Everyone desires success, but there are things successful people don’t do. Success is not achieved on a platter of gold. If you want success, you have to work for it. Actions and inactions simply differentiate a successful person from a “person of failure”.
What do successful people do differently that make them successful? Put differently, what do successful people avoid doing that makes them successful?
In this piece, I look at some deeds/traits you hardly find in the personality of a successful person; which everyone who wants to be successful must also do away with:
- Successful people don’t play with time: Time is very precious; it’s extremely invaluable. If you desire success, you must avoid procrastination and make efficient and productive use of your time. You can be extravagant with money, but don’t ever try being extravagant with your time.
- Successful people don’t give an excuse for failure; they take responsibility: In most cases, giving an excuse is a defeatist way of accepting that you can progress beyond your present status. Successful people take responsibility for whatever impediments they encounter; work tirelessly and defeat the impediments. Where others see insurmountable problems, they see conquerable challenges.
- Successful people are not afraid of taking risks and making mistakes: It’s often quoted that the “size” of one’s success is determined by a number of risks he is willing to take. If you want success, you must be willing to take risks. Similarly, a mistake is not synonymous with failure. Rather, a mistake is a pointer to the fact that you’re doing something (you aren’t indolent!); it only means you haven’t got it right. Successful people learn and grow from their mistakes. So, take risks, make mistakes, learn from it, and you will find yourself in the midst of the successful ones.
- Successful people don’t keep malice; they have a lot already on their mind: If You still have time to keep malice, the chance is high that you are a lazy fellow. Successful people are always active. A lot of productive ideas occupy their mind that they don’t even sleep easily, let alone filling up their mind with some unproductive malice-keeping.
- Successful people don’t make efforts to please people around them: It’s only those who are lazy and not self-confident who always want to please everyone around them and crave for people’s approval in whatever they do. Successful people make decisions in their best interest and do not mind whose ox is gored.
- Successful people don’t get tired of knowledge; they are always learning new things: Knowledge is unceasing; it doesn’t have an end. Successful people are known for their insatiable appetite for knowledge. They learn from everything that revolves around them. Besides, they are always up and running, searching for useful information to improve themselves. They are never static.
- Successful people don’t work alone: No one has it all. In fact, one of the hallmarks of a successful person is identifying the best hands and knowing how to work with them to achieve best results.
