Three important traits of very successful people.
A lot of people have a wrong perception about success. Some persons think success is what you show off to the world, like, winning an award, getting a first class, earning seven figures and so on…
Let me shock you. All those things are not success! Yes, they are very beautiful experiences and evidences of success. But they are not the determinant of success. Neither are they success in itself!
What then is success?
Success means different things to different people, and it’s often relative to the stage that you are in…
However, what’s most outstanding about success is that;
Success is an attitude!!
A character built over time, success is a journey, a process.
Truly successful people are those who have develop and imbibe these characters.
Those people who have allowed their experiences build them by making deliberate decisions, taking deliberate steps that have enrich and enhanced their lives
A lot of research has been carried out accurately to find out what makes people truly successful. For instance;
After over 500 interviews with very successful men in different fields and continents, Richard St. John came up with the eight great traits of success as seen in the diagram below.
Personally, studying successful entrepreneurs like Strive Masiyiwa, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, Jack Ma, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Mo Abudu, John Obidi etc, I found these very similar traits.
I want to share three of them with you.
The first and most important for me is;
- COMMITMENT/PERSEVERANCE
No man ever becomes successful by wavering, doubting just about everything. Never!
Each and everyone of these great men found something and committed themselves to it, throwing their entire life at it.
They had this resilient attitude. Some of them never even knew their ideas would turn out so great.
Almost all these people failed at some point. Dr Strive Masiyiwa has lost businesses in the past, these were businesses he invested millions of dollars in.
Elon Musk at a time lost over a 100 million dollars to tin air trying to get rockets to space.
But they never gave up, they pick up their pieces and starts just again! Sometimes, all over from the scratch.
They gave themselves to their course; they gave their all to it!
See, you cannot be a doubting Thomas, wavering back and forth and expect to be very successful.
If you are yet to commit to anything, sticking your neck completely to it, you are not yet on the pathway to success.
In fact, I actually want to talk about Commitment all through and forget about the other two traits.
And my reasons are crystal:
A lot of young persons find it difficult staying committed to a course.
They lack the heart to persevere.
Commitment always birth perseverance.
The tenacity to hold on until you win!!
Now ask yourself, in the last two years, what have you committed yourself to?
This year 2020, what are you committing yourself to?
One thing blogging has taught me overtime is how to stay committed!
This trait reminds me of one of the parable of Jesus Christ.
The parable about the young man who needed help from his rich neighbour.
He had been knocking, but the rich neighbour refused to help out.
Commitment plus perseverance will not let him back out. No way!
Until he gets what he wants!
Commitment is very closely tied to consistency.
When you are committed, you keep at it. You never losses heart.
Like Queen Esther in the bible, you are able to say “if I perish, I perish!”
You stick your neck to your course and give it all you’ve got!
Can I shock you?
The reason Nigeria is where it is today is simple; “Nigerians are not committed to Nigeria!”
I saw a movie sometime ago, titled “Twelve Angry Men”, quite an old movie, but the story shows the commitment Americans had for their country even in matters of law and justice.
This principle cuts across every facet of life.
Whatever you commit yourself and time to, whatsoever you put your mind, heart and work to, prospers and succeeds!
No matter how long it takes, if you don’t quite, you will win. You will find a way and succeed!
Your take home:
Whatever you choose to do this year 2020, if you are not ready to commit yourself completely to it,
Hey,
Back off!
Yes! Whatever it is you do, writing, business, career, even relationship or marriage.
Give it all you’ve got!!
Now, what do you commit to, what do you persevere on?
This brings us to our next traits of successful entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact all successful people.
- PASSION
This should actually come first, but let’s leave it here.
Successful people are passionate people!
It is this passion that drives them to do things!
If you truly want to be successful, you can’t be complacent, No! You can’t afford the stagnancy of complacency.
Find your passion! In this blog post on creating content to promote your online presence, I threw some light on finding and building your passion.
Quickly; passion is not an emotional thing.
Passion is a character you can develop!
Passion is you seeing your vision and goals and staying committed to it! Sticking your head out! Doing what the 99% would not do! That’s passion!
Contrary to contemporary meaning, relating passion to feelings and intense desire, passion is much more.
When I did my research, I discovered that;
The original meaning for passion is A Willingness to Suffer for What You Love.
The most famous example being the passion of Jesus Christ!
Passion is what sustains you when you no longer feel like it!!
Find your passion!
Feed and nurture it!
Pursue it with all the energy you can muster.
And you will surely become successful!!
Very closely related to passion is optimism.
“The world of achievements has always belong to the optimist”. Catherine Monson.
To achieve anything worthwhile, you’ve got to first believe it!
You’ve got to be positive about it!
Also, successful people dare to be different! They are not always comfortable with the ordinary. And they are not afraid to be seen or called different!
These men are always breaking the status quo.
Their passion, not the norm drives them! And so they are willing to explore.
Oprah Winfrey once said and I paraphrase:
Passion fuels the energy of your work. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you, what you truly love!!
The last trait we will discuss briefly is;
- PEOPLE ORIENTED.
Successful entrepreneurs are people oriented!
This works perfectly for every other successful men too.
You’ve got to think beyond you!
How would your passion benefit the larger number of people?
How would it make life better for humanity, how would it make the world a better place?
I was listening to Elon Musk one time, and he mentioned something profound. He said;
He would be glad if his competitors come up with more compelling electric vehicles that’s good for the world.
And that is simply because, according to him, the goal for Tesla was to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport for the world.
And if they clear the path and someone else made it happened. They were cool with it!
That’s not a common trait in a world where everyone wants to take credit.
Bill Gates earliest vision for Microsoft was to see that every household across the globe has at least one computer.
Oprah Winfrey in one of her talks mentioned how she has learnt that the greatest legacy any man can leave on the earth, is not the number of houses he owns, not the cars you bought, or the companies you built, or even the billions in your bank account.
Your greatest legacy is the number of lives you positively impact and influence!
Hence, to truly become successful, you cannot neglect the peoples’ factor!
Sadly, this is where the average entrepreneur gets stuck.
If you can develop a product that truly solves humanity problems, if your product or services or movement put smiles on the faces of people,
You have won!
And then you can say, you are truly successful!!
In summery, you want to be successful? Develop these traits, a total commitment and perseverance to your passion. Then find a way to impact humanity with it.
Let’s hear from you…
What other unique traits have you discovered about successful people?
Please leave a comment below, someone may be waiting to learn from you!
Cheers to a very successful year!!
Online Business Consultant, Content Strategist, Writer
#BeInspired
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This is very helpful.. Thanks
Good to know. You’re welcome!