What Other People Think        

By Project Success    

During our success pursuing journey, occasionally we might find ourselves hearing critique from our surroundings. Some of them are our beloved ones, some of them are considered as our friends and some are total strangers. The opinions of others are a challenge which must and will be overcome in our journey for success.

I have always liked the saying: “The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on”. This basically means, that history and progress move ahead, no matter the criticism it may attract. The same applies to us; using meditations and the natural circle (check out my article “The Beginning”) we find our desires and dreams, develop the technique and take action. This set of actions is a process which takes time. It also requires high levels of stamina; we need to be patient, plan ahead and reject negative feedbacks from the crowd.

I have always in mind two movies which motivate me to go forward and never back down: “The pursuit of happiness” and “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”.

1. “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”- Liz Murray, a daughter to drug-addicts, due to bad circumstances, find herself on the streets after dropping out of school. After the death of her mother, she decides to change her life by going back to school. By using strict systematical schedule including work, frontal classes and homework, she manages to complete high school in just two years and to achieve a scholarship to Harvard. During all this time, she is exposed to the crowd; her long lived friend Chris, who tries to pull her down, and the crowd reaction to her poverty; walking around with old and stinky clothes. This is a great example, as Liz defines the process, keep going despite the negative feedback from the crowd and keeps holding on while having the end game in mind; having a better life! It required the natural circle; the belief, the technique which was a strict efficient schedule and finally having the guts to take action, despite the temporary bad life conditions.

2. "The pursuit of happiness"- Similar to Liz, Chris Gardner finds himself and his son also on the streets. Chris has always thought he could achieve much more in life. When the opportunity presents itself; to participate in a stock-brokerage internship, he gets on board. On the way, he too must overcome many challenges including: no income (the internship is voluntarily), a small kid to take care of, find his way on the street as a homeless parent and at the same time excelling in the internship program, in the pursuit of a real job. Again, with a strict time management, strong belief and, of course, the dealing with the crowd pressure (including his ex-wife), he achieves greatness. A really true role-model in my view.

A clear pattern which I always notice is the reaction of the same critical people when the success is finally achieved; people always feel bluffed when you make it; the big move, the big career, the relationship etc. They simply cannot see it coming. However once it comes, only then will people invent excuses to justify this new reality by saying; “he was smart, but it’s not doable by other people”, or “he just got lucky. The fact that nothing would be mentioned about the psychological challenge, the hard work and the plan just proves the lack of understanding. In order to understand it, you must understand people. One of the typical traits of a person, is to evaluate and appreciate only the things he sees in front of his eyes. He doesn’t care which process and struggle you had to overcome in order to achieve it. Take for example a professional athlete. Nobody cares about their training and preparation, we only care about their performance in a given sporting event. The same can apply to rich people or even people who just seem happy all the time. We simply don’t see what works behind the scene. This is exactly what we in Projects Success concentrate on- the process! Always remember, we need always to consider the big picture, which lead to the final goal. We want to follow it, enjoy it and extract our confidence from it. This is a powerful ability which we should develop; concentrating on our self-development process while the crowd keep pushing by judging us based on what he sees in his limited point of view, instead of the real meat of the process. Your job is not to entertain anyone, but to develop yourself in order to enjoy life and help other people.