Be Successful Like One of the Greatest Minds Ever
The inspiring story of Thomas Alva Edison
By Fanny Bates
都说爱迪生是天才，然而在他小的时候他的老师可不这么认为。有一天小爱迪生回到家中告诉母亲, 他的老师给他一封信，让他交给自己的妈妈，母亲看过信后高兴的抱着爱迪生说：老师说爱迪生太聪明了，所以无法继续在学校学习，未来将由妈妈继续教育你。这个故事妇孺皆知，在这位伟大母亲的培育下，爱迪生终成一代英才，为这个世界做出了巨大贡献。当然，爱迪生的成功不可能是仅仅在母亲的鼓励下做到的，习惯，目标，毅力，都成为你实现目标道路上不可缺少的助力。正如某位企业家所说，先定一个小目标——我们的小目标不会是一个亿，但是至少可以从每天做好某件事开始；慢慢形成习惯，一切就变得更加自然。另外效率也是至关重要的，如果你想成功，最好找出自己工作生活最高效的时间来做最重要的事。最后为了保证目标顺利实现，还需要为这个目标设定一个系统，有些大目标不是一个人能完成的，它需要很多人齐心合力才能成功。所以，只有先有一个合理运转的系统，才可以做到无论缺了谁，这个目标都不会受到影响并顺利完成。
One day, after Edison came back from school, his mother was sitting next to the window, waiting for him. Teachers from his school sent him to give her a very special letter. After she had read the letter, she hugged her son and told him that he is too smart to go to school and that from now on, she will teach him. What she did actually is that she gave him a compass of how to become a true, successful man.
The first, amongst many important lessons, is the lesson about habits. Our habits are truly powerful things because they define our personalities. A successful person and a successful entrepreneur know this. Positive qualities like work ethic, always being on time, trying to do things right and not giving up no matter what starts out as our choice, our free will. But they eventually develop into routines. Effective habits and their repetition are one of the best ways to become better at anything, entrepreneurship included.
Always set a goal. Choose something that's physical or numerical. It will help you on your path and set up a compass in all the hardships that you will face in trying to achieve it. Make your compass always visible to you.
Find out what triggers you and make the best use of your most productive hours. This means make time. Make it today. But make time to plan for tomorrow. You will be able to anticipate possible problems and come up with that handy plan B. This makes sense, doesn't it?
Reward yourself. Try to identify your healthy habits and routines. When you do that, you will also learn about your unhealthy ones. Think about what's the best reward in getting at some point of your path. It means that you shouldn't reward yourself just once, but each time you cross a threshold of a problem. And then make new, more powerful, helpful and healthy habits.
Create a system for each goal.
Set up small goals with different systems. Not enough time for everything? Make systems that will function even if you are not involved in it. Most entrepreneurs fear that their business won’t function without them. So it actually relies too heavily on their personal involvement. Try to involve others in some specific tasks. Let them help you. It feels much better when you know you're not alone in facing problems. Even if they don't help you, you will get enough time to release the stress and let inspiration come in.
Don't forget that we are the architects of our lives. And all the bricks are made of small habits. Becoming successful and fulfilling your dream is a big thing. But if we broke it down into a list of small things, we will realize that those things are not the highly effective habits that we created from our inner self.
At the end, those things can't be taught in a school, university, academy... Those are things that we learn through our communication with people and our communication with that voice in our heads that always pushes us to go forward, even though sometimes it's really hard to do that.
At the peak of his career, Edison's mother died. After her death he found the letter that she once read to him. In the letter teachers actually wrote that her son is mentally ill and that they can't teach him anything at all and that she should teach him. And she did her job better than any other teacher in the world. She gave him a recipe of how to become one of the most brilliant and successful people in the world.
