Successful people have many common habits. There are certain ways they think, act, make decisions, and spend their time, that are key to their success.
Here are some of the habits of successful people:
• They Don’t Complain and Don’t Give Up
Do you know people who spend a lot of time ranting and complaining about things? They don’t get much done. A lot of people will avoid them, except the “misery loves company” crowd, who also aren’t going to help them accomplish much. Successful people just quietly plug along, and keep working towards their goals, even when they have a lot of setbacks. They just treat setbacks or failures as feedback. They adjust course or alter their plans and keep on moving. Every failure and everything that goes wrong is thought of as another opportunity to learn something new. Stories vary wildly as to the actual number, but Thomas Edison did hundreds of experiments before he developed a working lamp, or light bulb. He didn’t just get lucky and come up with an electric light after only a few tries. He also did over 10,000 experiments using different materials and chemicals to invent an alkaline storage battery. Edison had done over 9,000 experiments to produce the alkaline battery and had gotten nowhere. At this point his associate Walter S. Mallory one day remarked to him that he (Edison) hadn’t gotten any results. Edison replied “Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work!”. What if Edison had given up after only a few hundred, or even a few thousand experiments? The negative person who complains won’t get very far, because they will either give up and quit, or they will lower their standards and settle for a lot less that what they originally planned for. People become successful because they won’t lower their standards. They are willing to pay the price by pushing through setbacks, and failing over and over until they finally win.
• They Take Action Steps
Successful people do spend some time thinking and planning, but then they don’t hesitate to take action. Let’s use internet marketing as an example. Many people will leave comments on blogs or forums, such as “I like that idea”, “Someday I’m going to build a website”, “Someday I’m going to start a blog”. Well, how about starting TODAY. There are several places online where you can build a website free. If you want to own your own domain name, that should cost you less than $15 a year. Hosting is also inexpensive, especially compared to starting a retail business, and there are tons of YouTube videos teaching you how to build your website. There is a lot to be said about taking small action steps. If you have interest in a certain product or service, set up a stand or booth at a flea market. Over time you may find that people like you and your product. You may hear of a great place and/or deal to set up a retail store. Your flea market customers can become your first customers at your new location.
• They Invest a Lot in Education
It has been said that people who stop learning, who aren’t continuing to keep up with change, will have a hard time surviving. A good example of this is how personal computers, and computers in general, have taken over the world. Even if you only have a job as a retail store clerk, you’ll have to learn how to operate a computerized cash register. However, most jobs today, even low paying ones, will requires you to have “computer skills”. You’ll have to know about the “windows operating system”, spreadsheets, word processing, and other types of business software. So, if you aren’t continually learning new methods and ways of doing things, a lot of your competition will leave you behind. Successful people are not afraid to sometimes spend a lot of money on courses, lectures, seminars, etc. They know it pays to learn about new sales methods, marketing techniques, etc.
• They Believe in Exercise and Healthy Eating
Most successful people know they need to take care of their body. Medical problems due to lack of exercise and a poor diet will leave you with less energy and slow down your productivity. You’ll also be faced with more medical bills. Successful people know it’s vital to learn about your body and the right way to take care of it. They know the way they take care of their body is going to have a lot to do with the amount of energy they have, and how much they accomplish. So, they learn about the right foods to eat, ways to exercise, how to relax, and how to relieve stress. Many of these successes start their day off early with a morning meditation or a brisk walk or jog. This gets their muscles and mind pumped up and ready for whatever problems come up. Then, they’ve learned it’s better to start the day with a good, substantial breakfast – something better than just coffee and doughnuts. A much better choice is something wholesome like fresh fruit or oatmeal. After this they continue to learn and use the best eating habits for the rest of the day, as well as exercise methods to stay healthy and productive.
• They Get Up Early, Work Long Hours, and Are Not Lazy
A common trait of successful people is that they get up early, usually just before sunrise, and sometimes an hour or two earlier. This is true of inventors, athletes, executive officers of corporations, and even politicians. One you get in the habit of rising early, you’re usually more motivated to work and more optimistic. Starting early after a good night’s sleep also gets you going before exhaustion can creep in. Successful people work long hours because they have a lot they want to accomplish, want to hone their skills, and be the best. Take the example of a musician – even a guitar player in a rock band has to spend hours and hours perfecting their skills. Successful people are willing to put in the time and aren’t lazy. Billionaire stock trader Warren Buffett has to spend a lot of time studying to figure out what stocks to pick. He said he reads 500 pages a day from books, and that most people aren’t willing to spend that much time and work to succeed.
• They Do Their Own Thing
If there is something you love, or something you want to do, just do it. You have to follow your passion to succeed, even if you have to start out just doing things in your spare time. People like Walt Disney, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey became very successful (and wealthy) by following their passion. You can learn from other people, but a big key to success is to do it your own way, and not just follow or copy other people exactly. After ToysRUs came into existence, a lot of businesses in the US started copying that business name. Businesses like CarsRUs, BabysRUs, and other names started popping up all over. You need to be unique and have your own following. Have something that sets your apart from the rest, makes you different, and attracts people for those reasons. The more unique you are, the stronger and more loyal your following will be, and the less competition you’ll have. Unless you buy a franchise, your restaurant (or other business) should have it’s own unique name, style, products, and way of doing business. Don’t do what “the crowd” is doing. Do your own thing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Motivation
It’s always good to learn habits of successful people from someone who is well known and admired. Most people know who Arnold Schwarzenegger is, not only from his popular movies, but from his great bodybuilding career. Even if you happen not to like him, there is much to learn from his life story, and many would be surprised to learn the steps he took to achieve success.
