8 TRAITS THE HEART OF SUCCESS

8 TRAITS THE HEART OF SUCCESS

By: Richard St. John · Marketer, Success Analyst

Credits: Richard St. John, Ted X, Ted Ed.

A self-described average guy who found success doing what he loved, He spent more than a decade researching the lessons of success from people who has already made it.

The really big job was taking all the interviews and analyzing them, word by word, line by line, and sorting them into all the factors that people said helped them succeed. And then you start to see the big factors that are common to most people’s success. Altogether, I analyze and sorted millions of words. It’s a lot of hard work. 

So what really leads to success? After 500 face-to-face interviews I'm going to tell you what really leads to success.

And the first thing is passion. Freeman Thomas says, "I'm driven by my passion." TEDsters do it for love; they don't do it for money.

I discovered the 8 traits successful people have in common, or the 8 to be GREAT:

PASSION: Love what you do

WORK: Work really hard

FOCUS: Focus on one thing, not everything

PUSH: Keep pushing yourself

IDEAS: Come up with good ideas

IMPROVE: Keep improving yourself  

SERVE:  What you do, serve others something of value because success isn’t just about me, me, and me.

PERSIST: Because there’s no overnight success.

Why the above was picked? Because when I added all the comments in my interviews, more people said those 8 things helped them than anything else.

The 8 traits are really the heart of success, the foundation and then on top we build the specific skills that we need for our particular field or career.

Carol Coletta says, "I would pay someone to do what I do." And the interesting thing is: if you do it for love, the money comes anyway.

Work! Rupert Murdoch said to me, "It's all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun. "Did he say fun? Rupert? Yes!

TEDsters do have fun working. And they work hard. I figured, they're not workaholics. They're workafrolics.

Alex Garden says, "To be successful, put your nose down in something and get damn good at it.” There's no magic; its practice, practice, practice.

And it's focus. Norman Jewison said to me, "I think it all has to do with focusing yourself on one thing."

And push! David Gallo says, "Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you've got to push, push, and push." You've got to push through shyness and self-doubt.

Goldie Hawn says, "I always had self-doubts. I wasn't good enough; I wasn't smart enough. I didn't think I'd make it." Now it's not always easy to push yourself, and that's why they invented mothers.

Frank Gehry said to me, "My mother pushed me."

Serve! Sherwin Nuland says, "It was a privilege to serve as a doctor."

A lot of kids want to be millionaires. The first thing I say is: "OK, well you can't serve yourself; you've got to serve others something of value. Because that's the way people really get rich."

Ideas! TEDster Bill Gates says, "I had an idea: founding the first micro-computer software company.” I’d say it was a pretty good idea. And there's no magic to creativity in coming up with ideas -- it's just doing some very simple things. And I give lots of evidence.

Persist! Joe Kraus says, "Persistence is the number one reason for our success." You've got to persist through failure. You've got to persist through crap! This of course means “Criticism, Rejection, and Pressure."

Do the 8 things -- and trust me, these are the big 8 traits that lead to success.

Technical skills, people skills, analytical skills, creative skills, and lots of other skills we can add on top, depending on our field.

No matter what field we are in, these 8 traits will be at the heart of our success.

Follow me at Twitter : fidic aidic @fidicaidic