Five signs you will be super successful (and five signs you really won’t)

Wondering if you’re destined for great success or if you’re going to be just missing the boat for the rest of your life?
Over at inc.com, contributing editor and well-known influencer Jeff Haden has created a great list of “9 Signs You Will Be Exceptionally Successful.” So, now you have a handy checklist to which you can refer.
Haden differentiates between regular old, run-of-the-mill success, and super-awesome-hyper-drive success, writing, “It’s not that hard to be successful. But it is hard to be incredibly successful.” OK. Duly noted.
Now let’s look at five of Haden’s signs, which I’ve then contrasted with their counter behaviours, which I figure we can dub “Five signs you are definitely not going to be incredibly successful.” I’m sorry. You had to find out sometime.
Five signs you will be super successful
“You find happiness in the success of others”
Haden writes, “Great teams are made up of employees who help each other, know their roles, set aside personal goals, and value team success over everything else.”
Also, not being a jealous, petty, jerk makes life better and improves your relationships a lot – and good relationships are essential to success.
“You relentlessly seek new experiences”
Haden writes, “according to Dr. Robert Cloninger, ‘Novelty seeking is one of the traits that keeps you healthy and happy and fosters personality growth as you age…. If you combine adventurousness and curiosity with persistence and a sense that it’s not all about you, then you get the creativity that benefits society as a whole.’” Though he also points out that you have to regulate your impulses and not fall into destructive behaviours, like gambling.
Of course successful people are hungry for and curious about experience. That makes perfect sense.
“You don’t think work/life balance, you just think life”
Haden writes, “Symbolic work/life boundaries are almost impossible to maintain. Why? You are your business. Your business is your life, just like your life is your business — which is also true for family, friends, and interests — so there is no separation because all those things make you who you are.”
There’s room for everything to flow into everything else and overlap, to include your friends and family in your business and hobbies. This is a holistic view of life is a whole experience, not something to be separated into compartments.
“You’re incredibly empathetic”
Haden basically says that success in business requires an understanding of people’s needs and problems, so you can fulfill and fix them. But, he adds, “exceptionally successful leaders go a step further, regularly putting themselves in the shoes of their employees.”
I love this because it’s something we often try to convey around here, which is that to get the job you have to understand and demonstrate how you will bring value to the organization. This requires understanding the needs of the organization and its people. Empathy. You gotta have it.
“You ignore the 40-hour workweek hype”
I think this is linked to thinking of life and work as a whole. You can work hard and still fully experience life if you approach it all with mindfulness and attention. I know it can be hard to think this way with a family and children. But for those to whom hard work comes naturally, rewards will also come.
Haden writes that successful people “work smarter…and they also work harder. That’s the real secret of their success.”
Now, here are five signs that you will never be successful
You begrudge other people their successes
Wishing failure on others is a pretty surefire way to bring it upon yourself. Bitterness and envy will destroy you. They don’t usually bring much value to teamwork either.
You aren’t interested in new experiences
It’s hard to live a full successful life without seeking out new experiences and engaging with the world. If you spend your life on the couch keeping up with the Kardashians, you’re not going to get very far.
You view what you “do” for a living as separate from the other things you “do”
If your job is just a job and isn’t part of your whole life and who you are, your career isn’t going to thrive.
You don’t care about other people
If you think only about yourself and are not interested in or concerned about other people, you will live in your own bubble and nobody thrives in a bubble. You need connectedness to succeed and that comes with empathy.
You always put in the bare minimum amount of required effort
Success requires going above and beyond, not only what is asked of or required of you, but above and beyond your own expectations. If you don’t make an effort, you’re not going to get anywhere.
Which one of these lists most resembles you?
(To see the rest of Haden’s list, go to Inc.com)