7 Remarkable Habits of Consistently Successful People

[Harold Mansfield]

Read this the other day and thought of this section of the forum.
#4 hits home. IMO it is one of the most important traits of a successful entrepreneur:


Some people quickly decide that they’ve chosen the wrong path and go off to try something else. Others doggedly put their heads down and keep doing what they’ve been doing, hoping that if they’re stubborn enough, eventually they’ll get what they want.

Consistently successful people do neither. When things don’t work out, they take a second look at how they’ve been approaching the problem, and make adjustments that may help improve things going forward. Then they go forward. They don’t give up until they’ve tried every conceivable approach, and then some.

Source: 7 Remarkable Habits of Consistently Successful People | Inc.com (http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/7-remarkable-habits-of-consistently-successful-people.html)

I've come across a lot of people both here and in life that have one plan, one vision, and can't possibly conceive of doing things any other way...and those people usually fail. IMO if you aren't able to pick yourself back up, brush it off, learn what you did wrong and fix or improve on it then you're kidding yourself that you can be successful in business and in life. Building a business and getting strangers to (a) find out that you exist, and (b) get them to pay you money for stuff, is hard.

I actually go into some things knowing that I don't have all of the answers, but confident that what ever kinks present themselves will be the additional information and education that I need to fine tune the idea.

What do you guys think?

[turboguy]

I liked the article and think the habits they mentioned are quite accurate. I can't say any stood out for me but I thought they were all good.

[Business Attorney]

Harold, you are absolutely right. Not only that, but good investors can often tell the difference between the three types of people. From an investor's standpoint, the entrepreneurs who doggedly pursue a wrong path can be worse than the ones who give up too easily.

With NFL season in full swing, the best analogy I can think of is the running back who has the ability to see the hole closing and who can cut to his right or left and pick up extra yards rather than sticking to the play that was called and getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage.

[cbscreative]

I suppose I could simply agree since the principle is certainly true. I could also allude to the TR quote in my sig since I've kept it above my desk for the better part of 30 years. Failure isn't failure unless you fail to adjust when needed and/or give up too soon.

As of last spring, my current business is 13 years old. I'd call that a success but it's not enough. I'm not yet prepared to go into detail but I will say I'm extending my business model. The current one works well enough but it isn't ideal for the longer haul. As I project out 10-20 years, I wouldn't want to be in the same place then that I am now. Like many other business owners, and I'm sure many members here, we call ourselves business owners but in reality we own jobs.

I admit guilt of the same thing but that is not my long term plan. Consistently successful people recognize the importance of owning a business where generating revenue doesn't depend heavily or solely on their own personal performance. By nature, I'm a control freak which I'm sure many of you here can identify with. Control freaks are naturally prone to owning jobs. I've spent years abandoning my control freak ways so I can gravitate toward other goals and expand my business model out so it makes money whether I'm at the wheel or not.

This means the principle to make adjustments doesn't require that your current methods are not working. Maybe it can be working just fine but you make the changes anyway so it can work even better. You can always stick with what works like I plan to be doing for many more years, then just add to it.

[Harold Mansfield]

As of last spring, my current business is 13 years old. I'd call that a success but it's not enough. I'm not yet prepared to go into detail but I will say I'm extending my business model. The current one works well enough but it isn't ideal for the longer haul. As I project out 10-20 years, I wouldn't want to be in the same place then that I am now.


I'm in the same boat and doing the same thing. Yeah, I've made it this far and some people (who are someone's employee) say how great it is to go from nothing, with no net, and build a business that supports yourself, but to me it's not that special. Just like you, I feel like it's time to make the next move.

I always figured this was where I needed to get so that I had enough knowledge to go to the next level.

[Fulcrum]

Along with what Harold and Steve had said about moving to the next stage of the business, one can't be scared to jump in with both feet if a solid platinum opportunity arrives (recognizing one takes experience and judgement).

I wasn't going to post in this thread, but I just realized that I missed out on a great deal (free plus rigging costs of about $5K) that would have outfitted my shop exactly how I want it.

[MotiveGraphics]

Great article. Alot of these fundamental habits you see over and over in different articles and areas of information. It's always good to refresh and keep aware of these habits so that when you're working on one project.. for example a method of marketing... that you don't give up and trying something else before actually taking time to see if it works for you.

[fullflavor]

Nice article. I agree with all points.