What Destiny’s Child Can Teach Us About Success

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There are lots of blogs out there. Lots of people expressing their opinion, thoughts, or relaying facts across the medium of the internet. Fantastic. But as we all know, some blogs and websites are more successful than others. How is this possible? Well some have hilarious commentary, some consistently offer great information, and others just have that *it* factor. So what if you have all three of these but still don’t see the success that you want?

Well, part 5 of I Just Want To Be Successful is The Beauty of the Four Part Harmony. Groups with four people just work better, in my opinion.
“Bills, Bills, Bills” Destiny’s child is far superior to  “Survivor” Destiny’s Child. Actually that’s a wild and reckless assumption because I’m sure all of you could name 3-person or 5-person groups that are beasts. TLC. SWV. New Edition. Any others? But I do stand by the fact that 4 person Destiny’s Child was so much more amazing than 3-person Destiny’s Child.

Seriously, which one looks like they bring the realness?

Paul Grice ,a philosopher, proposed that there are four crucial elements you must possess to be successful called Gricean Maxims. In short, those key ingredients are: be informative, truthful, relevant, and clear.

Informative aka LaTavia Roberson

Give enough information to be helpful, but don’t over do it. If you’re posting an article on why Kanye West is taking a break from the industry for now, it might be helpful to mention his mother’s death, his drinking, and his eccentric behavior. Even analyzing a track or two like Roses or Hey Mama could give great insight. Giving a detailed discography of his musical career probably isn’t as necessary. Be informative and succinct. I’m still working on being brief, concise, and still informative. It’s something we just have to work for. It doesn’t come easily but those who have accomplished it are successful.

Why this is LaTavia: Do you remember LaTavia? Can you remember your favorite verse with her on it? Probably not. But she did her job. She evened out the melody of the group. And that’s what we need to do to be successful. It’s not always about making a name for yourself. Sometimes it’s about adding to the group and simply being helpful.

Bottom Line: Be informative yet brief; helpful but not long-winded.

Truthful aka Kelly Rowland

This is a huge one. Essentially, only say things that you believe to be true. There are a few ways you can interpret this but the angle I’m going to approach it from is just say what you know. This isn’t necessarily about “don’t spread false information” but more so don’t try to say things that you aren’t informed about. For instance, I once wanted to write an article about health care in America. But I had to be honest with myself and realize that I don’t know enough about it yet to write a whole article. If I had written the article I would simply have been reiterating facts that I heard somebody else say. It would have shown, too. I wouldn’t have been able to add that Michelle Huxtable flavor to it because it wasn’t my ideas or thoughts. Branching out is cool and a great thing to do but we just have to know when and how to do that. (I don’t want to cause anybody to think that you have to stay in your box because that’s simply not true. But when you are trying to write an article or give a speech or convince somebody of something, you should be informed on your topic.)

Why this is Kelly Rowland: Let’s be honest. Kelly knew she wasn’t Beyonce. For a few songs she may have taken the lead but she stuck to being the number two girl. And you know what? She made money. She did her part. She stuck to what she knew. She went out of her box and tried the solo thing and is still doing her thing out there but in the context of Destiny’s Child, she stayed #2.
Bottom line: Stick to what you know.

Relevant aka LeToya Luckett

Being focused pays off.

This is somewhat like the first point about being informative. You also have to be relevant. To go back to the Kanye example, if you wanted to write that article about Kanye’s meltdown, talking about the company he keeps could be helpful. Is Amber Rose a cause of bringing him down? Did Jay-Z put too much pressure on him to succeed? Did the fame go to his head? All relevant questions. Discussing Jay-Z and Beyonce’s wedding, whether or not Kanye actually ever went to any College to Dropout of, if he ever was truly Late for Registration, and the fact that he couldn’t have attended Graduation is probably not relevant.

Why this is LeToya Luckett: Letoya, much like Kelly, wasn’t in the spotlight in Destiny’s Child. But she stayed focused. She knew her time would come. When she got kicked out the group she didn’t go spreading gossip saying “Beyonce this, Beyonce that…” She stayed focused knowing that her time would come and now she’s doing her solo career. The songs I’ve heard from her new CD are hot by the way.

Bottom Line: Relevance doesn’t only mean be up-to-date on topics. It also means stay focused on the topic at hand. I haven’t mastered this yet either.

Clear aka Michelle Williams

Being clear is kind of a summation and a symptom of the rest of the 3 keys to success. It means be vague or ambiguous. Be clear and obvious; brief and to the point. At the end of that Kanye article you shouldn’t beat around the bush and say well I don’t know if he’s crazy or not and maybe he’s just going through a rough time. People are reading your blog, article, book, essay, paper, or listening to your speech because they want to hear your opinion.

Why this is Michelle Williams: Any time Michelle’s verse came up, she was quick and to the point. She knew people wanted to hear Destiny’s Child, not Michelle Williams.

Bottom Line: Don’t beat around the bush.

These are more “guidelines” than actual rules. Because for every guideline up here, I’ve broken all of them probably in this post alone. Just ideas and advice for anyone who’s ever said, “I Just Want To Be Successful.” Be informative, truthful, relevant, and clear. If you do all this, you can accomplish greatness like the four person Destiny’s Child.

Don’t you miss that old Destiny’s Child? They were a force to be reckoned with! Even though this is from 1999 so it’s barely the 90’s, go ahead and jam to some 90s music. You know you want to.

Side Note: Yes I realized I left out Beyonce. First time for everything.

Tagged as: destinys child, Success

Article by Michelle Huxtable

Michelle Huxtable is a little Michelle Obama and a little Claire Huxtable. You can catch more from her at www.michelle-huxtable.com. Follow at Twitter.com/MichelleHux

Michelle has written 21 article(s) for us.