Every situation has a silver lining – discover a mindset that heals and enlightens.
September 6, 2021 · 7 min read
If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. - Jim Rohn
Success doesn’t come easily is what we have to understand first.
Success is achieved by having very strong character traits. In other words, there are intangible factors and habits that successful people actually do.
Successful people don’t search for excuses not to do the work. They shift all of their focus and get things done.
Did you know, that:
- 90% of billionaires located in America are self-made (Source: Forbes)
- Businesses fail mostly because people don’t do their homework – there’s no market (Source: CBInsights)
- Only mere 9% of entrepreneurs have a bachelor’s degree in business (Source: TSheets)
- 54% self-employed people make more money than they used to before (Source: Freshbooks)
- 97% of self-employed people would refuse to work for someone else (Source: FreshBooks)
How successful people think?
Successful people think more creatively and outside the boundaries that a normal person would do. They get the most advanced methodologies and technologies to work for them and increase their efficiency, productivity and they save more time in general.
Successful people work smarter and harder. They take every tool that is available to gain leverage against other people.
13 Practical ways how successful people think
1. Focus on statistical data
Statistical data is the king to track results which aid in implementing new methods into success.
It’s no surprise that a lot of data scientists are hired to manage huge amount of information. This information that is collected through practical experiments, queries, quizzes and through other sources help to filter the right information.
Then, the interpretation of statistics helps to implement the data into new methodologies, technologies, etc. The right and correct statistical data is a very big leverage when competing against other people.
Successful people believe in science and most importantly in other experts’ opinions.
For example, market analysis can open a lot of new opportunities and insights. It’s not about what you believe is the best. It’s all about the customers and their satisfaction. That’s one of the differentiations that successful people do that ordinary people don’t.
2. Prioritize organization
Successful people don’t waste their time. Instead, they know already what they’ll do the day before.
Every evening the schedule is thoroughly considered and a few tasks that have to be done are written down. Doing too many tasks per day is usually not achievable.
In fact, writing down too many tasks can have a negative impact. You’ll feel too behind, blame yourself for not being focused or for not being too swift. As a result, your self-confidence might get lower, because you’ll let yourself down.
All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. - Walt Disney
Instead, write only 3-4 tasks and schedule the duration that you’ll need to do them accordingly. In this way, you’ll be very effective on your tasks and you’ll do just the right amount of work without burning out.
3. Adopting abundance mindset
Successful people believe in the power of thoughts and abundance mindset.
Instead of scarcity mindset, they adopt abundance mindset. Here’s the benefits of abundance mindset:
- Live a satisfying and full life
- Feel creative, inspired
- Feel confident in life obstacles and challenges
- Take the advantage of a given opportunity of life
- Create meaningful life experiences
To adopt abundance mindset, they practice gratitude, believe that there’s always plenty of opportunities in life, and practice growth mindset.
Here’s a video of Brendon Burchard who is one of the most followed personal development trainers. He also explains how successful people think.
4. Apply immediately after learning something new
Applying knowledge instantly is one of the biggest factors that distinguish successful people from unsuccessful.
Successful people believe, that applying new material into the practice is the most efficient way to learn. Obviously, theory and “homework” has to be done first, but you shouldn’t wait for too long to apply your freshly gained knowledge.
The best way to learn and accomplish something is just to start. Successful people learn a lot along the way and the gained information and experience is invaluable. There’s no point in holding and memorizing information in your head without actually grasping the real meaning of it.
Eventually, the theory that you’ve learnt will fade away. On the other hand, the practical experience will stay for much longer and you’ll have a better general view on the practiced topic.
Of course, in some cases it’s a must to do a very thorough homework. Such an example could be stocks. You have to learn how to read stock charts, understand how to read balance sheets and financial statements and learn other concepts.
However, you can always start by investing $10 into stocks which will make you understand the theory way better.
Therefore, my point is, that you should always implement learnt knowledge into practice as soon as possible. It’s one of the most important things that successful people do.
5. Answer the inquiries
Successful people believe in social networking. Therefore, even if the person can’t be beneficial at the moment, he can be in the future.
Successful people have a big network and whenever someone asks a question, they try to answer them as fast as possible. They start bonding with other people and gain their trust.
This results in a bigger social network which means more access to different suppliers, better production methodologies, better financial advices and other up-to-date information in the industry.
6. Asking the right questions
Another factor that distinguishes successful people for unsuccessful is asking the right questions.
Successful people think that there’s no time for playing around. They value their time and therefore, they’ve learnt how to ask the right questions.
Right questions include something like: “how to improve the efficiency?”, “What’s the other best alternative way to save the money for the business?” and similar.
These questions are goal-oriented and they don’t shift the main focus to small details that don’t matter. Everything begins from: “how can I help someone to solve their problem? How can I create the best method to solve it?”.
