You don’t become successful all by yourself
Success doesn’t occur in a vacuum. There are a broad range of factors that lead to it. Hard work, self-motivation and determination are always essential. Surrounding yourself with the right type of people is another that can have a profound effect and accelerate success.
It’s widely accepted that one of the best ways to improve your business skills and success is to keep the company of people with greater knowledge and those already more successful than you. But there are so many other types of people worth surrounding yourself with. But who are these people?
Dreamers – some consider entrepreneurs as ‘dreamers’. But it takes a dreamer to match their vision with reality as they work to achieve the improbable or impossible. If you don’t dream you play it safe, unable to see what comes next - dreaming allows you to think big. In the early days Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Elon Musk were all seen as dreamers. But it’s often only through these dreamers that progress occurs.
Relentless workers - we all know someone who is a relentless worker. People who push harder every hour of every day. Someone that at times can be seen as harsh and unforgiving but possesses a remarkable level of resilience, whose energy and stamina can be infectious (to you).
People who ask questions – in business and life, we should never stop asking questions. As Albert Einstein once said “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.” Surround yourself with people who ask questions. It is their questioning that may provide a different angle on an issue or an idea that you have. Questions that can ultimately help you to achieve an important breakthrough for your business, or avoid you making an expensive mistake.
Learners – one trait of successful people is that they are passionate learners. By surrounding yourself with learners, you naturally become one, feeding from their knowledge. Something that will not only improve your bottom line, but many other aspects of your life.
Rapid Decision Makers – another trait of successful people is that they tend to make decisions quickly, based on limited information and gut instinct. And once they have decided on a course of action, they don’t endlessly debate it – they get on with it, and importantly stick with it. We can learn a lot from being around these people, to understand how they assimilate information and developed an enviable ability to make decisions based on what at first appears to be very little information.
People vested in your success – we all need them. People in our lives who will tell us the truth, who are going to be a confidential sounding board when things get tough, or when we feel uncertain and need advice. People such as a business mentor that can challenge you, who listen and don’t just talk.
You don't become successful all by yourself. It is made all the easier by surrounding yourself with good people, the right people. While you don’t get to choose your relatives, you can and should choose everyone else. Choose wisely!
