About Mark’s Secrets of Success

 
Hello, and welcome to Secrets of Success!

This is where you can get to know a little about this site and a little about me.

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Cheers to our new-found acquaintance! May this mark the beginning of an enjoyable journey together.
 

• About Mark of Success, The Website
• About Secrets of Success
  • Why Secrets of Success
  • What is a secret?
  • Is Success a Secret?
  • Are there any Secrets of Success?
  • What kind of Success is addressed by this site?
• Our Mission
• A Community Effort & How You Can Contribute
• Our Vision
• About Mark [of Success], The Person
  • A quick background
  • More about me
  • What I am currently up to

About Mark of Success, The Website

This site was founded and is being run by Mark, lovingly (ahem!) known as Mark of Success, and hence the domain name www.mark-of-success.com. The one without the hyphens was already taken, so I had to settle for this one

Mark of Success is a brand in itself.

It is also an indicator that, on this site, we will be discussing all about what goes to make a person successful. With a motto to awaken the inner voice to your life success, we aim to leave a mark of success in your life and help in making your life itself a mark of success.

About Secrets of Success

The theme of this site is Secrets of Success, and it is the face of the Mark of Success brand.

When I started Secrets of Success, little did I intend for it to become the face of a brand. What started around 8 years ago as notes scribbled daily on small notepads, one of which I always carry in my pocket, slowly went on to be the site that we see today.

It began only as an attempt to record my thoughts so that they may be a source of inspiration and motivation to myself when I look back upon them over the years.

Later, hoping that my thoughts may inspire others too, I decided to polish a few of the notes and publish them online in the form of a blog. Thus, Secrets of Success was born!

As I became more and more familiar with the blogging world and started to see the excellent talent that so many bloggers were demonstrating, my desire to do more with the site grew stronger and stronger.

However, pressures from a job that easily took 10 to 15 hours of my day on a regular basis made it difficult to cope up with my desires. There were times when I would be able to break up from the routine once in a while and make some progress, but it was nowhere close to what I wished for it to be.

Nevertheless, I never gave up midway. From notepad to Blogger.com, Blogger.com to WordPress.com, WordPress.com to a self-hosted website (which was not very appealing), and finally from there to this new site that we see here today, it all came into being slowly and steadily, one simple baby step at a time.

Why Secrets of Success

Success is not a destination, and one need not necessarily remain there once one gets there. Success is an ongoing affair, and hence I like to call it “Secrets of Success”, instead of “Secrets to Success”.

I’ve heard some people argue that there are no secrets to success (or, secrets OF success). I guess what they probably mean is that they do not believe that any one person could be knowing some secret(s) of success that someone else doesn’t know. They probably mean that there are no more secrets that are not (yet) known to mankind, or that all the secrets are out there in the open and known by all. Or, maybe they are just plain confused as to what success is all about in the first place.

What is a secret?

Before we delve into the concept of secrets of success, let’s first have a quick look at what the word Secret means. What better place to look into, than the dictionary itself?

I won’t list down all dictionary meanings/definitions here, but go find out the many different definitions for yourself and you might just be surprised at the limited knowledge you had about what the word Secret means.

I’ll quote here, just two such meanings/definitions of the word Secret:

1) “Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding;”

2) A thing not discovered; what is unknown or unexplained; a mystery.

Is Success a Secret?

Is Success something that is obvious to everybody’s intelligence, already? Is it something already known and deciphered by anyone and everyone? Why is it that more than six million Internet searches are recorded each month, by Google itself, for just the word “Success” alone? What is it that all those people searching for success want to learn and understand more of?

There is no wonder that people are so confused as to what Success is all about. There is so much information out there about success, and, yet, there is no universally accepted thought process. Having an information overload does not necessarily mean that something is all clear and self evident, just as innumerable attempts at explaining something does not necessarily make something well-explained and unveil the mystery behind the concept

I have no doubt that Success is not an obvious enough concept. It continues to elude people from all walks of life. Certainly, it goes beyond all understanding. Going by the above-mentioned definition, Success has been a secret all along, is a secret even this day, and will probably always be a secret. All that we can do is to gather the knowledge that applies to success factors perceived in our own lives, and strive towards living that life of success. Further, limited that we are in our own intelligence, those perceptions will always keep evolving, and, along with them, our pursuit of success too, which will continue to evade us until we find our own point of equilibrium, of being one with the universe.

Are there any Secrets of Success?

On one hand, Success itself is a Secret. On the other hand, there are a lot of Secrets of Success itself. How is that?

