Characteristics of successful people I have met

Because of writing, because of business, I met so many people. Many of them were successful. Success here generally means economic success, but not all of them. There were entrepreneurs who had a great impact on society, and there were also the protagonists of videos that went viral. In addition, there were teachers who changed students dramatically, and there were also people who were just very ordinary, but who studied steadily for their own growth, accumulated very deep inner skills, and lived happier than anyone else. Again, there is no absolute formula for success. Everyone had a different time and direction of the opportunity, and a completely different way to achieve it. Still, there were a few qualities that could be pulled out in common with most of them, but today I’m going to briefly talk about only three of them.

Pay attention to your strengths

These people focus on what they are good at. If you use the word “good” here again, ‘talented admirers’ will respond with ‘I knew I would!’. What I mean by doing well is ‘propensity + persistence’. For example, those with extroverted tendencies focused on areas such as sales, and those with introverted tendencies focused on creating content. So, I really consistently did what was right for me. So far, it’s actually an obvious story. Now let’s do something less obvious.

In other words, paying attention to the strengths means that the weaknesses were also accurately recognized. Most of these people worked with partners who would compensate for their shortcomings. For example, some people who make amazing products but don’t know how to promote them had a colleague who is a marketing expert. Clearly, successful people had high metacognition. So there was a tendency to strengthen the strengths and outsource the weaknesses. Usually, many people tend to try to do well, but in fact, there is a higher chance that you will not be able to eat or die.

I am also doing a thorough division of labor while publishing and running the company at the same time. In the case of a company, simply put, sales are done by me, administrative work is done by CEO Lee Ung-goo, and publishing is usually done by Go-Jak-nim, who compiles theories, and I go around collecting actual data. In this way, we pay attention to each other’s strengths and create synergy in many ways.

So I hope that other people will seriously think about their strengths and weaknesses. When you meet many friends and ask them to tell you what their strengths are, in fact, most of them are not good at answering. One of the two. Low metacognition or no real… . And the downside is even worse. The downsides are many indeed, but none are more accurately identified than the upsides. So, keeping a record of yourself on a regular basis is very important in this context.

It’s really, really steady

Life can’t be without ups and downs. There are good times and there are bad times in our lives. Usually, if it’s good, you break your composure and make a mistake, and if it’s bad, you don’t do what you need to do properly, making the situation worse. The successful people I have met have been admirably consistent. The group I particularly admired was those who woke up early in the morning to read or exercise. It’s a bit of an obvious story so far. Let’s go into a bit more detail this time.

One of the steady things was that he kept very small things well. In particular, everyone had very strict standards when it came to appointments. I also have a knife-like personality to the point where I won’t be fooled anywhere if I keep my promise. So always leave at least 30 minutes before your appointment time. That way, even if an unexpected situation arises, you will not be late for your appointment. (I usually go out an hour before and read a book.) What surprised me when I met these people for the interview was that most of them arrived much earlier than the scheduled time. So, in a meeting at 2:00, there were a lot of cases where it started at 1:30.

And another common finding! Almost everyone did not look at their smartphones when talking. More than 70% of just ordinary people I met almost always checked when a message came in during a conversation. Actually, I think this part is more important than I thought. How unimportant the other person is, will they check their messages during a conversation? Would it be the same if I met the boss at work? Would it be the same in a place where I went to see an adult prospective father-in-law for the first time? Most probably won’t. (Well… if it’s someone who dares to do that…. I don’t really want to do anything with someone like that.)

It is never difficult to do something that seems trivial and easy once or twice. But if you do it steadily for several years and make it a habit, it will really be a very big plus alpha in business in human relationships. If you can’t even do such a basic job and dream big… . I strongly recommend giving up…

No excuses

Is there no person in the world who has no personal circumstances? The most difficult time for me while working is when my baby is sick. Then, whatever it is, you have to take the baby and go to the hospital quickly. That’s how everyone always has an unexpected situation and when they can’t work at that moment, they have no choice but to create a vacuum in their work. However, most successful people made no excuses for their circumstances. Rather than simply winning mentally, there was a plan B that always prepares for risks, or a reliable colleague or team that could complement one’s position. Building such a system was the secret to their success.

There was also one of the most impressive words I’ve ever heard. I really got goosebumps when I heard this story. The person who told me this story was a business owner in his 60s who runs a company with annual sales of 30 to 50 billion won. As this person lived, he said that there were times when he was lucky and he had times when he was unlucky. In particular, the company went bankrupt during the IMF, so it was the most difficult time in my life, but looking back, it was the time when I learned the most. He did. (Well, actually, there was no sales, but the story of Steve Jobs going to Pixar at the moment flashed through my head at the time.)

The words of the president of another software company are very memorable. In his life, he said, he had never been very lucky. So he is said to have pondered. He said that he came up with an unusual answer because he was thinking about what to do if he kept having no luck. “Let’s stick to the lucky people!” Originally, his major was in the field of new materials, but after seeing his friend making a jackpot with a game on a feature phone at the time, he said that he learned programming by studying at a computer academy in Gangnam. And he entered that friend’s company, and as he learned know-how there and worked steadily, his internal skills piled up, and at some point he became the president of a small game development company. He smiled ‘heh heh’ at me and said that he had stolen (?) some of his friend’s luck.

They made no excuses. I tried to adapt with the time and energy. I was genuinely honored.