If you believe only Academic Excellence leads to success, you need to revalidate your opinion

Content Written by Cdr. S Prakash, Dir. Cavalier

A key question in ones mind is: How do people become successful in their chosen professions? What’s the secret of their success?

            Evaluation of success stories of military leaders, statesmen, business-persons, actors, writers, educationists, is a revelation and one can come up with several concepts behind their success. A proven concept is the  Success Triangle, representing its three sides, the three success ingredients: Knowledge, Skills and Attitude.

            Knowledge: In an academic environment, knowledge represents the core curriculum, irrespective of the courses. To illustrate, in a Management course, to make learning more comprehensive, the curriculum includes such diverse subjects as Economics, Finance, Human Resources, Organisational Behaviour, apart from Management. Knowledge can be said to be the foundation for success.

            Skills: Our educational system focuses on imparting knowledge for a career and not on essential soft skills. For example, any career requires skills such as planning, time management, logical reasoning, inter-personal relations, presentation skills etc. to apply knowledge in a practical situation.

            Attitude: While knowledge and skills are essential, they are not adequate for success. A study attributed to Harvard University found that people are employed 85 per cent of the time because of their attitude, and only 15 per cent of the time because of how smart they are and how many facts and figures they know. Surprisingly, almost 100 per cent of educational money goes into teaching facts and figures which account for only 15 per cent of success at work!

            Attitude is drawn from key aspects like honesty, integrity, self-confidence, cooperation, expectations, energy levels, optimism, initiation and so on, which are critical for career success.

The interdependency of knowledge, skills and attitude, must be clear before translating your desire into an action plan.

            Knowledge from an academic environment is the foundation for the chosen field. Degrees in Management or Engineering, may prepare you with fundamental knowledge for management and technical careers.

            Communication, analytical and presentation skills make you competent and ahead of others in these professions. Depending on professional requirements, you must acquire complementary skills to be effective.

            Remember the adage, ‘a Ferrari never wins any race while it is in the garage’. Similarly, the knowledge that one possesses and the skills that one acquires, govern ones potential. However,  productivity depends on how positive ones attitude is. It is said,, “Ability is what one is capable of doing and  Attitude determines how well one does it”.

Success is transforming  Potential to Performance through Attitude

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The Excel is the biggest Defence Career Training Academy in India with a network covering the entire country. We train candidates to face SSB Interviews, NDA Exam, CDS Exam, CPO Exam, AFCAT Exam and Other Entrance Tests. Well structured curriculum, mock tests, solved question papers of previous years and condensed study material.