Success

Are there certain qualities that all successful entrepreneurs share?

After years of personal experience and coaching, I’ve discovered that entrepreneurs share very similar qualities that make them successful. Fortunately, all of these qualities can be learned. It is up to you to carefully examine your strengths and dedicate yourself to learning them.

How do these traits match up to your own?

1. Self-Discipline

The first trait that all successful entrepreneurs must possess is self-discipline. Self-discipline is the single most important quality for success in life and business. If you can discipline yourself to do what you should do, whether you feel like it or not, your success is virtually guaranteed. Self-discipline requires self-mastery, self-control, self-responsibility, and self-direction.

The difference between successful entrepreneurs and failures is that successful entrepreneurs make a habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do.

What are those things?

The things that failures don’t like to do are the same things that successful people don’t like to do. But, successful entrepreneurs do them anyways because they realize that this is the price they must pay for the success they desire.

2. Integrity

The second trait that all successful entrepreneurs must possess is integrity.

Perhaps the most valued and respected quality you can develop is a reputation for absolute integrity. Be perfectly honest in everything you do and in every transaction and activity. Never compromise your integrity. Remember that your word is your bond and your honor is everything when it comes to your business. All successful business is based on trust.

Your success in becoming an entrepreneur will be determined solely by the number of people who trust you, are willing to work for you, give you credit, lend you money, buy your products and services, and help you during difficult times. Your character is the most important asset that you develop in your entire life, and your character is based on the amount of integrity you practice.

3. Persistence

The third trait that all successful entrepreneurs must possess is persistence. Persistence is the iron quality of character. Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. It is an indispensable quality that goes hand in hand with all great success in life.

Here is one of the great secrets to persistence and success: Program your subconscious mind for persistence well in advance of the setbacks and disappointments that you are going to have on your upward quest toward success.

Resolve in advance that you will never give up, no matter what happens.  The courage to persist in the face of adversity and disappointment is the one quality that, more than anything, will guarantee your success.

Your greatest asset can be your willingness to persevere longer than anyone else. In fact, your persistence is a true measure of your belief in yourself and your ability to success.

4. A Clear Sense Of Direction

The fourth trait that all successful entrepreneurs must possess is a clear sense of direction.

Because of the turbulence and rapid change in today’s marketplace, most business owners have been reduced to operating day-by-day, almost like firefighters.

They are totally preoccupied with short-term problems and the need to get short-term sales and profits. They intend to spend more time thinking and planning for the future, but they don’t ever seem to get around to it.

This is not for successful business owners. You need to set clear targets for yourself and for every part of your business. In fact, perhaps your most important responsibility to your people is to give them a clear sense of direction in their work.

5. Decisive And Action Oriented

The final trait that all successful entrepreneurs must possess is being decisive and action-oriented. They must think and make decisions quickly. They discipline themselves to take action and to carry out the decisions they have made. They move fast and they get quick feedback from their actions. If they find they have made a mistake, they quickly self-correct and try something else.

The key to triumph is for you to try.

Successful people are decisive and they try far more things than other people do.

If you try far more different ways to be successful, the odds are that you will eventually find the right way for you, at the right time.

Those are my top 5 traits that all entrepreneurs must have to succeed. Now I have a question for you:

What traits do you feel every entrepreneur MUST have to be successful?

If you want to learn more about the path to wealth,

Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. , including , a New York Times Best Selling book. In addition, he has written and produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs, including the worldwide, best-selling , which has been translated into more than 28 languages.

Apparently, one of the biggest benefits the Internet has brought into the world (and even our lives) today is the ease of shopping online. You can see stuff you like online today, buy it and have it delivered to your doorstep — without you having to step out of your house.

In the same vein, you can also decide to start an ecommerce business and sell to people — regardless of where they are.

If starting an ecommerce business is something you’re looking into, here are five important things you need to do:

1. Have checkout process at PayPal.

PayPal is pretty much the quickest and easiest payment transfer solution on the Internet today. You don’t have to fill any form unless you’re using it for the first time and a sizeable number of people accept it as their preferred payment method.

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However, as 56 percent of people — according to — expect that you provide a variety of payment options, you want to make sure that your other payment options are as easy and quick as (or nearly as) PayPal.

