13 Characteristics All Super-Successful People Have In Common

1. Luck. 

Without a doubt, successful leaders are often lucky. For example, a chance meeting led the author to interview Stuart Eisenstat, which in turn led to a White House position. Although the Carter administration failed to win a second term, the job provided Rubenstein with a degree of publicity and self-confidence enough to set up a private equity firm with no financial experience. Rubenstein was lucky to find two partners - Bill Conway and Dan D'Aniello - with a more solid reputation and experience in the field of finance and successfully worked with them for more than thirty years, which, I must say, is very unusual in the business world and a great success.

2. Desire to succeed. 

A leader must also have a desire to succeed - to achieve something remarkable, to leave their mark on the world, to create a product or service of real interest and value to people. Perhaps in some this desire is awakened for the same reason as in many people from the lower economic and social strata - the desire to live a more interesting and fulfilling life than the one they led in their youth. (Rubenstein's parents, for example, did not graduate from high school and university; his family lived in a modest home in Baltimore's Jewish working-class neighborhood.)

3. Striving for something new and unique. 

A leader is, as a rule, a person who strives to build or create something that no one else has done, to follow uncharted paths. The idea that people with no Wall Street experience could set up a private equity firm in Washington seemed ridiculous to many. However, this reaction looked quite benevolent compared to the reaction to the following idea that Rubenstein's company should offer not only business buyout services, but also all types of direct investments, and on a global scale. Nobody had ever done this before.

4. Long hours of hard work.

There is no easy path to leadership. To become a recognized authority in your field, you need to work hard and hard. It is impossible to develop the required skills by working five days a week from nine to five.

My tendency to workaholism has really served me well in my career, and also, I believe, protected me from the typical temptations of young people and adults that do little to promote her growth. A modest plus for workaholics. Although, in truth, workaholism is a plus only if a person has some non-work-related interests that bring other, no less pleasant experiences, pleasures, and intellectual joy. Even Einstein felt the need to play the violin daily and sail regularly in the summer.

5. Concentration. 

Focus on deep mastery of one skill or subject and expand your area of ​​focus only after you win the trust of colleagues and other people working in your field. At Carlyle, Rubenstein decided to focus on raising the capital needed for the growing number of investments the company was making in the US and around the world. Having mastered this skill to perfection, he was able to switch to other needs of the company.

6. Prepare for failure. 

Every leader has failed at something, perhaps more than once. Learn from this experience and get ready to prove that this is not a pattern, but just an exception to the rule. Working on a failed White House team certainly fueled Rubenstein's ambitions to succeed in the next phase of his career. In addition, failure is sobering and greatly strengthens the desire to achieve new heights in the future.

7. Persistence. 

By definition, a leader is doing something new, different, unique, and the like, and if so, he is bound to face resistance from those who prefer and value the status quo. Therefore, the main thing is not to give up, to insist on your own when others say "no" and fight against the changes you have proposed. Rubenstein was told on every side that Carlyle could not become a global company from Washington, D.C., which had never been a financial capital. And the more often he was told about this, the more determined he was to prove the opposite.

8. The ability to convince. 

You can't lead people if they don't want to. A leader is able to convince others to follow him through three key communication methods: write a text that inspires readers; give a speech that motivates listeners, or do something that serves as an example for others. In particular, people follow leaders who convince them of the wisdom or benefits of their ideas and actions. Few leaders are equally good at all three, but Rubenstein spent years through trial and error trying to improve his writing and speaking skills and learning how to act in ways that would encourage others to follow his example, especially in the realm of philanthropy.

9. Humble behavior. 

Some leaders allow themselves to be arrogant from the height of their position, while others recognize that they are not omnipotent, not omniscient and owe a lot to luck, and behave much more modestly, which is much more effective in terms of gaining respect from their followers. Undoubtedly, many famous world leaders were by no means pleasant in all respects, partly because of their over-the-top arrogance. Rubenstein believes that more effective and resilient leaders are able to humbly acknowledge their weaknesses and the role of luck. All his life he tried to be humble: it suits his character and proves to be a more effective way to arouse in those around him the desire to follow him.

10. Achievement recognition. 

The most effective leaders inevitably realize that much more can be accomplished by acknowledging the accomplishments of others and sharing their own.

Remember the famous saying of John F. Kennedy: "Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is always an orphan"? Of course, everyone would like to receive recognition for successful results, and there is nothing wrong with this if it is properly distributed among all those who participated in achieving them. Ronald Reagan said roughly the same thing: "There is no limit to what a person can achieve and how far he can go if he does not think about who will be credited with it." Rubenstein found that it was extremely effective to acknowledge the merit of all participants in case of success, and in case of failure, to take the blame, sharing it with others.

11. Ability for lifelong learning. 

Leaders need to expand their knowledge base every day in order to train their most unique muscle - the brain. Otherwise, you won't be able to keep up with a rapidly changing world and deal with an endless stream of information to be an informed, knowledgeable leader. Rubenstein tried to learn by over-intensive reading: six newspapers a day, at least a dozen weekly periodicals, and at least one book a week (although he often tried three or four books at a time). Nothing focuses the mind like a well-written book.

12. Honesty. 

Leaders vary in their commitment to honesty and ethical behavior, but the most effective of them are considered to be highly moral, and this enhances their leadership qualities.

When Rubenstein began practicing law, Paul, Weiss & Garrison leader and former judge Simon Rifkind instructed new lawyers: "It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and five minutes to destroy it. Therefore, never put your reputation - and, accordingly, your life on the line. What else can be added? Don't cut ethical corners and you'll be a much more effective leader.

13. Crisis response. 

Leaders are especially needed in times of crisis, as the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic remind us. Rising in the wake of an existential crisis forever defines the face of a leader: Lincoln kept the country united during the Civil War, Churchill rallied the country to fight the Nazis. The scale of events, of course, is incomparable, but Rubenstein tried to motivate employees during an unprecedented financial crisis by working even harder and more actively communicating with them.