The Secret Of Success

In life, everyone wants to be successful. This is because we are brought up and educated to think that we must be successful in both work and life. Since we are brought up and educated like this, people try to find the secret of success in life. Some find it, but others are still searching. This Zen story may be able to help some of you who have not found it yet. Here is the story:

There once lived a Zen Master who, one day, wanted to teach the secret of success to his students. He asked them, "Do you know how to be successful in work and life?" They replied, "No sir, we don’t know. But what we know is that to be successful is difficult." He said, "So today we are going to learn the method to be successful in work and life." All of the students looked excited and asked him, "What is it? Teach us it, Master?" He said to them, "It is a technique. All you have to do is just swing your hands to and fro three hundred times a day. Can you do that?" They said to him full of doubt, "That is easy. But why do we have to do that? And what for, Master?" He reassured them, saying, "That is the secret of success. As a result of doing this, all of you will be successful in work and life." They were excited about the prospect of this and asked him, "Wow! That sounds easy, Master. But for how long do we have to do that?" He answered, "For one year. Can you all do that?" They replied, "Yes sir, absolutely we can. That is easy."

When one week passed and then the Master checked whether his students were swinging their hands. All of them said, "Yes, Master. We are still doing it now." He said to them, "Good! All of you will be successful in work and life." A month passed by and again he checked his students’ practice. He found out that half of them had stopped. Two months passed by, he again checked his students’ practice, asking them, "How many of you are still doing this easy task of swinging hands?" Everyone was quiet, except one student who broke the silence, answering, "Yes, Master. I am still doing it." He was proud of the student and said, "Well done! You will be successful in work and life in the here and now and in the future." He explained to the rest of the students, "You see! You all said swinging hands is easy. But now all of you have stopped doing this easy task. Think about it. How can any of you be successful in work and life? Even this easy job you have stopped." They all quietly thought it over and seemed to accept the Master’s explanation.

The moral of the story is that to be successful in work and life, we need constant intention, dedication, effort, patience and practice. Otherwise we will end up with failure like the students in the story. It is true that people like to say, "Well! That is easy work. I will complete this and that." But after not so long, they just stop doing it. We can see it is easy just to say something. Doing is something else.

So the secret of success is the need for constant intention, dedication, effort, patience and practice. These qualities are not just one task. Bear in mind this formula and then include these factors into whatever task you do, whether it be big or small. In this way we will be successful in work and life.