Identifying
SuperAttainers
The
SuperAttainment Research Center is funding a multi-year
study of high achieving individuals across a great variety of
fields and geographies. The purpose is to determine key attributes
indicating an propensity toward superior achievement that can be
recognized by most people with experience managing other people.
The work is ongoing and is being expanded continuously.
The
SuperAttainment Research Center is an initiative to help
people in management positions identify high potential leaders and
channel them toward meaningful contributions to their
organizations and to society at large.
The
8 attributes of SuperAttainers listed below are considered some of
the most common and easiest to identify when accompanied by other
aspects of career success.
8
Attributes of
SuperAttainers
1.
Early Success
The
Early Bird Gets the Worm…and Everything Else
SuperAttainers usually begin doing amazing things early in their
life. In fields like music and sport, it has long been understood
that for a child to have a chance at greatness, he needs to begin
around age 3 and then work at it for many years. In business and
politics, unusual ability is also recognized early in a
SuperAttainer’s career and is followed with many years of
continued achievement. In the greatness game, it is the rabbit who
wins the race -- as long as he persists like the tortoise.
2.
Contrarian
When
in Rome, Don’t Do As the Romans
SuperAttainers generally think of themselves as different and
apart from other people. They can often be described as rebellious
and disobedient by those who try to rule over them and are never
willing crowd followers. Tremendous success seems to require doing
things tremendously different. Doing things a little better will
yield results that are only a little better than others and this
is not what SuperAttainers are interested in.
3. Conceited
The
Pride Before The Rise
In order for someone to be thought of as great in the minds of
others, he must first be thought of as great in his own mind. The
tremendous achievements of SuperAttainers seem to be merely a
realization in the outer world of what is already in their inner
world. Predictably, it is uncommon for such people to be overly
shy about describing their abundant abilities. Many SuperAttainers
have come to recognize that being known as arrogant does not help
their purpose and they do a good job of appearing modest. However,
a bit of digging into their personality should uncover a deep
feeling of self-significance.
4.
Hard-Knocked
Nothing
Succeeds Like Suffering
SuperAttainers have often experienced traumatic periods when their
careers or even their lives were in great peril. It is during
these times that they gain a deep seated feeling of personal
vulnerability that can stay with them for the rest of their lives.
The advantage to the future SuperAttainer is that they become
consumed by the realization that they must accomplish all they can
while they have the chance because it can all come crashing down
at any time. It is a psychological condition that will drive
them to greatness for the rest of their lives.
5. Loner
One
is Company, Two is a Crowd
SuperAttainers are often described by others as dreamers,
outsiders, cold-hearted and similar labels often given to loners.
They are comfortable spending long periods in the company of
themselves to ponder, learn and envisage the future. Many develop
a love of solitary activities such as book-reading early in their
life. They are not usually enthusiastic participants in team
activities except when they are leading the group.
6. Mentored
& Motivated
Behind
Every Great Man are His Parents
Parents often
play the key role in the cultivation and realization of
SuperAttainers, spending immense amounts of time and money to give
their offspring the skills, experiences and relationships required
for immense amounts of success. They tutor baby SuperAttainers
from the crib, send them to the best schools and put them in touch
with the best mentors. It has been shown that mothers, in
particular, can play a strong role if they are supremely confident
in their son's innate abilities and then take devoted and
continuing action to develop them.
7.
Discontent
Patience
is No Virtue
SuperAttainers have an abnormally intense need for continuous
accomplishment. Success does not bring these people a sense of
inner peace. There is always someone else to overtake or a higher
target to aspire to. They are impatient, dissatisfied and edgy
when not engaged in activities that lead to the fulfillment of
their personal goals. They seem psychologically unstable in this
regard compared with most people.
8. Promoted
Self-Flattery Gets You Everywhere
There have been many great people who have lived and died in the
history of our species but nobody knows most of them because their
achievements were inadequately documented. In order to be thought
of as a great success by large numbers of people, someone needs to
be a great success at publicizing the SuperAttainer. In most
instances, it is the SuperAttainers themselves who are great
self-promoters. In other cases, another talented person takes on
the critically important role.
