Post: #1

What do you guys think are core skills for success in business and work-life in general?

I've been thinking about why I've struggled to launch and run an online business whereas acquaintances of mine have absolutely nailed it, despite all starting at around the same time.

It didnt come down to opportunity, initial funds or intelligence. We all started at the same time, I had probably more capital than any of them, and we're all pretty damn sharp (imo).

So what was it? The big differences are in personality traits. Here's what I've come up with from analysing the successful guys I know:

-Assertive
-Strong leadership tendencies
-They value 'Getting Shit Done' over 'Being Clever' or 'Being Perfect'
-Strong drive for learning and absorbing knowledge, but second to Getting Shit Done
-Intelligent, Sharp, strong critical/analytical ability
-Ability to assess Big Picture, not lost in details
-Creative & imaginative, tuned in to spotting opportunities
-Very strong networking and connecting-with-people skills
-Persistence and solid work ethic to execute ideas
-Resilient, good stress tolerance and ability to disengage, relax and enjoy playtime
-Willing to try, fail and try again

It's interesting to hash it out because now I clearly see where I differ from this ideal mix. Its also interesting to see that these look like pretty desirable traits just for success and fulfilment in life in general. Seems to me the real question is how can we cultivate the traits we dont yet have.

Thoughts? Agree, disagree, or have any other key traits to add?

Post: #2

Quote:-They value 'Getting Shit Done' over 'Being Clever' or 'Being Perfect'

The absolute #1. Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines: "We have a strategic plan. It's called doing things." But even apart from business, the folks who are most interesting to be around and the ones I regard as being "successful" (as opposed to "having the highest net worth," though the two aren't exclusive) are the ones who actually do things rather than talk about them.

Quote:-Willing to try, fail and try again

Probably #2. I see fear of failure as one of the biggest things holding people back, be it a business scheme or approaching a woman.

Quote:-Strong drive for learning and absorbing knowledge, but second to Getting Shit Done

I'd put this as #3 and where I start seeing the bridge from "successful at what they attempt" to "attempting things they wouldn't have tried yesterday." By now I spend about 30 min to an hour a day on self-improvement, meaning reading, practicing language flashcards, etc, and it makes a big difference. But without the drive to do things and willingness to risk failure, it's basically mental masturbation--it makes you feel better, but it doesn't actually accomplish much.

Post: #3

Getting shit done is extremely important. As is not being discouraged by a business or websites failure. Also, not only working hard but working SMART at the same time is very important.

My mantra for success in business is this. Find a business model that's been proven to be profitable. Automate/streamline it, outsource it and scale it. I'm going to write a blog post on all these steps shortly.

Post: #4

I think intelligence is a major part of success. Some of the hardest working people I know will not get far in business because they don't have the intellectual skills and the wits needed to carve a path.

Obviously getting shit done is important.

My major contribution to this thread is in the form of comparison; just like narcissism and manipulative behaviour are dark seductive traits that nobody wants to talk about, there are also parallels in business. Negative emotions are useful, and the happy-clappy 'abundance mentality' that personal business guru's like to spout is counter-productive and makes business people sound like weird cult people.

All successful people I know in all areas are as motivated by negative stuff as they are positive. I'd say that that is a key element of success, and one that people are really reluctant to talk about.

Here is another helpful little hint for business; you can sell people on all seven of the deadly sins.

Post: #5

I've been starting businesses since my teens, and there's only one skill that I feel is important, with a secondary level skill that is also important: being able to read people, followed with being able to delegate responsibility to others.

Reading customers leads to success since you'll understand both their real needs (not just the ones they're verbalizing) and also understand their real budget. Business owners know how to tweak a customer's "hamster", no different than bang game.

Reading employees leads to success since you'll know your staff's abilities and limits -- you'll also pass on hiring people based purely on resumes or degrees. 90% of my employees never went to college but do a better job, even in heavy math fields, than the college degree holders I've interviewed.

Reading suppliers leads to better negotiating for pricing or delivery speed. Suppliers also have a hamster that you can spin.

In terms of delegating, a good business owner should plan early on in how they get others to do certain jobs or tasks at a more efficient price (meaning, speed or quality of final output). There's no way in hell I can do ANY of the tasks my staff does at the rate they do. I know my hourly value to my markets and industries, and the only way I can reach that goal is by not doing the work myself, but by delegating the work to a multitude of subordinates who do it cheaper, faster and better quality.

If you can't read people (customers, employees, suppliers) and you can't delegate 90% of your tasks to others, you will fail.

Post: #6

Try reading this book, it taught me so many invaluable skills in business and it also helped with my game a bit! http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Na...373&sr=1-1

Post: #7

Thanks guys, good additions.

Hmm the question for me now is, do I accept my flaws and that I'm not suited to business and go and find something that suits me, or do I decide to somehow change and become the sort of person who is good at this (if thats even possible). For me the biggest stumbling blocks are Getting Shit Done vs Being Clever/Perfect/Loving Learning, and Willingness to Fail. Really struggle on those points. As you said Stitch, they're both actually problems for success in anything in life, so I kinda think I need to address them.

Post: #8

What he said. Business is the art of turning a disparate group of workers and customers into an engine that spits out money. You need to understand people on a fundamental level or you will have no fuel for your engine.

(04-10-2012 09:55 AM)ABDada Wrote:  I've been starting businesses since my teens, and there's only one skill that I feel is important, with a secondary level skill that is also important: being able to read people, followed with being able to delegate responsibility to others.

Reading customers leads to success since you'll understand both their real needs (not just the ones they're verbalizing) and also understand their real budget. Business owners know how to tweak a customer's "hamster", no different than bang game.

