How To Be Successful |
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The Most Important Key to Success
- Do What You Love - You aren't going to be successful at something you spend all day dreading. When I was excited about software engineering, I was good - perhaps even above average. When I got stuck on a project that didn't interest me, I was honestly a poor software engineer.
Preparation and Planning
- Make a List of Short, Medium, and Long Term Goals - Each night before I go to sleep, I try to write down 5-10 things that I want to accomplish the next day. I make sure that at least 3-4 are things that I can complete that day and purge from my to-do list. I also make sure to add a couple of small parts of medium or long-term projects. Here's an example. I'm looking to write an eBook. One day my goal was to create an outline of the book - 9-12 chapters and 3-5 things that I wanted to cover in each chapter. The next day one of my goals was to write at least one of those 3-5 things in one chapter. In 1-2 months, I'll have my eBook written.
- Catalog Your Progress - I started this blog to keep me accountable. I can't go out and buy a Ferrari on credit and then write about it here. Instead, I catalog my alternative income progress here. Each day, I think about how I'm going to grow that so that next month I don't have to live up to my moniker.
Learn These Skills
- Sales / Marketing - Even if you don't think you have a product to sell, you do... yourself. I've learned that sales and marketing are not easy skills to learn. You can't shout "look at me!" or people will think you are obnoxious. You have to find people who might be genuinely interested in what you have to offer. I always find it best to be open and honest with what I have to sell. If the product is of value, you price it accordingly, and have the right buyer, it should sell itself. I've found that if you have to "sell" to hard, it's probably going to be a sale you regret making.
- Public Speaking - I might be one of the most shy people on Earth. Talking to someone one-on-one often ties my stomach in knots. Imagine how I must feel about public speaking. I remember it was a required class in high school. I started off horrible, but by the end, I had earned an A. It's really a case were practice means everything. I suggest an organization such as Toastmasters.
- Writing - Even if you are crafting a short e-mail, try to use proper grammar. You'd be surprised how many e-mails I receive where people make 6 mistakes in 6 sentences. Perhaps it shouldn't, but poor writing skills on the first impression impacts my view of the person's intelligence and/or professionalism - and not in a good way. A person who can write great commands my respect and my trust.
- Networking - Get out there and meet new people in your areas of interest. When you know a lot of people, opportunities multiply. To go back to my eBook example above, I found someone who already has a successful eBook. He's in the process of getting it translated into an audio book now. He could definitely be a great resource for me to learn from. He's newer to blogging and doesn't have the number of readers that I have. I can probably give him a few tips and help him out. Now if I knew 100 people like this guy, I'd have a solution to almost every question I'd ever have at my fingertips.
- Read More and Faster - I have always been a very slow reader. I simply don't scan text very well. Perhaps I'm afraid I'll miss a critical word or something silly like that. This is one area that I'm going to work on in the new year. Much of my time is spent reading, you'd think I'd at least be good at it.
Take Action
- Help Someone with Something Everyday - This may sound like some kind of "Pay It Forward" hype. In some ways it is. I estimate that I've given guidance to around 50 or 100 bloggers who are just getting going that were looking for advice. Some of them became successful bloggers and some stopped blogging. The successful ones have returned the favor 100 times over or more. They link to my articles, they comment on my site, and fill me in with opportunities that I would have otherwise missed. This isn't limited to blogging. If you mentor someone, you'll be seen as a natural leader. I've always seen a strong correlation between leadership and success.
- Make Mistakes - When I just got out of college, I took a job with a top ten Internet company. It was a very high profile job as I managed the search engine myself. It was about 20% of this 2 billion dollar company's traffic. The thought that I'd make a mistake scared me to death. I spent each day walking on eggshells until the day that I made a mistake. A strange thing happened. No one got upset with me, and we were able to recover pretty quickly. From that experience, I learned to always have a back-up plan. This allowed me to take some risks, experiment more, and eventually produce ideas that made the company millions. Just as importantly, I realized that I should tolerate other people's mistakes.