If I had an hour to solve a problem…I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper questions to ask, for once I know the proper question, I can solve the problem in less than five minutes. - Albert Einstein
Then, the additional questions follow, like: “How can I save money while sustaining the quality and being environmentally friendly?”
Good questions help to:
- Learn and discover
- Push and improve innovation
- Eliminate misunderstandings and confusions
- Help to solve the problems
Good questions are created by being curious, asking open ended questions, being engaged in the topic.
7. Paying attention to details
Everyone can notice a car passing by.
However, does everyone notice what brand it is? Is it 4 doors? Is it a sedan or a wagon? Does it have xenon lights?
Paying attention to details can help to prevent additional problems when solving a problem. If you can foresee it, you can set a structured plan and prevent mistakes.
In other words, paying attention to details prevent successful people from wasting time. Time is the most valuable asset that a person can possess.
Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them. - Vaibhav Shah
Therefore, to pay attention to details, you must be present at the moment and really focus on the thing that you are working on. It’s better if you already have a theoretical background on it and know more about the subject.
8. Provide value
Notice that successful people provide value in one or another way. For example, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, most known for companies Tesla and SpaceX, provides value.
His cars are equipped with modern technologies, they have elegant appearance and are fun to drive. Furthermore, they use electricity and offer very good balance of technologies, comfort and overall satisfaction for their value.
Motivational speaker, philanthropist Tony Robbins has inspired millions of people to change their lives and seek for better tomorrow. He inspires people to pursue financial, health goals and people see the results.
Just like them, you must also provide value and differentiate from your competitors. The days of get-quick-rich schemes are gone when people used to fall to these traps and pay their money for very abstract coaching.
Nowadays, you have to provide true and sincere product with actual benefits (just like it’s supposed to be). If you want to provide value, you’ll have to experiment things yourself and get practical knowledge.
9. Love their work
The only way to be successful is to be passionate about your work.
Passionate actors, like Leonardo Dicaprio, Will Smith have found their place under the sun. It’s simply because they love what they do and give it all. Will Smith once said:
And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy's sleeping? I'm working. - Will Smith
Without passion people burn out. Money can’t motivate enough to continue and pursue the career. Sooner or later people give up. This is often seen in new businesses where founders lack the discipline to stick to their work.
Here are few ways how you can spark your love to your job again:
- Set new goals
- Change your workplace
- Think whether you are not happy with your job or with your work environment
- Set a list of things you want to improve in
- Find things to look forward to
10. Learn from others
Successful people are not afraid to learn from other people. Also, one person cannot have all the answers to all questions. Having a mentor is like a shortcut – you will save lots of time while avoiding many mistakes in the road.
Learn to ask appropriate, insightful questions and stay curious. Successful people think and believe that there is always room for improvement and development.
Therefore, it’s very important to keep in touch with people. Value everyone you meet. They can help you sometime even if you don’t think they would at the moment.
In addition, don’t be afraid of constructive criticism. Don’t take their opinion as they’d be attacking you and wishing you the worst. Instead, welcome it and try to improve based on their criticism.
11. Avoid small decisions making
A lot of successful people, such as Mark Zuckerberg, avoid making small decisions.
Reasons for that are that people make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes they can range from hundreds to thousands. Eventually, we face mental fatigue and can’t make the right big decisions.
Therefore, the best thing would be to eliminate small decisions, such as what to wear, what to eat, how to get to work and similar. Successful people think that it’s waste of mental energy and it should be used rather on important decisions to create a bigger value and with more quality.
As it might seem like a boring routine to do the same things after a while, it is believed by successful people that this helps them do better decision making.
12. Always have time
Successful people don’t have time to make excuses. Instead, they execute their ideas and make them reality.
A lot of us always try to find excuses not to go to the gym, not to eat healthy or not to feed our minds with information. Alternatively, we choose our comfort zone and avoid doing the tasks that we should do. We always find a way how to hide under a blanket.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. - Thomas Edison
Here’s how successful people always have time:
- They stick to the schedule
- They have abundance mindset
- Their desire to be successful is greater than being comfortable doing nothing
- They sometimes sacrifice their social time for success
13. Take responsibility for their actions
Successful people are not afraid to fail. Therefore, they stay accountable for the things they’ve done and don’t blame anyone else for their mistakes.
Being responsible for our actions not only creates more alertness to stay focused and constantly improve to make less mistakes, but it also creates more credibility in that person that he’s honest and humble.
Taking responsibility for your actions takes your head from the clouds and reminds that you are just human like everyone else. People that admit their mistakes are more likable and seem to be more approachable.
Also, when you are responsible for something, you have more burden on your shoulders. It creates a sense not to fail on everyone and try your best. It helps to improve your work ethics and become a better person overall.
Final Words
Successful people think in a different way than ordinary people do. They take leverage of their creativity, positive mindset, passion for their work and get things done.
Everyone can become a successful person with appropriate work ethics. If you believe in yourself and in what you do, you’ll always find a way to reach your success whatever it is.