Keys To Successful People in Life and Business

What makes an individual extremely successful? The journey to personal and professional success starts with vision, passion, and embracing change. Successful people understand their purpose, demonstrate self-awareness and discipline, and create positive environments around them.

Being a leader starts with defining success, building a synergistic team, listening, learning and seeing the possible. Trust yourself, take risks, and always remember to take time to do what you love. The attributes below are my thoughts on what you need to be successful inspired by the Harvard Business Review and Stephen Covey.

Successful individuals are:

• Self-disciplined
• Confident
• Competitive
• Empathetic
• Creative
• Passionate
• Good humored
• Enthusiastic
• Proactive
• Risk taker
• Persistent
• Accountable
• Courageous
• Responsible
• Productive and fast
• Aligned

In addition to having these attributes, the following are ways you can achieve success.

1. Be Passionate – Successful people love what they do. More than your skill, more than experience, success comes down to being passionate about what you do and how you do it. Successful people understand their purpose, practice solid values, demonstrate self discipline, and create positive environments around them.
2. Build a Team – Any successful company/individual is backed by a collaborative, intelligent and driven team. Leaders recognize and reward talent and creativity, build relationships, and empower team members by trusting and letting go.
   Here are some tips on how to build successful team: 
   • As a leader your success is measured by the results you manifest in others. Hire people smarter than you are, and get talented individuals to focus on the mission.
   • Set up performance targets/goals for team members, set up well-defined steps and timelines to achieve set goals, give freedom to be creative, and provide constant mentoring and feedback.
   • Create a positive, winning and motivating environment around you. Have the ability to build relationships. Care about people. Always, maintain a good sense of humor.
3. Define Success – Success is a journey not an event.  It takes absolute commitment, dedication, clarity of mission and goals to be successful. You have to be a “can do” person.
4. See the Possible – Nothing is impossible. Miracles happen every day – Work smart and stay focused on achieving your end goal. Don’t take “no” for an answer. At the end of the day, it’s about being passionate for achieving your goals. Your determination and perseverance pays off.
5. Take Risks – Sitting still today won’t make tomorrow successful. The really big rewards come from taking risks, not from playing it safe. Expand your horizons. (Milestone’s success has come from the willingness of our team to try new things every day and having a “yes” attitude.)
6. Seek Excellence and Embrace Change – Strive for excellence. You can achieve your own excellent performance, but doing something well once only gets you so far. Figure out how to replicate your achievement effectively across your organization to really make the difference. Always be on the lookout for what is needed today and tomorrow. Be open to new ideas. Think about ways to improve your own performance, efficiency, and productivity.
7. Smell the Roses – Stop and smell flowers and sing in the shower. Make time to enjoy life and do what you like most.
8. Balance – Healthy Mind & Body – Maintain a balanced routine for staying healthy with workouts or meditation. It is easy to get absorbed in the day-to-day grind, so carve out time to stay active.
9. Make it a Good Time. You can’t keep time in your hand. Do not postpone important decisions, activities, and constant learning for tomorrow. Do not waste time in useless activities that don’t help you grow.
10. Surround yourself with highly successful people. You become who you engage yourself with.
11. Set Up Your Goals – Personal & Professional. Establish daily, weekly and monthly goals. Measure your performance towards these goals. Identify what you need to change or do differently to achieve your goals.
12. Listen – Listen to feedback and be flexible in changing your policies and procedures. Successful companies translate their customer’s/employee’s feedback into meaningful action. Genuinely care about your customers/clients. The best relationship you can have with your customers is when they completely trust your opinions and actions and know that you truly care about them. Focus on serving the customer well and your company will be successful.
13. Learn – Education is a life-long voyage and your quest for greater learning should never stop. Keep educating, keep learning, be an expert, stay connected, and surround yourself with intelligent people. Challenge and push yourself to think differently, and be innovative to exceed the needs of your customers. Set up educational goals – teach something new every day and learn something new every day. Look for new ways to achieve these goals.
14. Trust Your Self – Believe in your own capability and potential. Keep a positive attitude, determination, and stamina. Believe in giving more than is expected.
15. Be Accountable – Take accountability for your actions. Take your job seriously. Worry about your reputation. Don’t burn bridges. Your presence should make a difference.
16. Move Fast – Clear blockers and keep projects moving towards the goals.
17. Align – Pay attention to what your boss needs, the department and division need, and what the company needs. Align your goals and actions to the greater goals of the company.

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Contributed by:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder and President