SUCCESSFUL VS UNSUCCESSFUL TRAITS

by Chris Chaos

"You always pass failure on your way to success." Mickey Rooney

Over the span of many years my various careers and interaction with a very diverse cross section of society, my experiences have led me to become acquainted with many different types of people. The ones that we shall speak of here are successful and unsuccessful individuals. This list is of course not all encompassing nor a end all exhaustive list, but it does include the major traits that the people possess that cumulatively lead a person to either become successful or unsuccessful.

Usually a successful person will make mistakes and take it as a learning experience. Everyone makes mistakes but there is a sharp contrast in how a person recovers from these mistakes and the frequency that they repeat the same mistakes over and over. Unsuccessful people will make a mistake and then promptly find an excuse or another person to blame it on. For the unsuccessful person when something goes wrong it is in their very nature to find a scapegoat to avoid making themselves appear responsible.

Successful people have a sense of gratitude when they achieve, acquire or earn something. Unsuccessful people have a sense of entitlement where they feel that someone owes them something whether or not they worked for it or earned it. The successful people, having lost a contest, will vow to work hard, study more and make necessary adjustments to emerge victorious the next time around. The unsuccessful person, upon losing, will place blame, cry the opponent had an unfair advantage and once again find a scapegoat to claim the lose was not their fault.

The successful person will talk about ideas, they will explore options to better themselves and the world around them. The unsuccessful person will talk about people, behind their backs and just generally bad mouth others. Gossip is how they interact and how they achieve their attention starved cravings.

A successful individual wants others to succeed, they wish for the same fortune to become attributed to others. An unsuccessful person wants others to fail, misery loves company. These are the ones that make snarky and stabbing remarks on your social media page after you post about your achievements, they are the ones that bad mouth you around the water cooler and make up cruel rumors in an attempt to make them feel good about themselves.

A successful person is aware of how little they actually do know. An unsuccessful person thinks and claims that they know it all.

A successful person reads everyday about the topics they are interested in, will educate them or further their lot in life. The unsuccessful person watches TV or plays video games everyday. These acts are time wasters and in no way contribute to anything positive in your life. Empty activities producing temporary and fleeting joy.

A successful person set goals and develop life plans. An unsuccessful person is not really sure of what they want to be or may, but sets their goals unreasonably high with no intentions of bettering themselves and then sets themselves up for the hard crash when these goals are not attainable. Then of course they find a good scapegoat and cry "WHOAS ME WHAOS ME"

Below is a narrowed down list of some of the top traits that various people possess:

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE:

have a sense of gratitude

give other people credit for their victories

read everyday

talk about ideas

share information and data

exude joy

embrace change

keep a "to do/project" list

Compliment

forgive others

accept responsibility for their failures

keep a journal

want others to succeed

keep a "to be" list

set goals and develop life plans

continuously learn

operate from a transformational perspective

UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE:

Have a sense of entitlement

take all the credit of their victories

watch tv everyday

fear change

fly by the seat of their pants

talk about people

horde information and data

exude anger

hold a grudge

blame others for their failures

think they know it all

operate from a transational perspective

secretly hope others fail

don't know what they want to be

never set goals

"Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success." Robert Kiyosaki

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)