How Being Hungry and Foolish is a Recipe for Success

Posted in Personal Branding On May 30, 2019

The future belongs to the hungry as much as to the foolish. The revolutionary Steve Jobs  was the advocate of this timeless liner: “stay hungry, stay foolish.” Still, I am tempted to go a step further and declare: ‘be hungry, be foolish.” To “stay” carries the meaning of exerting effort while to “be” is to be naturally driven. Your self-image pulls you towards achieving great things as you feel inside that you are destined to be as such. Your hunger for constantly developing your skills and learning new ones is the only and viable requisite to adapt to today’s changing landscape. You are aware that the kiss of death comes when you are satisfied and complacent. Parallel to this hunger for being the best is not being afraid of trying and failing. Being authentic is synonymous with being a fool. You just don’t care for “looking” foolish simply because you don’t know what is supposed to be impossible.


Seeking the ordinary is the only thing holds you from being the best. We are habitually prisoned by the current social conditioning. A conditioning that sleep-walks us into going to school for getting knowledge, getting good grades, and having a job. That was early indoctrinated inside of you. This triggers you to believe that you are genetically conditioned – you have such a bad temper because it was a gene inherited from your parents and grandparents. On a macro level, your boss, the economic situation and the national policies are the ones to be blamed. You are unconsciously prisoned in a world of your own making – a world of limited possibilities.

Seeking excellence helps you unleash your potentials. Being hungry for achieving great things coupled with embracing failure as a learning experience, is the only way to get out of your perceived prison. To be hungry is to be ambitious, to despise mediocrity and to fight complacency. Be aware that mediocrity is the enemy of greatness. Bring into your awareness the “foolish” part of your childhood where nothing was impossible; where you were indifferent to be ridiculed when committing a mistake.  Remember how you let your instinct lead you when you tried walking in spite of your failing a lot and looking funny in front of everyone. Remember also that you succeeded, back then, because of letting your instinct have the upper hand over your unconditioned mind.


Mauricio Pochettino, the football manager of Tottenham Hotspur  is an example of a hungry strategist. The vision of how his life will be like started to materialize the moment he was appointed as the head coach of Tottenham on a five-year contract. The journey starts on May 27, 2014 where he shoots for helping the club be one of the best in Europe. Now that his five-year period is about to come to an end, he manages to compete for getting the cup of the European Championship league  in the match that will be held on June 1, 2019.

Unfortunately, another hungry lion is standing in the face of the visionary Pochettino. That one is Jürgen Klopp, the football manager of Liverpool Football Club. During his first press conference in October 2015, he made it clear that his intention is to get Liverpool back to trophies within 4 years. Now that he has failed to get the English Premier league for the season 2018-2019, he got another chance on June 1st, 2019 to win the final match against Pochettino and bring Liverpool to the forefront and, more importantly, deliver on the promise he declared four years ago. That once-in-a-lifetime-fight will be viewed by no less than half a billion viewers around the globe.

Related: How Your Focus On The Process Is More Fulfilling


Being hungry and foolish makes you unstoppable in achieving your vision. The two must go hand in hand; you have the burning desire to challenge your lazy and complacent nature along with paying deaf ear for being ridiculed and laughed at in the process. You have no motive but to give away your uniqueness in the service of humanity.

About The Author

Tareq Alaghoury

Tareq M. Alaghoury is the founder and Managing Director of Holistic Communications where he offers business coaching services and guidance to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to build their brands and move their business to the next level.