Can We All Be Successful?

I was watching the video below last night and was inspired to write a post about it. The video is of Facebook COO and power woman Sheryl Sandberg interviewing Oprah Winfrey. Either take the time to watch the video now, or return to it later, but make sure you watch it. 

While there are a number of gems in the interview, one point really struck a cord. Sheryl was asking about Oprah's mission - which is to help every single person find their "true self". She asked "Oprah, do you really believe that every person can be successful?"

When you think of circumstances around the world, and the abilities that people are born with, the easy answer is "no". But it all depends on how you define success. As Oprah said, "Not everyone can be the COO of Facebook, or a talk show host, but they can be successful as the person they are meant to be.

Obvious? Yes. But I think it's a really important point. Not everyone can be the COO of a massive company or a talk show host, but that's okay. None of us are Oprah or Sheryl either. You are you, so you can only be what you are meant to be, nothing else. What if you think you aren't meant to be anything? You haven't found that something yet, because we here at Sokanu also share the belief that every person is meant to do something amazing.

I have written about this before, but the reality is that almost every single one of us lives our life through someone else's lense. We all "want to be like XYZ" when we grow up, but of course everything about that person makes them unique. Should we look up to people as role models? Absolutely. But we shouldn't dictate our lives through their past actions. Ask any successful people why they are successful, and they will probably say "it's because I've made 1000000 mistakes". I'm betting if they had the chance to redo some of their life, they wouldn't choose the exact same path.

Every person is born with a unique set of genes that define who we are. We are then brought up in a certain type of environment that molds and shapes those genes. Based on that, by the time we reach a certain age, we can begin to understand "what makes us tick". Our only goal should then be to define what we are meant to do, and how to go about accomplishing that. No, you can't plan your life out from day one, but you can have an understanding of what direction you need to go in.

Every single person can be successful, in their own capacity. We have to continue to remember that success is relative. But if you are not waking up every day knowing you are meant to do something great, then you need to set out to discover that feeling within yourself. Oprah talks about meditating and getting in touch with "your inner self", and while you can call it whatever you choose, it's about understanding who you are at a deep level.

So how do we go about "finding ourselves"? Of course this is the ultimate question, and is different for every person. But I'd like to try and offer at least some concrete advice to get started. I'll break it down into two main categories.

1. Self-discovery

This is really, really hard and time consuming. This is where you a) have the time and b) have the resources available to spend the time looking at who you really are. This is in the form of books, seminars, tapes, shows, courses, school, etc... Every action you take gives your brain an indication as to what is wrong/right for it. 

I always suggest reading these two books to get started:

*Note: both of these books were written quite a while ago and you should be able to find them for free online

2. (Accidental) Activation

The second method is what I think everyone should be aiming for, but it's much more of an art than a science. I believe that we all have "activation genes" that are awakened based on certain experiences that we have in our life. These genes can be "awakened" by reading something in a book or magazine, watching a video, talking to someone over coffee, or any other number of things. 

You don't have full control over this, since we have so many random events that happen to us day to day. Maybe you will become an opera singer after watching a performance on TV, or maybe a physicist after seeing an picture of an equation on a blackboard. But you can try to have as many experiences as you can within the realm of things that you enjoy, in order to try and activate those genes. Some products and experiences are trying to create these experiences for you (Sokanu is one of them)

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Overall, please take the time to watch the video above. No matter where you are from, how you were raised or what you think of yourself, every person is put on this earth to do something amazing. You need to look deep inside yourself in order to discover what that something amazing is. Yes, we all can be successful - it just needs to be in our own way.