Traits of the Wildly Successful

A few days ago, I was talking to a young person about to set out in the world with his first "real" job. He asked me what traits I saw in people that were really, really successful. I told him that I did not want to answer off the cuff but would get back shortly. I just finished meeting with him and thought that it might be interesting to share my thoughts in this post.

I dismissed many of the obvious things such as hard worker, brilliant, lucky, or imaginative. They are largely true but have taken on virtual cliché status.

To me, there are essentially two traits that stand out among those who tend to have great success. They are:

1) Willingness to ask for help

2) Curiosity

Let us take them one by one:

1) The few business giants (largely media moguls) that I have met may be brash in interviews but none are know-it-alls in private. Each man and woman reach out to staff, others in their field, sometimes competitors, academics or retired executives when they face a thorny problem or a big decision. They realized a long time ago that they can not do it all themselves. Successful entrepreneurs, even small ones, realize this and are not afraid to reach out to some eminence grise in their field when they are floundering.  Many of these people are secure enough to realize that you cannot be a one person band in today's world. It serves them VERY well.

2) As a general rule, the more successful someone is, the more curious they are about the world around them. They want to know how things work and they are anything but superficial. A few times it has been annoying when someone plays 20 questions about what I do, but the bigger people are, the smoother they tend to be and usually I am flattered that Mr. or Ms. Big is giving me so much time.

Also, they get to the heart of issues. Over the years, I have had people ask "can you get me smart about this in 10 minutes?" At times, I had to brief people quickly to get them through a client meeting or sales presentation that I could not attend. Ideally, if I had a day I talked to them and then added a tightly written memo that covered the bases.

The truly successful never asked for a quick answer. I remember meeting someone who was undergoing medical treatment at the same time that I did. We talked a bit and he invited me to a ball game at Turner Field. I was startled when I googled him and found out who he was. Sitting in his brother's skysuite, we talked baseball history for a while and then he asked me if I knew anything about a particular topic (it was not media). I said yes, that I had been involved with it since 1973. He asked lots of questions over the next few hours interrupted by comments on the live game and likely Hall of Fame candidates. As we parted and I thanked him for the evening at the game, he thanked me and asked if I could e-mail him the names of several books or advisory services covering the topic he asked me about. I said of course and a week later he e-mailed back and said that he digested two of the books already.

I am sure that this was standard behavior for this gentlemen. He was intensely curious and knew that his learning on many topics was not complete.

I challenge you to think of the most successful people that you have encountered. It would surprise me if those men and women did not have high levels of curiosity and reach out  for help regularly.

If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com or leave a message on the blog