Thinking right is the key to success

Posted on February 11, 2008 | 484 views
Filed Under Self Improvement | 6 Comments

In my previous post, I had told you that I will be writing about Four Way Test sometime soon. So here we are. You might be wondering that what this test is all about. If you will ask me I would like to take you back in time. I will take you to Chicago and will make you meet Rotarian Herbert J Taylor way back in 1932 whose company was facing the problem of Bankruptcy. I would like you to know that he was worried about it and one fine day he wrote few lines as the creed he will follow and try to implement in his vicinity and it proved a turning point in his professional and personal life. The thing he wrote was this four way test. It was basically a set of principles he decided to follow and for him the sky was no more limit. Things started getting better he happened to save his business. Those few lines that changed the fate of his business are as follows:

“Of the things we think, say or do…

Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?”

Thought process behind Four Way Test

Image credit: Sun rise at 40,000 ft

In describing the thought process behind these lines, Herbert J Taylor said, “To win our way out of this situation, I reasoned we must be morally and ethically strong. I knew that in right there was might. I felt that if we could get out our employees to think right they would do right. We needed some sort of ethical yardstick that everybody in the company could memorize and apply to what we thought, said, and did in our relations to others. So one morning I leaned over on my desk, rested my head in my hands. In a few moments, I reached for a white paper card and wrote down that which had come to me – in twenty-four words.” He was right and he proved it with kind of success he achieved by making his colleague at work place think right and with thinking right they happened to do right. It was his recipe of success that helped him sail smoothly.

In the light of four way test and this statement of Rotarian Taylor, we can clearly see the relationship between thinking right and doing right. If we see it a little deeper, we can conclude that until and unless, we will not think right we will not be able to do much in our lives.

Having realized that we need to think right before doing right, we need to train ourselves in a way that we should start thinking right since it is the best thing that we can do in order to achieve success in lives both professional and personal. It is here this four way test can be used to tell us what is right and what is wrong. No matter what we are doing, if we will adopt this test as the guiding principle, we will start thinking right and it will take us to a path that is of victory and glory.

Take Home message

Image credit: Taking off

Thinking right is the key to success because if you are not thinking right rest assured you can not act right and success never comes to those who do not act right.

Next article
In my next article, I will discuss about human needs in the light of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs its impacts and its role in our lives. It will provide answers to your so many questions that we use to face in our day to day life. So be right back!

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Comments

6 Responses to “Thinking right is the key to success”

Thinking right is the key to success « Silence on February 11th, 2008 7:07 am

[...] Thinking right is the key to success Posted on February 11, 2008 by Dr Farrukh Malik In my previous post, I had told you that I will be writing about Four Way Test sometime soon. So here we are. You might be wondering that what this test is all about. If you will ask me I would like to take you back in time. I will take you to Chicago and will make you meet Rotarian Herbert J Taylor way back in 1932 whose company was facing the problem of Bankruptcy. I would like you to know that he was worried about it and one fine day he wrote few lines as the creed he will follow and try to implement in his vicinity and it proved a turning point in his professional and personal life. The thing he wrote was this four way test. It was basically a set of principles he decided to follow and for him the sky was no more limit. Things started getting better he happened to save his business. Those few lines that changed the fate of his business are as follows: [read more] [...]
Nayni on February 11th, 2008 5:29 pm

hmmmmm….. so all of my failures in life are the result of not thinking ” right” and my success stories are nothing but “accidental” happenings

….. beautiful rules/principles indeed! Keep sharing !
Dr Farrukh Malik on February 11th, 2008 5:58 pm

@Nayni:
You can judge your self more than any one else can!
Nayni on February 11th, 2008 6:27 pm

I don’t dare to disagree Dr.Malik….while I was reading your words , parallely I was judging my acts too … and it helped me to give my “honest” comment

Waiting for your next article !
If you like reading my posts, you must consider subscribing to Silence Feed via email or feed reader. | Silence on February 15th, 2008 7:03 am

[...] Having read it, you will be able to at least look at things a bit clearer. As I had maintained in my previous article that thinking right is essential for success, so this article of mine might help you think right and achieve success in your field of [...]
raintapper on February 19th, 2008 5:19 am

After reading Dr. Malik’s entry on thinking right is the key to success, i felt that the focus on moral and ethics wasn’t strong enough. i believe in order to be successful, to think right, we must first define what is right. and in order to do so, our values such as integrity, compassion, generosity and other moral values that shapes one’s character must really come into play. i believe, only when we inculcate such values can we truly be more objective on deciding what is truly right and what’s not. i believe, having a strong moral ethics also allows one to be more aware of their thinkings, as “going against them usually produces guilt”.