Discipline of Minds

If you want to play a game, you would have to know the rules of the game or you'll be game over soon. If you want to achieve a goal, you should know the necessary and sufficient conditions to make it happen. The path to success, in my view, is to keep as many variables under control as possible, avoiding or mitigating the risks, as well as exploiting or enhancing the opportunity.

In my view, the necessary conditions that enable a person to succeed would depend on whether that person has the value, capacity and support in achieving the goal. The necessary and sufficient condition that makes success nearly certain would depend on whether that person has relatively better control than others of the necessary conditions at the right time and in the right context.

Although we can somewhat control our own values, we cannot dictate the interests, assumptions and positions of others. While we have some knowledge, experience and skills to deliver, others may have identical or similar capacity to achieve. As we may be able to get some support from others, and so are the others.

Thus the real challenge to succeed, in my view, is not just to control the variables in us, but to control the variables in others. In order to align conflicting values, exploit different capacity and nurture wider support, we need to persuade effectively ie getting others to accept an alternative that advances mutual interests. As reciprocity compels and resonates, the discipline of minds among "like-minded" people ensures success will come as no surprise!

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