Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2013. Pablo Isla is described as chairman of Inditex, which was true in 2013; he stepped down in 2022 and was succeeded by Marta Ortega.
From Pablo Isla in Spain, chairman of the Inditex Group and Amancio Ortega’s right-hand man, to Warren Buffett in the United States, along with hundreds of artists, entrepreneurs, scientists and writers around the world… every one of them has the same things in common that made them successful in their careers.
In fact, some people even find it depressing to be around these successful people, because they’re always busy, they never stop, and worst of all, they actually enjoy that pace.
1. They never waste a minute
Actor Will Smith used to say that his success was well deserved, because while others were eating, he was working, and while they were sleeping, he was working. Smith said that every minute he wasn’t working was an advantage he was handing his rivals to try to sink him.
Sixty-five-hour work weeks are the norm for most successful entrepreneurs. That means at least 10 hours a day, six days a week. Michael Bloomberg himself said: if you want to succeed, stop going to the bathroom. He was joking that while you’re in the bathroom, someone else is trying to take your place.
In a study by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which he described in his book Creativity, he said that very few people with an IQ below 130 had managed to change the world, but that there was no difference between IQs of 130 and 170. That means the difference between a person of modest intelligence and Albert Einstein doesn’t lie in their IQ but in hard work. This fits perfectly with the theory of psychologist Angela Duckworth, who said that success isn’t predicted by IQ, but by grit and self-discipline.
2. Learn to say no
It’s often said that to get off on the right foot on the road to success you have to learn to say YES to many things: yes to taking risks, yes to new initiatives, yes to new proposals… But once you’re already successful, the secret to not falling is learning to say NO to almost everything.
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Warren Buffett himself used to say: “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
These are people who were too busy with their own projects to get distracted by other people’s. Knowing how to say NO is what saves us from a huge number of distractions and, above all, from falling where most of the “herd” falls.
3. They know who they are
We all have weak points and strong points, weaknesses and strengths, flaws and talents. The secret of success lies not in paying too much attention to our flaws but in building on our skills.
Peter Drucker insisted on identifying the areas where we should cultivate our skills. Don’t sow in a field where you’re not very competent; sow in a sector where you can make the most of your greatest strengths.
All successful people are remembered, obviously, for being better than others in their field, or at least different.
Very few people spend any of their time getting to know themselves, and today that’s an essential part of being successful.
(Read: How to know what to do with your life: which business or job is right for me)
4. The importance of the people around them
I’ve always said that if you spend most of your time with stoners, the question isn’t whether you’ll succeed at something, but whether you’ll end up a stoner yourself.
Over time you learn that the quality of the people you spend your time with always influences your future, without exception. Warren Buffett admitted that if he hadn’t walked away from bad company as a teenager, he could have ended up in a very bad place.
Like many people, I suppose, I used to enjoy being in circles where I felt smarter than everyone else. Now I feel much more comfortable in circles where I still feel “dumb”, like an apprentice, because it means I’m with people who are teaching me something.
One of the 40 universal truths of success says that no entrepreneur has reached the top alone. It has always been with the help of other people.
5. They make their own luck
Some say successful people are very lucky and get lots of business opportunities, and so on… but it isn’t true that it’s down to luck.
For some reason, this type of personality makes them a kind of magnet for good business opportunities. But it isn’t magic, it’s common sense: if you’re outgoing, have a good reputation and a large circle of entrepreneurially minded people, and you’re open to new ideas and optimistic by nature, the chances of initiatives and opportunities coming your way are much higher than if you hang out with the town’s burnouts smoking weed in the park.
6. Their mindset toward failure
I’ve never liked falling back on clichés, especially when they aren’t true. It isn’t true that you have to fail in order to succeed, nor is it true that failure is something beautiful.
Not at all. Failure hurts, and depending on how big it is, however optimistic you are, it can take you five years to recover financially. But it is true that successful people don’t react to failure the same way.
Many sink into thinking about what they can no longer fix, while others accept what has happened and know they have no choice but to take it on the chin and move on. With tears or without them, the situation isn’t going to change.
“Making mistakes doesn’t make you a fool, but not learning from them and failing again because of the same mistakes makes you a total a**hole.”
See also: 10 leaders give advice to college students and future entrepreneurs
(Read: The entrepreneur who finally succeeded after failing 15 times)
It’s often said that every defeat is a chance to start over with more experience. And the truth is that if you ever fail, whether you see it as a new opportunity or as the end of the world, you’ll be right.
It’s all mindset. Successful people always see failure as part of the road, like a correction in a bull market. Remember that success is never linear. One of the traits recently identified in successful people is resilience to failure, which basically means the ability to come out of a bad experience having learned the lesson.
7. The other ingredients of success
Every one of these successful people shows perseverance in their work, objectives and goals. They’re also aware of the need to plan, because we need to know what strategy we’ll follow to reach our goal.
(Read: 5 cognitive distortions found in successful entrepreneurs)
Passion is essential to stay consistent and persevere every day for many years, although, as Seth Godin said, tenacity is more important than perseverance.
They also always have a long-term goal, but with short-term objectives. In other words, big, ambitious goals, but small, achievable objectives in the short term.
As someone once said: “Don’t think about building a great wall; focus on laying one brick after another as well as you possibly can. That way, the wall builds itself.” At least, that’s the strategy recommended by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
Last but not least, there’s the importance of finding mentors. A good mentor can be a truly important accelerator on the way to success.
Featured image: Walmart Stores, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
