Speech
The Common Denominator of Success
Several years ago I stumbled upon a speech that defines what it takes to be successful.
The speech was given by Albert E.N. Gray at the National Association of Life Underwriter’s convention of 1940. It was given to those that sold life insurance for a living.
Selling anything requires a certain degree of resilience, grit, and determination. Fortitude is a prerequisite in a profession where people shut doors in your face, hang up when you call, and otherwise walk in the other direction when they see you approaching.
In a field where failure is common, the traits that make one successful are also common. However, this universal trait can be adopted by anyone since it applies to everything. The following passages are taken from his speech and it is my best attempt to highlight the core of his message. (Note: link to pdf of full speech at end of post)
Of course, like most of us, I had been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work, but I had seen so many men work hard without succeeding and so many men succeed without working hard that I had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements.
“The common denominator of success — the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful — lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” — Albert Gray
It’s just as true as it sounds and it’s just as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can put it to the acid test, and you can kick it around until it’s worn out, but when you are all through with it, it will still be the common denominator of success, whether you like it or not.
If the secret of success lies in forming the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do, let’s start the boiling-down process by determining what are the things that failures don’t like to do.
“The things that failures don’t like to do are the very things that you and I and other human beings, including successful men, naturally don’t like to do.” — Albert Gray
In other words, we’ve got to realize right from the start that success is something which is achieved by the minority of men, and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.
Perhaps you have wondered why it is that our biggest producers seem to like to do the things that you don’t like to do. They don’t! And I think this is the most encouraging statement I have ever offered to a group of life insurance salesmen.
But if they don’t like to do these things, then why do they do them? Because by doing the things they don’t like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish.
“Successful men are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do.” — Albert Gray
Why are successful men able to do things they don’t like to do while failures are not? Because successful men have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don’t like to do in order to accomplish the purpose they want to accomplish.
“Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. Men form habits and habits form futures.” — Albert Gray
But as long as you live, don’t ever forget that while you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender.
“Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do.” — Albert Gray
If the speech had a thesis statement is would be this: to be successful, form the habit of doing the things other people don’t want to do.
The use of the word habit is suggestive of the fact that you need to do these things everyday.
If doing something everyday that others don’t want to do seems difficult, Gray had a response for that too: have a strong purpose. Surrendering to your purpose is what gives you the ability to do these things.
If you were to reverse engineer his message, it would look like this:
- Have a strong purpose.
- Figure out what most people don’t like to do (i.e. making cold calls).
- Do those things over and over again.
- Make it a habit.
What’s interesting is that if you were look at modern content regarding success, you would find many of the same ideas. I wonder what you would find if you were to look further back into history. What would you discover about success?
“Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.” — Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher. Lived from 4BC-66AD.
The link to the full pdf is here.
This story contains affiliate links which means I get a portion of what you pay at no extra cost. If you like what you read, check out my publication on high-performance. If you are new to Medium, sign up using my referral link below!