TWO
TYPES OF SUPERATTAINERS
1.
Aristocratic SuperAttainers
Pampered and pompous, these people excel despite having been given
it all. They grow up with all the best things, attend the best
schools and hobnob with the best minds. Because they are so deeply
bonded to a powerful and privileged elite, they are often
conservative and elitist. Real change seldom happens with these
people in charge. On the plus side, they are less likely to lead
themselves and their followers down paths of mutual destruction.
Examples of Aristocratic SuperAttainers include: Winston
Churchill, Peter the Great, Louis XIV and Frederick the Great.
2.
Come-From-
Nothing
SuperAttainers
Rags to riches, these people pull themselves up to greatness
through tremendous obstacles. Luck plays a role but most of their
success is due to relentless force of character. Since they come
from outside the establishment, they can be great agents of
change. Unfortunately, they are prone to crash and burning when
they inevitably overstretch themselves and their supporters.
Examples of Come-From-Nothing SuperAttainers include: Joseph
Stalin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Mao
Zedong.
Rules
for Managers
Rules
for Self-Help
Rules
for Parents
Men
Vs. Women
The
SuperAttainment Research Center is operated as a CSR
(Corporate Social Responsibility) activity of Chalre
Associates Executive Search to help business people identify
and develop future leaders for their organizations and society at
large.
Chalre
Associates is a regional provider of Executive Search services
in the emerging countries of the Asia Pacific region.
Multinational companies use them to bridge the gap between the
local environment and their world-class requirements in countries
like Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
 +632
892 6703
 +63
908 880 4178
 leaders@chalre.com
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SuperAttainer:
Thomas Edison
American Inventor:
Thomas
Edison
Main Life Accomplishments:
He was an American inventor and businessman
who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into
the 21st century.
He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass
production to the process of invention, and can therefore be credited with
the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
Basics:
Born:
February 11, 1847 in Milan
Ohio, USA
Died:
October 18,
1931 , 84 years, West Orange, New Jersey USA
Nationality: Unites States
Fields: Inventor, Businessman
Main Accomplishments: Invented the light bulb
Chronology of Life Events:
Feb 11, 1947
Born
1854
Edison became the lighthouse keeper and carpenter on the Fort Gratiot
military post near Port Huron, Mich., where the family lived in a
substantial home. Alva, as the inventor was known until his second
marriage, entered school there and attended sporadically for five years.
He was imaginative and inquisitive, but because much instruction was by
rote and he had difficulty hearing, he was bored and was labeled a misfit.
1859
Edison quit school and began working as a trainboy on the railroad between
Detroit and Port Huron. Four years earlier, the Michigan Central had
initiated the commercial application of the telegraph by using it to
control the movement of its trains, and the Civil War brought a vast
expansion of transportation and communication. Edison took advantage of
the opportunity to learn telegraphy and in 1863 became an apprentice
telegrapher.
1863
Become a apprentice telegrapher
1869
He had made enough progress with a duplex telegraph (a device capable of
transmitting two messages simultaneously on one wire) and a printer, which
converted electrical signals to letters, that he abandoned telegraphy for
full-time invention and entrepreneurship.
1870 - 1875
He worked out of Newark, N.J., and was
involved in a variety of partnerships and complex transactions in the
fiercely competitive and convoluted telegraph industry, which was
dominated by the Western Union Telegraph Company. As an independent
entrepreneur he was available to the highest bidder and played both sides
against the middle. During this period he worked on improving an automatic
telegraph system for Western Union's rivals.
1871
He married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, who was
as improvident in household matters as he was in business, and before the
end of 1875 they were in financial difficulties.
1877
Edison began experiments designed to produce a
pressure relay that would amplify and improve the audibility of the
telephone, a device that Edison and others had studied but which Alexander
Graham Bell was the first to patent, in 1876.
1879
Edison and Upton had made enough progress on a
generator--which, by reverse action, could be employed as a motor--that
Edison, beset by failed incandescent lamp experiments, considered offering
a system of electric distribution for power, not light.
