Is there a formula to becoming successful? What characteristics must a person possess to ensure that he will be successful in all areas of life? Although there is no standard formula for success, there are indeed some fundamental attributes that will make a person having higher chances of attaining personal success. I have listed 12 of them.
1. Desire with Passion
2. Faith
3. Specialized knowledge and competence
4. Creative Imagination
5. Organized planning with strategy
6. Decisiveness and taking action
7. Determination/ Hard Work/ Discipline
8. Positive thinking and enthusiasm
9. Security and Confidence
10. Social Skills
11. Integrity and Trustworthiness
12. Take responsibility and learn from mistakes
Desire with Passion
Success is rarely by randomness, but success come to those who desire it and take practical steps to achieve it. Desire will produce passion, the fuel that drives us to be excellent in our endeavors. Without passion, the work that we do will become mundane and lifeless. Desire produces vision, a preferable future that we want for ourselves. And the clearer our vision is, the stronger our desire will be. A clear vision has a magnetic pull in us, creating excitement and passion to begin the journey towards success.
Faith
Another word for faith is belief. Believing in ourselves is paramount in achieving success. If we do not believe in ourselves, who will? And if we do not believe that we can achieve success, why should we even start on the journey? Our actions reflect what we believe about ourselves. Faith is being certain of things we do not see yet in the future, which is our vision for success
Specialized Knowledge and Competence
To be successful, we need to know what are our strengths and weaknesses, and then play on our strengths. We will then have focus and build on our gifts and talents, and develop them into skills. A skill is specialized knowledge of a particular field of work that will bring value and serve others’ needs. It is also not enough just to have a skill; we also need to be very good at it, which is competence. People usually pay for a needed skill and will even pay a premium for a person who is competent in performing that skill.
Creative Imagination
What differentiates you from another person with a similar skill, or even competence which is on par with you? We need to develop our own uniqueness. Why should someone do business with you or hire you? We will need to do things differently if we want to stand out from the mediocre crowd. This requires creativity and imagination. Learn to be creative and imagine! Sometimes the greatest ideas come to people who imagine and dare to dream of the impossibilities.
Organized planning with strategy
With the greatest idea and vision, it will still not become a reality without proper planning and having a strategy. To reach a particular destination, there are many routes which we can take, but which one is the most effective and efficient? This requires us to think and plan our route to achieve our vision, without wasting time and resources, and reaching our goal in the most effective manner.
Decisiveness and taking action
Now with an idea and vision in our minds with a well thought out strategy, we need to be decisive and take action! Without action is like turning on the engine of a Ferrari car, but never stepping on the accelerator to exhibit its full potential. Many people are guilty of procrastination, thinking that there is always tomorrow to do the things they need to do. Procrastination is the greatest killer of our potential. Kill procrastination, before it kills our vision.
Discipline, Hard Work and Determination
To kill procrastination, we need discipline. We need to die to our selfish desires such as laziness. Success is never by chance, success is by choice. And choices are what we make daily. Be disciplined to make the right choices daily. Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. To achieve success in our vision, we need to ‘get our hands dirty’, that is to put in the hard work. The journey to success is also never a bed of roses. There are bound to be obstacles. This is when we need to have the tenacity and determination to overcome challenges. Remember that we become stronger every time we overcome adversity.
Positive thinking and enthusiasm
It is because the road to success is never easy that we need to have a positive attitude and even a good sense of humor to help us stay on the course. Being positive does not mean we become unrealistic about the practical challenges we may be facing. It is accurately assessing our situation, but believing that we are able to overcome the challenges and move on to the next level. Thinking positively will create positive energy, which is also known as enthusiasm. If you are leading a team to accomplish the vision, having enthusiasm will also have a positive influence on your team members, creating the positive energy which is very important for achieving our goals.
Security and Confidence
The next 4 attributes involves how we relate to others whom we will need if we want to accomplish our vision. No man is an island and the bigger our vision is, the more we need people to help us achieve the vision. Successful people are usually leaders, who are secure in themselves, and having a healthy self esteem. They also exude confidence in their abilities. Leaders do not need to know how to do everything; rather they focus on what they do best and team up with people who are experts in other areas. Thus, leading and managing a team are essential skills in working with people to accomplish the vision.
Social Skills
Since working with people is essential in accomplishing the vision, having good social skills is therefore imperial. Being able to communicate well, understanding body language, having a sense of empathy, listening skills, these are all needed ingredients to relate with others well. The best thing is all these skills are life skills; they not only help us in our work, but also in our family relationships and all other areas of our lives!
Integrity and Trustworthiness
Integrity comes from the root word ‘integral’, meaning ‘completeness’. Having integrity is having our actions corresponding with our beliefs. To instill trust in others, we need to do what we say we will do. Integrity is the mark of a leader and all truly successful people. Trustworthiness is the basic component on all relationships. If I do not trust you in the first place, why should I even bother building a relationship with you? Today, we see many ‘successful’ people breaking trust with people and getting caught in scams and commercial frauds. Successful people with integrity are much needed in the world today.
Take responsibility and learn from mistakes
When we meet with failures on our road to success, remember never to blame others. Unsuccessful people have a common trait; they blame everything and everyone else for their failures but never themselves. Successful people take responsibility for their actions and their failures, but never dwell or become paralyzed by them. Instead, they reflect and learn from their mistakes, move on and achieve greater heights!
My opinion is that when we know, understand and practice faithfully these principles of success, we have already positioned ourselves to receive the success that is meant for every one of us. It is my heart’s desire to see every individual find out our purpose in life, and fulfill it powerfully. I encourage you to discover your purpose too, as only fulfilling our purpose can truly bring us joy and satisfaction that even money cannot buy.
Aaron Graham Tay, CFP