Six Characteristics of Success

When you study success, you’ll find unequivocally that successful people in any endeavor have one thing in common: they think differently than less successful people. Roger Ailes, the founder and CEO of the Fox News Channel, is quoted as saying: “There’s a big difference between those who want to be something and those who want to do something. About 95 percent of America is made up of people who want to be something, and they cause all the problems that have to be solved by the five percent who want to do something.”

Not only do successful people think differently, they also have certain characteristics that set them apart. Here are six prominent characteristics of successful people:

Optimism: Helen Keller once described optimism as “the faith that leads to achievement.” Successful people expect positive outcomes.

Creativity: Successful people focus on innovating — not fixing. They realize that fixing a problem, more often than not, just gets them back to the status quo. Nothing changes and nothing gets better — it just gets fixed.

Resilience: Being able to spring back into shape after being bent or twisted is a dictionary definition of resilience. Successful people have a very healthy view of failure. They fully embrace the cliché that failure isn’t falling – it’s failing to get back up.

Self-Control/Self-Discipline: The late Jim Rohn offered the best definition of failure and success I’ve ever heard: “Failure is the result of a few errors in judgment — repeated every day, and success came from a few simple disciplines practiced every day.”

Emotional Awareness: Successful men and women have outstanding emotional awareness. Not only are they focused on building strong, lasting relationships, they’re also keenly aware of the feelings of others. They consider the impact of their words and actions on others and are highly skilled at using the right words at the right time.

Goal Focused: Successful people keep their eyes on the prize. They identify the real priorities and focus their efforts (and the efforts of others) on what really matters.

There you have it, the six characteristics of success. On a scale of one to six, how did you fare?

Les Taylor is with Outperformers International