When I asked Eyal Lasker,Senior Product Manager of Customer Experience at , about how checkout processes affect overall shopping experience online, he said:

“…there are these long forms to complete with questions that have nothing to do with the action you’re taking, a complete context switch and loss of focus. When I checkout in an offline store, the cashier doesn’t ask me for my mother’s maiden name or my first pet’s name; so why do so when I’m buying online? I want to pay and get it over with, I don’t want to create an account or type a password — twice. It should be quick and effective.”

2. Make SEO one of your priorities.

In a post on ,Yotpo’s Content and Social Marketing Manager, Justin Bullion mentioned that he analyzed more than 18,000 ecommerce sites in Yotpo’s database and found that 30.5 percent of all the traffic to those sites was coming from organic searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines.

If the average ecommerce business gets 30.5 percent of its traffic from Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines, then search should be taken seriously. Get backlinks from reputable sites, use targeted keywords on your site, and so on. Make SEO a priority.

3. Get a social media manager.

Your presence on social media means a lot. It helps to build a strong reputation, rapport with customers/prospects, gain traffic, and so on. But you need an expert to manage your social channels so you can focus your time and resources on growing your business. You need a social media manager.

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Yes, once in a while, you can head over to your company’s Twitter and post something. But that can’t be all the time. You need to get a social media manager who will spend hours on your social channels, and bring the best out of it.

4. Tread carefully on list prices.

You might want to consider quoting your products below list prices to entice customers. That’s a great idea. But make sure you’re not trying to use that to mislead anyone into buying your stuff. According to a post on , Overstock.com recently was fined $6.8 million for “false advertising”.

In a recent article on (a retail intelligence company), Naomi Shapiro listed some of the common charges that many retailers are taken to court for:

• Referring to list prices that never existed;
• Citing prices (for comparison) that virtually no-one is selling at;
• Selling goods at “rack” or “outlet” stores that customers thought were from the main store, when, in fact, the products were exclusively manufactured for sale in the outlet stores.

5. Pick a simple business name.

Last but not least, you definitely don’t want your business to carry a name that’s hard to remember. When you pick a name that is simple, it’s easy to stick to people’s minds. In a post on , Victor Ijidola puts it this way: When a business name is simple, over time it becomes memorable, easily marketable and ultimately, strong.

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In another article, Alexandra Watkins — the chief innovation officer of Eat My Words — says “Any time you have to explain your name or apologize for it, you’re just devaluing your brand.” In other words, your business name should be so simple that people understand what it means without you having to explain it.

There are several other things to consider when it comes to starting an ecommerce business, but the few tips above are highly important. When you get them right, you’re mostly on your way to establishing a strong and successful ecommerce business.

Summary

Talent management is a key challenge for organisations in the current economic climate and, in particular, when it comes to a dynamic industry within an emerging market. With this in mind, the research proposed here looks at the role of talent management in gaining business success, with specific reference to Etisalat, a growing telecoms company within the Nigerian economy.

Introduction

In emerging economies, such as Nigeria, there is a need to consider the strategy for growth within organisations, both national and multinational. This raises several questions, in terms of business strategy and specifically requires the consideration of whether or not talent management should be the central theme for this discussion. As part of this research the key themes will be to look at talent management in the context of how this aligns with busienss success and then beyond that how it works within the emerging economies. .

Motivation for the Research

Determining the level of importance of talent management and the way in which it is best incorporated into the wider business strategy is of key importance to Etisalat and the technological industry, in general, but also potentially has an impact on the other industries looking to enter an emerging market and aiming to develop and utilise home grown talent, as well as identifying how talent can be encouraged to join and develop the region. This is a dynamic region and is currently in an appropriate stage for research to be undertaken as to how to develop this, in the future.

Rationale for the Research

Countries, such as Nigeria, are under an ongoing pressure to provide a region of growth for both their own national companies and for multinational organisations looking to make the most of developing regions that may offer a strategic advantage, in the long ru. (Newman, 2001). This research offers value to the current organisation and any other company looking to going into the region. Where such development is likely, the research here will provide strong guidelines which can be used for the future.

