Regardless of how success is defined, the definition must embody a bold vision nurtured by stubborn determination and achieved through endless hard work. Great intentions and lofty goals do not add up to achievement, and words are cheap. Just listen daily to would-be leaders continuously giving you food for thought followed by very little, if any, action. Do you recall these words of Lucretius: What is food to one man may be fierce poison to another?? My mother taught me that I do not have to eat just because someone is serving.  For true success, you must be careful of the food you eat and of the table from which it is served. The process of eating can be used as a recipe for success because it contains the most important ingredient: hunger, or appetite.  Physical hunger causes the brain to seek solutions, internally or externally, to such a natural urge. Eating is the process by which this physical hunger is relieved, the process through which the body is externally nourished.  We ingest a variety of foods, some healthy and others poisonous.  Physical hunger is to the body as spiritual hunger is to the mind or intellect.  True success is to spiritual harmony as healthy food is to a sound body.  As appetite precedes eating, spiritual development precedes accomplishments.   I want to employ everyone with an appetite for achievement to "EAT" for success daily.

It may seem odd to be encouraging people to "EAT," when it seems as if everyone is restricting their intake of food, examining what they eat, and watching their weight.  What I espouse is "EATing" for the nourishment of your mind or intellect.  Many people are walking around physically obese and psychologically anorectic and their minds must be fed a special diet if the condition is to improve . If one were to feed an infant a steak, the baby would probably regurgitate it, if asphyxiation did not begin.   It is not that the steak is uninviting or unpalatable, but that the infant has not developed physically and mentally enough to digest such a stupendous meal.  This analogy is offered as a road map to help you mature beyond an infant stage to consume and digest what you need to succeed personally and professionally.

If you have an appetite for true success, you need a recipe, or a model. When you are starving, your enemy brings you food, but your friend delivers you a recipe so you may feed yourself forever.  I am the friend who offers a model for achievement that involves "EATing" to promote academic, mental, social and spiritual prosperity.  If you have an appetite for true success, you must focus on Education, Attitude and Time.  EAT for success.

Education

Malcolm X informed us that, "Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today." This adage is more applicable today than it has ever been before. As we move into the Information Age, low wage, blue-collar jobs are being phased out in record number.  In 1960, manufacturing jobs accounted for one out of four jobs and by 1990 represented one out of six.  Furthermore, many people, directly affected by the Information Age, do not possess the education or training skills necessary to perform the alternative high-tech positions that are being created.  A high school diploma no longer represents a level of education which allows one to enter the job market; the college degree is becoming the minimum requirement for meaningful participation in the marketplace.  Pursuing and obtaining an education serve one with increased opportunity and vision.  For success in the dynamical system of modern technology, education is not a choice or decision.... but a must! Moreover, this education must go beyond formal schooling or training. It must comprise sectors which treat the whole of the individual. Every man is limited by three things which are the knowledge in his mind, the strength of his character and the principles upon which he is building his life. So, your education must treat the mental and physical as well as the spiritual.

Attitude

There is much to be said about the Optimist and Pessimist.  The optimist is very positive and his every move is directed toward achieving goals; whereas, the pessimist, is never satisfied, unfocused, negative, verbally destructive and an outright depressing person. Moreover, a negative person drains your psyche and energy. Thus, when one strives to be successful, he or she must surround himself or herself with positive people maintaining positive attitudes and positive energy.  Jesse Jackson often states, "It is often your attitude and not your aptitude that determines your altitude." Your attitude is a reflection of your self-esteem and a negative person is usually a person of low self-esteem.  A recent study showed that most successful people have a high self-esteem and an "I CAN" attitude. The next step toward achievement is easy if you remove the phrase "I CAN'T" from your vocabulary.  Establish a positive attitude and environment around yourself. Speak positive words, think uplifting ideas and these will translate into constructive, self-affirming behavior. The words you speak are the most important aspect of life changing behavior, for words spoken into the mind become ideas, and ideas held become attitudes and attitudes held and manifested become behavior. Therefore, to develop life-sustaining attitudes and thoughts that are developed into positive action, we must police and discipline the words we speak and hear. Once belief in self is attained, the problem is 50 percent solved because the greatest obstacle in solving problems is the psychological barriers you create from past failures. 

Time

Simply put, time waits on no man. Time is the greatest teacher, but it kills its student. The adage that the smart man learns from his own mistakes, but the wise man learns from the mistakes of others is a universal truth and should be memorized by everyone.  Timing is everything! We cannot force it or predict it!   This stage of success is reminiscent of waiting for a bus--the bus of opportunity.  While standing with multiple degrees and vast training experience in your briefcase and a positive attitude, you still thirst for an opportunity to showcase your talents to the world. Obviously, the bus of opportunity is very unpredictable; you have no knowledge of its arrival time or its destination. Furthermore, if the bus of opportunity arrives and you are unprepared to board, then you cannot become upset if it never comes again. It is your responsibility to be prepared when opportunity knocks.  Whitney Young stated it best when he said that being prepared for an opportunity and not having one, is better than not being prepared and having an opportunity. Timing is the essential ingredient in the recipe of success!

Now when you eat for your body, you must assess what you have digested for your mind. Development of self, not material gain or self-aggrandizement, must be the ultimate quest of every individual. The individual is the genesis of the family, community and the world. Only through the transformation of our minds with life-sustaining knowledge will we ever reach true success. Your attitude about education will dictate the timeframe in which such a metamorphosis will occur for you!
 

Dr. Calvin Mackie is an
assistant professor of mechanical engineering at
Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.