Aug 1884
Edison's wife, Mary,
suffering from deteriorating health and subject to periods of mental
derangement, died there of "congestion of the brain," apparently a tumour
or hemorrhage. Her death and the move from Menlo Park roughly mark the
halfway point of Edison's life.
Feb 24, 1886
He married 20-year-old
Mina Miller, the daughter of a prosperous Ohio manufacturer. He purchased
a hilltop estate in West Orange, N.J., for his new bride and constructed
nearby a grand, new laboratory, which he intended to be the world's first
true research facility.
There, he produced the commercial phonograph, founded the motion-picture
industry, and developed the alkaline storage battery. Nevertheless,
Edison was past the peak of his productive period.
1909
Edison was a principal supplier of batteries
for submarines and electric vehicles and had even formed a company for the
manufacture of electric automobiles.
1931
Edison was active in business right up to the
end. Just months before his death in 1931, the Lackawanna Railroad
implemented electric trains in suburban service from Hoboken to Gladstone,
Montclair and Dover in New Jersey
Early
Life:
Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio
He grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. There are many stories about what
Edison was like as a child. They all show that from an early age, Edison
was curious about the world around him and always tried to teach himself
through reading and experiments.
As a boy, Edison worked as a gatekeeper at his father's observatory for
tourists, and worked on a railway selling newspapers and candy to
passengers.
In 1869, when Edison was twenty-two years old, he patented his first
invention and advertised that he "would hereafter devote his full time to
bringing out his inventions."
Wife
Background:
1st
wife December 25, 1971 2nd wife February 24, 1886.
His 1st wife died Aug 9, 1884.
Father
Background:
Samuel Ogden Edison, Junior, was born on August
16, 1804 in Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada. His grandfather John Edeson was a
Loyalist during the American Revolution and left New Jersey for Nova Scotia
in 1784. Throughout his life Samuel changed work several times, from
splitting shingles for roofs to tailoring to keeping a tavern. Sometime
after his marriage, Samuel moved the family to Vienna, Ontario, where four
of his seven children were born.
Ironically, Samuel Edison was not as loyal to the British crown as his
grandfather. In 1837, he joined the Mackenzie Rebellion, a revolt inspired
by democratic activist William Mackenzie in the south of Ontario. When the
rebellion failed Samuel escaped to the United States, where he lived for the
rest of his life. His wife and children later followed him to Milan, Ohio
where they had three more children including Thomas Alva Edison, their
seventh and last child.
Mother
Background:
Nancy Matthews Elliot, was
originally from New York until her family moved to Vienna, Canada, where she
met Sam Edison, Jr., whom she later married.
SuperAttainer
ANALYSIS
SECTION:
1. Early Success
When
did the SuperAttainer first display ability that was greatly above average
and what were his accomplishments?
REFERENCES:
1.
2. Contrarian
What actions did the SuperAttainer take that demonstrated a mindset that was
very different from those around him?
REFERENCES:
1.
3. Conceited
What are the actions and documented statements that exhibit an elevated
sense of self importance of the SuperAttainer?
REFERENCES:
1.
4. Hard-Knocked
During what events did the SuperAttainer experience personal misery and
severe anxiety?
REFERENCES:
1.
5. Loner
Is there evidence of the SuperAttainer being comfortable spending time apart
from others?
REFERENCES:
1.
6. Mentored &
Motivated
Who was vital to developing the SuperAttainer and guiding his career and
what significant actions were taken?
REFERENCES:
1.
7. Discontent
What evidence is there that the SuperAttainer was unsatisfied with even
great personal accomplishment?
REFERENCES:
1.
8. Promoted
What actions or events were responsible for publicizing the tremendous
achievements and abilities of the SuperAttainer?
REFERENCES:
1.
Overall
Score:
x
out of 8 = xx%
PASS
SuperAttainer
Type:
Describe
the factors in the SuperAttainer’s background to indicate whether he is a
Come-From-Nothing or Aristocratic type..
Conclusion:
Executive Search
& Management Consulting:
Chalre
Associates provides its Executive Search & Management
Consulting services throughout the emerging countries of the Asia
Pacific region with specific focus on Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. Regional Managers use us to help
bridge the gap between local environments and the world-class
requirements of multinational corporations.
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