The Success Equation

Yesterday I stumbled upon a blog by Matt Morris who is a motivational speaker and author of a “Think and Grow Rich” style book called The Unemployed Millionaire.  I haven’t read his book, and this was actually the first I had ever heard of him.  I don’t necessarily endorse his work (the reviews of his book on Amazon were a little bit sketchy), but I did like one of the things he mentioned in one of the videos on his blog.

Success = Level of skill MULTIPLIED by level of effort

So essentially skill and effort are equally important when determining how successful you are.  I think it’s widely believed that your level of skill is what you need to improve if you’re going to be successful.  “Only the smartest people can do x.”  In reality, your effort contributes just as much to success as your skill.  Think about the saying “Practice beats talent when talent doesn’t practice.”  I heard that more than enough times on the basketball court growing up, and I might not have thought much about it then, but I realize now how true that statement is.  Even if you’re not the most skilled, you can accomplish what you want if you’re willing to put in the work to get there.  Of course, you have to develop your skills to some degree because you’ll end up beating your head against a wall if you don’t take the time to learn and improve your skills.

Think about how that can help you achieve your goals.  What do you need to work on more? Skill or effort?