The character set.
Everyone knows that they have a set of characteristics but have you ever thought of graphing the whole set? I think of this often and it's my second crackpot theory.
Imagine listing all human characteristics along the bottom line of the graph and then having a value scale on the left. Let's look at a few characteristics like intelligence, knowledge, logic and rationality. Give yourself some score for each characteristic, a percentile score for example, no matter what scores you have you fall inside a normal range for people you associate with. In fact most characteristics for people who are incredibly successful and for people who are complete failures fall in this same range.
So why do some people fail while others succeed? I think it is because they are either superior or inferior in a very few characteristics.
For the most part we are all pretty much in the same range. The fact that one man is the vice president of his company while his brother still works on the shop floor is due to a few characteristics.
If a few characteristics make all the difference then a little self improvement may not be such a bad idea after all.
This is not about the Eric Hoffer book but he still might turn up from time to time.
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2 comments:
What do you consider success? Is a brother that works on the floor less of a man, less successful? Some would value characteristics differently. While some value loyalty, commitment, and dedication. Others might put more value in appearance, youth, and education. A little self improvement never hurts but does not insure that you will be view as successful in some eyes. In fact those that preach on the value of commitment, loyalty and dedication may not reward you for the same. But rest assured they won't hesitate to come to you when they need something.
It really doesn't matter what I consider success because that is not the point of the idea.
There are hundreds of characteristics and our characteristics, if valued, probably fall into the same general range. The point is that I think a very few characteristics make the difference in a persons life.
So for example I might view myself, a homeless guy I know and a CEO I know as all very similar except that the CEO has some real stregth in a few of his characteristics and the homeless guy has a real weakness in a few of his.
How others value characteristics doesn't matter either because in this case value is a measurement on a scale. I certainly value loyalty, commitment and dedication more than some people but that doesn't matter here. What does matter is if I am more loyal than most people and then that particular characteristic helps me to accomplish more.
If that characteristic doesn't help, that's life.
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