Scope and Limitation of the Research

This research will look specifically at the issue of talent management within a large telecoms company in Nigeria which is, in itself, a limitation on the research, as the telecoms industry is dynamic and constantly changing. Therefore, although this provides a good area of research currently, it needs to be borne in mind that this is likely to change over time and also when moving from industry to industry. Furthermore, different countries will have slightly different dynamics, which will need to be taken into consideration when looking at research areas for the future.

Research Questions / Hypotheses and Objectives

The overall research hypotheses aim to prove, or indeed disprove, the link between early adoption of talent management within the organisation and ultimate business success. It is suggested, at the outset, that there is a direct link between the ability of an organisation to expand successfully and the concerted approach to talent management that is taken by the management team, at the outset.

The objective is to identify whether this is indeed a substantial link and, if so, what specific management practices are effective and which are not.

Literature Review

The concept of talent management has been well documented across a variety of different jurisdictions, including the UK. Talent management is referred by the CIPD (2010) as being “initiatives and strategies… to harness the unique talents of individual employees and convert their talent potential into optimum organisation performance”.

Although there are multiple different definitions in relation to talent management, this is seen as being one of the leading definitions. Back in 2001, the concept of talent management was established by McKinse and Company 2001, who created the concept of “the war on talent”, which was then taken on by the CIPD, with the likes of the 2012 CIPD documentation, where talent was considered to be the qualities “of those individuals who can make a difference to organisational performance either through their immediate contribution or, in the longer-term, by demonstrating the highest levels of potential”.

Bearing these principles in mind, the literature can then go to consider the role that this approach would take within the emerging market of Nigeria and with particular reference to the telecoms industry. For example, Etisalat created a strategy plan that would p 2011 – 2016 called “Engage”, with the aim of inspiring staff and encouraging greater emphasis being placed on management and its ability to engage with the staff during a period of dynamic expansion (Etisalat, 2014).

When looking specifically at the area of the telecoms industry, it is seen that Etisalat is one of the more pro-active talent management companies, with its own Academy providing learning and development opportunities for staff members in its central head office, in Dubai. As well as creating learning opportunities, there are is also an argument that the company has gained success by looking at the greater brand loyalty from the staff, with the wider perception of what is meant by talent management and how this can link with the emerging markets and companies, such as Etisala (Etisalat, 2014).

Gap in Literature

A seeming gap in the literature which is to be dealt with as part of this research is that of understanding the role of traditional talent management will have on an emerging market and, in particular, the telecoms industry. Specific consideration needs to be given to the notion that there is likely to be an issue with the mobility of staff and the willingness of individuals to move either to or from the area, in order to sustain employment.

Research Methodology

Research design

The proposed research method is deductive in nature, involving multiple different observations which ultimately provide an overall theory. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to undertake both primary and secondary research, to gather a rounded understanding of both theory and then its practical application.

Data Sources

For the literature review, the information will be primarily gathered from journals and reports surrounding the area of talent management, as well as from direct information from Etisalat. It is anticipated that this information will be gathered from free sources, as well as subscribed online journals such as Emerald Insight. Primary research will look at the opinions of HR staff, as well as those subject to “talent management” within the workplace.

Data Collection / Analysis Techniques

A total of 100 individuals will be contacted through the use of questionnaires, to determine the use of talent management and the perceptions of talent management within the workplace. Of these 100 questionnaires, a further 10 one-to-one interviews will be undertaken, to supplement and further the understanding gained as part of the wider questionnaires. This is based on availability and time constraints, as well as the desire to obtain a balanced view, overall.

Sampling Techniques

The selected individuals will be a mixture of HR professionals and staff members who are targeted as part of the talent management process. This split is thought to be approximately 80 / 20 and will allow both sides of the action to be considered alongside each other and research then undertaken into whether or not the perceptions of the staff differ from the perceptions of the managers implementing these agendas.

Practical Considerations

Ethical considerations

A potential difficulty emerges with the primary research, in that it is asking employees about their perceptions of talent management within the organisation. This is because some individuals may be concerned that expressing honest opinions could have a negative impact on their own career progression. For this reason, as well as commercial confidentiality reasons, the data collected will be entirely anonymised and pass-worded, so that the answers cannot be directly linked to the individuals in question.

Suggested Research Topics

The overall topic is the link between talent management and business success; however, there will be several sub areas of research that will also be considered as part of this; for example, how can various initiatives impact on the role of talent management, the role of talent management from the point of view of recruitment, performance management and promotion. Consideration will also be given to the mobility of individuals within the emerging world and the political aspects that may be relevant.

