William Wu Personal Blog

True satisfaction often comes from achieving something challenging that demands our best.  I recently read an inspiring book “The Four Agreements - A Toltec Wisdom Book” written by Don Miguel Ruiz.

The Toltec were pre-Columbian native American dominated Mexico between 10th and 12th century AD.  Mr. Ruiz summarized the esoteric Toltec knowledge in what he called the Four Agreements:

THE FOUR AGREEMENTS

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word

Speak with integrity.  Say only what you mean.  Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.  Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally

Nothing other do is because of you.  What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.  When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.  Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstanding, sadness, and drama. 

4. Alaways Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to memoment.  Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

The 4th agreement “Always Do Your Best” is both intersting and insightful.  It tells us that our best will never be the same from one moment to another.  Our best will sometimes be high quality, and other time it will not be as good.  For example, when you wake up refreshed and energized in the morning, your best will be better than when you are tired at night.  Your best will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick, or sober as opposed to drunk.  Your best will depend on whether you are feeling wonderful and happy, or upset, angry, or jealous. 

Mr. Ruis told us “regardless of the quality, keep doing your best - no more and no less than your best.  If you try too hard to do more than your best, you will spend more energy than is needed and in the end your best will not be enough.  When you overdo, you deplete your body and go against yourself, and it will take you longer to accomplish your goal.  But if you do less than your best, you subject yourslef to frustrations, self-judgment, guilt, and regrets.” Your can spend incredible effort inefficiently and gain nothing.  Or, you can spend modest efforts efficiently and be rewarded.  The purpose of always do our best is to make progress, not just expend ourselves.

 A Zen story illustrates this effect,

A martial arts student went to his tacher and said earnestly, “I am devoted to studying your martial system.  How long will it take me to master it.”  The teacher’s reply was casual, “Ten years.”  Impatiently, the student answered, “But I want to master it faster than that.  I will work very hard.  I will practice everyday, then or more hours a dya if I have to.  How long will it take then?”  The teacher thought for a moment, “20 years.”

Doing your best means you do the right thing.  As Theodore Roosovelt said, “In any moment of the decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing your can do is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”  When you always do your best, you take action.  Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you’re expecting a reward.  Most people do exactly the opposite:  They only take action when they expect a reward, and they don’t enjoy the action.  And that’s the reason why they don’t do their best.

Always take action, always do your best - never ask more or less of yourself than your best.  You do not need to do everything today but you do need to do something every day.  As the anicent Chinese philopher Confucius put it: “It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.”

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A famous Zen story was told this way:

A young man caught a small bird, and held it behind his back.  He then ask, “Master, is the bird I hold in my hands alive or dead.”  The boy thought this was a grand opportunity to play a trick on the old man.  If the master answered “dead”, it would be let loose into the air.  If the master answered “alive”, he would simply wring its neck. The master spoke, “The answer is in your hands”.

“The answer is in your hand“, - this is such a powerful thought if we can apply it to reality.  A lot of times we have tendencies to rely on other people’s opinions and approvals to justify our own doing when in reality we know deep down what is the right thing to do for ourselves.  Very often we worry about stuff that is not essential to our ultimate goal and lost the overall direction in our journey to success.  Dr. Stephen Covey has an excellent article on “90-10 principles“ that is widely referenced in various web sites and blogs.  The concept of this principle is: 10% of life is made up of what happens to you.  90% of life is decided by how you react.  While we have really no control over 10% of what happens to us (e.g. we cannot control the red light), we can absolutely control the other 90% by our own reaction (e.g. we can control how we react to the red light).  Our daily life and journey to the end is a proactive choice.  As Dr. Covery said, “we can be happy and accept those things that at present we can’t control, while we focus our efforts the things we can.”

These principles taught us that destiny can be largely controlled in our own hands. Our destiny is in essence what we choose to make it.  As Abraham Lincoln said,

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” 

So listen to your inner voice, remember your own action is what ultimately influence your own path to your final destination.  As William Jennings Bryanl put it,

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.  It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved!”

