At every point in your career, it is easy to stray off course and misinterpret success signals from the various experts, motivational speakers and even cause and effect of your own growth. Success is not based on a set of variable factors outside your control. In fact, it is the exact opposite — you can guarantee success without external dependencies if you follow the right playbook; you focus on you.
The primary drivers of success do not come from themes such as:
- I am going to work harder than everyone else to succeed.
- I am going to network more than others to build relationships.
- I am going to exceed expectations on every project to be noticed.
While these belief systems are essential to the highest levels of success, they are the cost of entry. All successful people do these things, and therefore they aren’t separators. They all land a distant second to the single most important factor in your own career journey: Your personal development. It is the single greatest separator between good, great and exceptional.
All businesses are living and breathing every day with growth, change and evolution as the only constants. The best leaders understand this and are always two steps ahead of the current time and place — that’s what makes them great leaders. For you, it’s the exact same growth, change and evolution that allows you to navigate your personal what’s next.
- Start with what is already a strength and amplify it (growth).
- Identify your challenges and fix them (change).
- Create new lanes of core skills (evolution).
Every day of my life, I work on me. I read, watch videos, journal my thoughts, share ideas with others and keep working on being the best version of me, for me. At Findaway, we continually shared our belief with the team that you should not do things for your manager or anyone else. Do it for you. That’s the real win.
When you do it for you, everyone else will see it.
- It’s not where you are now, it’s where you are going to be that matters.
- It’s not what you are capable of, it’s what you are willing to do.
- There are no great choices, only good choices you make great.
Break the cycle of looking outward — always look inward and take control by working on yourself and you will always exceed your own lofty expectations. ●
Mitch Kroll is Co-Founder and CEO of Findaway, and Founder & CEO of Amber
