Prompt:
"Too many people think only about getting results. The key to success, however, is to focus on the specific task at hand and not to worry about results."
What do you think this piece of advice means, and do you think that it is, on the whole, worth following? Support your views with reasons and/or examples drawn from your own experience, observations, or reading. (used with permission from mba.com)
My response:
The notion that too many people think only about results and that the key to success is to focus on the specific task at hand is not true. Focusing on results has proven to successful time and time again.
Focusing on the results of a process creates drive and determination and allows the competitive to really excel. A perfect example of this is none other than Michael Jordan. When he didn't make his high school varsity team, he set out to prove everybody wrong and soon became the best player in his school. He was so focused on results that if he didn't win, he took it personal. When he was on the Chicago Bulls he once lost a ping pong match to a teammate, he then went out and bought his own ping pong table and worked on his ping pong game for hours on end until he was the best ping pong player on the team. He was very results oriented and he always wanted to win and be the best, and he set out to do just that, and he did. He is now in the Hall of Fame with six championship rings and regarded as many as the best basketball player ever.
When you don't focus on results, you lose a sense of focus. Paperboy Productions was a recent record label in Texas that failed because of exactly this reason. They had one of the most talented artists in the country, George Young, but they never had a focus of what results they wanted to get out of the venture. Instead they wer too focused on specific tasks at hand, a particular album, a certain performance, and they lost track of the big picture and they weren't even able to generate a profit and they eventually folded. They believed they could succeed on talent alone and that through hardwork things would fall into place, but they never had an idea for how to generate revenue and get results.
Some people do however believe that people should focus on the task at hand and not worry about results. These people are likely to say that focusing too much on results, allows one to skip certain aspects in the process or make mistakes along the line, but this is not true. If any aspect in the process is skipped to acheive better results, than clearly that aspect wasn't needed to begin with, and studies have shown that mistakes are not any more likely to be made whether one focuses on the specific task at hand or on the final result. Mistakes are always possible wit human error, but to believe that they occur more often when one is focused on results is incorrect.
Therefore, it is not true taht too many people think only about getting results. Results are what drive pasison, determination and success.
"Too many people think only about getting results. The key to success, however, is to focus on the specific task at hand and not to worry about results."
What do you think this piece of advice means, and do you think that it is, on the whole, worth following? Support your views with reasons and/or examples drawn from your own experience, observations, or reading. (used with permission from mba.com)
My response:
The notion that too many people think only about results and that the key to success is to focus on the specific task at hand is not true. Focusing on results has proven to successful time and time again.
Focusing on the results of a process creates drive and determination and allows the competitive to really excel. A perfect example of this is none other than Michael Jordan. When he didn't make his high school varsity team, he set out to prove everybody wrong and soon became the best player in his school. He was so focused on results that if he didn't win, he took it personal. When he was on the Chicago Bulls he once lost a ping pong match to a teammate, he then went out and bought his own ping pong table and worked on his ping pong game for hours on end until he was the best ping pong player on the team. He was very results oriented and he always wanted to win and be the best, and he set out to do just that, and he did. He is now in the Hall of Fame with six championship rings and regarded as many as the best basketball player ever.
When you don't focus on results, you lose a sense of focus. Paperboy Productions was a recent record label in Texas that failed because of exactly this reason. They had one of the most talented artists in the country, George Young, but they never had a focus of what results they wanted to get out of the venture. Instead they wer too focused on specific tasks at hand, a particular album, a certain performance, and they lost track of the big picture and they weren't even able to generate a profit and they eventually folded. They believed they could succeed on talent alone and that through hardwork things would fall into place, but they never had an idea for how to generate revenue and get results.
Some people do however believe that people should focus on the task at hand and not worry about results. These people are likely to say that focusing too much on results, allows one to skip certain aspects in the process or make mistakes along the line, but this is not true. If any aspect in the process is skipped to acheive better results, than clearly that aspect wasn't needed to begin with, and studies have shown that mistakes are not any more likely to be made whether one focuses on the specific task at hand or on the final result. Mistakes are always possible wit human error, but to believe that they occur more often when one is focused on results is incorrect.
Therefore, it is not true taht too many people think only about getting results. Results are what drive pasison, determination and success.
