How do you define success? A basic definition is achieving something that you regard as worthwhile. By this criterion, everyone can achieve a measure of success.

But unreasonable success is different.

It is about changing the world in some way, according to your aims. You change the nature of reality and make something new. You make some inexplicable leap of intuition which others don’t see.

The nature of unreasonable success is that it usually comes as something of a surprise.

It seems out of proportion to what might have been expected of the person given their skills or background, or what promise they had when young. Indeed, failure often comes before unreasonable success.

Who would have predicted that Nelson Mandela, an obscure lawyer, would avert a bloodbath and reconcile a nation? Or that another little known lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi, would take a successful stand against the British colonists, becoming a de facto father of a new nation?

In researching his book Unreasonable Success and How To Achieve It, wealthy investor, management thinker and writer Richard Koch looked for the patterns of unusual achievement. His conclusion?

“Their extraordinary success is not entirely ‘deserved’ in a conventional sense; they win by a fortuitous combination of experiences personal characteristics and judgement which leverages their actions enormously, giving enormous impact for a mere mortal.” Richard Koch

In other words, unreasonably successful people are not necessarily more talented or productive. They simply leverage their knowledge or experience or events to produce amazing results.

“The way we position ourselves for success is far more important than our talent or competence.” Meaning, the right attitudes and strategies matter more than incremental improvements in performance. Let’s delve a bit deeper...