4 Traits That All Successful People Share

Success leaves clues.

Most people want to be successful in one way or another. However, it is not always obvious about how to achieve success.

The good news is, success leaves clues. You don’t need to guess about what works. You can simply observe what successful people do and emulate them.

Below are 4 things I could not help but notice that most successful people have in common.

1. They follow through on their promises

“Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don’t expect it from cheap people.”

Warren Buffett

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Warren Buffett

I know it’s old school, but I genuinely believe in the saying, “your word is your bond.” If you can’t trust someone with little things, you can’t trust them with big things.

Once trust is gone, it is darn near impossible to get it back, so be careful. Never promise something if you are not 100% sure you can deliver on that promise.

In business, predictability is essential. People don’t want to do business with unpredictable people they can’t count on.

So be honest about what you say you will do. If anything, remember that it is best to under-promise and over-deliver.

2. They are persistent

There are very few people who succeed on their first try. Even “overnight successes” typically result from years of failure behind the scenes.

If you have ever failed at something, don’t worry. You are in great company.

• JK Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers before she found a home for the first Harry Potter book.
• Dr. Seuss’s first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times.
• John Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, was rejected 28 times.
• Stephen King's novel Carrie was rejected 30 times. Keep in mind, Carrie wasn’t even his first novel. It was his 4th novel, but the first that he managed to get published.

Rejection is only final if you quit. It breaks my heart to even think about all the greatness the world has missed out on simply because someone stopped too soon.

3. They welcome change

“Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”

Benjamin Disraeli

It doesn't matter what industry you work in; change is constant. Technology, customer needs, government regulation, your skill level, and many more things will change.

Instead of fighting change, successful people embrace it. Continually needing to adapt to change might sound like a negative, but it is not in reality. If you adapt to change faster than your competition, change becomes an unfair advantage for you.

Successful people learn how to spot changes faster and learn how to adapt to them. Learning how to learn is one of the skills that will provide you the most value throughout your career.

4. They don’t dwell on losses

“For me, whether we win or lose, every match is giving me a lot of information about how to improve.”

Unai Emery

“Win or lose, I always learn something.”

Bianca Andreescu

It is natural to feel bad after a failure. Nobody wants to fail, and it sucks when it happens. However, the way that a person reacts to failure often separates successful people from everyone else.

Successful people can shake off their losses quickly and get back to work. Meanwhile, unsuccessful people often waste valuable time feeling sorry for themselves.

Most importantly, successful people use losses as learning opportunities. Every time you fail at something, you should take at least one lesson away from that experience to repeatedly avoid making the same mistake.

Takeaways

Success leaves clues.

Successful people are honest, persistent, adaptable, and they use failure as a learning experience.

Obviously, there is more to success than these four things, but these things are a great place to start if you want to be successful.