The Success Indicator

[MichaelB]

I saw this on Cullen Roche’s website Pragmatic Capitalism. His blog entries are informative and often educational. This post is a list of traits of successful people, to me it also describes attributes of people that are happy with themselves and life. It could just as easily have been titled The Power of Positive Thinking.

PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM – The Success Indicator

Successful people:

Compliment others
Forgive others
Accept responsibility for their failures
Keep a journal
Want others to succeed
Keep a “to be” list
Set goals and develop life plans
Continuously learn
Operate from a transformational perspective
Have a sense of gratitude
Give other people credit for their victories
Read every day
Talk about ideas
Share info and data
Exude joy
Embrace change
Keep a “to do” list.

 

[bondi688]

Is this on the list? : Got taxed and denigrated at the same time. :-(

 

[Amethyst]

Compliment others
Forgive others
Want others to succeed

By that list, Donald Trump is a miserable failure!

A.

 

[Lazarus]

Keep a journal - I never have and don't know why you should.
Keep a “to be” list - Don't know what that means.
Operate from a transformational perspective - Don't know what that means.

The rest seem right to me.

 

[CoolChange]

Keep a journal - I never have and don't know why you should...

I never have either but now find myself wishing that I had.

Memory fades. I am middle aged and already amazed at how much I have forgotten over the years: Not just facts but also feelings and motivations.

 

[Meadbh]

Journaling is required during some leadership programs. I did not find it helpful.

 

[ERD50]

Accept responsibility for their failures

That's a good one - but I'd add:

Don't dwell on your mistakes - learn from them. Act on what you learned to avoid repeating similar mistakes.

-ERD50

 

[calmloki]

Well, my gal should rank high on the list - she doesn't keep a journal or a to be list, but she is off the scale on most of the others. She is particularly good at forgiving others and accepting responsibility for their failures.

 

[MichaelB]

I didn’t keep a journal but did write periodically and kept much of what I wrote. Reading things 10 years later, after ER, surprised me. Like many, I used to think that my views were consistent over time. Reading a decade (or two) later showed changing priorities and also evolving awareness. How my views tracked and reflected others, more public and mainstream, surprised me.

 

[JPatrick]

Compliment others
Forgive others
Want others to succeed

By that list, Donald Trump is a miserable failure!

A.

I think Donald does have the traits you mention. Where he gets into trouble is if the word "all" is inserted before the word "others."
He's just being selective....

 

[haha]

Well, my gal should rank high on the list - she doesn't keep a journal or a to be list, but she is off the scale on most of the others. She is particularly good at forgiving others and accepting responsibility for their failures.

Is this a joke, or do you mean "accepting responsibility for her failures"? I think the list maker means that people should accept responsibility for their own failures.

Even that is controversial. Many psychologists feel that laying off one's failures onto circumstance is a good strategy for staying happy and undepressed. Seems to work for politicians and CEOs.

Most of my life I've graded myself on a curve, and a C was satisfactory. Lately I have thought that I might have been able to do better. Still, we all have some narrow passages to steer through, and I suppose we should be gratefuil for not breaking up on the rocks.

Ha

 

[Gumby]

Is this on the list? : Got taxed and denigrated at the same time. :-(

Successful people don't whine.

 

[Midpack]

Good article, and the graphic may be even more informative...

 

[Amethyst]

Unsuccessful people "say they keep a journal, but really don't"

I'm sorry, but that is just weird. Why would anybody feel the urge to lie about keeping a journal? Is there a Journal Police of which I am unaware?

Amethyst

 

[brewer12345]

Most of my life I've graded myself on a curve, and a C was satisfactory. Lately I have thought that I might have been able to do better. Still, we all have some narrow passages to steer through, and I suppose we should be gratefuil for not breaking up on the rocks.

Ha

Meh. Reasonably happy? Reasonably healthy? Still got most of your marbles? Financially viable? If the answer is yes, I'd say you get full credit.

 

[braumeister]

Is there a Journal Police of which I am unaware?

I think it's for creating an alibi. Journal-keepers like to put their own spin on events, so they can later point to a journal entry and claim they really saw things like that at the time.

All for naught, of course. There is no real escape, since we are all under constant surveillance.

He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good ....

 

[imoldernu]

Pleased to see not being marked down, for not being rich.

 

[Nords]

One of the things I wish I'd saved over the years was the directories of the crews & staffs at my commands-- their names, ranks, and departments. COMSUBPAC even used to distribute one to all the Pacific submarine commands every year, containing every officer (both active & retired).

Too many times I've tried to remember Schmuckatelli's name, or been asked if I served with Schmeckel, or tried to remember what USETAFISH I served with Schmatz on. The guy who just made Master Chief Petty Officer-- was he really the Seaman Apprentice who we had to threaten to take to mast all those years ago?

Speaking as a guy who writes for nearly an hour a day these days, a journal would've been a really nice thing to have during my college/working years. But who had the time for that sort of introspection? I was lucky to finish everybody else's writing assignments, let alone my personal ones...

Is this on the list? : Got taxed and denigrated at the same time. :-(

I'm going to guess that you're on the "not happy" list...

 

[Alan]

Is this a joke, or do you mean "accepting responsibility for her failures"? I think the list maker means that people should accept responsibility for their own failures.

Successful leaders also accept responsibility for the failures of those who work for them. "The buck stops with me" is their mantra.

I rarely read management books but an excellent boss of mine loaned me the book "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap and Others Don't", by Jim Collins.

One of the characteristics of good leaders that stuck in my mind is that when things are going well they look out the window and say, "It's not me, the praise should go to the great people I have working for me". When things go wrong they will look in the mirror and say, "I'm to blame, I need to find find a way to do better going forward".

 

[audreyh1]

This all just sounds too much like the management track at work!

 

[Alan]

This all just sounds too much like the management track at work!

Read the book first, he makes excellent points and has lots of data to support the fact that the most long term successful companies are those with the best CEO's, and they come from a wide cross-section of industries, including an airline, a steel company, companies with no unions and companies with strong unions.

Having determined in his opinion that the deciding factor in the great companies was their CEO, then he focused on the management style and culture of the companies.

 

[MichaelB]

This all just sounds too much like the management track at work!

That wasn't the intent, but you do have a point. I saw items on the list that apply to 'real life' and even post-work era folk like us, not just the still working class.

 

[brewer12345]

This all just sounds too much like the management track at work!

Before the holiday break, I had to sit down with one of the many layers of management above me to chat about how things are going and any obvious things I saw that could be improved. At the end of the discussion, I was asked if I had ever considered going into management. I suspect I slightly offended the asker of the question, but my response amounted to "hell no!"

 

[Midpack]

Before the holiday break, I had to sit down with one of the many layers of management above me to chat about how things are going and any obvious things I saw that could be improved. At the end of the discussion, I was asked if I had ever considered going into management. I suspect I slightly offended the asker of the question, but my response amounted to "hell no!"

Might give you a new perspective...but if your mind is made up.

 

[brewer12345]

Might give you a new perspective...but if your mind is made up.

At my present employer, an entry level manager has a lot of things to do, limited resources with which to do them, and many layers above them second guessing what they have done and countermanding previous orders. There is also a strong expectation tat you will work a lot of uncompensated overtime and regularly, publicly and loudly sing the company fight song. No thanks. Where I am at the moment fits me, and I have the ability to execute on mission critical tasks requiring my very rare skillset with minimal management help. They seem to be happy, and I can live with it since I mostly get left alone to get the job done. At this point in my career, I don't want any extra headaches or hours worked, especially at the rate of pay they are prepared to offer.