Winning values, sacrifice and great behaviours on repeat by Matthew Hill
#culture #ethnic #success #behaviours #values #confidence #diversity #purpose
Why are some Ethnic groups super-overachieving? Even when times are tough and getting more uncertain with every year that passes, they keep on delivering wins. What is their secret sauce? Have they really cracked the code?
Let us look at some cultural success factors that, when taken together lead to outstanding results. When we put them down in list form, they may seem obvious. So, what are the rest of us going to do to join them? (And, I very much include my own tribe in this.)
1. Financial literacy – The wealth accumulators don’t look rich as they progress to becoming rich. Think of the French farmer driving his rusty old car to market. They are frugal, shopping around for deals, saving their earnings, and looking for optimal returns. They are working to increase the value of their core wealth pot, acquiring assets that appreciate and / or bare interest, spreading the allocation of their assets over products, institutions and sectors. They buy and hold. And they regularly deposit maybe 10% of the earnings on a monthly basis to the pot – Whether they are 16 or 60.
2. Long term players – Time is a killer of the body and laptop computers, but a builder of wealth, experience, knowledge, and if you are lucky, wisdom. They play the long game with careers, working, buying and holding assets, servicing relationships, maintaining traditions, passing on and demonstrating successful values, and consistently repeating winning behaviours.
3. Education – They are open to receive the knowledge that is available from teachers, bosses, companies, books, e learning etc. They put in an extraordinary amount of time to take information in, process it for the gold nuggets held within, remembering it and working out how to apply the best stuff they learn. Along the way comes academic excellence, scholarships, entry to the best institutions and higher social status.
4. High standards – We witness personal cleanliness, order, focus, attention to input, attention to detail, doing the best that an individual can, aiming high, persevering, asking for help, and, learning smart as well as hard.
5. Tough love parenting – Right up there is the Parent – Child relationship. This is complex and covers a number of points. The values of hard work, long hours, discipline and sacrifice are transferred down to the next generation via the parent. This is done early and with love and strength.
6. Parental sacrifice for succession – Whatever the starting point, we see the parents going without to give the child more. The material sacrifice of the elders provides a better environment for the child to flourish in.
7. Succession – This is the idea that each generation can go further, be more and build another level within the dynasty. My friend from Sri Lanka talked about 3 families sharing a flat above a shop in Glasgow, Scotland, when he was a child and newly arrived in the UK. The family assets now include a famous and lucrative franchise that produces some serious returns. Early sacrifice, repeated behaviour within a wrapping of warmth, love and discipline produced this.
8. Multi – generational cohesion– Much of this could not be possible if Granny and Grandad were not looking after the children, whilst Mum and Dad went out and brought home the bacon. In successful groups, the family house can hold 3 generations all brought together by a unifying purpose – progress, supporting the success of the one larger team. And money, childcare, food, conversation, and decision making are all shared within the extended family mastermind group.
9. Temperance – Part of the sacrifice is visceral. These folk are not partying ‘til dawn, doing drugs and alcohol with their buddies, finishing off a mountain of expensive seafood every chance they get, opting out, lying in, or box binging streaming services. They were not brought up that way and the echoing values they continue to manifest daily are different.
10. Seeking out the opportunity – Wherever a successful group end up, they will seek out the opportunity that will put them on the conveyor belt to more. Vanderbilt rowed merchants across the Hudson when starting one of the most successful dynasties in the US – turning demand plus muscles and skill into dollars.
11. Living in service – What do we observe? – Culturally modest displays, enthusiasm for customers and strangers. Under promising and over delivering, joyous service, and effervescent happiness coming, easily sourced, from intrinsic motivation and a lack of doubt about the meaning of the mission.
12. Bypassing pride – Getting down and dirty may be part of the path to better things. It is those that are prepared to roll up their sleeves without shame or anger, that show their worth and find themselves swiftly moving on the better things.
13. Continuous story – It takes time to build up the sort of discipline and application that is described here. And that is accompanied by sacrifice in the now for amazing rewards that may be 20 or 40 years away. That is super human and comes from a deep connected culture that represents cultural confidence, community cohesion and the wisdom not to throw it all away with irresponsible social behaviour or by making rash financial decisions.
14. Benign but challenging – There are 2 background factors that allow all of this building to start – One is the people coming from an environment that supports life and progress – If you are hanging on by a finger nail in your land, you have no other choice than to be stuck in basic survival mode for a prolonged period of time. And you need that grit in the oyster to produce the pearl. Too easy a life and there will be no evolutionary incentive to conquer your environment, improve your lot and make progress. It is the subtle interplay of the helpful and the threatening that produces problem solving, longer term planning, community cooperation, commercial building and leads to multi-generational purpose, improvement over time and attainment.
15. Participation of all – This system only works if everybody joins in. The rags to riches to rags again story is the counter to today’s tale of cultural success. In the alternative story, the hedonistic ease of 5-star luxury erodes the pillars on which the hard fought for success was built. When rich brats wrap expensive cars around trees, the spell is broken.
Concluding thoughts and questions
What is the source of discipline, energetic hard work, and sacrifice that allows for this amazing transformation of fortune for some cultures? Purpose, vision and a self and group belief that is UNSTOPPABLE. These are folks that have overcome more than the rest of us, that have solved many problems others have not faced or even thought about, and that have put one foot in front of the other consistency and mindfulness over years and generations to become culturally confident super-overachievers. A powerful story that we can all take something from.
About the Author
Matthew Hill is a Leadership and Executive Skills Trainer and Facilitator, running group courses to raise cultural and communication confidence in Global Corporate teams.
Leave a Reply