Everyone Can Reach the Peak of Success: Knowledge and Skills Are the Engine, Effort Is the Body of the Car
Success is not a matter of luck for most people. It comes from working with knowledge, skills and effort. Effort without knowledge and skills is a car without an engine.
Some people believe that success in life is a matter of luck. Others believe that Almighty God alone decides who will succeed and who will not. For most of us, both beliefs are wrong. It is true that a few people succeed by luck, but real success for the great majority comes from working with knowledge and skills and effort. And that is the key point: knowledge and skills are the key to success, and effort is what carries them. In Kiswahili we call this maarifa: not only what you know, but also what you know how to do.
Many people work very hard. Far fewer work with knowledge and skills. That simple fact explains why those who reach the top are few, even though those who work hard are many.
Luck and Destiny: Only a Few Cases
There are a few people to whom Almighty God, in His authority, has chosen to give success, no doubt as a test for them. Even if they said "we do not want this success", it would still come, because the decision about them has already been made by the One no one can overrule. I know some of these people, and you probably know some too. Their great test is that they carry a heavy responsibility to give part of their success back to society.
In the same way, there are a few people to whom God, in His authority, has chosen not to give, also as a test. Even if the whole world came together to rescue them, it would be in vain. I know people like this too, and perhaps you do as well. Their great test is patience: to remain good, honest citizens while they face hardship of every kind.
Apart from these few cases, the lucky and those whom God may have chosen as a lesson for others, everyone else succeeds or fails according to principles that work the same way for everyone. And the most fundamental of these principles is KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS.
Knowledge and Skills Are the Key to Success: the Engine That Drives Your Car
Picture your success as a car made of two parts: EFFORT and KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS. The body of the car is effort; the engine is your knowledge and skills.
- No matter how beautiful the body, if the engine is broken, the car goes nowhere.
- No matter how beautiful the body, if the engine is weak, the car crawls along, and it may never reach your destination.
So ask yourself honestly:
- How much knowledge and skill do you have to recognise opportunities when they appear?
- How much knowledge and skill do you have to turn those opportunities into a bridge to your success?
- Once you succeed, how much knowledge and skill do you have to protect that success so it does not slip away?
The World Is Changing Fast: Are Your Knowledge and Skills Keeping Up?
You may have heard that the amount of new knowledge in the world doubles roughly every 18 months. That figure is best treated as an illustration rather than a measurement: it comes from the inventor Buckminster Fuller's "knowledge doubling curve", an estimate, not a scientific count. Careful studies of scientific publications find that global output grows by about 4% a year, which means it doubles roughly every 17 years.
What the evidence says: the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers' core skills to change by 2030. Whatever the exact speed, the skills that earn money today will not be enough tomorrow.
The message is the same: we live in a world that changes at an astonishing pace. Those who want to succeed, or to keep the success they already have, must be ready to change at the same pace as the world. In short, your knowledge and skills have to keep growing all the time.
Build Your Engine of Knowledge and Skills: 7 Practical Steps
- Know where you are going. Write down your goal for the next 12 months and list the three things you need to know, or be able to do, to reach it.
- Give learning 30 minutes a day. Half an hour a day is more than 180 hours a year, the equivalent of a short course.
- Read one book a month. Choose books in your field: sales, money management, your trade. If reading is hard, listen to audio programmes or podcasts.
- Learn from people. Find a mentor, join a group of people who are ahead of you, and ask good questions. One conversation can save you years of mistakes.
- Attend trainings and seminars. Many are low-cost or free. Choose those that teach skills you can use this month.
- Apply what you learn immediately. Use one new idea every week. Knowledge that is never used is just a load to carry.
- Measure your progress every three months. What did you learn, what did you change, and what result did it bring?
A worked example: two traders, the same market
Neema and Halima both sell vegetables in the same market and both work twelve hours a day. Neema works hard, but buys stock by guesswork and gives credit to anyone who asks. Halima works just as hard, but over one year she learned to keep simple daily records, to price by her real costs, to accept mobile money and to buy in a group with three other traders for a better wholesale price. At the end of the year, Halima knows exactly which products make her money and has started saving for a second stall. Same effort, different engine. (An illustrative example.)
| Effort only | Effort + knowledge | |
|---|---|---|
| Buying stock | By guesswork | By records of what sells |
| Pricing | Copies neighbours | Based on real costs and margin |
| Credit | To anyone who asks | Clear rules, small limits |
| Result after a year | Same stall, same struggle | Savings and a plan to expand |
⚠️ Knowledge and skills are not only certificates. School is valuable, but much of the knowledge that builds success is practical: how money works, how to sell, how to serve customers, how to plan. Anyone can learn these, whatever their level of formal education.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is success a matter of luck?
For a few people, luck plays a part. For the great majority, success comes from principles that work the same way for everyone, and the most important of them is knowledge and skills combined with effort. Hard work alone is common; hard work guided by knowledge and skills is rare, and that is why few people reach the top.
What matters more, knowledge and skills or hard work?
You need both. Effort is the body of the car; knowledge and skills are the engine. A beautiful body with a broken engine goes nowhere, and a weak engine makes the journey slow. Knowledge and skills tell you where to put your effort, and how, so that it pays.
Is it true that knowledge doubles every 18 months?
Treat that figure as an illustration, not a measurement. It comes from Buckminster Fuller's "knowledge doubling curve", an estimate rather than a scientific count. Studies of scientific publications find output grows about 4% a year, doubling roughly every 17 years. The lesson still holds: the World Economic Forum expects 39% of workers' core skills to change by 2030.
How can I build my knowledge and skills if I can't afford courses?
Start with 30 minutes a day: read books and articles in your field, listen to podcasts or radio programmes, learn from people who are already succeeding, and join free trainings and seminars. Then practise one new idea or skill each week. Knowledge you use is worth far more than knowledge you only collect.
Final Word
Everyone has the ability to reach the peak of success in life. Luck and destiny explain only a few cases; for everyone else, the rules are the same. Work hard, yes, but above all, keep building the engine. SUCCESS = KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS + EFFORT. Knowledge and skills, again and again!
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Know someone who works very hard but never seems to move forward? Share this article with them.
Sources: World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025 (January 2025), skills outlook; Bornmann, Haunschild and Mutz, "Growth rates of modern science: a latent piecewise growth curve approach to model publication numbers from established and new literature databases", Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8, 224 (2021); R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path (1981), on the "knowledge doubling curve". Adapted from an original Kiswahili article by Juma Killaghai.
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