If you studied highly successful people or worked with them, as I did, you noticed common traits. They exist. Some of them were naturally inclined to have them with a big thumbs up for their proper education at home. But many did consistent efforts to acquire them.
Nevertheless, the traits are there. And please allow me to define success because it’s not solely linked to having a lot of money or fame. There are plenty of people out there who are not particularly rich, but who are successful through their accomplishments, interests, and dreams that they followed. Things they’ve done for others and legacies left behind. They all grew a successful mindset with perseverance, life experience, and acquired wisdom.
But let’s see some famous definitions of success because there are some good ones. Here are my picks:
Stephen Covey: “If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience,” he told the New York Times, “you will find your definition of success.”
Richard Branson: “My definition of success?” he asked himself on Virgin’s blog. “The more you’re actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.”
Maya Angelou: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
Arianna Huffington: “To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric,” she says, “a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.”
John Wooden: “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”
Thomas Edison: “Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”
Deepak Chopra: “Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals.”
Jack Welch: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
Swami Sivananda: “Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.”
Nelson Mandela: “Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.”
Vince Lombardi: “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
William Feather: “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”
Jim Rohn: “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”
Highly successful people are definitely not an accident!
What’s your definition of success?
And here is a video I did with other definitions of success, but this time in an animated form. Enjoy!
With empathy and love for your personal growth and development!
Cristina Imre – Your Mindset Expert (Executive Coach & Mentor at Quantum Wins | Serial Entrepreneur)