5 Characteristics of Successful People

If you’ve been around long enough, you’re probably aware that most important things in life come about seemingly by accident, chance, or coincidence. Discovering what you were meant to do, meeting your spouse, finding an incredibly unique opportunity or a great job, that sort of thing.

Well, those events are not as random as you might think. Certain behavioral attributes increase the probability of these “happy accidents” occurring. And not only are these characteristics of successful people, they are, I believe, learnable or teachable.

First, here are some examples of what I’m talking about - how important things happen seemingly by accident - followed by five enabling characteristics of successful people:

• Steve Jobs returned to Apple as part of its acquisition of NeXT. A year later, Jobs was once again running the company he co-founded and cleaning house. Eventually, the stars aligned for the greatest turnaround in business history. But Jobs returning to Apple was nobody’s grand design. It just sort of happened that way.
• The way Bill Gates and Microsoft came to develop and own the rights to IBM’s PC operating system is so far-fetched you couldn’t make it up. Gates had been working on a programming language for IBM. When IBM mentioned needing an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research, but CEO Gary Kindall left negotiations to his wife, who wouldn’t sign IBM’s non-disclosure agreement. So IBM went back to Gates, who bought QDOS from a Seattle company and sold it to IBM while retaining exclusive licensing rights. You know the rest.
• Yesterday I watched an interview with Rivers Cuomo, founder of alternative rock band Weezer. Cuomo described an 18-month stint working as a clerk for Tower Records as the transformative event that completely changed the way he thought about music. After that, he formed Weezer and the rest is history.
• In Unusual Origins of 15 Innovative Companies, we saw that lots of great companies started out making products that had nothing to do with what they eventually became known for. American Express was an express mail company, 3M mined a mineral,Nokia was a paper mill, and Toyota made looms. In each case, something happened along the way. Somehow, the leaders of these companies found a way to greatness.
• As for me, everything that’s ever mattered in my life happened pretty much by accident. Meeting my wife, discovering the high-tech industry, a whole bunch of great job opportunities, even blogging for CNET and then BNET, were all chance events that essentially fell in my lap. Or did they?

Of course, none of this stuff happened purely by chance. Everyone involved in the above events had certain characteristics that ultimately weighed heavily on their actions and ultimate success. To me, it boils down to five attributes:

5 Characteristics That Enable Accidental Success

1. Being opportunistic. That means taking advantage of opportunities as they arise, including a willingness to act boldly and decisively and to take risks without overanalyzing possible outcomes. Successful invention requires a lot trial and error. That’s the mindset of an entrepreneur.
2. Ability to network, schmooze, persuade. Not social networking, but old school networking. In fact, the actual definition of schmooze is “to converse informally, to chat, or to chat in a friendly and persuasive manner especially so as to gain favor, business, or connections.” That’s what opens doors.
3. Having a can-do attitude. You can be presented with all the opportunities in the world, but if you’re a negatron - always seeing the glass half empty, the fly in the ointment, why it can’t or shouldn’t be done - you’ll never capitalize on any of it. You’ll be the guy who’s always saying, “I almost [fill in the blank]; I don’t know what went wrong.”
4. Being genuine and open. Some people think BSers and those who sugarcoat the truth or tell people what they want to hear get ahead. Now that’s BS. Smart, successful people are attracted to those who are genuine and open about their feelings. Being genuine entices others to open up and share their thoughts and feelings.
5. Being inquisitive or searching for answers, how things work, a place in the world. This characteristic is difficult to explain or quantify, but I think it comes down to a genuine need to figure things out, understand how things work, or do something important. It drives certain people and, one thing’s for sure: we don’t stop until we find what we’re looking for.

Also check out:

• How to Schmooze Your Way to Business Success
• Why Experience is Overrated
• Who Influenced You and Your Career?

Want to Be Successful? Don't Play by the Rules

“Good guys finish last.”
“Rules are made to be broken.”
“The ends justify the means.”

The Corner Office

Steve Tobak

From the time we’re young, just beginning to understand what’s going on around us, until we’re too old to care anymore, one question comes up again and again. Should we play by the rules?

