Openness to Experience: The Trait All Successful People Have in Common

Successful people have many characteristics that help them succeed. There does seem to be one thing that they all share, and here’s what to know about openness to experience.

Key Takeaways: Openness to Experience is Vital for Business Leaders

• Successful leaders have to be willing to embrace openness to experience.
• Being open to experience allows them to:
• Explore different approaches
• Come up with new ways of thinking
• Better grasp and implement ideas
• To be more open, it’s important to:
• Make a real commitment
• Start by taking baby steps
• Celebrate small victories

People who have had success in life come in all varieties. Some spent years earning degrees while others dropped out of college. Some struck gold with their first idea, others failed repeatedly before figuring out something that worked.?

Successful people come from all walks of life and have different skill sets and abilities, but there is one trait that’s generally common amongst them all: They share an openness to experience.

What does it mean to be open to experience?

Though it may sound obvious, there’s more to this type of openness than you might realize. In addition to being eager to try new things and different ideas, people who are more “open” also seek out new and unique experiences. They embrace the unfamiliar, even if takes them out of their comfort zones.?

Conversely, people who aren’t open stick with what they know. They lean toward familiarity and regular routines. They also approach anything new with trepidation and typically have a hard time dealing with any sort of change.?

How openness to experience can help make you more successful

Being open to new experiences can have a big impact on your business in a number of areas. It’s a mindset and lifestyle choice that can make you:

• More curious – “That’s just the way we do things,” or “That’s the way things have always been done,” while common in the world of business, are sentiments that are ingenuity killers. Business owners often figure out new ways to do things just by asking why. Or, perhaps why not? They’re not content to follow the same old gameplan. Curiosity is also vital for solving problems, as it can help get to the root of an issue instead of just applying a cosmetic – and almost certainly temporary – fix.
• More imaginative – When you strive to be more curious, you also become more imaginative. This enables actual out-of-the-box thinking, as opposed to slight changes that may only appear to be innovative. In addition to perhaps creating a new path for an organization, this type of thinking can reveal how it can run a lot more efficiently.??
• More intelligent – Can embracing openness to experience make you smarter? Maybe. There’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario when it comes to intelligence, according to a study: “Intelligence may in some degree predispose the individual to openness, or openness may help develop intelligence, but the two seem best construed as separate dimensions of individual differences.”

Being more open can help you better understand things and grasp them faster. That’s because being willing to accept new ideas means you have a better chance of quickly seeing how they can be put into practice. This can also allow you to see how they could be improved.?

3 ways to become more open

If that description of openness already sounds like you, congrats. But, for many of us, it doesn’t come quite so easily. Fortunately, there are things you can do if you want to be more open:?

1. Commit

You may be willing to be more open, but it’s just not going to happen unless you act on this impulse. That bubble of a comfort zone you’ve created for yourself will continue to shrink without making a change. Making a real effort means that zone will only expand, though, and soon anything new won’t seem so foreign or scary.

2. Start small

You don’t have to jump right in immediately if you want to be more open. Taking things slowly at first is often the best approach. Figure out something radical for your business, then scale it down by about 80 percent. Take small steps to embrace openness to experience incrementally, and eventually it will become something ingrained in both you and your company’s culture.

3. Celebrate

If you’re a parent, you probably celebrate by offering praise or maybe even a reward when your children do something good. Well, you can do the same for yourself! Every time you’re open to change or a new way of doing something, have a little celebration and give yourself a reward. This doesn’t have to be something tangible. Even just inwardly commending yourself for this achievement – especially if it seems like a minor one – will condition you to keep seeking new experiences.?

If a new experience you’re looking to embrace involves moving away from founder-led sales, MetaGrowth Ventures wants to help you do it. We make it easy to find the best salespeople, have them trained, and get them immersed in everything your business wants to accomplish.?

Contact us to learn how we can assemble your world-class sales team.