by Emily Cain
Young teens that can dominate the business world often possess character traits that set them apart from other teens, young adults, and even some seasoned business veterans. It isn’t particularly because they are young that they are successful, but rather, the fact that they have developed these traits at all. It is the character traits themselves, coupled with the natural human drive to achieve which drives the successful few. If success were a ceiling, these traits would be the pillars that held it up.
Attitude
The first and possibly most critical character trait that successful young business people possess is their attitude. Attitude is like the “square one” of developing any set of skills, business or otherwise. When anyone is challenged, be they young or old, their mind is the first filter that the challenge meets. If a person sees the challenge as a waste of time or too much work, they will shut themselves off from the benefits of learning and growing that come with overcoming that challenge. Not only that, but being in control of one’s own attitude is an excellent way of destroying negative emotions that tend to be nothing more than a waste of time. Feeling upset that something has gone awry does not solve anything, it merely is a way of producing negativity. What does that accomplish?
Does a successful business person spend their time hung up on negative emotions, or do they power through, ignore or otherwise manage them in a positive way? A person’s attitude is how they approach the world, how they respond to what the world throws their way and how they define what success is.
Understanding Success and Working Proactively
In order to achieve success, it must be understood and clearly defined. How is one to know if they have reached success if they have no clear definition of what success is? In any field, knowing what success is can often help to identify what should be prioritized and what should be excised from the schedule. There are only so many hours in a day, so a carefully planned schedule can often be the difference between success and failure.
For example, imagine two different schedules. The first schedule wastes about 30 minutes per day in ways that do not specifically contribute to success but could be changed to do so. The second schedule proactively removes any waste of time, big or small, that delays or otherwise impedes success. In one year, the first schedule will waste almost eight full days. Anyone that’s ever experienced success knows that one day, or sometimes even less, can be the difference between victory and defeat, let alone eight. Lives have changed in far less than eight days. The second schedule, on the other hand is constantly improving on a day-to-day basis. People that constantly search for reliable ways to save time are often more aware of the opportunity cost of wasted time, while those that do not will often fall short of their goals.
A Personal Commitment to Focused Action
The deciding factor of success, though, is the dedicated action that one takes to bring themselves closer to their definition of success. Achieving success is about doing exactly what it takes to go from point A to point B. With almost every goal worth achieving, there will be work involved. Young success stories are not full of hesitation, doubt and mediocrity; they are full of work. This work is born from commitment in the way that a plant grows from a seed.
One advantage that young people have is that they often will not reserve themselves or otherwise hold back when they want to achieve something. This is because they often have not yet formed a self image or ego around themselves that keeps them from doing whatever it takes to achieve what they themselves have decided to achieve. This allows them to fully commit themselves to doing what they must do without fearing how others will perceive them, because all that matters is success. Ultimately, a person that has the right attitude, the right idea and works hard for what they want out of life is far more likely to achieve the elusive fruits of success, because when success is self-defined, the only competition is one’s self.
Emily Cain is an online writer who normally writes about personal finance and business. She has been writing online for various sites and publications over the years. Outside of career and business, Emily likes to contribute in topics like education , self-improvement and even some green environmental writing from time to time. For those who want to acquire some of these successful traits as a young entrepreneur, read more about success at CollegeWorks.com.