Project Plan

The research will take place over one academic year and 10 months of total work. This is broken down as follows:

Month 1Background research and delineation of questions and areas of research
Month 2Literature review and setting out the questionnaires for the primary research
Month 3Literature review and sending out of primary research
Month 4Collation of primary research and analysis
Month 5Collation of primary research and analysis
Month 6Review of literature based on findings of primary research
Month 7Review of literature based on findings of primary research, conclusions and summary
Month 8Conclusions and summary
Month 9Writing of report
Month 10Review and preparation of presentation

This is a reasonably flexible time frame, with recognition that there will need to be a consolidation time period at the end, to revisit key areas.

Bibliography – suggested initial bibliography (to be added to during the research)

Bersin & Associates. (2012). New research finds UK talent acquisition spending rose six per cent in 2011. London: Bersin & Associates.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2006). Talent management: understanding the dimensions. London: CIPD.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2010). The talent perspective: what does it feel like to be talent-managedCIPD, London. Available: http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/95D2D604 -36C6-450A-996A-01F45F0B17C5/0/5262_Talent_Perspective.pdf (Accessed 18/09/12)

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2012). Talent management: an overview, CIPD, London. Available: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/talent-management-overview.aspx (Accessed 3/10/12)

Cheese, P. (2008). The talent powered organisation: strategies for globalisation, talent management and high performance. Cornwall: MPG Books ltd.

Etisalat (2014) Etisalat Strategu. Available at: thttp://www.etisalat.com/en/ir/corporateinfo/etisalat-strategy.jsp

McKinsey & Company. (2001). The war on talent, McKinsey & Company Inc, USA. Available: http:// autoassembly.mckinsey.com/html/downloads/articles/War_For_Talent.pdf

Newman, E. (2012). What is the definition of CRMInside Talent Management Technology, Available at:

I recently had the chance to sit down with Rick Rome, owner of , the dynamic laundry services company in New York City that uses apps, geolocation, and sophisticated technology to provide easy laundry pickup and delivery services to busy New Yorkers throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Rick was inspired to launch Wash Club in 2009 after his former dry cleaner refused to fix without charge some buttons on one of his shirts — damage that the dry cleaner himself had caused. Despite Rick protesting that he was a loyal customer and deserved better treatment, the dry cleaner stuck to his guns. Rick was galvanized — he went out and bought a 6000 square foot laundry facility. He soon realized that the $10 billion-a-year laundry and dry-cleaning industry in NYC is plagued by unclear communication, unclear product offerings and inconsistent service, with 90 percentof the industry made up of independent operators. Rick’s goal was to offer NYC a laundry pickup and delivery service that is convenient and technologically savvy. Rick took about a year to develop and battle-test the software he needed for Wash Club. Within four years, Wash Club had gone from zero customers per year to over 12,000.

Rick shared with me a few of the strategies that helped him to grow Wash Club’s incredible success:

1. Dominate your niche.

Rick’s refinement of the delivery concept was based on his experiences with other services as well as his understanding of the people he aimed to serve. “At the end of the day, it’s about convenience,” Rick says. “In New York, we want everything yesterday. We want convenience in service – people will happily pay for service as long as it is convenient.” Wash Club provides very flexible pickup and delivery windows, making it convenient for a broad range of people, unlike the standard eight-hour delivery windows offered by many other companies. Features like email notifications and driver tracking technology help customers stay on top of their service and narrow down delivery windows even further. Wash Club now offers windows of two hours and often manages to whittle them down even smaller – a truly impressive feat given the logistical challenges of NYC traffic, as anyone living in the city knows. “The last mile is the biggest challenge in logistics,” Rick observes. “How do you get from the factory to the end user? Hence, Amazon writing the book about drones and what they can do. By being able to get that last mile effort under your belt, you’re a major player.” How did Rick manage to tackle that last mile? By reaching a critical mass of users, Wash Club has been able to expand its business – more orders equals more trucks, which leads to even faster and more convenient service, which leads to even more customers.

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2. Handle your business.

