Article written by @Ladislao Mollá, Partner – Director at MRC International People Training.
What is the key to success?
This is the question we’ve been asking for 52 weeks in our podcast — aptly titled “The Key to Success.” A program brilliantly hosted by our colleagues Manuel Tallada and César de la Paz, together with the renowned professor Richard Vaughan.
In the podcast, we explored that “key” by summarizing 52 great books — one per week — which, of course, led us to discover many different keys, depending on whether each book focused on leadership, time management, sales, or other topics related to both professional and personal growth.
We can probably all agree that it’s impossible to claim there is only one definitive key to success.
But if we change the question from “What is the key to success?” to “Where is the key to success?” — I believe we can find a single answer.
Let me explain…
Among those short, inspiring tales that we’ve all read or heard at some point, there’s one — known as “The Story of the Gods” — that leads us straight to the answer we’re looking for.
While it speaks of happiness, we can agree that happiness is, in fact, the ultimate outcome of discovering the key to success in life.
Here’s a brief version of that story:
One day, the gods gathered to create human beings. They decided that, in order to prevent humans from becoming gods themselves, they needed to take away something that would make them imperfect.
After some discussion, they agreed to take away happiness.
The question then was — where should they hide it so that humans would never find it?
One god suggested hiding it on the highest mountain, but they realized humans would eventually reach the summit.
Another proposed hiding it deep in the ocean, or even on another planet — but again, they knew that humans would one day explore those places too.
Finally, when it seemed impossible to find a truly hidden place, one of the gods who had remained silent raised his hand and said:
“Let’s hide it within them. They’ll be so busy looking for it outside that they’ll never find it.”
And from that day on, it has been so.
Human beings spend their lives searching for happiness — without realizing it’s been inside them all along. So, after reflecting on all the insights from our year-long podcast — and there were many — I’ve realized they all share one common denominator:
Every key to success lies within ourselves.
As we enter a season of rest — and hopefully reflection — I encourage you to revisit our podcast and discover your own personal key to success, the one that will bring you closer to happiness.
Because that key, I’m sure, is already inside you.
Go find it.