We all have heard great stories of great people, always with a morale at the end. The end usually captures the virtue, character trait they so ceaselessly inculcated that led them to the glory forever.

Or did it?

Most ( if not all) the achievers have had a dark side, just like the rest of us mere mortals have. The examples are abound on the net. Now, no one builds a case of having a bad habit leading them to achieve what they had achieved.

The story actually goes like this. In the beginning, there is a theory. The theory links trait A to result B. If you do A long enough and doggedly enough, you are sure to achieve the pinnacle that is B. Now I feel we should listen to Mr. Holmes here. Although we are not twisting the facts in some cases, but just being extremely selective.

Such offerings are littered with stories. A specific theme links these stories. They all confirm the theory. As it is said ” People in the graves do not give evidence”. The winner shines for the world, the loser is just plain ignored.

Now, we need to ask a couple of simple questions here:

• Is there correlation?
• Is there causality?

Simply put, does the trait always occers in the achievers, and most importantly does NOT occur in the losers ?

Secondly, does the trait cause the success? or the trait and success are both caused by a background entity ?

These two questions will help you rip apart most such claims.

In my opinion, success is culmination of three things:

• Luck/opportunity
• talent
• practice

And I believe any of the three can increase the incidence of the other two. Given opportunity, your hidden talent can manifest, or you will get to practice more. Given talent, you will be tempted to practice since you will do well from the start and will face less resistance to progress compared to others around you,and also you will have a better chance of being noticed and given a chance. Practice can also unlock your hidden talent and practicing will have you noticed by the relevant persons in the same field as birds of a feather flock together.