Wash Club controls the entire value chain from start to finish and doesn’t outsource any part of their process. From when the customer visits their website or uses their app to when they receive their freshly laundered clothing, they’re dealing with Wash Club employees. “We believe in controlling that value chain because otherwise there is too much disruption and too many moving pieces that allow for a mess-up,” Rick says. If the pickup and washing process are done perfectly but the delivery guy winds up running late, then from a consumer’s perspective that’s bad business. By keeping all of their services under their control, Wash Club can minimize the kind of disruptions that would undercut their goal of providing convenient, high-quality service.

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3. Leverage your assets.

It may seem as though Wash Club’s high level of service would translate to higher pricing for customers, but their pricing is actually around the middle of the pack when it comes to their industry. Why is that? For one thing, as an online business, they don’t have to deal with maintaining expensive retail storefronts. But another major part of their business is that Wash Club also offers its software-as-a-service to other laundry and dry-cleaning businesses elsewhere around the country – they’re now in 10 states and are close to international expansion.

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4. Keep your employees engaged.

Engaged workers who own their situation and their work offer better customer service. Wash Club is serious about incentivizing their workers. Their clerks get an hourly rate, plus a $2/hour bonus for showing initiative, solving problems, and not making any mistakes. “Every clerk can make up to an extra $80 per week in bonus for doing their job properly,” Rick told me. “Washers get a bonus of an extra $1/hour.” Washers, clerks, and drivers all earn shared built-in gratuity as well.

We’ve all met people who are full of and , who always second-guess everything and criticize those around them.

Their negative mindset is like a wet blanket, smothering anything productive or beneficial before it can ignite.

A positive mindset is critical to achieving your goals and dreams in life, according to mindset expert , author of 7 Steps to Master Your Mind to Increase Sales and Boost Productivity. This kind of mindset can be cultivated, but only if you are willing to open yourself up to new ways of thinking.

I recently sat down with Zimmerman to discuss some of her observations about what it takes to put your mind on the path to success.

1. Have a growth mindset.

According to Zimmerman, the most important thing you can do is to embrace a . This is the mindset that will allow you to dream big and push the boundaries of your ideas to new levels.

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She subscribes to the maxim, “Everything on the way rather than in the way,” which comes from leading educator Dr. John Demartini.

Instead of judging experiences in terms of failures and successes, frame them in a positive light. You will have challenges and obstacles along the way. Recognize that all of them can help you grow and become a better person.

Another mindset expert, Carol Dweck, explained that if you aren’t in a growth mindset, you probably have a fixed mindset, which is dangerous because it will ultimately stifle your ability to reach new achievements.

“A fixed mindset is when people believe their basic qualities, intelligence, talents and abilities are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that,” Dweck .

With a growth mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities can be developed over time through experience and mentorship, so they push themselves and “go for it.”

“They’re not always worried about how smart they are, how they’ll look or what a mistake will mean,” Dweck explained. “They challenge themselves and grow.”

2. No risk, no reward.

“Sometimes you just have to jump off of a cliff,” Zimmerman said.

Do something completely out of your comfort zone and your mind will become more nimble. As a result, you’ll learn to push yourself to new heights. Those who fail to get out of their comfort zone often end up with a rigid mindset.

An unwillingness to take risks stymies progress, and you will ultimately fizzle out.

Just like the high achiever from high school — the person voted “most likely to succeed,” but who doesn’t accomplish anything beyond that — you have to push yourself or you will fail to launch.

“They become afraid of making . They become afraid of tarnishing their image,” Dweck said.

3. Embrace your mistakes and move on.

Part of taking is being able to learn from your mistakes. A blunder can also be an amazing blessing because you can use your misstep as a jumping-off point toward something new.

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“The universe gives us gentle reminders of what we need to do,” Zimmerman explained. “However, if we ignore that advice for too long or fail to understand the message and take action, that is where we receive our greatest life lessons.”
 
Instead of trying to hide or make excuses, consider what you can take away from these experiences as you go forward.

4. Curiosity will keep you thirsting for more.

No matter what your level of education, you should never stop learning. According to Zimmerman, a thirst for knowledge is something that can never be quenched, and should be a lifelong quest.

She explained having an endless supply of is key to seeing beyond what’s in front of you, discovering what you are truly capable of and keeping yourself in a growth mindset.

