There are many different traits that successful people have in common. But what are the most important ones? Here are the things that are shared by those who have reached the top of their respective fields and who are considered leaders, be it successful entrepreneurs, artists, or politicians.
They Persist
Successful people rarely manage to get everything they want on the first try. Most frequently, they hit obstacle after obstacle. You can see this in the history of many people: failed companies, inventions that wouldn’t work, pieces that did not get published. Thomas Edison held thousands of patents, and yet most of his inventions did not make him a name. Best-selling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson wrote over ten novels before he even managed to get one sold to an agent and published.
But what makes these people successful is that they keep going. They don’t give up. Even when it takes dozens of tries, they find new ways and still move forward. This persistence in the face of difficulties is, possibly, the most important thing in achieving success.
They Experiment
Successful people rarely become so by doing what is expected or doing what everyone else is doing. Instead, they are willing to try new things and play around with ideas. Bill Gates was playing around with computers and doing something nobody else was doing.
Experimenting means taking risks and accepting the possibility of failure. Things will not work out the way we want them to, not all the time. This is why it’s important to be flexible; if plan A doesn’t work, we can move on to plan B. Successful people can generate many ideas and strategies, testing them and discarding them as needed. Experimenting with their routines and habits, work, time management, and, of course, projects, is essential because it helps them discover what works and what doesn’t.
They take care of their Health
One thing you will find among successful people is that they take good care of themselves. They have established routines and often include in those routines practices like meditation and exercise; they also take care of their sleep. The co-founder of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, has a whole book dedicated to the importance of sleep, for instance.
Successful people recognize that their work is a long-term commitment and take the measures they need to take to make sure they can deliver. Succes is a marathon, not a sprint.
They Build Networks
Nobody can succeed on their own. If you take a look at successful people, you will find them surrounded by others. Some of these will give them support, others help open a few doors. Networks make a person more powerful and more likely to succeed.
Building a network is not easy, of course. You need to show yourself to be reliable and cultivate relationships. However, for successful people, their network is a key element of their achievements, as it increases the chances that they will find themselves in the right place at the right time, because they are likely to be invited to that meeting or that conference.
They Always Want to Learn
Successful people are willing to develop new skills. They invest time and money in improving and find many new opportunities to learn. This is a time-consuming issue, as these chances never really stop coming.
Learning new things helps successful people see opportunities others might miss and connect separate topics to create novel ideas. At one point, someone saw that Internet could benefit from a payment system to create PayPal and brought two different elements together: finance and coding. Without new learning, these ideas might not appear or flourish. Learning is not all about learning academically, instead, it also involves finding the right opportunities to experience, ask questions, find mentors, and seek information. This is something anyone can do in the situation they are in.
Successful people come from many different situations and can be quite distinct in terms of personality. But most of them share the same traits that maximized their chances of getting to the top.
