Seven Conditions for Success

Anyone reading this blog post may have heard me speak at some point on what the great philosophers said it takes for success in whatever we do. My claim is simple. 

From Plato and Aristotle to the present day, the wisest people who have ever thought about success and excellence have left us bits and pieces of powerful advice for attaining true success in our lives. I've put them all together as this framework of seven universal conditions. For the most deeply satisfying and sustainable forms of success in our lives, we need to bring into any situation, relationship, or enterprise:

(C1) A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.

(C2) A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain that goal.

(C3) A focused CONCENTRATION on what it takes to reach the goal.

(C4) A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision.

(C5) An emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we're doing.

(C6) A good CHARACTER to guide us and keep us on a proper course.

(C7) A CAPACITY TO ENJOY the process along the way.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, and he mentioned Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, quoting one of the habits, "Begin with the end in mind." I thought it might be helpful to reflect briefly on the difference between Covey's framework and mine.

I once directed a weekend retreat with Covey and found him to be a sweet and kind person, as well as very thoughtful. I had great fun with him. And I admire the results of his work. But, that being said, on to the comparison. First, I'll just list his seven habits, as he does, in the form of recommendations or imperatives:

Habit 1: Be proactive.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in view.

Habit 3: Put first things first.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Habit 6: Synergize

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.

A few comments. Habit (1) is about taking initiative, always good, and included in the application of my C3 - the focused concentration condition.

Habit (2) is a brief version of my C1 (the first condition of the 7Cs), the condition that tells us that as we begin to work toward any goal, we need a clear conception of what we want to result from our activity, and that we need to make our conception vivid and rooted in the imagination, aspects of goal setting that Covey doesn't explicitly address in his framework. 

Habit (3), like (1), is included in my understanding of C3, the focused concentration condition, as developed in True Success.  

Habits (4), (5), and (6) come into play in relationships, in negotiations, and in work situations of joint endeavor, but not always in the successful meeting of individual, personal challenges. They are very good advice for the circumstances in which they apply, and are, in those circumstances, applications of C3, concentrating on what it takes, or C4, the consistency condition, or C6, the character condition, but they are not themselves, in my understanding, strictly universal conditions for success. Some things can be, and sometimes must be, properly done by one person alone, and for some of these private matters, a strategy of synergism need not necessarily play a role. And where not more than one person is involved, the most basic requirements for win/win thinking may not even arise. Obviously, there can't be two winners except where there are at least two players.

Habit (7) has to do with personal renewal, growth, continuing education and skill development, which is always a good idea. But, again, there are some forms of personal challenge, relationship goals, and even professional demands where, in meeting the demand, or accomplishing the goal, it does not necessarily come into play. A very commendable activity, even one necessary for a full life, does not necessarily count as one of the fundamental conditions I'm focusing in on as crucial for all forms of success. Where it does come into play, it falls under my C3.

Even more noteworthy, my conditions C2 (Confidence), C4 (Consistency), C5 (Commitment), and C7 (the Capacity to Enjoy the Process) are nowhere explicitly captured in this framework. I say this not to claim that Covey's important schema is incomplete in any way, but just to point out that it's different in design and intent from my framework of seven conditions. Although there are important fundamental similarities and overlaps, The 7Cs of Success, as a framework or tool kit of ideas, is significantly different from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. 

For more on the 7 Cs, see True Success, The Art of Achievement, and the big new ebook, The 7 Cs of Success, which reveals how these tools were understood by some of the greatest practical philosophers throughout the centuries and around the world. For Covey's original book, click here, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.

Business as Art

My friend, fellow philosopher, and founder of Whole Foods, John Mackie, was interviewed by Oprah for her show, Super Soul Sunday, that aired yesterday, June 8. Go look for it online. It's a great conversation about love, passion, community, and the soul of business. Listening to John yesterday reminded me of something.

Last week, I mentioned a view that I'm growing into, the perspective that business is a form of art. Our work, whatever we do, can be a work of art. It can be productive of beauty, across many dimensions, it can be eloquently expressive, and it can, of course, be useful and valuable, all traits, as I see it, of art. And, like artists, we can experience moments of immense frustration in our craft as well as times of exuberant satisfaction.

Since first pondering the ideas that became my book The Art of Achievement, I've thought about our lives overall as works of art - every action being a stroke on the canvas, a chip in the marble, a turn in the dance, an improvised line in the music. And it's making more and more sense to me that this should be our central governing metaphor regarding business. It's all about creation, and expression, and bringing good things into existence that others can enjoy.

For a long time, our governing metaphors for the world of work have been sport and war. And that's easy to understand, on a certain level. But a predominant use of such metaphors has been insidiously detrimental to the development of modern commerce and corporate behavior. 

John and his friend Raj Sisodia wrote an important book a couple of years back called Conscious Capitalism offering an alternative conception of business that departs from the normal paradigm pretty radically, and reorients our business thinking from centering around mainly acquisition to focusing on primarily contribution. Greed gives way to good, and ambition is enhanced by aspiration.

In this blog, I'll be reflecting further on these issues, now and then, in the coming months. In my book If Aristotle Ran General Motors, I wrote about what I call the four foundations of greatness: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity. I'm beginning to reflect more on how these transcendentals should govern and power our work. For a variety of reasons, we now have a nice chance, in the early years of this new century, to grow a new paradigm for capitalism, for business, and for our daily work. I think we should do all we can to promote it and use it well.