The Most Successful People Are Usually the Most Humble Ones

Based on what I have experienced so far

I have had the chance to come across some really successful people in life and to my surprise, they were all humble, well, almost all.

I used to think that successful people were hard to reach, boastful, arrogant and looked down on others. The kind of people that are too successful or too rich to talk to you, you know what I mean? I don’t know exactly why I used to think like this. Maybe because of some stories I had heard, or the movies I had watched. I am sure that there are still people like the ones I described because I have met a few, but thankfully it is changing, the same way we are changing the concept of “the boss” and moving toward “the leader”.

After meeting some successful people, CEOs, professors, or even the Vice President of AWS Professional Services, I came to the conclusion that the most successful people, the ones who worked hard to achieve what they have, are very open to talking, giving advice, help, and sometimes they will even go the extra mile. I was deeply impressed. I am going to share with you some of my experiences and maybe they will change your mind too regarding this topic.

Last year, I was invited to Amazon Web Services in Munich during “Entrepreneurial Women Night” to give a presentation on a project me and my team were currently working on, whose focus was on the protection of women who feel unsafe walking on the street. We had already developed an app and were presenting it during the meeting. Little did I know in the room was also the Vice President of AWS Professional Services, Todd Weatherby, who had come from the US to visit the headquarters in Munich for some days. He listened to us with great interest and mentioned he had heard of something similar, but could not remember the name, so he texted his daughter to ask her. She replied within a few minutes. The Vice President encouraged us to continue working on our project. He also showed interest in our studies and work. He offered to contact Amazon whenever we needed some help with our project and already decided on a meeting between us and the engineers of Amazon! Since it was women’s night we were talking about difficulties that women feel nowadays and what makes them less courageous to continue an entrepreneurial journey, different from men, who have it easier because traditionally men are considered more courageous. We were sharing stories of women feeling more introverted and shy than men, especially working in large groups, and that they often feel like they don’t belong somewhere. After he listened to our stories, he shared with us the fact that he was also an introvert himself.

I was deeply impressed by him, the way he immediately reached his daughter, the way he was trying to understand us, offered help and opened up to us. I realized that he was a humble man.

As part of my work in UnternehmerTUM, I was helping with the organization of a lecture, where every Thursday a CEO or Executive was invited to share with the students his/her journey. I used to be the one communicating with the guests and helping them set up their presentations before the lecture started. I was so impressed by these successful people and how easy it was to communicate with them, and how responsive they were in their emails. Sometimes the guest would be a serial entrepreneur and investor and he would talk with the students in their language, making jokes, and telling stories. Never bragging or being arrogant. Well, most of the guests were like that.

When I was 20 and still studying for my bachelor's degree, I had this idea to invite successful CEOs in my university to share with the students their entrepreneurial journey. The problem was, I didn’t know anyone personally. So I decided to write to them on social media. To my surprise they replied. I started inviting CEOs of startups and afterward, I was daring to go for the bigger names in my country. Sometimes the invited CEOs would help me with contacts. I managed to bring to my university a TV Producer and Presenter who at the same time was working on his startup. It was so amazing looking at these people sharing profound advice with the students and trying to help them out in life. I decided to aim even higher and invite one of the most successful women in Albania, Mrs. Alketa Vejsiu, also a TV producer, presenter, journalist, and a successful entrepreneur to have her own event planning company. I called her and she answered immediately. I presented myself and invited her to the event I was organizing. To be honest, I was a bit nervous, but her voice was so friendly that it didn’t feel like a stranger at all. She was too busy at that time to attend my event but we decided to keep in touch. She had a fashion show coming up so she could not attend my event, but instead, she invited me and my friend to her fashion show. We could not believe it. Not only that but our seats were in the VIP area, among all the famous people in Albania. Just because of a simple student invitation, just because of it. We had the chance to meet her there and have small talk. It was incredible how humble she was.

I have many more stories, but I don’t want to keep you here too long. I shared these stories with you to understand that being successful does not necessarily mean being arrogant or bossy. More often than not, successful people want to help others to climb up the stairs to success. It will not cost them much to give you a hand. I believe, these are the models of successful people that we must follow, the humble ones.

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