THE ICEBERGS

When you look at an iceberg floating on the surface of water, you see only a small portion of the whole iceberg. The density of pure ice is about 920 kg/m³, and that of sea water about 1025 kg/m³. Therefore it is only about ten percent of the volume of an iceberg is above water.
The actual shape and size of the portion underwater is difficulty to judge by looking at the portion above the surface. Success is like an iceberg in many aspects. When you look at the people who have achieved much in life, you see only a small portion of what is behind it.
You do not see the many challenges and obstacles they have encountered before succeeding. You do not see the humble beginnings, the risks they had to take, the many blunders they made, the many sacrifices they had to make and the many loses they made before turning this round.
It seemed unbelievable when astronomers revealed in the 1930s that 90 per cent of the universe is invisible. This means the countless stars you see at night are a tip of the iceberg! But of greater interest is the assertion that this invisible material, which they called ‘dark matter’, holds the key to the eventual fate of the Universe.
And recently a renowned economist though admitted that he was only making an intelligent guess said that only 10 percent of the wealth is visible but the 90 per cent which is invisible holds the key to our eventual fate; whether it will grow, stagnate or collapse.
Many people associate success or failure with visible things like academic achievements, good family background, right connections, luck and hard work. However evidence is conclusive that there is more to success than what meets the eye.
Thinking boldly and broadly what makes or breaks us is not tangible. It is invisible, supported by our faith and expectations of the future. This is why we see people of modest means acceding to great achievements within a relatively short period of time, or people swimming in wealth and glory becoming desperate paupers in a twinkling of an eye, allegorically speaking.

The dark matter in your life
Successful people are admired and emulated and even looked upon for guidance in life, and in death they immortally remain as source of inspiration and precedent to teach successive generations the art of successful living.
We all look with awe at people deemed successful in their time. People like mahatma Ganthi, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Mother Tresa, Wangari Mathai Winston Churchil and many other unsung heroes and heroin epitomize success by overcoming adversity to achieve goals larger than their lives.
What is common with all these people is they come to limelight as they ascended to success when much ground work has been covered. What we so often do not see, unless in hindsight, is the many years of preparation, sacrifices hardship, failure, and disappointment they had to persevere before even gaining other peoples support. But still all these are just a tip of the iceberg.
The real force and this is why it is impossible to attain success by aping and imitating successful people, lies in the dark matter.
One dark matter is optimistic future outlook. This is the faith and expectation that the future has better things in the offing. I once wanted to buy a piece of land in a certain areas in Nairobi. I shopped around and identified some plots that were on offer at between two to there million.
Six months later when I visited the areas I was shocked to find the price had doubled. I went to my agents and they told me offer is no longer there. When I enquired why the sudden surge in price they told me several things had taken place since I was there. he told me that there are rumors that the roads in the area are about to be tarmacked and certain institution had bought a big chunk of land there to put up modern hospital and a school. He added that several big people had already bought land there.
The price of land appreciated beyond my reach because of mainly intangible factors that lifted future expectations of the place. The same thing happens at the stock market where the price of shares can swing up and down, making people richer or poor depending on future expectations, fundamentals notwithstanding.
Honesty is another dark matter. People what to deal and associate with honest people. Honesty breeds good reputation, which in turn lead to trust in you. Once people trust in you, you will succeed in anything you do.
Honesty is the greatest of all virtues that benefit you and the other person. Its absence damages you more than the person you cheat. Philip Bailey said,
“To cheat oneself really, that lies at the heart of every human act of deception. The traveling businessman who pads his account or mis-presents his production is cheating himself, not his company. The student who takes exam in dishonest fashion is cheating himself not his school. The wife who carries on illicit affair with a secret lover is not cheating on her husband but on herself. The salesman who violates the rights and confidence of others by withholding information or exaggerating beyond the truth is cheating himself, not the buyer. The writer who lifts the writings of another and inserts them into his own manuscript without giving professional credit cheats himself, not his reader.”
Reputation is another dark matter. People are often paid more money for reputation than hard work. Former American president Bill Clinton was paid $130,000 to
deliver the keynote speech at the annual convention of the Asian-American
Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) in 2001. This is more than what most senior chief executive officers of most performing companies take home in one year.
Great leaders, authors, professionals as well as entrepreneurs ride high on their reputations. Reputation is fundamentally a matter of perception, earned over a long period of time, making it priceless, and a powerful source of leverage.
In business quality is dark matter matter. If you produce quality products and offer your customers sterling service you gain a competitive advantage over your competitions. You can charge a premium and still customers choose you rather than your competitors.
By improving your own quality by upholding human values and setting a high standard guided by accepted morals you become a better person.
Most people fail to succeed in life because they focus on what can be seen: education, job, money, social network…or lack of them, forgetting the invisible assets such as reputation, honesty, creativity and so on which account for 90 percent of our success.
True and lasting success can only be realized by focusing on our dark matter which cannot be stolen or tempered with, without our consent.