While deciphering Success is secretive in itself, accomplishing and living any perceived success has its own secrets towards being able to do so.

The level of knowledge about The Secrets of Achieving and Living Success segregates people into three main groups:

1) Those who know some secrets of success, and practice them too.

2) Those who are aware of some secrets, but do not put their knowledge into practice.

3) Those who are yet to come across some secrets of success.

The above three categories have been worded that way, because they are not mutually exclusive. Any given person would probably fall into all three categories, with weightage spread out differently across each of them. Those who are enjoying huge success in life would be knowing a good portion of the secrets and practicing many of them well enough, but need not necessarily know everything that can potentially bring more success their way. A good majority would be knowing many of the secrets, but falling short of practicing them, and may have not come across the other secrets that would otherwise trigger them in the direction that’s right for them. Then there would be the huge number of those who have not yet been exposed to even a handful of secrets of successful living, if any at all.

It could be suicidal to consider that you are all-knowing. It is a characteristic of successful people to know that there is more out there than they can perceive and comprehend, and to be open for more information, ideas, knowledge and wisdom. Secrets then, for an individual, are those bits of information, ideas, knowledge and wisdom that one is not YET aware of.

Then again, even those who know sufficient portions of the secrets of success (or secrets to success) need help. There is a need to talk about the secrets of success, write about them in various forms, and pass it to more and more people, because there is always a vacancy for timely help.

I see two compelling reasons to keep burning the torch and to pass on the flames of success secrets, which are the following:

1) There are those who do not know (some/many of) the secrets of success because they have never come across them, and

2) There are those who have come across the secrets but have either not understood them well, or do not know to apply them in their life’s circumstances, or, very often, cannot recollect or remember them when faced with circumstances where they can put them into use.

Again, we are seeing that this is on par with the definition of secret that we considered above. As you can see, Secrets of Success will always prevail, as long as man is able to think.

What kind of Success is addressed by this site?

As I indicated above, success is much dependent on the perceptions at any given point of time, and the perspective from which you view them.

You could be thinking of success only in terms of your career or profession, more in terms of achievements and monetary aspects. Someone else could be thinking of success as a well-balanced life, while someone else might be facing issues with his relationships and could hence be looking for success in that area of his life.

Here at Secrets of Success, we look at success in its entirety. We address “Life Success”.

We address the following main areas and further dissect them in minute detail:

• Health & Well-being Success
• Peace & Happiness Success
• Life Management Success
• Professional / Career Success
• Networking & Relationships Success
• Complete Life Success

 
This site started as a mechanism to write about my personal opinions and experiences related to success along my life’s journey, but has since expanded its purpose to make it a community effort with people just like you contributing in small or big ways to make it an enlightening experience for one and all.

Our Mission

The mission of this site, including us all (you, me and the community), is:

1) Bringing together the many secrets of success, well-known or otherwise, presenting them in an organized manner, and combining them with the power of real life experiences and opinions of those who are willing to share them with others.

2) Being a source of inspiration, motivation, knowledge and wisdom to people of all walks of life, especially the youth and/or those in their busy years, to be able to live better, highly satisfying, and successful lives.

A Community Effort & How You Can Contribute

To make this a successful community effort and help spread the secrets of success, I request you to contribute in any of the following manners:

1) Article Contributions

I invite all writers to contribute to this site by writing guest articles (guest blog posts) related to their knowledge, opinions and experiences about success in life.

2) Comments

Write comments in response to the articles that are published, and discuss/debate, so that differences in opinions will show up and guide the readers of the Secrets of Success community in making well-informed decisions when applying the secrets to their own lives.

3) Questions

Write to us with any questions you may have about life success in general or any doubts you may have about any specific circumstance in your life, or, for that matter, just about anything related to success in any particular aspect of life and living.

4) Criticism and Feedback

Your constructive criticism and feedback will go a long way in helping us execute our mission, and we would be glad if you could write to us – even if it is just a line or two. If there is something that you feel can be improved, or if you have ideas that we could consider implementing in order to provide a better experience, or if this site has helped you in any small way, we are most eager to hear from you.

Contribute and provide your valuable opinions, however simple you might think they are. You might just be the spark in someone else’s life and help them to be successful.

“Don’t wait for others to make a difference in your life. Be the difference!”

Our Vision

5-year Vision (Target date: Oct 15, 2016)

It’s been an exciting 5 years, and we are happy that today…

1) We are an extensive, well-organized and user-friendly repository of success principles and resources, filled with the power of real life experiences and opinions of those who have put them into practice.

