Intangible Elements in Business Success

When it comes to pursuing success, we think of hard work. Spending long hours working - attending trainings,  meetings, and brainstorming sessions as the secret sauce. It’s true, but not all of it.

There are many elements to success that you can’t always measure or physically touch or do. These are the intangibles that add to your success - regardless of whether you can quantify it or not.

Aneela Idnani Kumar, TEDx speaker and co-founder of HabitAware, believes that you can be great at what you do and be successful at it if you are willing to embrace challenges. Have the right mindset on success, and make yourself available for opportunities that aren’t always available to everyone.

Your pain is your purpose

We face many challenges every day - each one carries its own baggage and burden. You might’ve experienced something worse than others and have gone through so much pain or struggle. But, there's always sunshine after the storm.

Your pain may lead you to your purpose in life and challenge you to grow as a better individual. Don’t follow the path that everybody follows, pave your own instead of by leaning into your pain. Use it as a problem-solving tool, be strengthened and empowered by it.

When you look back on your journey and what you’ve been through, you can pat yourself in the back and say “I did it”, and soldier on to what may lie ahead.

Define “success” for yourself 

We all have our own definition of success. But no matter what it is, all we want is to succeed and be a better version of ourselves and continue on that path of self-development.

Set your own benchmarks of comparing your present to your past self. This way, you get to stay focused on what's important to you, versus getting caught up in the whirlwind of comparisonitis and building unnecessary insecurities brought up by unreal expectations based on observing other people’s success. They have their own story, their own pains, their own journey to building and rebuilding themselves for success.

We can learn from other people’s success without putting so much stress and the weight of other people’s expectations on our backs. And in the process, we are also building our own appreciation and perspective of success.

SAAS - Serendipity as a Strategy

Serendipity is defined as an unsought, unintended, or unexpected, but fortunate learning experience that happens by accident.

We can use serendipity as a strategy in our life to keep hope and believe that everything happens for a reason. You just have to trust and put yourself in situations where luck can strike or where magic can happen.

It’s important to differentiate using serendipity as a strategy versus gambling or being reckless or neglectful. The first one uses the beauty of timing and requires the effort of making yourself accessible while applying a high level of intuition. The latter can be indifferent to risks and making unwise or uneducated decisions.