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Core Success Skills for Business
04-10-2012, 12:19 AM
What do you guys think are core skills for success in business and work-life in general?
I've been thinking about why I've struggled to launch and run an online business whereas acquaintances of mine have absolutely nailed it, despite all starting at around the same time.
It didnt come down to opportunity, initial funds or intelligence. We all started at the same time, I had probably more capital than any of them, and we're all pretty damn sharp (imo).
So what was it? The big differences are in personality traits. Here's what I've come up with from analysing the successful guys I know:
-Assertive
-Strong leadership tendencies
-They value 'Getting Shit Done' over 'Being Clever' or 'Being Perfect'
-Strong drive for learning and absorbing knowledge, but second to Getting Shit Done
-Intelligent, Sharp, strong critical/analytical ability
-Ability to assess Big Picture, not lost in details
-Creative & imaginative, tuned in to spotting opportunities
-Very strong networking and connecting-with-people skills
-Persistence and solid work ethic to execute ideas
-Resilient, good stress tolerance and ability to disengage, relax and enjoy playtime
-Willing to try, fail and try again
It's interesting to hash it out because now I clearly see where I differ from this ideal mix. Its also interesting to see that these look like pretty desirable traits just for success and fulfilment in life in general. Seems to me the real question is how can we cultivate the traits we dont yet have.
Thoughts? Agree, disagree, or have any other key traits to add?
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-10-2012, 08:07 AM
Getting shit done is extremely important. As is not being discouraged by a business or websites failure. Also, not only working hard but working SMART at the same time is very important.
My mantra for success in business is this. Find a business model that's been proven to be profitable. Automate/streamline it, outsource it and scale it. I'm going to write a blog post on all these steps shortly.
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-10-2012, 09:35 AM
I think intelligence is a major part of success. Some of the hardest working people I know will not get far in business because they don't have the intellectual skills and the wits needed to carve a path.
Obviously getting shit done is important.
My major contribution to this thread is in the form of comparison; just like narcissism and manipulative behaviour are dark seductive traits that nobody wants to talk about, there are also parallels in business. Negative emotions are useful, and the happy-clappy 'abundance mentality' that personal business guru's like to spout is counter-productive and makes business people sound like weird cult people.
All successful people I know in all areas are as motivated by negative stuff as they are positive. I'd say that that is a key element of success, and one that people are really reluctant to talk about.
Here is another helpful little hint for business; you can sell people on all seven of the deadly sins.
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-10-2012, 09:55 AM
I've been starting businesses since my teens, and there's only one skill that I feel is important, with a secondary level skill that is also important: being able to read people, followed with being able to delegate responsibility to others.
Reading customers leads to success since you'll understand both their real needs (not just the ones they're verbalizing) and also understand their real budget. Business owners know how to tweak a customer's "hamster", no different than bang game.
Reading employees leads to success since you'll know your staff's abilities and limits -- you'll also pass on hiring people based purely on resumes or degrees. 90% of my employees never went to college but do a better job, even in heavy math fields, than the college degree holders I've interviewed.
Reading suppliers leads to better negotiating for pricing or delivery speed. Suppliers also have a hamster that you can spin.
In terms of delegating, a good business owner should plan early on in how they get others to do certain jobs or tasks at a more efficient price (meaning, speed or quality of final output). There's no way in hell I can do ANY of the tasks my staff does at the rate they do. I know my hourly value to my markets and industries, and the only way I can reach that goal is by not doing the work myself, but by delegating the work to a multitude of subordinates who do it cheaper, faster and better quality.
If you can't read people (customers, employees, suppliers) and you can't delegate 90% of your tasks to others, you will fail.
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-10-2012, 10:23 AM
Try reading this book, it taught me so many invaluable skills in business and it also helped with my game a bit!
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Na...373&sr=1-1
Don't give them what they expect, and you'll get from them what you never expected.
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-10-2012, 11:38 PM
Thanks guys, good additions.
Hmm the question for me now is, do I accept my flaws and that I'm not suited to business and go and find something that suits me, or do I decide to somehow change and become the sort of person who is good at this (if thats even possible). For me the biggest stumbling blocks are Getting Shit Done vs Being Clever/Perfect/Loving Learning, and Willingness to Fail. Really struggle on those points. As you said Stitch, they're both actually problems for success in anything in life, so I kinda think I need to address them.
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-11-2012, 06:11 PM
Yeah, the Getting Shit Done vs Being Perfect is the biggest one from my experience. Case in point: a good friend of mine developed a solid iPhone app, it has been in a "nearly finished" state for almost 2 years. He is still reluctant to release, saying that he wants it to be "perfect" before he releases as he want it to make good impression from the start (without later patches, etc.). He rewrote major parts of the application a few times times "to make it run smoothly on older iPhones". I always tell him just to release it finally and move onto new projects. If he wasn't doing it on the side as a pretty much a hobby he would go bankrupt long time ago.
Another friend is living successfully off his websites and SEO consulting business, working maybe 15 hours a week, location independent (although he stays in the USA which I don't really get). He churns out many small projects/websites/apps. Most of them fail, but some are generating some income or can be used to drive traffic or to do SEO. He doesn't even have strong software development skills but rather outsources his work to $5 per hour Asian programmers from RentACoder etc. So he also implements the "delegating" that ABDada mentioned...
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-11-2012, 10:51 PM
As someone who has run both successful and failed businesses, and focuses mostly on start-ups in niche areas, I can tell you one thing that MANY people who want to run their own business forget to consider: silent partners.
Almost 70% of the businesses I bootstrap are self-funded. Most would do better with some minor investment from a silent partner. I recently helped a guy take over a (very small) bar, and his co-worker at the IT company had a ton of savings. I told them that putting all their money up front was a terrible idea, but they may consider doing a 3 year buy-in for the silent partner: he committed around $100k in escrow to be divvied into the business over 36 months (30% up front, the remaining 70% over the remaining 35 months). A year in and they were profitable, which is VERY rare for a bar.
If you're not necessarily business savvy, go work a 9-5 but put a solid portion of your income into savings, and then seek out people with trustworthy backgrounds and business plans and take a risk that way.
What do you earn right now? Let's say $50k a year. If you start your own business, that income is GONE. So you're putting out $150k of your own TIME, there's not much difference instead to have you keep working that job, but save all of your excess (say, $80k over 3 years) and put that towards a business partner who is visible, boots on the ground.
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Core Success Skills for Business
04-11-2012, 11:12 PM
1. Figuring out solutions to problems
2. Not giving up
If you can accomplish those two, you don't have to be particularly smart or very good at anything. The other skills are secondary. Some become detractors because they bring distractions and ego problems along with them.
You need to be a genius to build Facebook, keep it alive for a decade, and turn it in to a $100 billion company. You don't need to be a genius to make $10m a year.
I look at business as one problem after the other, you just keep solving them. Eventually other people start solving those problems. Eventually there is little work on your part, just a check, and some basic management oversight.