2) We have touched the lives of 10,000 people by being a source of inspiration, motivation, knowledge, and wisdom to them, and empowering them to live better and more successful lives.

10-year Vision (Target date: Oct 15, 2021)

It’s been an exciting 10 years, and we are happy that today…

1) We are one of the most extensive, well-organized and user-friendly repositories of success principles and resources…

2) We have touched the lives of 100,000 people…

15-year Vision (Target date: Oct 15, 2026)

It’s been an exciting 15 years, and we are happy that today…

1) We are the best and most extensive, well-organized and user-friendly repository of success principles and resources…

2) We have touched the lives of 1,000,000 (one million) people…

About Mark [of Success], The Person

A quick background about me

I was born and brought up in one of the most beautiful states of India, in a place where the typical aggressiveness that you would see in a metropolitan setting is limited, and people are much focused on living a well-balanced and complete life.

My professional life, however, has been totally on the other side of the spectrum, in a totally competitive setup, living a metropolitan lifestyle in other states of India and overseas.

Having experienced the best of these two different worlds, I like to think about myself as having seen a good amount of success in my life already.

More about me

A consistent top performer in school, brains at practical application of technical concepts during my graduation years (donkey praising his own tail, er… brain), a consistent and quality performer in professional life, moderately ambitious always, and, above all, very happy with my life this far, I probably couldn’t have asked for too much more. As for financial wealth, though any amount of it is never enough, I have learned to find peace and happiness with what I have, thanks to those who influenced my life in earlier years. That however doesn’t mean that I am not ambitious. I have my dreams, and I have faith that I will continue to achieve them.

I hold a degree in Computer Engineering, from the best college of engineering in the state I come from. I got a job offer from an MNC before I even graduated, and my career has been better than I could imagine as a kid. I am an Information Technology professional and have been with global firms throughout my career of around a decade and a half, serving clients in the Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 list of companies.

I have lived in Japan for more than half of my career, with a much sought after skill-set of professionally certified software development capabilities, project management experience, and bilingual fluency and certifications in Japanese and English.

Leaving aside professional applicability, I am fluent at two more languages that are of Indian origin, understand a bit of another couple of Indian languages, and am certified at elementary French, though it would need a good amount of brushing up if you come around speaking in French.

I’m very much interested in various outdoor sports, much like Jack of All Trades, master of none. I have a lot of interest in martial arts. I’ve practiced Taekwondo (Korean) earlier for 3 years, and was active at full contact Karate (Japanese) for around 5 years until the world’s worst nuclear disaster changed the course of my life in the first half of 2011.

What I am currently up to

Year 2011 brought about a sharp turning point in my life. The big earthquake and nuclear crisis shook up my life. Life “happened”, and with a little bit of courage and calculated risk, I quit my job, moved out of the country I had spent a quarter of my life in, settled back in my home country, and started all over again on a new road to new successes.

As of the third quarter of year 2011, I’ve been busy settling down into a new rhythm. While stuff falls in place gradually, I am gearing up on growth activities. Most importantly, I need to address one critical and important matter – the source of cash flow. I had the choice to take up a new job but, after giving a lot of thought, I finally decided to trust my inner voice that advised me against it.

I decided to take the opportunity to dive into the entrepreneurial world.

That one statement marks the beginning of an exciting journey. Entrepreneurship brings tons of things to mind. I had earlier planned to do this in a more streamlined manner over the years, but nature had its way. While the uncertainty of cash flow takes away some fun from the excitement of having quit my salaried job – something that I had eagerly looked forward to doing in the future, I am at the same time very much excited about having taken the plunge already.

A concluding note

I’ve seen success in all sectors of my life, but, like I said earlier, success is much dependent on the perceptions at any given point of time, and the perspective from which you view them. As I traverse the journey of life, I have more ambitions that I want to pursue. I now want to achieve financial independence, contribute to society and the human race in big and positive ways, and above all, live and leave a legacy, while still continuing to enjoy Life Success along the way.

This site will provide a window into what I carve out of the new life that I’ve just begun. It will be an account of the important steps I take and milestones I achieve while I take myself from where I am to where I would like to be. Through this journey, it is my desire to make a positive contribution to the lives of a million people, and it is also my hope that my life too will be touched in a million ways during the process.

Further, as a step forward towards achieving our exciting vision, I would like to invite you to be one amongst the million by filling in your name and e-mail address in the form below and joining the Secrets of Success community. Come, let’s walk the journey of our life success together.