5 Keys to a Successful Career

The definition of success in career can vary from person to person, whether position, span of control, money, or otherwise. But no matter what your definition, successful people tend to share these key traits.

Hard Work
Very rarely does success magically appear. Successful people recognize and recognize early that the only way to make something happen is through hard work. Easy tasks can be accomplished by anyone, but the truly dedicated move the needle through working harder than anyone else.

Understanding People
The ability to understand people transcends careers. Strong and successful managers understand the needs of their employees and take action to make them successful. Strong sales people understand the needs of the customer and orchestrate solutions that meet those needs. Strong contributors understand those that they support and anticipate needs before they are spoken.

Hunger
Successful people want to succeed. They want to be better. They want to continue to improve beyond even their own standards of success. They possess a hunger and a drive that motivates them from within. Money and power and other static indicators of success do not motivate successful people as much as their internal hunger and drive does.

Ability to Learn
Very few people are an instant success in their first attempt at anything. They either experience some moderate success, which they learn to amplify, or they experience a failure, which they learn from and move forward. No matter what the experience, they learn, and they adapt. The successful strive to morph into a more successful version of themselves with every experience, good or bad, and look to improve with outside assistance as well (books, speakers, videos, or training).

Luck
Whether timing or circumstance, connections or just fate, the super successful often have a slight element of luck that plays into their success. Some say they make their own luck through a combination of hard work and other traits. More important, though, is the ability to take a lucky event and capitalize on it, maximize its potential, and amplify the results. Every person has some good and bad luck that falls on them. The key is to minimize the impact of the bad and maximize the lift of the good to reach great heights.

What other traits do you notice that lead to success? Let me know in the comments!


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