The keys to business and career success
Posted on | July 16, 2012 | No Comments
In an insightful article on Inc.com recently, Jeff Haden highlighted the key beliefs and perspectives of highly successful people in business. These beliefs resonate well with me; if you were to look around at the people whom you deem successful, I am certain that you will find them displaying most of these characteristics. Let’s look at what these “secrets” to business and career success are.
Ability to manage/control time
Time controls most people; the extreemely successful people instead have a way to control time. Remember Murphy’s law-work expands to fill the time available to complete it? People who are driven towards success will instead get the work done in whatever time it actually needs to take instead of stretching it to fill the time available. They are able to get work done effectively and efficiently, so that they have much more time at their disposal to do more and get more out of what is done!
Choose the people around you
Most people think they have limited control over the people around them– but that’s far from true. Successful people have a knack of being attracted to as well as attracting people who are like-minded. It is about recognising who you are able to learn from, who you can emulate and ensuring that is the company you want to keep.
Stop feeling ‘entitled’
Each person has to pay his/her dues, regularly! There are no short cuts and there are no ‘entitlements’. Sow and you will be able to reap – it’s as simple as that.
Experience is what you learn, not the number of years you put in
Very often, people equate “experience” with the number of years that they have been doing something and therefore begin to expect returns purely based on that, be in terms of compensation or rewards. Actually, experience should be a reflection of what you have learnt new and the added value one brings to that task/job. Key questions that one should ask regularly are: how am I able to bring greater value with the time I have spent doing this and the knowledge I have acquired along the way? How am I developing myself, intellectually and professionally, and how is that contributing to the results?
Embrace failure and learn from it
The average person shies away from and acts defensive in the face of failure. He is not willing to take responsibility for it and finds any number of reasons for not succeeding. The successful person on the other hand is willing to look failure in the eye, accept it, learn from it so as to avoid repeating it, move on and be successful. Every failure is one more lesson in how not to do something, and therefore an opportunity to do something better!
Volunteers win
Call it initiative. Call it the drive to move forward and the ability to stretch more than the average person. As Jeff Haden writes in his article: “Success is based on action. The more you volunteer, the more you get to act. Successful people step forward to create opportunities.” The next time there is an opportunity extended to you, you can think of it in two ways. “This is more work! Why should I do it? I might not even be given more compensation?” Or, “This could be interesting— I think I can learn a few things here, acquire some new skills and work with more people. I could become better and stronger!” . The choice is yours to make, of course, but it’s a choice that can determine the limits of your success.
Go the extra mile
Similar to the point above, those who are willing to go the extra mile end up breasting the tape ahead of the others. It’s a proven fact in almost every sphere of life. That little bit extra push, the effort that overcomes all barriers including those from your mind and body which urge you to stop is what will propel you across the finish line. It isn’t easy, of course, but then who said success comes easy?
– Contributed by Jeet Victor
Adapted from an article by Jeff Haden on Inc.com.
Image courtesy: CreatingYourBeyond.com
This article was originally posted on Success Mantras
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