“I can honestly say that no amount of knowledge is ever enough to quell my thirst in life to know, have and be more than I am today,” Zimmerman said.

5. Find gratitude, celebrate others’ successes.

“Another important factor is to cultivate by celebrating and sincerely being happy for other people’s successes,” Zimmerman said.

Acknowledging and delighting in others’ successes will help you shirk feelings of bitterness or resentment, and will allow you to focus on the positive things you have accomplished as well.

“In life, you cannot receive that which you resent,” Zimmerman added. “Therefore, if you resent or are upset about other people’s success, this leads to you being unable to achieve the level of success you desire.”

6. Shun the negative, feed the positive.

As a rule, you reflect the characteristics of the people with whom you . As motivational speaker Jim Rohn has said, “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.”

In the same way, your mindset will reflect whatever information you feed it. That’s why it’s key to fuel your mind with positive information on a daily basis.

“Most importantly, you must surround yourself with positive influences that can help you live your best life and become your best self,” Zimmerman said.

7. Be healthy in mind and body.

Don’t discount the importance of both physical and mental agility.

Zimmerman recommends embracing both, since they work together to keep you alert and focused.

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She says being fit and creates more positive thoughts than negative and helps you to take the daily action necessary to achieve your priorities.

“What I mean by that is, by staying fit and healthy, you have endless energy and enthusiasm for life, and act in a more loving way.”

8. Keep your energy high.

When you are feeling low on energy and neglect to work out for a little while, your enthusiasm and positivity wanes, which in turn allows negative thoughts to take hold. 

Zimmerman likened those negative thoughts to a river of energy running out of your body. “You lose your vitality and you are far less likely to attract all the positive things, people and opportunities that you want from life,” she said.

equals momentum, which is particularly important in business. It’s about having the drive and endurance to manage your daily activities.

“Physical exercise and positive thoughts assist with that, and give you a constant boost of ‘feel-good’ ,” Zimmerman explained. “It all works to make it easier to attract positive circumstances into your life.”

Walt Disney, Warren Buffett and Tom Cruise all did one thing early on in life that put them on the path to success. Like many other self-made CEOs, politicians and celebrities, they delivered newspapers when they were young. In the humble newspaper-delivery business, these luminaries learned fundamental principles that helped them succeed.

My first book, , uses a teenage boy’s quest to build a newspaper route to illustrate 11 essential business principles. The protagonist is a boy named Ty who wants to save for college and help his single mother. Like Ty, Disney, Buffett and Cruise all started their careers as regular people looking to earn some extra cash. But along the way they gained something more valuable.

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Here’s a look at the stories behind these real-life former paperboys and the fundamental truths they learned while tossing newspapers onto doorsteps.

Recognize opportunity, and take the wins when you can.

Long before Cruise became a megawatt movie star, he was an 8-year-old boy who realized that if he wanted something, he needed to work for it. As a result, when he saw an to take a paper route, he jumped at it.

It was a chance to earn money for luxuries like new sneakers. But it also gave him a sense of accomplishment at a time when he felt there was nothing stable in his life. In this way, being a paperboy set him on a positive course.

“I was lost in so many other areas that a kid couldn’t possibly figure out,” in an interview with Esquire. “But I could deliver that paper route. Even with everything else whirling around you, you could have little wins.”

Pedal hard and invest in your success.

As a teenager, Buffett lived with his family in Washington, D.C., at the height of World War II.

It was during this time that Buffett, now a business magnate and philanthropist, embarked on his first successful business venture — delivering newspapers — which instilled in him the importance of hard work and reliability.

The job also boosted his savings. He was , more money than his teachers were earning at the time, and it enabled him to invest in himself and thus further his career.

Buffett, who is now worth an estimated $74 billion, is still active in the newspaper business, though at a somewhat higher level. He now owns several newspapers, and is one of the biggest shareholders in The Washington Post, the paper he once delivered as a boy.

When you miss the mark, overcome objections by taking responsibility.

Long-term success as a paperboy can only happen if you take care of your customers, assume responsibility for your actions and fix any problems that come up.

Cruise took this lesson to heart early on as a paperboy. He learned that the harder he worked, the more clients he amassed. But if something went awry, it was also up to him to fix it, no matter what.

He had to take responsibility and use his powers of persuasion to ensure customers would keep coming back.

