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This article aims to explore why some outstandingly successful people connect their success with being favored by a religious entity.
Religious dialogue is still very much a part of what people say. “Thank God,” goes through the minds of those who narrowly escape being hit by a car. People who are astonished by a happening in front of them often exclaim their surprise with an, “Oh my God!”
Some people however, tend to take it a step further. They begin attributing their success to being favored by whichever God they believe in. They begin alluding to the fact that their success is a part of, “God’s plan,” and that there isn’t much that anyone can do, other than God, to bring them down.
There is nothing wrong with their personal connection to the divine, however, the act of advertising their belief to onlookers tends to serve a purpose which benefits them. This is not an article which attempts to bash or discourage anyone’s religious belief. It is written without an alignment against religion. This is an article which aims to understand how the act of connecting those beliefs to one’s success influences those who follow their work.
Competitors Can’t Replicate It
You’ll notice people who are leaders in their domain to more often attribute their success to the divine than those working to get to a higher position. An almost obnoxious example of this are rock-star televangelists, who maintain a powerful level of influence in the religious community by connecting their success to a God’s master plan. The more successful they get, the stronger they advertise God being on their side. Televangelists are not the only ones who take advantage of religious belief in order to maintain influence. There are examples of attribution of success to the plan of God in the entertainment industry and in government.
There is nothing wrong in that belief. Its advertisement however, serves to set the one who communicates it apart from their competition.
It is attractive to associate one’s success with God because they can hide behind the purity and goodness of religious belief while serving to benefit themselves. An advertisement of one’s successes to the plan of God signifies that their effort and skill played secondary to the plan of the divine. If your success is caused by the plan of God, then the notion of your competitors overtaking your spot becomes less likely in the minds of spiritual believers.
An advertisement of the notion that your success is in the plan of a divine power may therefore be interpreted as a subtle fear of those whose aim, is on the target on your back. Once again, this article is not mentioning that thanking God for your success is bad. This is not an article against religious belief. However, if you serve to advertise a connection between your success and God, then you advertise the fact that competitors’ skill and hard work is secondary in their chances at getting to where you are. You hint at the notion that, if your competitors’ success is not a part of God’s plan, then there isn’t much they can do to take your spot.
It is an attractive notion to those who lead the domains in which they worked hard to come out on top. Once they become the target of hungry competition, a search for any advantage they can have to longer maintain the top spot begins. Religious belief thereby, is sometimes used as an attempt at maintaining their influence in their followers’ minds.
Your Influence Is Empty When a Divine Connection Isn’t Complemented With Skill
The efforts of those who are leaders in their field in connecting their success to God is effective when they compliment that advertisement with legitimate skill. A master of his craft is believable when he attributes his success to God. If however, he begins to slack in his domain, and falls off from being the top dog, then his connection to God will be seen as a sad attempt at remaining relevant.
The reason why it’s better to not advertise one’s connection to God is because it is in fact believable to some. Some of your followers will believe your connection to God to be true. This belief will manifest itself in their behavior toward you. They will love you no matter what you do, thereby being a master of your craft will no longer be very necessary to be loved. A successful connection of one’s skills to God’s plan, encourages that person to become lazy in continuing to develop their skill set. Once their level of skill is surpassed by their competitors, their advertisement of God being on their side will lose its meaning.