WinchesterAA

Growing up in the major metropolitan cities within the United States of America, it is easy to shift from an earthly and immediate perspective to a more "high-level" (in the sense of programming languages, and other abstractions) perspective which all but excludes everything that the world has to offer. Some things, however, are not easily forgotten.

These things, such as aggression, fear, shame, humility, etc are still present within the overwhelming majority of us, and in the new perspective, they've influenced behavior just as they did when people had a more limited perspective.

My understanding of the world, which is constituted by a variety of well-explored perspectives, leads me to believe that phenomena such as the unyielding desire amongst many individuals to exceed, in every regard, the achievements of another -- particularly those of extraordinary talents -- with whom they share a similar interest --- is a result of the new perspective's lack of a proper definition of what an enemy is, and how to gloriously compete with him in this world.

Keeping that in mind, I hereby state that a man must look no further for his enemies, for the most subtle, most dangerous, most cunning and deviant, most impossibly difficult enemy -- the one you know, as soon as you meet him, that you will never beat him. -- is himself.


If you win, you have all the world to do with as you please.

Charlatan

You paint a nice picture and parrot a wonderful myth that is at the soul of the American psyche. The rugged individual who overcomes all odds can have it all.

While it is certainly true that self doubt is a great limiter, there are many (many!) other forces at work in this world that can stack the deck against you OR make life a whole heck of a lot easier.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Baraka_Guru

Yeah, I don't think there is a possibility to boil things down so neatly. While success does indeed require overcoming many personal challenges (e.g. success means looking at the things most people don't want to do and doing them anyway), there are a number of external factors too.

Steven Covey broke it down nicely in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.



The first "victory" according to him is a "private victory," where you move from dependence on others to independence. This is achieved by being proactive/taking initiative, establishing and concentrating on your end goals, and doing the important things first and foremost, while eliminating time wasters.

Next is the "public victory" of achieving interdependence amongst those you work with, whether they be coworkers, managers, or clients. This is achieved by thinking of win/win situations, achieving mutual understanding, and figuring out how to work together for the best outcome.

The final step is knowing how to maintain that level of interdependence and keep it going.

So, your idea that overcoming your own challenges will bring you success, I think is important, but it's not even half the battle. No man is an island. You can only do so much on your own, and in most cases it won't be very much at all, and so you must look to others and know how to influence them and work with them in ways where everyone benefits.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

WinchesterAA

Does success have to involve wealth, power, and a network of lackeys?
I don't think so.. I know a few homeless people that don't have shit (not even a semi-stable or better network of lackeys) and seem perfectly content with that.

Extreme example, sure, but is that success?

As for Steve Covey's example -- I didn't start thinking about other people until I got myself together (more or less). After that, I pretty much can imagine doing whatever I want to do. I can get along with people, get what I need from them, but the best part is never needing anything from them. (I still will "ask for help" just so people don't think I don't like them. being "helped" allows me to repay favors, and thus establish a network of favor-doers that know I'm not only an asshole, but an OK human being as well.) This wouldn't have happened, had I not sat down one day and come up with a way to document my every action and consequence of that action throughout the rest of my life, I don't think I'd be quite as chipper and confident as I am now. It's a modest confidence, mind you, but with great hopes for the future.


@ Charlatan - Well yeah, sometimes you're born with 10 toes and 10 fingers. Sometimes you get run over by a car when you're 11, and are paralyzed from the waist down. I imagine there are atleast a few individuals that have nothing but their minds and their breath -- that are also plenty successful. I dare say, however, that the difficulty of life is something anyone has to get over, and isn't really a factor in determining your ability to succeed unless the difficulty is in relation to the mind in any way, at which point things could very well be impossible to achieve.