Traits of Wildly Successful People
from Linked In 10/13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 5/14
Success isn’t just about hard work. We hear about hard work all the time—it’s what Olympic champions talk about, when they get to the top of the podium and it’s what the media credits as the sole force behind $Billionaire entrepreneurs. But there has to be something else in the equation of obtaining un-imaginable success. What other traits tipped the odds in favor of the world’s most successful people?
What helped Successful People propel their Careers & Co’s before they had track records? For the past three years I’ve been fortunate enough to research & interview some of the world’s most successful people to find the answers to these very questions. Below are just a few of the traits I’ve noticed, that have stood out in the personalities of people who have truly made it big:
1. Stray from the Pack.
In his early twenties, Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, was running an online Sports Nutrition company and realized that he would be risking his businesses’ survival if he followed the industry standard of accepting payment up to 12 months after the product was shipped. “Everyone followed those rules,” Ferriss revealed to me. “I realized I was inviting disaster & financial ruins, if I risked my Cash Flow that way (by following the standard protocol), so I insisted on pre-payment. Nobody had ever done pre-payment. I think that is one of the reasons why my Sports Nutrition company succeeded, where a lot of other startups of that type failed.” Straying from the norm isn’t easy when you’ve spent your whole life following rules laid out for you at school and at home. It takes a major cognitive shift to understand that the way things are – and have been – can be challenged. Ask yourself what rules in your industry you accept as fixed. Why do you follow them? If the excuse is “that’s the way it’s always been,” it’s time to consider breaking the rules.
2. Chase the School Bus.
Growing up, Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard would wake up, get dressed for school, and walk with his siblings to the bus stop. As the yellow bus would pull to the curb, his friends & siblings would step up into the school bus, but young Sugar Ray, who is now a six-time world champion boxer, would refuse to get on. As the bus drove away, Leonard tightened up his sneakers and ran behind the bus all the way to school. “The other kids thought I was crazy,” Leonard said, “because I would run in the rain, snow—it didn’t matter. I did it because I didn’t just want to be better than the next guy, I wanted to be better than all the guys.” My generation is used to instant gratification. But Sugar Ray demonstrated the necessity to be able to buckle down for the long haul and accept that you won’t see any return on investment for years.
[ You have to be able to stay passionately committed, excited, #3. Corkboards, #4. Get on Qi Time in Premium Content ]