You are your own success maker. One of my favorite quotes on success, variously attributed to a variety of people is–
If it’s to be, it’s up to me.
That doesn’t mean you are your only success maker. It does mean that you must take personal responsibility for making your own success.
Soar to Success – Characteristics of Successful People
Most successful people have similar characteristics. Success can come in many forms—business success is only one area. These are some of the attributes of successful businesspeople, people who have been their own success makers:
1. Successful people have a purpose in life.
Living a meaningful life starts with a sense of purpose. Successful and happy people have usually spent time considering their unique purpose in life and have taken steps to fulfill that purpose.
Each person has a purpose in life. If people do not have it at the beginning, they find their purpose and then devote themselves to it. Successful people follow their purpose with a passion which resonates in their hearts. These people not only have ideas to build on but they believe in themselves and their ideas. They do not worry about what other people believe. If you have a purpose in life, it’s easier to give that purpose your commitment. Commitment provides the fuel – the energy – to keep moving forward. Successful people know what they care about and have committed themselves, on a deep level, to getting it.
2. Successful people get started
Take a look again at the right approach to business startups and making real money. So many people convince themselves that the present is not the best time to start, and the best time to start never comes around. Like the amazing compounding effect of interest, those who start young have the most time to become rich. However, there are others, like Ray Kroc, who was actually 52 years old and a multi-mixer milkshake salesman when he took over the McDonald’s Corporation in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. He ended up amassing a $500 million fortune during his lifetime. The bottom line is this: the best time to start is today. Don’t put it off. If you are a procrastinator see the article on procrastination in this website.
Another quote on success, this one by the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli:
The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes.
Being ready to me means that a success maker actually takes the opportunity and doesn’t let it pass by.
3. Successful people are financially literate
Being financially literate helps you to make the right decisions about the lifestyle your business will support. Go through this website, part of which is designed to help you become financially literate. Being financially literate helps you decide where to spend your money. Here’s an eleven minute video explaining why the rich get richer and why the poor stay poor.
Part of being financially literate and one’s own success maker is to invest in oneself. Have you ever seen a successful person’s personal library? It’s usually packed full! Successful people are willing to invest in themselves, either through reading, attending seminars or workshops. They know they don’t have all the answers so they seek people that have the answers they’re looking for.
For entrepreneurship books, websites and other resources I have especially enjoyed, see the Business Resources page.
4. Successful people are open to new ideas and at the same time they are decisive.
They don’t close themselves off from information that might help them. It is said that the most expensive thing you can own is a closed mind! It will cost you a fortune and you won’t ever know it!
Part of being open to new ideas is being courageous. Often, successful people are risk-takers, but more importantly they’re courageous. They tap into the courage that lives deep inside themselves and use it to break ground, try new things and put themselves out in front.
There’s an old adage that says a person should be quick to make a decision and slow to change it. Successful people do just that. They don’t vacillate or sit on the fence. They decide and move forward. Indecisiveness will kill momentum.
5. Successful people don’t trade hours for dollars. Instead they find a system that works and then repeat it over and over again.
When you get a job you trade your hours for dollars. If you have a skill that’s particularly in demand you might become well off by doing that. However, you will not become rich. To become rich, you have to leverage the hours you spend.
Work towards long mutually rewarding relationships that will sustain what is called a “successful system” or a successful, recession proof business plan. Once you have found what is successful for you, do it over and over again. Ray Kroc, a success maker, figured out a successful system for McDonald’s and then he franchised thousands of them.
Sam Walton, another success maker, figured out how to run a successful discount department store and then kept building more stores until today Wal-Mart is the largest public corporation by revenue in the world. Invariably, successful people learn that part of that system, or plan, involves the value of building a team. Together, they find, the mountains are less challenging to climb. A person with an unstoppable spirit will always look for creative answers or solutions to whatever arises. There will be times when a simple solution will not fill the bill.
6. Successful people are persistent, consistent and patient. They are also willing to work hard
Neither Ray Kroc nor Sam Walton became rich overnight. Success takes time to build. Successful people, who are also happy, have learned to allow the things they want to arrive in their own perfect timing. They honor the natural flow of life and seldom push to get what they want. Both Ray Kroc and Sam Walton were persistent and patient. It’s not enough to get started and follow through. You have to give it the time it takes to become successful.
There is no substitute for hard work—it always looks easier to others—but hard work is not enough. Thomas Edison tried 10,000 (or 700 or 1,000 depending on your source) different filaments before he was able to design the first commercially practical incandescent light. He then used mass production techniques to replicate that success over and over again. However many failures Thomas Edison had before finding the successful model, the principle remains the same: he exhibited all of the success traits in becoming very rich manufacturing and selling light bulbs. No such thing as “giving up” in a successful person’s mind. Just like the Energizer Bunny, the successful person keep going and going. As they say, success is 98% showing up, 2% talent.
Thomas Watson, who built IBM into the greatest company of his day said:
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”
President Calvin Coolidge in a quote on success famously said:
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.”