“Our value is the sum of our values.”
– Joe Batten

Allow me to call the men and women who realized their dreams and ambitions, accomplished great things, and left an indelible mark in their chosen fields of endeavors as winners, successful people,  distinguished individuals, people who achieved renown and wealth, extraordinary and great men and women, and exceptional and remarkable ladies and gentlemen. Do you know what is common among them? Here – a strong value system.

Let me refer to the value system as the collection of a person’s attitudes and beliefs.

Your attitudes and beliefs inform the decisions you make and control how you live your life. Thus, you have to be conscious and critical of your own value system – of the attitudes you possess and the beliefs you uphold. If you haven’t yet, you need to evaluate your value system as objectively as possible. The purpose of your evaluation should be two-fold: to strengthen the good ones you have, identify which ones are sabotaging your personal and professional or business pursuits, and immediately rectify them.

 Moise (2104) explained that “beliefs are about how we think things really are and tend to be deep-set. They represent assumptions everyone makes about [themselves], others, and different phenomena occurring in their environment. On the other hand, attitudes can be considered as individuals’ response to others’ actions and external situations, ways of conduct that people have learned having certain beliefs and values.”

Beliefs and attitudes are byproducts of our education and the accumulation of experiences since childhood. The attitudes and beliefs we possess constitute our conditioning or programming, influencing our perception and reactions to whatever happens around us. They inform the way we talk, behave, and think. They are the foundations upon which every decision we make stands.

Accept it or not,  your attitudes and beliefs will dictate whether you succeed or fail, whether you live a happy or miserable life. You know that the sky is always the limit when it comes to success and happiness. You can have and become whatever you want. But as Zig Ziglar once said, “Your attitude, more than your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” You also need to evaluate your beliefs. “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy,” says Tony Robbins. How far you climb the ladder of success depends on the decisions you make, which are wired to your value system – your attitudes and beliefs. “The beliefs that accumulate in people’s minds as they get older become the rules that govern their actions and way of thinking. The beliefs and evaluations people hold about themselves determine who they are, what they can do, and what they can become (Burns, 1982).”

The books I read, and the videos I watched on personal growth and development allowed me to examine closely the value system of extremely successful people. Undoubtedly, their attitudes and beliefs brought them to the pinnacle of success. Their value system is worth emulating. You and I can always try to develop the same attitudes and beliefs they have and see which of them are the keys we need to open the floodgates of success.

 The said men and women who realized their dreams and ambitions share common distinct characteristics – They have faith in themselves; they are in control of their destiny; they are personally accountable; they think positively; they look at things using a positive perspective and mindset; they are purposive and passionate in everything they think, say, and do; and they are grateful.  

The distinguished individuals  in our midst strongly believe in themselves and never doubt their ability to succeed (or to eventually succeed.) Not that they never failed. They did, sometimes multiple times, like J.K. Rowling, whose first Harry Potter book was rejected by 12 publishers. But she kept trying until Bloomsbury published her first novel “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling, n.d.). The rest, as they say, is history.

What if J.K. Rowling stopped trying after those many failures? She would not have become one of the highest-paid authors of this generation earning millions of dollars a year. What if Henry Ford and Soichiro Honda (founders of motor companies that bear their names); Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (of Microsoft and Apple fame); and Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln (giant political figures in their respective countries) all succumbed to their initial failures? But they did not. They have (and have)  faith in their capabilities and in their dreams. They did not quit. They knew that, eventually, they would reap the fruits of the hard work they sowed.

People who achieved renown and wealth got what (and where) they wanted because they willed it. Instead of becoming hostage to the notion that men get to live their assigned fate, they took control of their lives and charted their destiny. They also consider themselves personally accountable for whatever happens to them and what they become. They make their own decisions and live their lives on their own terms. They take it incumbent upon themselves to ensure that they succeed, with or without the help of anybody. They don’t rely on anyone but themselves. They would appreciate any help, but these people prefer climbing to the top. Their character is that strong, and their heart and mind are focused on their goals so that no matter what, they will reach the summit of any mountain they want to climb. That’s how they got there.

