5 Habits of Highly Successful People

People often ask me for advice on how to grow their careers.  What advice would you give to people who want to achieve greater success?

As for me, I still remember my first day at IBM back in 1990 like it was yesterday, a young software engineer fresh out of college joining this big international company full of hope and desire to make a big difference.  Equipped with my love for computers from an early age, I thought I knew it all!  I quickly realized that no matter how good I thought I was, I was simply lost in a sea of others like me.  My skills were not truly unique, I'm not always the smartest person in the room, and that being an amazing coder and problem solver is not enough to get ahead...

Many of us have a burning desire to succeed, to be recognized, to be rewarded. So how do we achieve great success?  How do we climb the corporate ladder faster than others?  How do we become leaders?

Here are 5 habits I learned from many great mentors and successful leaders I had the great fortunes of knowing and working with over the years:

1- Do not confine yourself:  Successful people shape their own future and are not bound by invisible walls imposed upon them by their current role, title or others around them.  They say opportunity knocks once; I say go out and create your own opportunities!  Make it your business to know the challenges that exist in your organization and find creative solutions for them.  Listen to what your leaders and customers are saying.  What are some of the key issues they are facing?  Can you step up and solve them even if you have to leave your comfort zone?  A good mentor once told me, "If we are not growing, then we are dying!"

2- Take the initiative: Once you find a challenging problem you would like to solve, make the time to get it done even if it means burning the midnight oil for many weeks.  Build a prototype and show it to your manager.  It is unrealistic to think that you can do this all the time; however, once you get even one success under your belt, you will reap its dividends for many years to come!  You will always be labelled as the person who took on the initiative on her/his own for the benefit of the company.

3- Take some risks:  You do not need to wait for permission.  I know first hand that it is far easier to seek forgiveness than to ask for permission.  If you always ask, especially if there is risk involved, the answer will likely be "no" or would take too long to get your request approved.  By the time you get started, your excitement in wanting to solve the issue would have waned.  You will not have the same passion and freedom of creativity if you did it without the added scrutiny.  Remember, this should not imply that you let your main responsibilities, those your are being measured on to deliver, slip behind.

4- Make others successful:  Most people remember those that helped them achieve greater success and are willing to return the favor.  It is far better to have many successful friends that owe you favors than even one enemy that feels he/she was somehow used by you to get ahead.

5- Seek-out varied mentors: Mentors will give you feedback and guidance that is not biased and will also help you find new opportunities in other parts of your company.  Make sure to cover the full spectrum of mentor categories such as career, business, and technical advisers.  Do not be a burden and always make sure to give something back in return which may be as simple as lavish thank you or cross-departmental information or knowledge sharing that may in-turn help them achieve greater success.

The road to achieving great success is never easy; however, make it a habit to study successful people around you and follow in their footsteps.  Find opportunities to distinguish yourself, take the initiative, have the courage to take risks, help others around you, and always ask for feedback.  Invest in your own career growth and do not wait for opportunity to knock on your door...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Before joining Bloomberg LP as CTO for Industry Verticals, Hamid held a variety of leadership positions at Microsoft and IBM.  Hamid is also chairman and advisor at AdaptCore, a startup that is passionate about applying the latest technological innovations towards revolutionizing data management to enable actionable decision support.

See adaptcore timeline for more related blog entries.