red75prime 4y ago
> But I think the only predictor of success, is to be in the game Good pitch for the people predisposed to an optimistic worldview, I guess.

withinboredom 4y ago

The only thing that really works is being at the right place, at the right time, knowing the right people… and/or sheer luck.

sammalloy 4y ago
> The only thing that really works is being at the right place, at the right time, knowing the right people… and/or sheer luck. I really think it’s this. There’s an almost measurable synergy that occurs when you put yourself out there.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
I mean all the high-ranking politicians and businesspeople grew up under entirely different circumstances than the average joe. A bunch of the new tech billionaires had a different path, going through certain US universities at the right time for example. But nowadays there's also this new community of startups that happen to live in the right location and get the right amount of access to investors.
6stringmerc 4y ago
This I can affirm as well after years of personal study. Some are self-aware and humble, others, well, let them have their little reality distortion field. As long as it doesn’t seep into my “you know back in 1990 when I was alive and sentient there was still the threat of global nuclear war” context of history at any given point in time.
dghughes 4y ago
Being tall and having hair also helps quite a bit. I've never known a manager or executive who wasn't tall and with a full head of hair.
- Spooky23 4y ago
  Totally true for dudes. I’ve noticed that women in similar roles are often noticeably shorter than average. It’s funny that the exceptions I can think of really stand out. One sales exec team I worked with consisted of short bald guys with similar names. It stands out a decade later! Even then, their boss was a Ivy League bro with a beard and good hair.

pigtailgirl 4y ago

-- comment reminds me of Roosevelt: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. --

lifeisstillgood 4y ago
I did think of saying "in the arena". And Teddy was definitely someone who jumped in the game.
moviewise 4y ago
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston S. Churchill "I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It's because of them I'm doing it myself." ― Albert Einstein From: https://moviewise.substack.com/p/there-is-no-bad-news-there-are-only https://moviewise.substack.com/p/there-is-no-bad-news-there-...

imtringued 4y ago

The problem is attributing success to a single individual. Tesla and Amazon have thousands of employees but people only remember Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Schroedingers2c 4y ago
Reminds me of "A Worker Reads History" by Bertolt Brecht: ------------------------------------------------------ "Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses, That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend The night the seas rushed in, The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves. Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who triumphed with him? Each page a victory At whose expense the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper? So many particulars. So many questions."
- zR4B 4y ago
  - zR4B 4y ago
lifeisstillgood 4y ago
Yes. Plus the capital structure massively over emphasises this. I am definitely not for throwing out the industrial revolution baby with the Victorian capital structure bath water, but looking at the robber barons that crop up with each generation I wonder if there is a different way of allocating capital, decentralised decision making that can more properly / equally reward effort and contribution. Giving almost all the wealth to the financiers does not seem the right approach. Then again, I wish Warren Buffet ran my pension fund.

Helmut10001 4y ago

I agree and I think it would be more important to focus on maintaining a baseline of productivity, by helping people to get through life _at all_. We are loosing too many humans on their way through life, more than we loose by not everyone being 100% productive all the time.

oxfordmale 4y ago

There was a study asking men to select the female face they found the most attractive. The researchers then tried to create the ideal female look. However, they just ended up creating something very close to the average of all faces in their database. The key to success is to know your weaknesses and compensate for them by hiring the right people, combined with a large amount of luck. For example Mark Zuckerberg didn't deliver a marvel of Engineering when he developed what would later become Facebook. He was just there at the right time and place.

moffkalast 4y ago
> Zuckerberg didn't deliver a marvel of Engineering Of course not, they made React after all.
- mellavora 4y ago
  Somehow I don't think Zuckerberg wrote the React library all by himself. Though it is possible that he: > [knew his] weaknesses and compensate for them by hiring the right people, combined with a large amount of luck. hired one or two good engineers
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    You got that backwards, I'm saying React sucks :D
    - agumonkey 4y ago
      What's so bad about react?
      - cpurdy 4y ago
        It is an ideal representation of what JavaScript can do. Some people will think that is a compliment. Some people will recognize that as an insult.

papito 4y ago

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, according to the legend, would skip computer science classes to later ace the tests. So, by all accounts, they are brilliant - and driven, but if you look at their background, they are also the people who won the birth lottery. Bill Gates was an impossible child who was shoved into an ultra-lux boarding school that happened to have a computer. Zuckerberg does not know the life outside of Westchester, Harvard, and his compound in California. How many brilliant people are out there who have to waste their brilliance on not taking risks? On just making sure they can pay rent? We all want to go to the Moon, but some people are born in orbit to get a solid head start, and the rest need to overcome gravity first, before they even get a shot.

urthor 4y ago
It's still undeniable the common trait is drive. Focus and drive is the ticket to even get into the ballpark.
- papito 4y ago
  Focus, drive, and the ability to take risks, fail, and try again. That is a luxury.

giantg2 4y ago

"But I think the only predictor of success, is to be in the game." I don't think this is true. In my experience, the most successful people are overwhelmingly good at social skills. Without those you won't be a manager, won't hit the C-suite, won't make the big bucks (with a few exceptions, but even the best engineers have to have the social/comms skills to work in a team or lead a project).

urthor 4y ago
Socialization is absolutely the same? Do, exactly, what Roosevelt said. Give 100% of your attention to pulling your socks up. Most introverts I meet are merely frozen with terror. They're paralyzed by fear of their weakness. Most highly successful people, are highly successful because they've worked bloody hard at it. Cocktail parties are a nightmare, sadly it's like going to the gym.
- Auracle 4y ago
  I don’t agree with that. I had friends growing up that were extroverts and could enthusiastically engage in small talk from an early age. They didn’t need any practice. That’s not to say you can’t get better at it. I’m an introvert photographer and I’ve gotten better at socializing over the years, but I’ve also learned to play into my strengths.

red75prime 4y ago

> But I think the only predictor of success, is to be in the game Good pitch for the people predisposed to an optimistic worldview, I guess.