How to Sidestep 2 Big Success Landmines
By Sandy Schroeder
A lot of books have been written about ways to be successful, but some of the major ways to fail are often overlooked.
Two of those potential landmines were recently targeted in dumblittleman.com as mindsets that can easily undermine successful endeavors. Those mindsets are impatience and arrogance.
Impatience
Think of the people that you have worked with who were impatient. Then think of others that you have known who were patient. When I do this, I find the impatient people often sabotaged their efforts by making hurried decisions or hasty demands. The patient people that I have known took the time to understand everything that was going on, and then they followed through with hard work and focused strategies. In the end the patient ones moved ahead with real successes.
Impatient people often expect immediate results and automatic rewards. Patient people know most of the good things we achieve take a little time and demand real effort.
Think about successes and failures that you have seen and how patience or impatience was involved.
Arrogance
Most of us know someone who believes they can “walk on water.” Of course, that can be an invitation to others to prove that arrogance is undeserved.
Now think of others who are skilled hard workers who always show up and do the job without waving their own flags.
Those people are respected by their co-workers and bosses. If you look closely, life often flows more easily for them, too. Because they don’t demand recognition, people often go out of their way to help them, and pitch in when they need help. They are more comfortable working with them. Cultivating that undemanding attitude may be well worth the effort, opening the door to more people and better opportunities.
Ideal Combo
The ideal combination might be a mix of patience and humility.
Warren Buffett, a financial wizard in our time, comes to mind as a good example of these traits. He stands out as a living legend with a very sharp financial mind and a huge amount of humility. Year after year he powers through the financial world, but manages to live a very low-key lifestyle. Fans say his partnership letters often talk about his mistakes, but his financial triumphs are anything but mistakes, as evidenced by his ongoing achievements.
Humility may have allowed him to learn throughout his life, as he emerged as one of the most successful businessmen of our time. We could all take a cue from him targeting patience and humility as goals for the New Year.
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