| | DECEMBER - JANUARY19UTLOOKHealthcare Tech Psychology behind Successful Peopleand enthusiasm is greatest between the ages of 13 and 35. Let me reference the late Steve Jobs' words to Stanford graduates in his commencement speech: "Stay hungry and stay foolish." This has to do with motivation for hard work. If your belly is full, there is less reason or motivation to "hunt," which is work. If you think you already know everything, there is less motivation to "learn," which is also hard work. Jobs' words imply that it is a natural process of life and aging to become less motivated to work. Psychologically, it's easy to see why motivation and energy for work decrease as we accumulate wealth and become mentally satisfied with age. Jobs was encouraging young graduates to retain their youthful enthusiasm well into their adult lives because success is a process, not necessarily a final destination.It is natural for all living beings to lose energy and enthusiasm--the key ingredients for success--with aging. That is why it is crucial for young people to work hard, set goals, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes in their 20s and 30s. How hard one works as a teenager profoundly affects the quality of life later on.As I mentioned earlier, success is an objective construct, and therefore requires benchmarking. In the process of pursuing success, one should repeatedly evaluate their work. A problem with modern "wokeism" is that it treats success as a subjective feeling and avoids evaluations to minimize the negative feelings of failure. Without experiencing failure, adjusting methods, and trying again, those who embrace "wokeism" will never achieve true success. Examples of wokeism include: believing you can become whoever you want simply by dreaming hard enough; thinking positively while ignoring all criticism; changing your gender if you're unhappy with it; and eliminating standardized testing in college admissions because it disadvantages certain cultural minorities. Benchmarking is crucial to building one's confidence in any task. Without assessments, we cannot understand our failures, much less learn from them, and without learning from failures, success cannot be achieved.This is why I want my children to not fear tests, but rather embrace them as opportunities for growth. Test results do not define you, failure does not define you, and even success does not define you. So what defines a person? You are defined by your responses to your failures.For instance, imagine a successful bureaucrat in Ukraine who rose to their position through nepotism and corruption. Due to the war, they move to the UK, lose most of their wealth, and have to start over. Compare this to a second person who achieved the same position in Ukraine through merit. Who is more likely to achieve a similar level of success in the UK years later?What is inside your mind is much more lasting than what is outside your body. Your mind shapes the path of your life far more than your appearance. No substance can improve your mind beyond what nature has given you--substance only diminishes it. Think things through before you act; let cognition dictate your behavior rather than emotions. Retain your youthful curiosity about the world so that you keep learning, because understanding is the correct strategy for most mental health problems.I do not believe in destiny--your actions can affect the future of the world, and your choices matter. HTSuccess is not subjective, and it is not a feeling; it requires effort--often very hard work. The key to self-improvement is to learn the right lessons from your mistakes and failures
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