By Chisom Asogwa
What do successful people do differently? They are humans like us with the same 24hours in a day. Based on research on the lives of the world’s most successful people, they typically wake up very early.
Long before they hit the office, they’ve been up and active, performing tasks that will set them up for success throughout the day.
These traits are what we should imbibe, if we hope to attain world class success in the near future.
- Always have a plan: Most of us start our day not knowing exactly what we want to achieve with the next 24hours. We have a vague idea of what we want to do, we go about it but not with a ‘do or die attitude’. Most successful people have a daily plan clearly written down, with time allocated to each task. This helps in planning and self organization and gives you a clear head on what you need to do.
- Give it your all: Have you heard the phrase ‘do it with passion or not at all’ ? This should be your daily song. All successful people are stubborn about their goals. They don’t take no for an answer. Wake up with the mindset that there is always a way out.
“There is no such thing as failure,” Oprah Winfrey said in her commencement speech at Harvard University in 2013. “Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.”
If might not always be easy to heed Winfrey’s wise words, but the truth is you will fail at something, at some point. If you can pick yourself up, and learn a lesson from that failure, you will be better poised to be successful the next time around.
- Learn something new: To truly be successful in the long run, you must make a lifelong commitment to learning. There is never a point at which you’ve learned “enough”. Learning keeps the mind elastic and allows you to remain nimble in your work.
This is important, as the landscape of every business will change over time. Every day, make a point of spending some early AM time learning something. This might be by reading the newspaper, learning a new skill, or it might be by listening to podcasts relevant to your work. It might be a self-imposed study routine on a certain sector of your business.
There are many ways to continue educating yourself. You never know what might give you your next great idea.
- Build a network: Your network determines your net-worth. You don’t need connection in high places to be successful, work with what you have.
Most successful people have a strong sense of networking. Building and investing in relationships. Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook with his friends, what are you doing with your friends?
- Get a mentor: According to Richard Branson, “every entrepreneur needs a good mentor.” Whether it is a trusted friend, a family member, or a fellow entrepreneur, it is important to have someone you can turn to in good, bad and difficult times.
A mentor can help you see things from a different perspective; advise you when the going gets tough; help you brainstorm ideas, and offer counsel and encouragement when you are having a rough day.