Keys to Success

What does it take to make it to the top? What do you need or need to be in order to be the best? How do you become successful? There are plenty of answers to these questions. Some may say you need the 3 C's: character, competence and charisma. Some just believe in luck.

Just for the fun of it, let's try to figure out which is really helpful to be the alpha dog. How? Using math, of course! Simple addition to be more specific. First, let's list down the letters of the alphabet and assign each letter with a number:

A – 1	H – 8	O – 15	V – 22
B – 2	I – 9	P – 16	W – 23
C – 3	J – 10	Q – 17	X – 24
D – 4	K – 11	R – 18	Y – 25
E – 5	L – 12	S – 19	Z – 26
F – 6	M – 13	T – 20
G – 7	N – 14	U – 21

Then to know which are the keys to success, just get the equivalent KEY VALUE. If you hit a value of 100 (or strictly speaking, 89 since SUCCESS = 89), then that would be the key. Let's take an example. I said earlier that people just rely on LUCK. Based on the equation,

L + U + C + K = 12 + 21 + 3 + 11 = 47

This shows that LUCK wouldn't even give you half of the success.

I've searched for different characteristics that are said to be keys to success and here they are with their corresponding key values. If there are errors to my arithmetic, I would welcome corrections, thank you very much!

This first batch includes key values less than 89:

LOGIC = 46 (you'll be better off with LUCK!)
ACADEMICS = 58 (so much for studying!)
FOCUS = 64
EFFORT = 70
CHARISMA = 72
CHARACTER = 77
CONFIDENCE = 84

This next batch are the keys to success with key values of 89 to 100 (inclusive):

PASSION = 93
KNOWLEDGE = 96
LEADERSHIP = 98
COMPETENCE = 99 (close, but no cigar!)
ATTITUDE = 100
DISCIPLINE = 100

It can be seen that with the right ATTITUDE and DISCIPLINE, you're on your way to success. But of course, we can always do more with the following key values of over 100:

INTELLIGENCE = 115
CONNECTIONS = 131
PERSEVERANCE = 131
ORGANIZATION = 149
RESOURCEFULNESS = 200

Interestingly enough, there's one more thing that's beyond 100 and will get you somewhere if you want, ASS KISSING = 127! And how true it is!