How to find success

“The best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service.” 

Oprah Winfrey

Though Winfrey's words seems easy to understand, it is actually a summation of what she had been through all these years.


There are several obstacles hidden in this quote that one needs to surpass before attaining the same success as Oprah Winfrey.


Obstacle #01 - LOVE / PASSION

Best job is the dream job you loved

Often, people are entrenched in here. There are simply to many things to love yet too little time to develop. Hobbies like singing, photography, fashion design, novel-writing, video production and teaching, etc, a myriad of things that one can occupy their time with. But the thing is how do one know which one is the person best at and able to continue to do it for the rest of her life?












Obstacle #02 - FEAR

Assuming one gets pass the stage of find the love of life, the next thing is does the person have the confidence to pursue the love? 
What if the person love the thing yet does not have the flair to do it? 
Assuming again, the person is persistent, continue to chase her dream, she will have the constant nagging fear of will she succeed? When will the person succeed? The pursuit of art is often a risky business. Who know when the person will succeed? Maybe she never will, maybe after her death e.g. Vincent Van Gogh.






Obstacle #03 - RESOURCES

Network of resources at fingertips

Assuming the person now overcomes her fear, decides one shall pursue dreams at all costs. The next thing is does the person have sufficient resources to continue the quest of dreams?
Equipment needs $$ and so does her cost of living. 
The amount need for training in achieving her passion is a big sum too.
If the person needs a white fish to survive, how much time should the person allocate to the white fish in order to earn sufficiently to support her life and passion?
Inevitably the white fish will take up most of the time.
How is the person able to carry on with her passion? 
With passion,one needs exposure. There are some white fish that do not allow moonlighting. Then how is it possible to pursue dreams?




Obstacle #04 - MENTAL ATTITUDE to WHITE FISH & PASSION

Exit or Continue?

Assuming the person found a white fish able to allow the person continue the passion. The person settles her life and found a balance between the white fish and her passion. White fish then passion, white fish then passion. After a while, the person realise actually the white fish is not bad either. 
Now that the person is in the comfort zone, she may find it hard to shift out of the comfort zone even though the reason for staying in the comfort zone is no longer there. 
Assuming at this stage, the person no longer need the white fish, she needs to move out of the white fish in order to fulfill the dream. The opportunity cost of sacrificing the white fish is stability, perks and $$. The person may reevaluate her options and definition of what is her dreams and what is her desires. The white fish has a potential to become the dream at this stage. How to overcome this?




Obstacle #05 - RECOGNITION

Thumbs-up is hard-earned

Assuming after a tough mental battle, the person overcomes the desire of the monetary gains and continue the quest for passion and gave up the white fish. The next question comes, how to get recognised for the performance in the passion. There are a multitude of people with talents and there are varying levels of talents in the playing field so even though the point of entry can be easy, how to create a breakthrough in the passion is tough. She may forever be drown in the pain of not getting recognised and get comfort from drugs or other vices.












Obstacle #06 - FATIGUE / BURNOUTS

Brains are malfunctioned & health affected

Assuming the person gets recognised, fame and success is like a cloak added to one's mantle. Huge amount of work poured in, demanding for the person's attention.
At a certain point in time, the person may be so sick of her passion that she develop fatigue and disgust of her passion. She can no longer function. Her well of creativity in her passion simply dried up. This is the worst fear of anyone who are pursuing dreams.
Once the well dried up, there is nothing she can do about it. "江郎才尽“ as they called in in Chinese. 
The company may sack her and she will lose her dream job.
This is the peak and in fact the tipping point of pursuing a passion.
This is in fact, happening to a lot of artistes and celebrities like Stephanie Sun and A-mei. 
What is their solution?
They all took sabbatical. A leave of absence a break from their passion. This decision again, may make or break the career. Others may make a big comback, energised and revitalised like A-mei and Britney Spears, but most never will.
Even though those who did make a comback, will take a while to reach their peak again after fighting off those up and coming newcomers who are on their way to their peak.
How to prevent this?




Obstacle #07 - SENSE OF EMPTINESS

Easily fell into depression

Assuming the person has a secret solution to prevent fatigue and managed to ride several peaks of his passion success, wealth, talent recognition, job satisfaction and standard of living e.g. holidays to anywhere in the world, a car to save time & a house to relax and loosen up, are the by-products of her success. 
Everything seems like fairytale, nice and good. 
Except for a little naggy tendrils of emptiness in the heart.
What is wrong with this perfect picture?
It is like as if the person has just finished the race of her life and nothing else to conquer but emptiness prevails.
How to stopper that?




Obstacle #08 - 2 BECOME ONE

Not easy to merge in the right way

Assuming the person has some meditation class or have a good spiritual mentor who took her out of the worldly materialistic world, she suddenly realise what she can do at her pinnacle of her life. She can help others.
However, the person only knowledge of her profession, her ideal job. how is it possible to help others? How much people can be saved?
Some possible difficult scenarios:
a) Photography - how to help others? e.g. help elders to take best photos of themselves so that they can use at their final moments? set up a charity exhibition and sell pictures with proceeds going to charitable organisations? How does all these help others in the long run? Does the other persons or others want these help? How many people can be helped?


b) Fashion design -  e.g. design clothes for elders so that they can clean themselves up easily? Design their clothes for their final moments? Recruit some kids or orphans to teach them a skill to earn a living?


c) writing novels - reflect the various pockets of people having difficulty in their lives so that people can focus their energy on them? Charity proceeds from selling novels? Teach children in novel writing? 


d) Video production - somewhat similar to writing novels. 


e) Teaching - teach those motivated children or people to do things. Correct them and bring them back on path?






These are some of the obstacles that a person face before attaining success. 
Love to hear your comments and opinions on all these. 
Happy Lunar New Year !