Is it Luck or hard work that brings success?

In one way on another, all human beings are always working or looking for success. Some achieve it while others don’t. Many people look at success as chance or luck. For those who believe entirely that success is luck normally think their future is uncertain.

This uncertainty sometimes drives some people` into doing many things including visiting spiritual ‘worlds’.

In Uganda we have seen people who believe in spiritualism sacrificing their own children to witches in search of riches and fortunes.

Not long ago, some people were allegedly “going under water” in search for success in form of fame and riches.

That may explain why Ugandan local musician Joseph Mayanja popularly known as Chameleon has sang bawoza nyanja (that people think it is because of going under the sea that has made his music popular) a song to dispel rumours that he goes under water.

The rumors came after Chameleon’s success in his Music career.

Yes, luck could have counted for Chameleon to be successful but it shouldn’t be an issue that people should venture for and forget hard work. There are people who think that success can only be achieved through hard work.

“If you don’t work hard in life, know you will be a failure,” says Mugisha Benon whose parents refused to continue paying his school fees after Primary Seven but toiled to look for money for his school fees and now has a Masters degree in Business Administration from Makerere University Business School and is a lecturer at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.

Mugisha says that after knowing that there was no other way to success other than studying and working, labouring at the school farm was the only way to the success he is enjoying today.

After his parents refused to pay his fees saying he should stay at home to graze cattle, he went to the head master of Nganwa High School in Bushenyi where he was admitted for senior one and was given to cultivate at the school farm in order to raise his fees.

“During holidays I worked at the School farm to raise fifty thousand shillings for my fees,” Mugisha says. He earned shs50, 000 from school farm to top the half he was receiving from his aunt who was a teacher in Mbarara.

Mugisha says goal setting and consistence in measures of achieving your target is the only way to success.

“People should not stop at goal setting and the means of achieving it but also consistency in planning will make one’s hard work more effective,” he says.

Sidonia Ongom, a community based intervention strategies lecturer at Uganda Christian University Mukono agrees with Mugisha. “Ten years ago, I had this dream to become a university lecturer but I was working as a secretary in the department of History at Makerere University without a degree. It was hard for secretaries to go for studies at that time. But I resigned my job and went for a first and later a masters degree,” says Ongom.

Ongom says personal advancement and success begins with one’s courage, ambitions and focus in order to get skills that can help one to achieve the goal(s) he or she sets.

“In the past it was an imagination of what Iam today but through courage and being focused, my imagination has become a reality,” she said at a recent mentoring workshop.

She believes luck can also count in one’s success, but says it can only become a reality through goal setting and working consistently on means of achieving it.

With people like Ongom it takes boldness and courage to resign your job and start looking for skills and other opportunities.

She advises people who are in the same situation she was in 10 years ago to first look around themselves and identify any opportunity they can exploit in their situations.

“If you are working with a university that is offering scholarships please don’t hesitate to apply,” she gives an example.

Ongom says companies and government have set goals to achieve in set period of time in order to guide them in their undertakings like Uganda’s Poverty Eradication Action Plan or the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

That is why some people have asserted that luck normally comes to those who are trying to achieve better life through planned hard work According to Goal setting: A Motivational Technique That works a book by Edwin A. Locke and Gary Latham lists seven key steps that employees and managers can use to achieve the set objectives.

Specify Tasks The first key step in the goal setting process is to specify the work that must be accomplished for you to succeed.

Set Targets Setting target levels of performance is the second key step in successful goal setting. Research has shown that setting goals that are difficult but possible to achieve produces higher levels of performance than if a low goal is set.

Outline a Time Frame Specifying the expected time frame for goal achievement is the next step in effective goal setting.

Prioritize Goals If multiple goals are established, they should be ranked in terms of importance or priority. To maximize the benefits of goal setting, the you should be aware of and agree to the priority ranking. If one critical element is considered more important than the others, the you should know and always be conscious about it.

Rate Goal Performance: Employees must know how elements will be appraised and how summary levels will be assigned. Also, if goal achievement is to be used for determining incentive payouts or granting awards, employees must know the criteria on which the awards are based.

Coordinate Efforts Necessary for Goal Achievement: Many goals established for critical elements may require only individual effort, with little coordination needed with other employees. However, if tasks are highly interdependent, be sure to develop a means of measuring each individual’s contribution to the group’s product.

By Risdel Kasasira, Ultimate Media