What traits, behaviors, or characteristics of a person are the best predictors of whether they achieve extremely high levels of success in their life? For instance, those who have:
- created billion-dollar companies with huge influence (e.g., Elon Musk)
- made multiple revolutionary scientific advances (e.g., Einstein)
- achieved absurdly high levels of skill at sports (e.g., Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who set the long-standing world record in the seven-event Olympic sport “Heptathlon”)
- reached extraordinary heights in politics (e.g., Margaret Thatcher)
- realized incredible artistic achievement (e.g., Mozart)
Here is my proposed list:
Predictors of Extreme Success
PRACTICE
(1) Head start – starts training in relevant skills at a very young age
(2) Deliberate practice – many thousands of hours of deliberate practice (i.e., performing relevant activities at a level that is challenging while receiving rapid feedback on performance and mistakes)
MENTORSHIP
(3) Encouragement – has a person who recognized their talent or believes strongly in them, ideally from an early age
(4) Coach – works closely with a very talented coach or mentor
BELIEFS
(4) Growth mindset – believes they are capable of improving their most important personal characteristics through effort (rather than viewing them as fixed)
(5) Changeable world – belief that the world is changeable along the dimensions where they want to make change
(6) Confidence – a conviction in their own abilities and belief that they will ultimately succeed at their goals
GOALS
(7) Focus – maintains their major high-level goals for a very long time, rather than switching what they are aiming at
(8) Ambition – has extremely lofty goals
MOTIVATION
(9) Persistence – does not give up when very large obstacles stand in the way of their goals, even when failure looks imminent
(10) Effort – puts an enormous amount of time and emotional energy into achieving their goal
(11) Hunger – willing to sacrifice many things for success, such as comfort, fun, rest, being likable, etc.
(12) Passion – extreme passion or obsession in the domain related to their goals
ENVIRONMENT
(13) Opportunities – there exist high levels of opportunity both in the physical place where they are born or move early on (i.e., their region) and in the domain that they work in (i.e., their field)
(14) Privilege – is born with characteristics that are not heavily discriminated against in that time and place, or that are viewed in a positive light by the surrounding society
RESOURCES
(15) Resources – starts out with useful resources (e.g., connections, money, equipment, prestige)
(16) Luck – happen to be in the right place at the right time to seize certain opportunities (through no effort on their own part)
SKILLS
(17) Intelligence – high level of intelligence (e.g., as measured by IQ tests)
(18) Creativity – has unusually high skill at coming up with new, valuable ideas
(19) Decision-making – when very important decisions must be made, makes them in a carefully considered, thoughtful, rationally oriented, less biased manner that weighs many factors
(20): Resourcefulness – readily generates effective strategies for overcoming challenges that others may not have thought of or considered
(21): Prioritization – continually refocuses their efforts on the activities that yield the greatest output per unit input towards achieving their goals, and cuts out low leverage or distracting activities
(22): Self-control – not generally succumbing to short term gains at the expense of long term ones, and having conscious control over the choices they make rather than tending to be controlled by passing urges
(23): Aptitude – some people have an innate ability that makes them better at certain activities relevant for success in specific domains, for instance, a sprinter who is born with “fast-twitch” muscles, or an intellectual who was born with a mind that is much better than most at seeing connections between disparate things.
PERSONALITY
(24) Charisma – others are drawn to this person upon meeting them, or are easily influenced by what they say, for instance, believing this person’s claims, wanting to help this person, wanting to bet on this person’s success, wanting to be led by this person, etc.
(25) Conscientiousness – stays organized, pays attention to important details, is careful in their work, not sloppy
(26) Rule bending – circumvents rules, conventions, or social norms that stand in their way towards success, without breaking them egregiously in a way that will cause them to end up ostracized or in jail
(27) Courage – lacks fear in the face of difficult goal-related challenges that would make most people afraid, OR carries out important behaviors anyway as though lacking fear (even if experiencing extremely intense fear)
(28) Risk-taking – is willing to take large risks when the predicted average reward / expected value is large enough but doesn’t take excessive risks when the potential for reward is not great enough
(29) Demanding – requires those that help them or work with them to produce at a very high standard of excellence
(30) Perfectionistic – continually hones their work, not stopping until it achieves an extremely high standard of excellence
BEHAVIORS
(31) Promotion – actively markets the work that they do to make others aware of it and excited by it
(32) Responsiveness – seeks external feedback, criticism or reliable data about what they are doing, pays close attention to what is and isn’t working well, and readily adapts approaches based on this information when evidence shows things aren’t working
(33) Community – purposely surrounds themselves with people who have relevant skills, advice, encouragement, knowledge, influence, etc. and who is a positive influence in the direction of them achieving their goals
(34) Single-mindedness – disregard for other, non-goal related activities (which could include neglect of personal life or of non-goal-related responsibilities)
It’s an interesting exercise to consider: which of the many factors above do you think are MOST predictive of success?
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