A few weeks ago, Dave Kerpen of Likeable Local received a postcard about successful vs unsuccessful people from a fellow entrepreneur Andy Bailey, chief executive of Petra Coach. Though the two man have never met in person, Kerpen said in his blog post that the postcard had a "profound effect" on his viewpoints on what sets successful people apart from others.
Kerpen wrote in his blog post that Bailey's postcard sixteen differences between successful and unsuccessful people "[reinforced] values I believe in and [reminded] me on a daily basis of the attitudes and habits that I know I need to embrace in order to become successful."
These 16 differences are:
| Successful People | Unsuccessful People |
| 1. Embrace change | Fear change |
| 2. Want others to succeed | Secretly hope others fail |
| 3. Exude joy | Exude anger |
| 4. Accept responsibility for their failures | Blame others for their failures |
| 5. Talk about ideas | Talk about people |
| 6. Share data & info | Hoard data & info |
| 7. Give people all the credit for their victories | Take all the credits from others |
| 8. Set goals and life plans | Do not set goals |
| 9. Keep a journal | Say they keep a journal but don't |
| 10. Read every day | Watch TV every day |
| 11. Operate from a transformational perspective | Operate from a transactional perspective |
| 12. Continuously learn | Fly by the seat of their pants |
| 13. Compliment others | Criticize others |
| 14. Forgive others | Hold a grudge |
| 15. Keep a "To Be" list | Don't know what they want to be |
| 16. Have gratitude | Don't appreciate others and the world around them |
Kerpen explained each of these differences in his blog post, but number 15 "Keep a 'To Be' list" struck me as brilliant.
Now if you want to talk about specific shows and books, I can produce a Twilight for every Jerry Springer you can name. They both have their high points and they both have their low, low points.
Full disclosure: I watch TV, read fiction and non and also write
But the rest are good. I like #2 in particular. One thing that I've been deliberately doing over the past few years is trying to help co-workers achieve their goals. In some work environments, that's dangerous. But it works where I am now.
The "To Be" list idea is interesting. I'll think about that one.