“If I missed delivering the paper to a certain house one day, it was: ‘Wow. This guy’s pissed,’” Cruise told Esquire. “And I realized, Oh, I gotta talk to this guy. Handle it. Then you see — Oh, I can fix this. By taking responsibility, I can fix this.”

Add value, and diversify for additional cash streams.

Disney’s father owned a newspaper distributorship in Kansas City, Mo., and Disney was one of the boys who delivered the paper. He received no pay, as his father felt the job helped the boy earn his keep and learn responsibility.

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However, Disney was ingenious even as a child. He understood that he could earn money by offering additional services, and therefore diversified his efforts beyond merely delivering papers.

Without his father’s knowledge, he started selling extra newspapers on street corners for pocket cash. He also delivered prescriptions for a neighborhood drugstore, and cleaned a candy store near his school.

People open their wallets for great customer service.

When you are a paperboy, you learn to be a one-person show. Your success ultimately hinges on your ability to collect those subscription fees.

From his paperboy days, Buffett learned the importance of meeting your obligations and the direct relationship between turning a profit and great customer service.

“You learn a lot about human nature when you deliver papers,” . “For one thing, you learn you have to pay for [the newspapers] each month. Whether the customers pay you or not. You have to collect money.”

Consistency is key to keep moving up.

As a teenage paperboy during wartime, when many men were overseas and unavailable to work menial jobs, Buffett realized that he could turn a small job into something bigger through .

Because he consistently did a good job covering his neighborhood of Spring Valley, Buffett was granted multiple paper routes in other areas. As a result, he was able to quickly expand his territory to include coveted routes such as the Westchester Apartments, a five-building complex that was home to the city’s elite.

“I learned that if you did a good job, you were going to move up,” Buffet said. “The very fact that I did a good job in Spring Valley got me the Westchester routes later on.”

Aim for what you want to attain, and brand for the future.

Cycling through quiet neighborhoods before dawn gave Disney a peek into other people’s lives. He saw the fancy toys that other children had left on their front porches — toys that were beyond his means.

Later in life, after he attained success beyond his wildest imagination, he never forgot what it felt like to desire a little piece of magic.

When he became the head of the Disney Studios, Disney threw his support behind programs like Toys for Tots, making sure hundreds of children received a special piece of Disney merchandise for Christmas.

Ingenuity will open doors you never imagined.

Disney’s time as a paperboy influenced him so much that years later he made special accommodations for newspaper boys in the area. Those who were able to bring in three new subscriptions could receive a special Disneyland passport, which would allow them to ride any attraction as often as they liked.

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One of these newspaper boys, Dave Smith, was able to bring in two subscribers. But when he was unable to procure a third, he invented a subscription, which he paid for himself, to gain the coveted Disneyland Passport. During his visit to the amusement park, Smith even got to briefly meet Disney himself.

That teenage paperboy went on to become one of Disney’s first biographers and the chief archivist at the Walt Disney Company. Smith’s ingenuity as a paperboy was the first step toward landing him on his ultimate career path.

It can be , someone with drive, charisma and all the qualities that people warm to in both business and life in general. However, what about the other side, what about those people who are repeatedly unsuccessful? We have to ask ourselves, is their behavior leading to failure, is the way they act the poison in the water of their business dealings?

Whether you are recruiting, considering a business partner, or maybe seeing if you have any flaws yourself, it’s worth looking more closely at personal attributes. It’s a quick way to figure out if certain behavior is good for your business or a potential disaster on the horizon.

So with this in mind, here are seven traits of incredibly unsuccessful people:

1. Play the blame game In some situations, appointing blame is self-defense or deflection. It can prevent a person from understanding their own failures or taking responsibility and learning from them. It also serves to maintain a desired self-image for the person avoiding blame– their self-esteem and reputation remains intact, whatever the truth may be. Blame can be a lie or a way of undermining someone else to usurp them or degrade them. Or it can be the result of a delusion around the true situation.

One study found that blame spreads fast in an organization. A “blame culture” can take root quickly where unchecked blame passes on person to person like a virus. A research paper by The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology concluded: ‘The spread of blame is detrimental to individual and collective well-being and overall performance.’ Blame does no one any good and, much worse, can cause a whole organization to become a toxic environment.

