I suppose you will have seen the “X habits of successful people or Y things that successful people do/don’t do” lists around the web or emailed in to you?
One thing they always miss that ALL successful people do is this one: They breathe. In AND out. Alternately. It won’t work otherwise.
I suppose you may consider this flippantly obvious (or another adjective beginning with f) but it will illustrate my point: What most of these lists do is consider the problem from the wrong direction. They look at successful people and think; what do they have in common? But just because a successful person does X doesn’t mean that everyone who follows suit will be successful. You also need to look at ALL the people who do X and decide how many ARE successful. For example, how many people set goals or visualize (often seen on these lists) and yet fail to achieve.
The problem is called “survivorship bias”. For every trait that has genuinely contributed to a person’s success there will be one or more that just came along for the ride and have NOT caused success. Add to this the tendency to want to play down luck in one’s own success plus the general desire to be modest about it (unless you’re Donald Trump) and it can be very difficult to know what to do or avoid that will give the best chance of success in business and life.
Have a great week
Paul