No man is his own creator.

Sometimes on a Thursday I share a Viking quote. I choose a quote randomly and sometimes based upon relevance or meaning to my life, and share some thoughts on it as I believe these thousand year old phrases still offer value in modern society. _{original im src}

This week's Viking quote

No man is his own creator.

I was in conversation with a person at my end of year work dinner last week, the partner of one of my colleagues, talking about what defines success in life and business and in successful people. She'd mentioned a few prominent business people most on the planet would have heard of and used the words self-made. I didn't say it at the time, but I didn't agree with her on that statement at all. I don't believe any of us are self-made; each and every one of us has had assistance in life, most of us a lot of it.

I've met quite a few very successful people over the years and in conversations with them have always asked similar questions with one of them being about their journey to success and what they feel has been pivotal to it. Every single time the person has mentioned other people.

There's always other factors of course, but they always credit other people for having made a very strong contribution to them becoming successful. I'm not just talking about corporate business people here, but also sports people, those in the medical field, military or even cottage industry, manufacturing and educators. All credited other people around them for helping them achieve their level of success.

Sometimes it was a teacher who pushed them towards greater effort and focus, a coach who provided instruction, a family member who provided invaluable support, professional adviser, business-partner, colleagues, team members and even rivals who provided motivation through their own success...they were unanimous in saying that they could not have achieved as much without others. That's pretty cool right?

I think this Viking quote is very relevant to us all and, knowing what the Vikings achieved, would have been to them also; they worked collectively.

The Vikings were renowned for banding together, even putting aside their own personal differences, in the pursuit of conquest and to achieve their objectives. There were those who stood above, leaders, Kings, Earls and such, however they didn't achieve in isolation, they did it together.

I'm not saying a single person can't orchestrate his own success, there's cases where that happens, but I don't think overall or ultimate success is done in isolation of others. We all need someone at some point; all of us. We cannot do everything alone.

That's it for this week, a thousand year-old Viking quote about the need to rely upon others to assist us with our goals, and lives in general. Human beings have survived by banding together, collectively overcoming challenges and rising from adversity; none is self-made.

Please feel free to add any comments or thoughts below if you would like.

Skol.