No … this is not a post about piloting a plane or any sort (and not hiking neither). I am referring to the quote from Zig Ziglar (1926 ~ 2012) –

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude…”

We tends to be forever climbing in altitude, no matter its a career ladder, social status, personal wealth etc… but what will determine our altitude? or, how high will we reach?

Ever after the industrial revolution, there is a certain “life model” has been fabricated in the western world, with an image or so called path to the “success model”. It is just like a cookie cutter, telling you that you study, earn your degree, get a good job, and progress … in which, it “should” bring you to the destination – the definition of successful. The focus on skills or aptitude is far more greater than anything else, and a lot of people trust that with a great skill-set or aptitude, that would bring you success and you will be at the altitude you wanted.

But… is that all? Why are there so many graduates from different universities all over the world every single year and we have only seen a few of the successful cases? Well, you might argue that everyone’s definition for “being successful” are different. Yes, I agree. That was what I thought in the past as well.

However, beside accepting the fact that the targets are different, attitude plays a big part in the journey as well. The quote from Zig Ziglar was echoing in my head in the last couple of days when I tried to look back on what has been happening in my life over the last couple of years. I really want to know where am I heading and what I could achieve.

Attitude – the strong word that came into mind. If two identical persons having the same skill set/aptitude, what differentiate them is the attitude towards the things that they are working on. Your mindset and attitude towards the item can leads to a very different outcome. This has a direct influence on how successful you will be – the altitude that you want to achieve.

I have reflected a lot on this quote personally and really would like to share this with you.

Be positive, be courage, be humble and less arrogant. The higher the attitude you set for yourself, the more important this is.

This is all I have for today. Ciao until next time.

J