- Surround Yourself with Like-Minded Individuals - There are studies that show an individual's income will be somewhere around the average of your closest five friends. That formula works for me and my closest friends - or it did until I decided to build my career from websites. There are also studies that show your weight will reflect those who you hang around with. It makes sense if you think about it. If your circle of friends likes to bounce business ideas off each other while playing a game of pickup basketball, you'll probably put yourself closer to the path of prosperity than if you tell fart jokes while eating Bon-Bons.
- Exercise - Whenever I work out, I am all pumped up with endorphins for hours. It feels like nothing can stop me - as if I could tackle a bear. Instead of tackling a bear, I focus that energy on my list of goals and churn through it like never before.
- Start a Website or Blog - It's easy to talk the talk, but what matters is if you can walk the walk. A website or blog not only makes you accountable for the goals that you set, but can also help you network and gather useful information. For more inspiration read how personal finance blogging helped me.
Be More Productive
- Don't Get Wrapped Up in Television - I love television. However, I try to watch shows that you don't have to follow too closely. This way I can work while it's on. You won't see me watching a lot of Law and Order because it requires too much of my focus. However, having the Red Sox on the background doesn't distract me from accomplishing what I'm trying to.
- Commute with Books on Tape (or Podcasts) - Most of the people I know have a 30-60 minute commute to work each day. You can listen to some morning talk show or a shock-jock DJ or you can learn some of the skills that I mentione above. I'm not saying that you should throw away all entertainment, but if you are looking to increase your productivity, utilizing this downtime is a great start.
- Declutter and Organize Your Home and Work Area - I used to waste a lot of time looking for stuff. The problem? I had stuff everywhere. I couldn't find the stuff that I needed from the old stuff that was piled around it. It's amazed me the number of things that I had around the home that I didn't use. Finally I simply said "Stuff It!" and got rid of most of the stuff that I didn't use and put other special stuff in a closet that I'll probably ignore for another years. Just like in What About Bob, "baby steps..." I tell myself.
Think Your Way To Success
- Think Positively - I'm not going to get Stuart Smalley, Motivational Speaker on you, but making the conscious decision to focus on being financially successful is extremely helpful. Bringing finances to front of my mind, instead of the back has made a huge difference in my finances.
- Don't Hate Money - Lose the thinking that money is the root of all evil. Start thinking about it as a key to freedom to do whatever interests you. Think of it as a way to help friends, family, and charities important to you. Think about how you could use money to make the world a better place.
- Appreciate What You Have - Schedule a day to just appreciate yourself. Appreciate the things that you do have. The fact that you are reading this likely means that you are much better off than others in the world.
- Be In A Good Mood - One of my favorite lines from Say Anything is when Lloyd Dobler (played by John Cusack) says to his sister, "Why can't you be in a good mood? How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood and be in a good mood once in a while?"
business skills, Goals, Psychology, success
... and focuses on:Productivity
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Tipd15 Responses to “How To Be Successful”
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Next: Alternative Income Streams – January 2009
Great tips! What I like about these is that they also provide a basis for success in terms of your LIFE, not just in terms of money.
Two things that really stuck out for me in this article are 1. networking and 2. public speaking. Being a College student near completion of my studies I am really working hard on improving my networking activities and skills. I realized a couple of months ago that I needed to get more involved with stuff around school to help build my resume.
In regards to public speaking this is also something I am working on it, especially considering the amount of presentations I do in a typical semester. When I started school I was horrible at public speaking, but I have slowly improved. To be honest I don’t even know why my public speaking skills are so lackluster. Outside of the classroom I have no problems speaking confidentally to large groups. Hopefully I can complete my studies with excellent networking and public speaking skills.
Great post, LM.
Audiobooks
These are great. I don’t usually listen to productivity audiobooks, but fiction. In my case, the audiobooks usually blow away the entertainment options available on the radio at 6 AM.
http://www.librivox.org is a great place to go for classics on audio. They have recorded books that are in the public domain (MP3 format). The readers are pretty decent, considering that they are unpaid volunteers.
Marketing
Although nobody would ever imagine that I use marketing skills in my job, quite often I do.
A couple of good examples:
- Problem calls
I support a large system for my company – we have many thousands of internal users. I have supported the system for nearly a dozen years and am the “buck stops here” guy for calls. When the other support levels haven’t been able to solve the problem, it gets kicked to me and it is expected that I will wrestle the problem to the ground.