Reading employees leads to success since you'll know your staff's abilities and limits -- you'll also pass on hiring people based purely on resumes or degrees. 90% of my employees never went to college but do a better job, even in heavy math fields, than the college degree holders I've interviewed.

Reading suppliers leads to better negotiating for pricing or delivery speed. Suppliers also have a hamster that you can spin.

In terms of delegating, a good business owner should plan early on in how they get others to do certain jobs or tasks at a more efficient price (meaning, speed or quality of final output). There's no way in hell I can do ANY of the tasks my staff does at the rate they do. I know my hourly value to my markets and industries, and the only way I can reach that goal is by not doing the work myself, but by delegating the work to a multitude of subordinates who do it cheaper, faster and better quality.

If you can't read people (customers, employees, suppliers) and you can't delegate 90% of your tasks to others, you will fail.

Post: #9

Yeah, the Getting Shit Done vs Being Perfect is the biggest one from my experience. Case in point: a good friend of mine developed a solid iPhone app, it has been in a "nearly finished" state for almost 2 years. He is still reluctant to release, saying that he wants it to be "perfect" before he releases as he want it to make good impression from the start (without later patches, etc.). He rewrote major parts of the application a few times times "to make it run smoothly on older iPhones". I always tell him just to release it finally and move onto new projects. If he wasn't doing it on the side as a pretty much a hobby he would go bankrupt long time ago.

Another friend is living successfully off his websites and SEO consulting business, working maybe 15 hours a week, location independent (although he stays in the USA which I don't really get). He churns out many small projects/websites/apps. Most of them fail, but some are generating some income or can be used to drive traffic or to do SEO. He doesn't even have strong software development skills but rather outsources his work to $5 per hour Asian programmers from RentACoder etc. So he also implements the "delegating" that ABDada mentioned...

Post: #10

Delegation is a KEY skill and one that is surprisingly hard to practice, in a chicken-egg fashion; it's difficult to have people you can delegate to until you're successful, and difficult to be successful unless you develop skills at delegation.

This is one area where being capable of doing everything yourself can actually be a downside, and a case where paying others to do something you COULD do yourself (taxes, plumbing, etc) could be to your advantage so long as a) you are actually practicing delegation (ie learning to envision and state what you want, following up to make sure you are getting what you paid for, etc) and b) it actually saves you time.

I've seriously considered using one of those virtual assistant outfits like timesvr.com or odesk.com just to practice the idea of having someone else do tasks for me that I could do myself. Haven't gotten around to it but it's perhaps worth trying; I'm having an accountant do my taxes this year and it's bloody fantastic not to mention saving me quite a bit over my attempts to do it myself. There have been some interesting articles on things like this (http://sidsavara.com/personal-productivi...experiment, for example) but I actually have trouble finding tasks I would outsource since I wouldn't be allowed to use them for my job, and most of my hobbies require my direct involvement. Still, I may give it a go.

Post: #11

As someone who has run both successful and failed businesses, and focuses mostly on start-ups in niche areas, I can tell you one thing that MANY people who want to run their own business forget to consider: silent partners.

Almost 70% of the businesses I bootstrap are self-funded. Most would do better with some minor investment from a silent partner. I recently helped a guy take over a (very small) bar, and his co-worker at the IT company had a ton of savings. I told them that putting all their money up front was a terrible idea, but they may consider doing a 3 year buy-in for the silent partner: he committed around $100k in escrow to be divvied into the business over 36 months (30% up front, the remaining 70% over the remaining 35 months). A year in and they were profitable, which is VERY rare for a bar.

If you're not necessarily business savvy, go work a 9-5 but put a solid portion of your income into savings, and then seek out people with trustworthy backgrounds and business plans and take a risk that way.

What do you earn right now? Let's say $50k a year. If you start your own business, that income is GONE. So you're putting out $150k of your own TIME, there's not much difference instead to have you keep working that job, but save all of your excess (say, $80k over 3 years) and put that towards a business partner who is visible, boots on the ground.

Post: #12

1. Figuring out solutions to problems
2. Not giving up

If you can accomplish those two, you don't have to be particularly smart or very good at anything. The other skills are secondary. Some become detractors because they bring distractions and ego problems along with them.

You need to be a genius to build Facebook, keep it alive for a decade, and turn it in to a $100 billion company. You don't need to be a genius to make $10m a year.

I look at business as one problem after the other, you just keep solving them. Eventually other people start solving those problems. Eventually there is little work on your part, just a check, and some basic management oversight.

Post: #13

(04-11-2012 10:51 PM)ABDada Wrote:  As someone who has run both successful and failed businesses, and focuses mostly on start-ups in niche areas, I can tell you one thing that MANY people who want to run their own business forget to consider: silent partners.

Almost 70% of the businesses I bootstrap are self-funded. Most would do better with some minor investment from a silent partner. I recently helped a guy take over a (very small) bar, and his co-worker at the IT company had a ton of savings. I told them that putting all their money up front was a terrible idea, but they may consider doing a 3 year buy-in for the silent partner: he committed around $100k in escrow to be divvied into the business over 36 months (30% up front, the remaining 70% over the remaining 35 months). A year in and they were profitable, which is VERY rare for a bar.

If you're not necessarily business savvy, go work a 9-5 but put a solid portion of your income into savings, and then seek out people with trustworthy backgrounds and business plans and take a risk that way.

What do you earn right now? Let's say $50k a year. If you start your own business, that income is GONE. So you're putting out $150k of your own TIME, there's not much difference instead to have you keep working that job, but save all of your excess (say, $80k over 3 years) and put that towards a business partner who is visible, boots on the ground.

I like the concept. Do you know of any more resources to read about it? Practical stuff, like how to find people, what type of contracts need to be drafted, etc?