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How do you measure success?  Some people measure it in a fancy home, expensive car or dress.  Dr. Stephen R. Covey in his “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” seminar proposed that you should picture yourself sitting in church attending a funeral.Â

The funeral is for you.  What do you expect to hear from other people as they describe you as a person of memberance - from your spouse, you kids, your friend and your collegues.  If you think carefully, it is not hard to undersatnd your real success is probably something that you cannot spend to get. 

Let’s look at how other people measure their success.  Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way:

To Have Succeeded 
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give one’s self;
To leave the world a little better,
Wether by a healthy child,
A garden patch,
Or a redeemed social condidtion;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm
And sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived…
This is to have succeeded.

Other people have different perspectives in measuring success:

• “You can’t measure success if you have never failed.” - Steffi Graf, Tennis Legend
• “Judge your success by what you have to give up in order to get it.” - Dalai Lama
• “The man who lives for himself is a failure; the man who lives for others has achieved true success.” - Norman Vincent Peale

Fundamentally, success is fulfilling one’s own chosen goal. It is relative in nature and does not and cannot have any one meaning for all, and, as such, is measured and felt differently by all of us.  The important thing is to treat the pursuit of success as a journey, not a destination!

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I have previously written an entry on Success vs. Happiness.  Today I saw a poster that has an intersting spin on success.

• Start with your dream - then start working 
• Understand first, then be understood
• Create your own opportunities
• Courage, character, caring, communication
• Embrace challenges, expect no less than your best
• Simplify and maintain focus
• Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success. 

Other people have their formula for success:

• “The three P’s of success: Passion, Persistence and Patience.”  - Doug BronsonIf
• “If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.” - Albert Einstein, quoted in Observer (London) (Jan.15, 1950)
• “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” - Woody Allen, American actor & director. 
• “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.” - Samuel Butlen, British writer
• “People always told me that my natural ability and good eyesight were the reasons for my success as a hitter.  They never talk about the practice, practice, practice.” - Ted Williams
•  “Success is made of 99 percent failure.” - James Dyson, British entrepreneur

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U.S. Marine Corps published a Warfighting manual in June 22, 1997.Â

Part of the discussion in the Chapter “Theory of War” had a great discussion on Speed.

“Speed is rapidity of action.  It applies to both time and space.  Speed over time is tempo - the consistent ability to operate quickly.  Speed over distance, or space, is the ability to move rapidly.  Both forms are genuine sources of combat power.  In other words, spped is a weapon.  In war, it is relative speed that matters rather than absolute speed.  Superior speed allows us to seize te initiative and dictate the terms of action, forcing the enemy to reacto to us.  Speed provides security.  It is a prerequisitie for maneuver and for surprise.  More over, speed is necessary in order to concentrate superior strength at the decisive time and place.”

Applying to the business, especially for a startup, it means consistent innovation and persisitent progress.  Company should never stall in progress because of any reasons -whether it is internal churn or external marketing timing.  In a world where competition is fierce in product offering and market share, companies are walking on thin ice to stay ahead. As Ralph waldo Emerson elegantly put it, “In stating over thin ice, our safty is in our speed.”

Speed gives startup the adaptabity that it needs to combat the unknowns.  As Charles Darwin concluded, “It’s not the strongest nor most intelligent of the species that survive; it is the one most adaptable to change.”

One book that I recently read by Jason Jennings & Laurence Haughton titled “ it’s not the BIG that eat the SMALL… it’s the FAST that east the SLOW“Â

The reality is that everything is moving faster nowadays, inlucding you - whether you like it or not - and it is only going to get faster.  so, don’t slack and be fast.  Particularly if you are someone leading your business, the former Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca has a great quote for you, “The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.”

Aren’t you glad that you are workding hard and moving fast?!  Keep it up since you got an edge!

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