Your definition of success will differ from the next person reading this, but in general, we’re referring to financially successful people, in other words, someone earning over £100,000 a year or with a net worth of over £750,000.
Of course, in life, there are far more important things than financial success including love, family, mental health etc so you should focus on all aspects of life and not just your financial wealth but that being said here is what successful people (generally) do before they turn 30:
They learn how to fail, fail quickly and persist
Successful people aren’t born with special genes that ensure everything they do is a success, it often takes plenty of failings before success is found, however, what most successful people do is learn the signs of when it’s going wrong and they will act on this quicker so they will cut their losses earlier instead of battling on trying to prove to everyone that their idea should be a success.
“You never fail until you stop trying.” – Albert Einstein
They’ve started their own business or side income
Making hard decisions and spending every possible free moment to try and grow something is key to success, relying on one income stream is not only risky (unless you’re in a certain profession that requires complete dedication or you’re already in a role that has the potential for large financial growth) but it’s also going to limit your income opportunities.
Starting a business, even if it’s small opens you up to numerous possibilities and learning but it does come at a cost (primarily time) but the rewards can be gigantic in comparison to what you’re currently earning.
They’ve planned for the future using the majority of the available incentives and they ensure their current net worth is working for them
- They will have been constantly setting aside a portion of money each day (at a minimum you should be setting 1 hours worth of income per day aside for your savings, so if you’re paid £9 per hour you should be saving £45 a week or £180 a month) into savings.
- Filling their tax-free ISA allowance
- Using tax-efficient pensions to invest in their future
- Using banking tools to track outgoings (e.g. Monzo’s superb monthly summaries)
- Continually planning for future income using a diversified portfolio (e.g. property investments + stocks and shares ISAs)
- Investing in other companies using schemes like the EIS
- Ensuring they have enough backup funds to last at least 6 months without their normal monthly income
- Alternative career options planned and ready to move to if something fails
- Using low cost investing platforms to cheaply invest in the stock market etc.
They understand they need to challenge their peers, authoritative figures and the norm
Questioning everything and everyone (at least in your head to start with) is a good trait because it forces you to not be misled, stops you from being pushed into investing your time/money into something that isn’t worthwhile but most importantly it forces you to think of alternative ways of doing tasks/challenges compared to your rivals.
Learning to challenge the things others see as normal pushes you to create your own identity, mould a new set of morals and way of working, it also shows you don’t trust everything you’re told and may set you apart from others which may lead to you taking charge.
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They’re well organised and become calculated with their decisions
In movies you often see wealthy people having assistance running around doing all the leg work and organising behind the scenes, whilst it’s less likely to have or need assistants in 2019 there are lots of tools that successful people use to keep organised and time allotted properly.
Prioritising is one of the most difficult things, you will be getting requests from all angles requesting 5-60 minutes of your time and being able to wade through the noise can be difficult.
“Amassing money has more to do with street smart savvy than your ability to memorize information and excel on exams.” – Steve Siebold author of ‘How Rich People Think‘
Our favourite apps for productivity:
- Evernote (our second brain)
- Soulver – More than just a calculator
- Google Drive / Dropbox – Storing files remotely
- Slack – Speak to your team
- IFTTT – Get apps to work for you to solve your problems
- Miro – Team collaboration
Continually working on their flaws and being able to adapt
Training your brain to find solutions to difficult problems is the key to major success, we all have that one thing (or several) that we know holds us back and whilst nobody is suggesting you shouldn’t accept yourself for who you’re but working on these flaws especially if they get in your way of success is key to longterm success, if it’s impossible for you to fix the flaw then work on the most efficient way around it but still continue to attempt to fix the underlining flaw instead of covering them up.
“The best investment you will ever make is in yourself.” — Grant Cardone (Multimillionaire)
A few useful good places:
They’re not afraid to ask for help and they ensure these relationships are healthy
All successful people know having a superb team helping them is one of the biggest stepping stones to success, the problem is finding the right people. Whether it’s finding a good lawyer to help finalise some paperwork or a good friend that you know you can rely on to help when the **** hits the fan at midnight on a Friday it important to make strong bonds with people as having a group of people you can rely on makes it easier to deal with stressful situations.
Part of building these relationships will involve you helping others but this can pay dividends in the future so it’s often worth it.
The ability to ask for help and realise you need help in the first place requires you to be able to take a step back and realise you’re not the most proficient, accomplished, or astute person in the world and that others have the expertise to sort problems out quicker, more efficiently and potentially cheaper than you attempting it on your own. Although saying all of that you should always give it a go first and as per the #4 on this list question everyone, for instance, some accountants will simply read to you the same Government rules/regulations that you could read for free on the .gov website!
Always looking for feedback (especially if it’s constructive) is vital for success, having a second, third of 100th opinion is extremely wise if you’re investing a large % of your life into a project.
They get paid what they’re worth and not some other arbitrary figure
A salary raise isn’t going to suddenly land on your desk, you need do your research, fight/work for it, request what you’re worth and show how much value you bring to the company you work for. One of the quickest and easiest ways to become financially successful is increasing what you’re being paid today!
Looking for range scales for your current role is going to help and you can use sites like UsePastel & YourRate to better understand what you’re really worth.
They hang out with other like-minded & successful people
We’re not suggesting you should go blocking your current friends on Whatsapp but if you’re not meeting with successful people on a regular basis you could be harming your future financial growth, spending time around people with more money than you can open your mind to alternative ways of thinking or simply unlock financial opportunities (although saying that be EXTREMELY careful of investing alongside friends or on the back advice from new acquaintances, it’s a sure-fire way to damage your relationships & possibly your net worth).
Also, we’re not saying financially successful people are more enjoyable to be around but just like how those that focus on physical fitness enjoy spending time with others that enjoy the exercise or those that enjoy playing an instrument want to interact/experience more talented musicians, the same should be true for those wanting to be financially successful.
“Successful people generally agree that consciousness is contagious, and that exposure to people who are more successful has the potential to expand your thinking and catapult your income. We become like the people we associate with, and that’s why winners are attracted to winners.” – Steve Siebold author of ‘How Rich People Think‘
They’ve not become lazy with saving or spending money
Millionaires are often seen to be wearing glamorous clothes or flying off in their private planes but most likely these have all been planned for a reason, most likely the private planes were more about the speed of getting from A-B in the quickest time Vs the ability to show off and those that are wearing glamorous clothes probably need to do it to keep up appearances in their sector (e.g. they must be seen to appear on-trend otherwise their credibility is reduced).
For instance, the late Steve Jobs (who was reportedly worth $10.2 billion) was well known for not spending a lot on material goods like clothes/furniture which makes sense as they had no relationship to his business.
On the flipside, we’ve all seen those articles where ‘<insert once famous celebrity> is now bankrupt/skint etc’ so it’s easy to fall into these mistakes as humans generally love to buy things.
This article is part of ‘Improve yourself‘ a category designed to show ways people may scam you, how companies trick you and most importantly how you can improve your life by doing something you love doing.