What’s the solution? To . To focus on positive problem-solving, rather than aggressive accusations.

2. Constantly tell you “it cannot be done” Achieving anything worthwhile means rolling up your sleeves and really working at a problem. If people gave up on projects every time they were told “it cannot be done “we would still be living in caves, let alone putting a man on the moon.

In a business context, that “brick wall” attitude can – whether it’s a sales target that “cannot be hit,” an IT problem that “cannot be fixed,” or any task that requires a little brainpower, strategy and hard work.

Often we find that can’t really translates as won’t. People who give up before they even start, before they even look at a problem properly, have committed to failure as their default position. As the saying goes: “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

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3. Complicate the work You know these people. They have a task that is straightforward enough but when you check in with them later to gauge progress, you cannot understand a thing they are saying because they have overcomplicated it.

What leads people to do this? It may be simply not understanding what is required, or it might be a particular way of approaching problems by over analyzing to a point that the original brief is lost in translation. Whatever drives people to overcomplicate work, it can spell doom for completing tasks well. There’s a saying in business, “paralysis by analysis”– overthinking a problem will stifle the solution. .

4. Deliver poorly on the first attempt This can be a very frustrating one for managers. One big trait of very unsuccessful people is that their first attempt at most tasks results in a shallow delivery. In other words, it’s 30% done but they hand it in as if it is complete. This is very much about a ‘settling’ mentality, an “aiming low” approach. These people are quite happy just to deliver something and get it off their plate, even though they know a lot more effort would have brought about a much better result: The right result.

What’s the path to success here? If you agree to do something, do it well. Give it your all and in turn you will be recognized for that quality. Otherwise, you’ll soon lose the gig to someone who really cares about what they do for a living.

5. Don’t listen Have you ever talked to someone only to get that sense they are just waiting for you to finish talking so they can speak? They really don’t care what you have to say, only what they are about to say. Your words seem to bounce off them as if they are permanently distracted.

Aside from being rude, someone who does not listen and talks over you will not process what you’re telling them or even understand your requirements. For example, in a one-to-one sales pitch, is essential to close the deal otherwise you are just talking “at” them, and that never has a positive outcome.

When people don’t listen, they fill gaps in their knowledge with guesses or assumptions. That’s where mistakes occur and profit is damaged, possibly reputation as well.

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6. Don’t accept change Adapting to changing circumstances and environments is key to navigating life. While it is normal to fear uncertainty or change, simply ignoring it or refusing to engage is not a solution.

When your company grows it’s inevitable you will need to make changes, keep some good ideas and ditch some outmoded or bad ones. You adapt with the times. Resistance to these required adjustments is going to put a pner in the works. Why? Because technology changes, systems change, laws change, even customer needs change. So it’s not up for debate. . This is easier if you think of everything essentially as a work in progress. The unsuccessful people in this world are the ones often left behind as things move forward at a fast pace. As John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

7. Don’t want to learn There’s a reason multi-billionaire Bill Gates reads non-stop on subjects as diverse as traditional societies, foreign diets and manufacturing. A common mistake of unsuccessful people is to believe they “know it all” already.

Successful people are always embracing opportunities to attain new knowledge and skills. Life is a short journey, those who get the best out of it make the effort to learn as much as possible.

This is not just about reading but about . We are talking about the 80 year-old who has a Facebook profile and new friends, or the guy who turned his life around by learning a new craft. The opposite of this is the person who folds their arms, sits at their desk and refuses to use a new system, or has the opportunity to experience something new but doesn’t want to because they haven’t done it before.

There’s a whole template of character traits underpinning incredibly unsuccessful people. Understanding what drives ‘failure-by-design’ is obviously useful in business because people with the wrong attitude can really foul things up for your organization.

In terms of recruitment, there is a saying that goes “If you think hiring the right person is expensive, wait until you hire the wrong person.” So it’s wise to : how do they see the world? How do they interact with you and other people around them? The clues will be there, the more time you spend around them.

Finally, it’s worth keeping watch over our own methods as business people. Are we guilty of any of the above? Fine-tuning is essential to develop our own skills. So we should be hard on ourselves and understand where there is room for improvement. Because people that make the effort to change their behavior for the better can reap the benefits almost instantly. And that’s good for you and your team.

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