Now, I’m sure most of you are pretty opinionated. But before you answer yes, no, or it depends, consider this. You probably play by more rules than you think … or should. Some of them are even rules you impose on yourself, and for reasons you may not be aware of. Those are the ones that tend to be the most career and success-limiting.

You see, rules fall into three general categories: legal, societal, and self-imposed.

Legal rules are pretty black and white. America’s a nation of laws, and the rule is don’t break them. Just to be clear, we’re talking criminal and civil laws. That trips up a lot of people who mistakenly think fraud, discrimination, domestic violence, harassment, even downloading copyrighted material or rolling through a stop sign, are ethical or moral issues. They’re not.

Societal rules involve complex issues like ethics and morality, so they’re far more subjective than legal rules. Even if you feel strongly about one thing or another, there are likely circumstances that would change your opinion.

For example, I generally don’t fault people who cheat on their spouses, but I might feel very differently when the person being cheated on is someone close to me. Similarly, while I think people should treat others with respect, I know I fall short of that ideal all too often.

So, you can see how societal rules are subject to perspective and circumstance. These are rules that from time to time we may break, feel badly about, realize that we’re human, and ultimately forgive ourselves — even while those we harmed may not.

Now, let’s talk about self-imposed rules. They’re the kind of rules you hear again and again in every workplace. I hear them in many of your comments and emails, as well:

• “I won’t compromise my principles to climb the corporate ladder.”
• “I don’t play politics at work.”
• “That’s outside my comfort zone.”
• “Life is too short to work with a**holes.”
• “I won’t work for a boss who, at a job where, or at a company that ___________ (fill in the blank).”

Now, we’ve all uttered a phrase or two like that at one time or another, right? Well, let me introduce you to a concept called self-limiting behavior. In this context, it’s when we put restrictions on ourselves that have unintended consequences because we’re not aware of the real reasons behind them.

For example:

• Nobody has to compromise principles to climb the corporate ladder. You may, however, have to sacrifice a great deal, including some of your own personal needs and wants, in favor of those of the company’s customers, shareholders, and employees. So, maybe you’re not principled so much as selfish, afraid to give up that much control, or afraid you might fail.
• As for playing politics, show me a workplace where everyone sings Kumbaya and gets along like peas in a pod and I’ll show you, well, Utopian BS. It doesn’t exist. And those who say they don’t play politics are usually the most political of all.
• Whenever you hear, “that’s outside my comfort zone,” it’s actually code for “that’s something I’m scared of.” While it’s human to be afraid, it’s not a good thing to be unaware of it.
• As for not wanting to work with a**holes, I’ve got news for you, those who are fond of saying that are usually the biggest a**holes of all. Some casually toss that term around as if it’s some kind of absolute. The truth is that we’re all a**holes some of the time. Half the time you’re the a**hole and the other person is just reacting to it. And one person’s a**hole is another person’s spouse or best friend.

You see, none of these self-imposed rules are about ethics, morals, or conviction. They are, however, about trying to control a world, or at least a workplace, that’s chaotic and scary. And by setting these arbitrary limits, we delude ourselves into believing that we’ve gained some measure of control. In reality, the only thing we’re achieving is limiting our success and potential. That’s why it’s called self-limiting behavior.

So, back to the original question, should you play by the rules? Legal rules, absolutely. Societal rules, it depends. Self-imposed rules, never. Not if you want to have a successful management career.

Also check out:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Innovative People
• Why Climbing the Corporate Ladder Sucks
• How to Deal With a Bad Boss: Don’t!

What's the One Thing Limiting Your Success?

The Corner Office

Steve Tobak

The other day I was half listening to an interview of a famous actor when something he said got my attention. The guy apparently immigrated to this country with his parents and he realized that, to get a good job, he’d have to improve his ability to speak English.

So he thought, what better way to do that than to take acting classes. And that’s how his acting career began.

Address your weakness. Sounds sort of obvious, doesn’t it? But it got me thinking, how many people really 1) know what’s limiting their success and, 2) force themselves to do something about it?

