Matt Charnock
Success isn’t a product of happenstance or luck; it’s the result of a litany of key habits and routines. At least, this is what the most successful people in the world say.
But it’s true. Nothing is coincidence or serendipitous, frankly. Everything, including vocational prowess, is the result of certain acts and ways of going about your daily life. And, if we’re to look at (subjectively) the most powerful and influential people in the media and tech, you begin—like a good Victorian detective—to piece together commonalities between them.
Here are four such profound and important characteristics and routines touted by the top moguls.
They force themselves to be morning birds
Want to be more successful, regardless the discipline or activity? Stop hitting the snooze—and, in fact, you might want to set back your alarm an hour or two. From Oprah Winfrey to Elon Musk, it seems true that the early bird really does get the worm (which, in this case, is success).
They’re mindful (and have a mindfulness practice)
All of us in tech industry, at some level, can attest to the fact that it’s far from good for us to stare at a screen for hours on end. (Research, too, has shown that it’s not all too great for our bodies and souls, either.) Steve Jobs might be perhaps the most famous Buddha-like tech giant, known famously for meditating twice a day and regularly heading to ashrams in Marin to center himself.
They’re avid readers (and note takers)
Rarely, if ever, is any idea original in nature. Just like art, innovation is a response to the world around us; an inherit yearning to want to change something, anything, for its betterment. Those who’ve famously done just that—like bookworm Steve Wozniak who created the first Apple computer in his off time at Hewlett packard using any and all available engineering text he could get his hands on—are known to be voracious readers, penciling-up the margins with takeaways. So, suffice to stay it might be time to dust off your library card, or (finally) order your Amazon Books wish list.
They engage in some sort of creativity
Perhaps one of the foremost, influential charter quirk of literally every successful entrepreneur, CEO, and aspiring businessman and woman is fostering their creativity. In a study conducted by IBM, about 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking. Break out those paint brushes, write a bit of poetry, whatever your artistic, idiosyncratic quirk is, just do it.
Do you do any of these things and have they led to important career breakthroughs? Tweet us @appacademyio.
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