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the less privileged.
She identified herself with the less privileged (despite her personal privileges) and set herself to serve the needs of these disadvantaged people.
Her critics are quick to point out that it was easier for her to perform her duties because she was married to Prince Charles.

But her personal privileges could also have easily distracted her from helping the needy.
Her conviction enabled her to overcome the stumbling block (her personal situation) and worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the disadvantaged instead of indulging herself in the luxuries that comes with staying in the Buckingham palace.

So why is Princess Diana the only well-known philanthropic princess when there are so many princesses in the world?
Even in our own villages there are so many princesses who are known more for demanding respect and attention than for serving the needs of the disadvantaged people.

They are known more for anything more than their title.
The reason why Diana is known more than other princess lies in her deep conviction to serve the disadvantaged people in society.
People with a desire to succeed have very high levels of conviction. This mirrors the life of Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great was considered to be the greatest military genius of all time.
He had an amazing character.
During his youth he managed to a tame his father’s wild stallion.

His father wanted to get rid of this untamed stallion. Alexander discovered that the stallion was afraid of his shadow and he found a way to divert its focus from its shadow and he rode the stallion.
This became his permanent horse. His father encouraged his behaviour. More importantly, Alexander became a very persuasive and visionary leader guided by the belief to conquer the known world and he succeeded.

He was driven by the goal to make everything Greek. This was later known as his Greek Hellenism ambitions.
His soldiers were so dedicated, they gave up their lives to the ideals of their great leader.
At one time he wanted to fight a king who lived in a fortified city. He told the King that his army was so loyal to him.

He demonstrated the magnitude of loyalty by asking his army to march off a cliff, which led to some of the members of his force falling to their death.
After a handful had fallen to their death, he stopped them and the King who was enclosed in a fortified city surrendered.
He surrendered because he had never witnessed such devotion to the commander’s cause by soldiers.

He was a fearless conqueror and wise philosopher. He conquered India, Egypt, Iraq, Persia, etc, between 356-323BC.
He reminded his soldiers of their permanent values. They were the world’s liberators. They could subdue all races of the earth.
Deep conviction forces everything around you to respond in ways that help you to achieve your goal.

This includes the people, animals and the weather patterns. This is shown when Alexander undertook a journey to an oasis (the temple of Ammon) in the vast desert of Egypt.
All the dangers and difficulties did not matter to him and he could not be diverted from his plan once he had decided to do something.
Water was known to be scarce along the way but this did not matter to Alexander.
Sandstorms had buried armies in this desert before and again this did not dissuade him from carrying out his mission. This implies that perceived threats should be viewed as challenges.

History narrates how the weather patterns in Egypt changed when Alexander undertook the journey.
We are told that there was rain during the time of the expedition. Even ravens helped Alexander by guiding him to the temple of Ammon.
Deep personal conviction must also be anchored by an individual’s willingness to respect their body.

Alexander made his point by saying that no one could claim to be a soldier if he did not take care of the equipment that was nearest to himself, even though he might have the splendid armour and a fine horse.
The life of Alexander the Great teaches us that the high desire to succeed must be matched with desire to motivate and influence your followers to achieve great success.
The reward structure of Alexander the Great was motivated by the desire to increase moral and equity within his camp. It appears conviction can be raised by previous success.

People are likely to have courage to embark on new ventures if they have succeeded in previous ventures even if the venture is not directly related to the new venture.
Previous successes could be derived from your personal successes or from your role model’s successes.
David drew his courage and conviction to go into battle with Goliath from his previous successes.

David said to Saul: “Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.

“Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be one of them . . .” (1 Samuel 17 v34-36)
Previous success must be accompanied by self-belief (conviction). Without self-belief, it is debatable whether David could have slain Goliath given the giant’s intimidating stature.
Are skill sets easily transferable?

Most people fail to rise up to the occasion due people’s perceptions of their own personal circumstances.
David did not allow himself to dwell on his status as a shepherd. When the call to be a warrior came, he grabbed the opportunity to be counted.
At times people fear to be daring because they are not sure whether their skills are easily transferable to other industries.

There is need to be cautious but if the risk can be calculated just as David could calculate the risk of fighting a lion to that of fighting Goliath.
Everyone has encountered success once or more than once in their life. In most cases we do not draw inspiration and conviction from these “minor” successes because we are either too fastidious or too critical of ourselves.

At times we encounter success and never acknowledge it. Basic successes like child bearing are never acknowledged. My appeal to you today is that every success achieved is important no matter how small.
Every success counts and must be celebrated. Success is supposed to be used as a stepping stone to achieve future successes.
In every opportunity presented to us, there is always a “Goliath” standing in our way.

The best way to conquer “Goliath” is to think of the “lion and bear” you have conquered before.
Think about the excitement and satisfaction you derived from that. End your flashback by taking a sling and a stone to conquer “Goliath”.
This implies that we must remember to use simple solutions to solve most of the challenges that lie ahead.

• The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International.