Why chest-thumping about success is recipe for failure

Idle youngsters are engaged in a heated debate outside a shop. It quickly degenerates into an argument and before know it, they are hurling insults at the top of their voices.

Each party works to drown the other's voice and when that fails to unequivocally determine the winner of the debate turned impasse, we hear some jostling and "Hold me! Hold me! Somebody hold me back before I hurt this fool!".

This is chest-thumping à le village where I come from. The warning insinuates that the warner is the stronger of the two and is on the verge of rearranging his opponent’s dental formula.

The truth of the matter is normally on the contrary — the warner is on self-preservation mode knowing that he/she is likely to be beaten to a pulp in the event of a bare-knuckle brawl.

This kind of scenario does not just happen in my village shopping centre. It plays out in our personal and professional environments on a daily basis.

There are those who are constantly on the verge of doing something — more productive than physically harming someone.

Unfortunately, they never really do. These are the people who simply will not shut up about being on the verge of impressive and sometimes life-changing break-throughs in this, that and the other area.

Many are held back from success because they do a lot more threatening to succeed than doing the things that actually result in success.

These are the large groups of people who know what to do to improve their lives but do not. They nearly complete their projects on time, they nearly get promoted and they nearly become successful leaders.

They are forever looking for drawbacks to plausibly explain their “near-success experiences” — their failure.

Their biggest failure really is the small matter of not coming to the realisation that success lies in actually doing, not merely threatening to do by incessantly talking about anticipated success.

Much like the village idler, their inactions metaphorically shout; "Hold me! Somebody hold me before I embarrass everybody around here by becoming wildly successful!"

Most people laugh such characters off as jokers because they rarely actually achieve the success they are constantly heard threatening the world with. Enough, already.

I wouldn't call them jokers, though. These chest-thumpers are fairly serious people. They are the mobile phone subscribers who are permanently out of reach and have over-active auto-responders should you attempt reaching them on email.

Call their offices at your peril because all you are likely to get is a narration of how many back-to-back meetings they are involved in day in, day out.

In fact, your phone conversation is likely to end abruptly because they are usually getting into another meeting "in a few".

That means in a few minutes but actually vocalising the word "minutes" might take a lot more time from their already “very busy” schedules, you know!

The truth is that many of us are perpetually scurrying about unfocused all day without much net effect to write home about. In fact, they are quite convincingly busier than the very effective few.

They may seem very hard-working but what they do not understand is that they do not need to wander around aimlessly without getting any further in their quest for success.

All they require to do is to chart a clear course and stick to it. They do not have to work harder. They need to work more effectively.

They must ensure that their actions are progressive. They must be high-performers, not simply record high mileage.

High-performers entertain ridiculously ambitious goals that inspire them to meaningfully move ahead without hesitation. That is to say that they engage in real work. You know, we are not made for work.

Work is made for us. Work is where our psyche comes alive. It is our source of satisfaction and we need that as much as the material income.

We must be self-starters who see tasks through to the finish line. We must bear in mind that it isn't about what we know but what we do to benefit the world that it rewards us for and remembers us for.

We don't get paid for what we know. We get paid for what we do that adds value to others... And it is the payment in cash and in kind that brings about our success.

The biggest reason for our failures is seldom a lack of smarts, character or willingness. We fail because of our inability to get things done.

How much have you done today?