Rafayel's simple principles for success and career growth

I always highlight one thing – that knowing the answer makes a person a great subordinate; the ones who ask the right questions will make great bosses. My question is: Do you ask the right questions?

Topping a class is a sign of trouble for me.  The mediocre academic descent of many a great successful man only goes to tell me that all of them asked the right questions, which is what matters the most in life. If you don't ask the right questions, you will never find peace within yourself.  

Be inquisitive and curious. Ask and know! The University of Life serves its cards in a very diverse manner and form.

Instead of self-destructive obsession in proving one’s self-importance through shortcuts, one should immerse in the quest of true knowledge. You can’t make progress until you know your weaknesses well. You build your vitality by protecting your Achilles' heel.

Not just curiosity, but imagination and dreaming with it are very important. “Everything you can imagine is real.” The first issue is to confront your own demons.  Ask yourself plain and clear, why are you stuck here if you really don't want to be here?  Have you invested enough in life and are you bold enough to stand for what you believe in and whether you have the courage of failure? That all you stood for so far may have been misplaced and wrong? Most of us are unable to answer these dilemmas.

“Should I go after my dreams?” And the answer is, “Can you live with the consequences if you fail?”  If you can live with the consequences if you fail, then you should go after your dreams, if you are unwilling to deal with the consequences of failure, then cease your pursuit.  We often get side-tracked, derailed, or “depressed” on the road to success.  Instead of pushing through we give up.

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.”

Sometimes things get worse, before they get better.  Even after you climb one mountain, you have to venture into a deeper valley to climb the next mountain.  Life happens in cycles; sometimes you have to tear down before you can build up.

Our task is to surround ourselves with optimistic people and ignore those who bring negativity and pessimism. Taking the ‘evilest’ out of us is the ugliest of tasks. Say what you mean and do what you mean; don't say “yes” you when you mean  “no,” and don't say “no” when you don't mean it either.

We are confronted with a ‘glass ceiling.’  A ceiling or a wall exists to limit us and keep us out; these walls of hindrance and failure should come down! The only way to bring these walls of underperformance is to address our own demons.

You have to think bigger and clearer.  If you don’t, the glass ceiling will remain, and you will remain exactly where you are right now. You expand your mind by constantly associating with people who think in a different way; if someone is not challenging you, something is seriously wrong. It is from your worst critics you learn your best. You are a product of who you associate with. You should be known by the company you keep and the best company you can keep is with ‘knowledge’ and impart it well.  Don't selfishly accumulate knowledge; it only is effective when dispersed.

Talk “big” to yourself. “I am always doing that in which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” - Picasso

Learn every day; nothing can take the place of experience.  Do what you’ve never done, to get what you’ve never gotten.  You have to expand your horizons; you have to enter new waters.  When you do, you will grow, and you will change.

Succeeding at any given task is at least “twice as hard” as you think. Associate it with Picasso's “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

The reason many people don’t succeed is because they underestimate the amount of work requisite for success.  Those who play with timing and allocate rotas to their work ethics will only end up as subordinates.  Those who learn everything all around and are seekers of knowledge will break the barriers of ignorance and become stalwarts.

Success usually requires at least twice as much work as you think.  Oftentimes it requires three, four or even five times the amount of work. The price of success in high.  Maya Angelou said: “If the grass looks greener on the other side, you can bet the water bill is higher.”

The formula for personal and professional success

1. 99 percent of your results will depend only on 1 percent of your tasks. So quit wasting your time on unproductive activities, like idle chatter - idling should be constructive. 
2. Focus your life on the activities that produce the greatest rewards of human endeavours.  Focus on your priorities by sharing knowledge and experience; optimism and positive outlook will help you grow. 
3. Get the best out of your team by giving the best to the people around, become an icon of change. 
4. Let people look forward to you for change that you can bring by your talks and ideas; be an “idea” man. Most people only accomplish a fraction of what they could accomplish because they spend majority of their time working on meaningless tasks. 
5. No two days should be the same. If you want to have a successful day, you must plan your day.  Planned days are productive days!  Think what you achieved out of the whole day, anything optimistic will add to your armoury of experience; all unconstructiveness will destroy your career. 
6. You must fight for want you want!  Don’t get “depressed” when things get hard.  Remember, it’s darkest just before dawn.  Tough times will come on the “road to success,” …but you have to keep on moving!