I had written this article in 2011. I have not touched it; just reposting to the new blog website.
Discipline -> Habits -> Skills -> Value
The only way to gain respect and income is to increase your value, add more value through your work. A CEO and an employee both work the same number of hours in a company, but why does a CEO get paid more? It’s because they add more value to the company than an ordinary employee. A street seller puts in more hard work during the day than a software engineer sitting in an air-conditioned office. Still, it’s unlikely that the street seller will make more money because their skills are less valued and more common than the skills of a software engineer.
Hence, I say, keep enriching your value if you want to be successful. The more value you provide, the more successful you become.
How can I add more value?
How does one work as a CEO, and another person is a street seller? How was APJ Kalam capable of building missiles whereas I am struggling to write a blog? It’s certain that APJ was adding more value with his work than I can ever do. He was able to do it because he had special SKILLS to build missiles; he had the skill to communicate; he had the skill to lead. The key is to develop skills.
The more skills you develop, the more value you can provide. A good civil engineer is able to build the greatest infrastructure because they have developed this skill over the years by reading books and working on similar projects or perhaps by observing others’ work. No one has ever been successful without a good skillset. Even people who are born geniuses have to put in work to gain skills. For example, Sachin Tendulkar, who is considered the GOD of cricket, would not have been successful if he hadn’t corrected his mistakes throughout his career. When he scored 241* in Sydney, he did not touch a single offside ball because he had been getting out trying that shot in previous matches. He had the skill of not getting lured by such balls. His skill of avoiding those balls took him to score a double hundred in the test match. His big score added immense value to India’s overall scoreboard.
One cannot provide value if they do not have a relevant skillset.
How to develop skills?
Science has proven that an average person needs to spend 10,000 hours to master a specific skill. Successful people have productive daily routines which they utilize to learn new skills or enrich existing skills. The reason they could make small wins every day is that they have built good habits over a period of time. Skills cannot be built without good habits.
How to build a habit?
Discipline and consistency are the keys. Building good habits make daily small wins possible, which eventually results in staggering success. Practice a routine for 21 days, and it will become your habit. For example, if you want to wake up early, keep it up for 21 days without fail.
