7 lessons from highly successful people – PART II

5. Learn to listen to people

“If I evaluate my life so far I find out how important contacts are, how much more valuable than all of my inventions and machines. People simply allow us to broaden our imagination about things and gain thousands of different experiences which would otherwise just pass us by.” — Soichiro Honda

The ability to communicate, sympathize with people and have a genuine interest is often a key attribute of successful business and sales people.

People around the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis for example used to say about him that he as a person was always able to adapt to the person whom he had a conversation with at a time.

As if he had every detail of the conversation prepared beforehand.

His friend Walter Sanders summed it up perfectly: “I had a feeling that this happy chap could sell fridges to the eskimos.”

For a businessperson to be successful they have to offer a good service. A service is only good when it comes from people’s needs.

6. Never stop educating yourself

“Poor people have big TV’s. Rich people have big libraries.” — Jim Rohn

Many millionaires dropped out of university ( some of them even out of college) , because they felt that the education the school was offering them didn’t correspond with the goal they wanted to achieve in the long run.

Even though many wealthy people did not spend a lot of time at school, they worked very hard to eventually become experts in their chosen field.

Top class directors such as David Fincher or Steven Spielberg are known for their perfectionism. David Fincher studied notes of suspected people for a year and a half so that he can make a movie Zodiac as close to reality as possible.

Steven Spielberg takes part in every detail on the making of his movies: from scripts, cast to music, editing and special effects.

Ray Kroc – the person who established McDonald’s spent an immense amount of time studying and improving fries in his establishments. Similar examples can be found in every other industry.

7. Love what you do, do what you love

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”  — Steve Jobs

Jim Carrey perfectly sums this up in his speech for MUM’s class of 2014:

“My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we could to survive.

I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

Walt Disney before he made a career in animated movies owned a fairly successful advertising agency together with his friend. That was until one day he noticed an ad which was looking for a caricaturist for Kansas City Film in the newspaper.

He was put in front of a dilemma: to throw away a promising looking business venture with a friend or make his lifelong dream of working in the film industry come true. Walt had chosen film and made all of his dreams come true.

“If you want to be genuinely happy and successful, you have to do what you enjoy.” – Walt Disney

All admired have also had someone whom they admired in their beginnings. So you also choose idols who will inspire you.

Read their curriculum and try to figure out what had led them to success. You know some principles already. It is only up to you to make them your own. We wish you the very best of luck.