The Seven Traits of Success
I’m going to give you a list of seven things that make a major difference in the success or failure of your career and life: motivation, hard work, talent, ability, presentation, luck, and opportunity.
This will be short and sweet, but as we look at these, evaluate yourself.
Motivation. We must want something badly and enjoy it for the right reasons. In whatever you’re doing, before you begin your journey, ask yourself why you want to do it and make it clean. If it’s clean, you’ll have more chance of achieving your end goal. What do I mean by clean? It’s coming from you, it’s honest, and it’s genuine. No woulda, shoulda, coulda allowed. It must be coming from you, something you want and for a reason based on achievement, not a sense of need or depletion.
Hard work. It’s simple. We must put in the time. Most people don’t. They have something they want to achieve, but they don’t put in the work. Hard work is not just doing. It is also thinking and planning. Plan. Make a business plan, even for non-business activities. Graph the shortest distance and the fewest steps to get to where you want to go. Then, set off on your journey in full force.
Talent. Our brains all work differently. Our bodies all work differently. We have areas where we can excel without trying. We have areas where we try to clap, and our hands keep missing each other. Talent is raw. It is what we are born with. In the nature/nurture cycle, talent is nature. We either have it or we don’t. Success works best when our ultimate goals lie within our talents, but it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s where ability comes in.
Ability. Ability is something that we develop. It’s like natural talent, but it can be anything we put the time into to build our skill set. Let’s say we have a goal, but we don’t have the natural talent to make it happen. That’s where we can buckle down – this is the nurture side of the nature/nurture balance – and develop the abilities we need to achieve what we want. For abilities, let’s be honest with ourselves and list our deficiencies and liabilities, and then do what is necessary to turn those into assets. Those assets are our abilities.
Presentation. As they say, first impressions count. I’ll add, so does every impression after that. People react based on their feelings and the vibes they get from others. When you deal with others, make sure you present yourself and what you have to offer or sell in the way you want them to be received. Recommendations: don’t be too submissive, and don’t be too assertive. Submissive sometimes works against you because your lack of confidence does not fill others with confidence. Others need to have confidence in you. Being too assertive works against you because we don’t want to deal with arrogant people. We want people who are sure of themselves and command respect quietly, but we don’t want someone so self-absorbed and grandiose that they come across as overbearing. Though we often don’t realize it, we perceive these people (correctly) as giving us a snow job: they’re not as good as they claim (though they might be) and are using their bravado as a cover. Find the fine line that is you, one that sends the message you want to send. The best presentation I’ve found is one that is win/win. I help you, and you help me.
Luck. There is no doubt about it: luck plays a role in success. Sometimes, it is dumb luck that makes things fall into your lap. These situations, however, are few and far between. I have found that luck can be played in many ways. By putting yourself in situations where you have opportunities and preparing yourself for those opportunities, you increase your luck. This then becomes an opportunity.
Opportunity. Opportunity is not only the chance to get something you want, but genuine opportunity is the ability to be in a situation where you help someone, and they help you. It’s a win/win for everyone. Opportunity is not about thinking about what you can get. It is thinking about what you can give and what others can give back to you. Think of opportunity not as getting something but giving something, as well. In doing so, you’ll find opportunities open to you, and others will love working with you, producing even more excellent opportunities and success.
So, there you go. That’s the process. Look it over and see where you can improve. Success is predictable. But we must have the right mindset.
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