You know, I’m willing to bet that half the people reading this right now are saying to themselves, Wow, I should do that about [fill in the blank]. But will they … actually do it? Probably not.

I’d also be willing to bet that the other half are in denial, blaming everybody and everything for why they didn’t get ahead instead of doing something about some fear or limitation they were almost surely aware of at one time but have since buried under layers of jealousy and anger targeted at all the wrong people.

Whichever half you’re in, we all have at least one major fear or limitation holding us back. Facing or improving that one thing will almost surely open the door to new opportunities and success. Here are a couple of stories to inspire you to do just that:    

• One of my former CEOs told me a story about how, when he was younger, he was so shy that just the idea of speaking in class and, later on, in a meeting, was so terrifying that he almost passed out from fear. So he got some help, faced his fear every day of his career, and went on to become a senior executive at a Fortune 1000 company and then a successful CEO of a public tech firm.
• Another successful senior executive was, at one time, stuck in middle management - engineering management, to be specific. And while he’d become adept at presenting to groups, he marveled at the ease with which his sales people interacted and negotiated with customers. So he gave up his 10+ year engineering management career and took a step back to become a salesman and learn the skills he felt he lacked. It worked. That was over 20 years ago. That guy was me.

So the next time you find yourself exploring the blogosphere or Amazon for your next quick-fix of advice, or feeling sorry for yourself or jealous of someone else because she made it and you didn’t, put down the computer, simmer down, relax, and ask yourself: What’s the one thing I need to face, address, or improve to get ahead?

If you do that, I guarantee three things:

1. That you know, on some level, what that one thing is.
2. It will be the highest probability thing you can do to open up new opportunities and increase your success potential.
3. No, it won’t be easy. Yes, it will take work. But the reward will far outweigh all that. Guaranteed.

Also check out:

• Irreverent Career Advice for Up-and-Comers
• How to Conquer Your Fear and Self-Doubt … Really
• How to Be a Great Storyteller and Win Over Any Audience

Flash + Facebook = online success

Yesterday was the launch of the campaign Lost in val sinestra which I found via Yorokobu.

This is a microsite where you get connected by Facebook, then you choose the characters (your friends!) and at the end of the process you get a video as this one:

LOST IN VAL SINESTRA from Fernando Comet on Vimeo.

We´ve already seen the same idea a couple of times or more, for example in the site Je tue un ami com a été tué, and also in a swedish website about communications whose name I don´t remember now. Something similar was seen in Prototype

This is a video where they insert photos and texts with the Facebook API by an XML. Later, the difficult step, is to mask all the photos so as to see them in the video. I´ve seen more as this one but not as good.

If you have a look to the code, this is the url of the html:

HTTP://WWW.LOST-IN-VAL-SINESTRA.COM/027594C51758D0BF72, and we have:

var flashvars = {};

flashvars.swfUrl = "MovieMaker.swf";

flashvars.xmlUrl = "xml/content.xml";

flashvars.movieHash = "027594C51758D0BF72";

Probably the video has cuepoints where they insert the photos, Flash makes this all right even if the video is on streaming.

In this case they forgot the option to share the final video with other APIS (Twitter, Blogger, etc.) Anyway I´m watching more and more like this in the future. The use of Flash within Facebook is a warranty of success.

Thoughts on Infographics websites

This is a personal ecuation I have:

Infographic + Gaming website = Success!!!

Ok, let´s see some examples:

This is called PlayPrime, comes from Japan, awarded in DesignLicks. Although it should have a better English version (I can´t read Japanese by now), you can select a player, move around the scenario, play games. Very amusing.


Second example: DodgeQuest, it looks like an 80´s game, pixel fonts, dialogues, this is gaming! A very good idea!


Third example: ComcastTown, just awarded in FWA and mentioned in AdobeEdgeNL. You can interact with the town, discover, move and whatsoever.


Fourth example: Desktop Vacation from HybridWorks, this is just like an interactive screensaver, but it has the same idea. A relaxing interactive infographic.


You can see more infographics here, some dinamyc. Also there are good videos on YouTube although I prefer websites...