Many times, the problem has been routed to many incorrect areas before even making it to my team. Sometimes, it’s obvious from reading the logs that the person deserves an apology from someone (for the length of time it has taken to resolve the issue, as well as the pain and suffering of the attempted resolution). I’m not the person who owes them an apology, but they get one from me, anyway.
- I know you’re wrong, but …
Many times, I get involved in discussions and I know for an absolute fact that the other person is wrong. However, stating this to them is typically not productive. My typical method goes something like this:
“Maybe I’m not understanding something correctly. My understanding of this process is [blah blah blah]. What am I missing?”
This usually make the person realize their mistake (or allows them to point out that I am indeed misunderstanding the issue), without the negative impact of have someone beat them over the head with it. I usually have to work with these people in the future, so it’s good to keep a positive relationship.
Help someone every day
This is a great tip. There are very few successful people that haven’t been helped by someone else along the way. Five minutes of your time helping a co-worker might save them an hour of banging their head against the wall. As a bonus, you get perceived as a team player.
Thinking positively
Hey, Stuart Smalley is on the brink of become a US Senator …
“Commute with Books on Tape”
I’ve done that a lot and it’s been wonderful. I used to have a nightmare commute, but was able to listen to dozens of books as I drove.
@kosmo, thanks for the librivox link! I use Audible now, which has a good price, but free is great and I love the classics.
Also, one of the things you mention is the need to market oneself. I’m amazed at how many people can’t do it.
“Don’t Get Wrapped up in Televion” – Its so obvious… but so needed to be said! I didn’t realize how wrapped up into TV I could get. I am ususally good about not even turning on the TV, for example, when I first get home so that I can get done whatever it is I intended to do once I returned from work everyday. Once I’m done, I can turn on the TV and veg guilt-free the rest of the night. But, apparently, if I turn on the TV before its time and say “I just want a little backgound noise” or “Let me just catch this show and then I’ll stop and continue my work,” I just get pulled in. Finally, I will decide, “ok, I’ll just continue watching TV now and do X later.” Its so EASY to get sucked in…. and half the time I’m not even watching anything… I’m just surfing the channels.
When I get home to a quiet house… its like a blank slate where anything can be created. Once the TV goes on…all creativity is sucked out of the room!! LOL.
I have just read this…good tips…i am just about to graduate and thus really want to be successful in everything I do. Defining SUCCESS, however has led me to search the various ways I want to become succesful and there are many. It is key, before one goes in search for success, to know what success means for them and at what point success has been achieved :)
Thank you for dedicating a few moments of your life to the concept of helping others. It’s not that these pieces of advice are not known to me. It’s the timing, the chance, and ultimately our mutual desires of self-improvement and success that are putting things into play.
This is a great list of very timeless principles which help us achieve the goals we want. Simple as they are, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of them when we get caught up with intricacies of everyday living. An additional principle I adopt for success is to keep changing my strategies, which I wrote about in one of my blog articles at http://celestinechua.com/blog/2009/08/not-getting-what-you-want-time-to-change-your-actions/. If I haven’t been getting results I want with my actions thus far, it’s a huge red alert to start changing my actions. To quote Einstein, “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Hi,
I’ve been following most of your tips without even realizing it. Thanks for confirming what I’ve already been doing all this time.
By the way, I have a book that will be published this month and have been on radio and tv. I’ve been published in many major magazines and newspapers.
Thank you for inspiring people.
Best wishes,
Eddie
HEllo honestly its my first time but to me i believe that success is fulfilling ones’ dreams and being a model to others
Hi
This is a decent site and I take my hat off to you. You mention that grammar and spelling are very important yet I am sorry to say, that your own grammar and spelling are slightly on the poor side. Might be an idea to double check what you have written. Just a thought.
Best wishes,
Karen
Touche Karen. I don’t have an editor. Because I’m too familiar with with what I meant to say, I miss significant errors in my proofreading my own stuff. Also, there’s a reason why this website is named Lazy Man and Money and not Working Man and Money.
i appreciate your writing to some extent, however… when it comes to a life of work and play, as a successful individual whatever you line of work, do you have to sacrifice one for the other?
how does one be a great leader in both aspects of his/her life?
I think you have to choose a line of work that you enjoy.