Formulas For Success and Happiness
This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill - Fifteen percent concentrated power of will - Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain - And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!
So says the gang from Fort Minor in their high-motivational song Remember The Name, background music to many a martial movie trailer from Fighting to the new Karate Kid.
But are their percentages right?
I’ve come across a few other formulas for success and happiness over the years, so I thought I’d bring them together in one blog to see what you think.
Success = IQ + (EQ + other factors)
IQ = Intelligence Quotient (20%)
EQ = Emotional Quotient (Emotional Intelligence)
Click here to find out what EI is and why it matters, and here to learn the business case for emotional intelligence.
H= S + C + V
H = enduring level of happiness
S = set range (50%)
C = circumstances (10%)
V = voluntary variables (40%)
What makes this one interesting is the percentages. Forty percent is quite alot of happiness to have in our power!
H = P + E + M
H = Happiness
P = Pleasure
E = Engagement (Flow)
M = Meaning
Here’s a slightly more complicated British version of the ‘happiness formula’ if you want some choice: Happiness = P + (5xE) + (3xH)
Despair = Suffering – Meaning
This is a formula adopted by Viktor Frankl while experiencing first-hand the horrors of the concentration camps. So he knows what he’s talking about. Read his amazing story here.
And finally, the one we all know…
Success = I + P
I = Inspiration (10%)
P = Perspiration (90%)
Have you heard or any others? Or developed one of your own?
PS Here’s a relevant quote from Dick Fosbury (of ‘Fosbury Flop‘ fame):
“When you reach that elite level, 90 percent is mental and 10 percent is physical. You are competing against yourself. Not against the other athlete.”
