Approaches to success

How important is success to a leader?  Must be very important, no? But then how does one achieve it? Going through various literature, I found three different approaches.

First is the simple principle of hard work. We are taught from childhood that if you work hard today, you will enjoy success someday. Though hard work is important for success, if your heart is not in the work, it becomes donkey work. The success attained limited to that in the career rather than in the leadership. In our student life, we are asked to work hard with the enticement of the prestigious and the lucrative job when we graduate. This hard work principle often robs people from the joy of working. It is even considered that happiness is disparate from success. So, following this principle, people get success in their career but they find their jobs boring and meaningless. In such a case, how will they serve people wholeheartedly?

The second principle says what you think is more important than what you do. It emphasizes on a setting a success mindset. Surely, being imaginative, having a positive attitude and setting a big goals are desirable qualities for the leaders. But mind power promises too high and instantaneous success. It would be a great boon if positive thinking alone was enough to do everything. In this book Breakthrough experiences, Dr John F Demartini says "The most longer I stayed positive, the more something would blow and I would get really negative, either to myself or someone else." A leader needs to complement positive thinking with realistic thinking. Another drawback of the overnight success literature is that for them success means becoming a multimillionaire. There is no place for integrity and compassion.