We all hear incredible stories about how some of the biggest names in the world got to dizzying heights of success. I’m sure you’ve heard that the enviably famous Bill Gates ditched college for Microsoft and that Wolfgang Puck left school to become a cooking apprentice at 14.
The timeline of the success of such people is peppered with impulsive decisions and following dreams, but have you ever wondered how these leaders manage to stay at the top?
Let’s see what they have to say!
They are doers
It’s all well and good to have ideas and spend ages talking it over. However, “the critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.” That’s according to Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s!
People have great ideas every day, but Mr. Bushnell believes it’s the doers, not the dreamers, that keep the ball of success rolling.
They have a plan
Yes, people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg had to make risky decisions when starting their companies, but they had a plan that they were focused on. Successful careers are not created overnight; they are achieved and maintained because there is a plan and a method to the madness.
Even young graduates can benefit from career plans like the ones offered at career institutes like Porter and Chester that help you look at (and paint) the bigger picture.
They stay healthy
In order to be productive and actually make a difference in their work each day, business leaders and entrepreneurs need to stay healthy. Ariana Huffington, president of the Huffing Post Media group, advocates “dropping everything and going to sleep,” while Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, has stated that working out gives him at least four extra hours each day to be productive.
“Impossible is nothing!”
This means that failures and setbacks are nothing to those who refuse to quit. Even when you’ve reached the pinnacle of success, failure is just around the corner, but there are plenty more corners and as Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, says, “It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.”
They manage their own meetings
Warren Buffet, the third richest man in the world, pencils his meetings into a datebook himself. In an interview with Levo, he said, “You’ve got to keep control of your time… You can’t let other people set your agenda in life.” Larry Page, Google’s CEO, has taken the same route by not having an assistant and thereby not having any unnecessary meetings.
They remain accountable to friends and family
If you’re at the top of your field, it’s probably easy to let it go to your head, but staying true to those who are important to you keeps you grounded. In fact, the CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, lets her daughter decide what time she should be back home.
Fresh graduates and aspiring entrepreneurs are often given career advice and tips on career success, which involve finding a mentor. It’s all about having someone you can trust to help keep your feet on the floor.
Does it surprise you to learn that the key to a productive career is not money and fame? The business leaders and moguls of today’s world instead focus on staying healthy, turning their ideas into plans and plans into action and refusing to give up when failure stares them in the eye. Most importantly, they live on their own terms – honoring the ideals and the people that they firmly believe in.
