Overcoming These Challenges Will Make You More Successful

It’s truly fascinating how successful people approach problems. Where others see impenetrable barriers, they see challenges to embrace and obstacles to overcome.

Their confidence in the face of hardship is driven by the ability to let go of the negativity that holds so many otherwise sensible people back.

Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has studied this phenomenon more than anyone else has, and he’s found that success in life is driven by one critical distinction—whether you believe that your failures are produced by personal deficits beyond your control or that they are mistakes you can fix with effort.

Success isn’t the only thing determined by your mindset. Seligman has found much higher rates of depression in people who attribute their failures to personal deficits. Optimists fare better; they treat failure as learning experiences and believe they can do better in the future.

This success mindset requires emotional intelligence (EQ), and it’s no wonder that, among the million-plus people that TalentSmart has tested, 90% of top performers have high EQs.

Maintaining the success mindset isn’t easy. There are seven things, in particular, that tend to shatter it. These challenges drag people down because they appear to be barriers that cannot be overcome. Not so for successful people, as these challenges never hold them back.

Age. Age really is just a number. Successful people don’t let their age define who they are and what they are capable of. Just ask Betty White or any young, thriving entrepreneur. I remember a professor in graduate school who told our class that we were all too young and inexperienced to do consulting work. He said we had to go work for another company for several years before we could hope to succeed as independent consultants. I was the youngest person in the class, and I sat there doing work for my consulting clients while he droned on. Without fail, people feel compelled to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do because of your age. Don’t listen to them. Successful people certainly don’t. They follow their heart and allow their passion—not the body they’re living in—to be their guide.

They follow their heart and allow their passion—not the body they’re living in—to be their guide.

Negativity. Life won’t always go the way you want it to, but when it comes down to it, you have the same 24 hours in the day as everyone else does. Successful people make their time count. Instead of complaining about how things could have been or should have been, they reflect on everything they have to be grateful for. Then they find the best solution available, tackle the problem, and move on.

When the negativity comes from someone else, successful people avoid it by setting limits and distancing themselves from it. Think of it this way:

If the complainer were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke?

Of course not. You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with all negative people.

A great way to stop complainers in their tracks is to ask them how they intend to fix the problem they’re complaining about. They will either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.

Toxic people. Successful people believe in a simple notion: you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Just think about it—some of the most successful companies in recent history were founded by brilliant pairs. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple lived in the same neighborhood, Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft met in prep school, and Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google met at Stanford.

Just as great people help you to reach your full potential, toxic people drag you right down with them. