You already have many beliefs and notions about success. Many of them are wrong. Inaccurate beliefs can lead to taking inappropriate actions or prevent you from taking any action at all! It’s not the things you don’t know that hurt you. It’s the things you believe are true that aren’t! If your ideas about success are faulty, success is much more elusive.
There are many common misconceptions regarding success:
1. Successful people have a certain type of personality. Bill Gates is considered introverted, but not shy. Barack Obama is often described as very aloof. Of course, there many successful extroverts as well. Whatever personality type you have, you can rest assured that it’s more than enough to reach a high level of success.
2. Money changes a person. Money has never changed anyone. Money only provides the opportunity to act on your impulses. With money, all the things you daydream about buying and doing are finally possible. Money only shines a light on the truth.
3. One must be intelligent to be successful. Actually, the opposite may be true. While there are many examples of brilliant people attaining high levels of success, there are even more examples of those with ordinary intellect being just as successful.
- Consistency and determination are far more important than intelligence when it comes to success.
4. It’s necessary to have an original idea. You don’t have to invent the next Facebook or Microsoft to achieve success. It’s possible to be successful by marginally improving upon the work and ideas of others.
- Just outworking the competition is often enough to guarantee success.
5. It takes a lot of time to become and stay successful. We all have the same 24 hours each day. The question is, “Are you spending your 24 hours as effectively as possible?”
- Focusing on the most relevant tasks each day will decrease the amount of time you must work. Most people avoid the most pertinent tasks, because they aren’t enjoyable.
6. Success is lonely. Do you imagine yourself sitting home alone because of becoming successful? Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s true there are fewer successful people than unsuccessful. However, you’ll have far more business and social opportunities because of your success.
7. Luck is an important component of success. It’s true that many successful people have also been extremely lucky at times. However, the only way to be lucky is to give yourself numerous opportunities to be lucky. The more work you do, the better your odds of being lucky occasionally.
- Luck is nice, but hardly mandatory. You don’t need it.
8. The most successful people had an easy time. You’d be shocked by the adversity faced by many of the most successful people to walk the Earth. Many successful people started in the most disadvantageous situations and faced incredible obstacles.
- The difference is that most of us would’ve quit 100 times. The successful person kept moving forward.
9. It’s important to have a lot of willpower to achieve success. Willpower is in short supply unless your life is at stake. Willpower is useful during the early stages of developing new habits. After a habit is formed, willpower isn’t necessary. How much willpower do you need to brush your teeth each day?
How many of these misconceptions did you believe? Have you changed your mind? Having an accurate representation of success dramatically increases your odds. Embrace the truth and you can expect to achieve a new level of success in any endeavor.