Here is Michael Martine’s guest post to the Success Factors blog series.
“The secret to success is … and for a few bucks it can be yours.”
Sound familiar?
People claim to know the secret and they try to sell it. Other people buy it because they want a shortcut, but it never works. Success is about hard work, but there is more. There are five other essential traits of successful people and in the remaining part of this article, I will show you all five of them.
1. Passion
Passion comes in many forms. There is the Gary Vaynerchuk blow the top of your head off with enthusiasm sort of passion and then there is the quiet, reflective, and influential sort of passion of Brian Clark. Wherever you fall, you need passion to be successful. Consider these two points:
- It’s Not About The Money - Do you think Gary Vaynerchuk would have been able to video blog about wine for 8 months with zero traffic if he cared about the money? He actually lost money because sales dropped in his store-front.
- Without Passion, It’s Just Work – Do you think the guy at McDonalds that says “Would you like fries with that?” is passionate about his job? No, he’s doing it for the money and it’s just work. He doesn’t go home and dream about it — nightmares maybe…
But how do you develop your passions? You need to make a list of what you really love in life. The things you talk about, the things you dream about. If you feed these things time, money, and effort, they will grow into something more and the money will come soon thereafter.
2. Compassion
Let me say this again. Compassion. ComPASSION. CompanionPASSION. This is where you care about other people. It helps you earn a living by helping others — it’s win-win. If you care about people, they will care about you and your business. But how do you develop compassion?
- Pick a Cause – Find something you care about and donate time and money. Like a bank, you have to make some deposits in society before you make withdrawals.
- Listen to Complaints - Every complaint is an opportunity. For example, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google, they undoubtedly heard “I can’t find anything on the internet” as a complaint. So, they solved it.
- Help the Desperate – Find the people who need help and help them. Your kindness will be appreciated and remembered.
So what have you done for your community lately?
3. Observation
Success starts with an observation. Larry Page and Sergey Brin observed that you couldn’t find information on the internet. That single observation changed the world. They set off a chain of events that created new products, new markets, and new innovations. Now what are you doing to become more observant?
- Start a Journal and Fill It Daily – Whether you’re blogging on the internet, or writing in a moleskin, daily writing forces you to make observations.
- Watch What People Do - When you go to work, just watch what people do. How do they drink their coffee? How do they hold their paper?
- Make Observations – Simple, right? Just make observations. When you shop, look at how goods and services are presented. Look for inconsistencies. Look for opportunities. Just go out there and do it.
4. Imagination
At Disney, imagination is one of the most valuable attributes of a person — they even have positions called “Imagineers.” Do you know why? Imagination is the only durable competitive advantage. It can never be taken from you. It helps you solve problems, create art, woo a mate, and the list goes on. But how do you develop your imagination?
- Imagine a Movie – Watch the first half of a movie and try to imagine how it ends. Then, compare how close you were.
- Imagine the Solution - Find one of the problems in your many observations and imagine a solution — even if it’s unrealistic.
- Play Games - Scrabble… Risk… Video Games… Any games. Just play games. They make you suspend reality so you can develop your imagination.
Now what are you doing to imagine solutions to your customer’s problems?
5. Bravery
And here is the rub. You can have every one of the above qualities, but without the guts to do something, they’re pointless. Success is not easy and most people will never taste its sweet nectar. The few who do had to overcome personal difficulties and make tremendous sacrifices. But let me reassure you one thing: you can learn to be brave and here are two ways how:
- Stay Conscious - Have you ever seen a kid curl up in a blanket when they’re scared? Don’t be that little kid. Be aware of your surroundings and be willing to make tough decisions.
- Stay Scared – Want to know the best way to develop bravery? Keep doing things that scare you. Scared of public speaking? Grab a soap box and speak. Scared of rejection? Go get rejected.
Share Your Thoughts
Did I miss any other key characteristics of successful people? Why not leave them in the comments?
About the Author: Michael Martine blogs at Remarkablogger, which is in the top 100 business blogs and the top 100 internet marketing blogs. Why don’t you follow him on Twitter?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Good stuff! I think the most important are the passions and bravery (or risk taking). Put those two together and you’re nearly unstoppable. What about persistence? Are you including that with passion? Dogged persistence until you break through the obstacles is critical. How about an intense desire to solve problems?
Sorry, quit too early. Not caring what others think. Also I think about that song “Tub Thumping”. “I get knocked down, and I get up again…” Not letting failure, even massive failure, stop you.
@Stephen I’m going to have to agree here. Persistency is key. You need to keep doing what you’re doing. No matter what. However, this ties with Bravery… you need to have the guts to never stop.
I really like your list and I totally agree that these are traits that people ’should’ have, but I think unfortunately compassion is lacking in many successful people.
@Julian Do you have any examples?
Great post! I think you covered all the main points here. I think, for some people, it’s easy to overlook COMPASSION as an essential ingredient to success.
Looking at myself and how well I magnify the above traits I found that
my biggest down fall is lack of compassion.
I love words and was particularly struck by your breakdown of compassion. It makes it easy for me to remember so that I may be compassionate.
I looked up compassion in the Webster’s Third International Dictionary:
n. deep feeling for and understanding of misery or suffering and the concomitant desire to promote alleviation: spiritual consciousness of the personal tragedy of another or others and selfless tenderness directed toward it.
ComPASSION – CompanionPASSION, yes I like that. I can use that.
Thank you
@Sheila your welcome. When I was editing Michael’s article, I added that section in because I thought it drove the point home and I’m glad that you noticed it!
Awesome post. Really like how you not only setup the 5 things but also gave examples of how to experience them through little experiments. In branding, we tell companies that in order to be a successful brand they have to do three things: 1) Don’t suck. Be good at what you do. 2) Be social. Talk to people and get out there. 3) Simple Math. Make sure the numbers equal profits. So those might somehow apply to success … but yours really strike the internal chord of the individual. Thanks!
This may be my favorite article on Prevential thus far.
“daily writing forces you to make observations” -I could not agree with you more. Excellent job.
Great article. Especially the journal part sounds great. I never would thought about doing such a thing!
If you want to succeed, learn from those who succeed. Success does not result from books, blogs or tweets. Serve them with the passion, loyalty, intelligence, imagination and courage. Put yourself in the action. In the front line under the command of people who make it happen, that’s where you will learn how to succeed- if you are capable of learning how to succeed.
This is a great read. Inspiring in itself. I’d add optimism to the list. When your given lemons, make lemonade. I’m still working on that one. But I’m getting better at it.
One of my all time fav quotes is “A bad day is no more a measure of the rest of your life, than your last good day was.”
Thanks for putting this this together, a very good post.
Of all of the five traits mentioned Bravery may well be the most important of all as it’s the one that can drive actions — if you’re too scared you may not move forward out of self-doubt, but bravery can keep you moving forward, even when things look a little gloomy.
That said, these five things need to work synergistically if people are to become successful.
gay!
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