Arnold’s book The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, an 800-page book, is still a best seller and gets great reviews, although written more than 20 years before this article. He actually won more bodybuilding titles than anyone else in the world. He was Mr. Universe 3 times, and Mr. Olympia 7 times.
Have A Vision
Arnold was born in Austria after the Second World War. He didn’t like Austria and wanted to get out. He has stated that his first rule of success is to have a vision. He didn’t want to have the “normal life” in Austria that his parents wanted.
His father was very strict and negative. Arnold wanted to get away from him, and that gave him even more reason to get out of Austria. He saw a documentary about America when he was in grade school. It showed huge skyscrapers, high-rises, bridges, big cars, and big freeways. Arnold started dreaming about coming to America.
He stopped in a store on his way home from school one day. The store had barbells, dumbbells, and an exercise bench in the window. Inside he saw a bodybuilding magazine called “Your Physique”, with Reg Park on the cover. The story in the magazine was about how Reg became the “Hercules” movie star.
The article showed how Reg Park trained and was working out in a gym in England. He became Mr. Europe and Mr. Great Britain before winning the Mr. Universe title 3 times. It talked about how he was discovered to play the starring role in the Hercules movie.
The movie Arnold was talking about was called Hercules And The Captive Women, which had fairly good reviews. When Arnold got that magazine, he read it from cover to cover, over and over.
The DVD release of the documentary film Pumping Iron (1977) has bonus footage showing Park mentoring Schwarzenegger. After Arnold read the magazine and saw Reg Park as Hercules in the movie, he decided he wanted to be a bodybuilding champion and a movie star just like Reg. He knew exactly where he was going.
About 74% of the population in America and Europe hate their jobs. When you don’t have a vision, your job is just a chore, and it’s not fun.
Arnold was working out 5 to 6 hours a day in the gym with a smile on his face because he had a vision, a goal of where he wanted to go – the Mr. Universe title. At age 20, Arnold went to London and won the Mr. Universe contest. He was the youngest Mr. Universe ever. Arnold actually met Reg Park in a gym in London.
He applied the same working principle with acting. While doing Conan the Barbarian, he was crawling on rocks, and his elbows and knees were bleeding after 10 takes of a scene. The director wanted him to do one more close-up take. Arnold was totally fine with that. He wasn’t really feeling any pain because he was visualizing how the scene and the movie would look when finished.
Not only did Arnold have a vision regarding bodybuilding and being a movie star, he also had a very clear vision of what he was going to do for California as governor.
People constantly told him that he couldn’t accomplish the things he did. They said he wouldn’t succeed as a bodybuilder. Several movie agents and studio executives laughed at him and said he was too big, and with his strong accent there was no way he could be a movie star.
But he pressed on despite the naysayers. He said people perform better when there is no safety net – no Plan B. He said having a Plan B is very dangerous. All of our Plan B thoughts take away energy from Plan A – our main goal. You’ll perform better if there’s no safety net.
If your Plan B is because you’re worried about failing – don’t! You have to fail to climb the ladder of success. Michael Jordan, the basketball champion, said he MISSED 9000 shots in NBA games, so that he could become successful. People don’t realize that and only focus on his wins. When you’re afraid of failing, you freeze up, so then you can’t relax, perform well, and accomplish your goal.
After Arnold had won a few bodybuilding contests, and then became Mr. Universe, Joe Weider, the publisher of Muscle & Fitness and other magazines, started putting Arnold on the cover of his magazine. After Arnold won his second Mr. Universe, he received a telegram from Joe Weider inviting Arnold to the Mr. Universe contest in Florida. When Arnold left for America, he knew he would never come back to his home in Austria.
Arnold would save all the money he made from working. He had about $26,000 cash saved. He started looking for an apartment building to buy. He bought a six-unit building with a large owners’ apartment in the front. He ended up selling the building a few years later for double what he paid for it. He eventually had over 100 apartments and office buildings. By the age of 28 he was already a millionaire from real estate investing before he ever became a movie star. Since he was financially independent, he could pick the movie roles he liked.
Work Hard
Arnold really stressed in several speeches he gave that you have to “work hard”. What did he mean by that? In the days he was in bodybuilding, there was very little money to be made from the sport. So, Arnold started a construction business with his friend Franco Columbu, who was an Italian powerlifter and bodybuilder who won the Mr. Olympia contest in 1976.
For two years he and Arnold built brick chimneys, and fireplaces, along with concrete walls and other structures. After that he had a mail order business. As mentioned above, he took the money he earned and invested in real estate.
Arnold worked in his construction business after working out 5 hours a day. Then from 8PM to midnight, 4 nights a week, he took acting classes where he also learned accent removal techniques. Arnold said he didn’t waste one single minute. He also went to college to study English. He talked about sleeping 6 hours a day. While giving a motivational speech, someone in the audience said they sleep 8 hours a day. Arnold said “Sleep faster”.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life really illustrates all the habits of successful people outlined above. Even a young child can have a dream and vision that he or she can make come a reality. How many people would work as hard and as many hours as he did? How many people, especially in their twenties, save all their money to invest in real estate or some other business. Many people at that age would be spending and even wasting their money on fun things. Some of the naysayers reading this would say that real estate was hot, and prices were inflating quickly when Arnold started investing. That’s true, but there have been similar time periods since then. Regardless, how many people would take those actions steps of saving and investing to become successful.