Despite the skepticism against positive thinking (or any of its equivalent constructs), extremely successful people embrace it because they know and are smart enough to acknowledge that thinking positively rather than negatively is more beneficial. They practiced positive thinking, and I don’t mean they just imagined themselves becoming successful. Then they became successful.   They used positive thinking only as a springboard.

Those who bothered to study positive thinking before judging its worth acknowledge that it is not the be-all and end-all of personal growth and development.  As I said previously – it’s a springboard. They know it is better to have hope – which is what positive thinking gives – than none. But  as John Maxwell puts it, “Hope is not a strategy.” This they know. Thus, they did not stop after thinking positively. They acted after thinking. They carried out their plans.

Thoughts have power in themselves. They affect a person’s health and well-being. But you will not bring your dreams and ambitions to fruition by thinking and not doing anything. “Act is the blossom of thought and joy; sufferings are its fruits.” It was James Allen who said that.

The few extraordinary and great men and women among us view things, events, and issues using a different lens. They have the propensity to look at them from a positive vantage point. What ordinary people consider adversity is, for them, an opportunity. This Jim Rohn illustrated succinctly through an anecdote about two salesmen who,  one day, experienced a storm. One of them looks out and says, “Wow, what a storm! They can’t expect you to go out and make sales with weather like this. He stays home. The same morning, the other guy looks out – same rain, same storm – and says, “Wow, what a storm! With weather like this, what a great day to go out and make sales! Most everybody will be home – especially the salesmen!”

That’s the kind of lens that those people who succeeded possess. They see opportunity amidst adversity. They refuse to be drowned by the unstoppable waves of challenges. They surf through them. They are the ones who look at failure as a teacher who tells them what didn’t work. Thus, they perform better when they try again. These people would simply refuse to dwell on the negative.

Their positive perspective is part and parcel of another important construct called a “positive mindset.” Others view perspective and mindset as similar concepts. I construe them differently – the former is a component of the latter. Mindset refers to people’s general attitudes, not the way they think about things and issues. There is something else to mindset aside from the ability to put things, events, issues, and what-have-you in a positive frame. That something is what Carol Dweck dichotomized into “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset.” She (Dweck) refers to it as self-perception or self-theory people hold about themselves. 

Needless to say the winners who raised their hands on the podium of success possess a positive (or growth) mindset. They believe that a person should continuously hone their skills and abilities. It is what successful people do – dedicate themselves to lifelong learning.  They worked hard maintaining the notion that intelligence and talents are something that they are not born with but something they have to acquire and nurture. Even if many of them are innately intelligent and talented, they never assume they are. They are determined to learn what they want to learn and acquire the skills they must develop to pursue their dreams and ambitions.  

Achieving goals has seemingly become natural for these exceptional and remarkable ladies and gentlemen because they are also passionate and purposive, in addition to all the aforementioned beliefs and attitudes embedded in their value system. They display tremendous passion in their personal, professional, and business pursuits. They know what they want and will not leave a stone unturned until they get it.

Certainly, these people we look up to because of their tremendous accomplishments and exploits are not whiners and whingers. They are satisfied and grateful. And why not? Why would they complain when they have everything they want and are exactly where they want to be. They are enjoying the fruits of their labor. As the old saying goes – “You reap what you sow.”

It is to tell us how many of these people who have accomplished so much have the humility to recognize that in the process of becoming and getting what they wanted, an unseen force guided and helped them. Those who do call that unseen force different names. I call it GOD.

We are free to move out (literally and figuratively) of any place where we grew up. The value system we possess, which our education and experiences forged, is not set in stone. They are dynamic. Living in this world that keeps changing demands flexibility on our part. We need to adapt if we hope to survive.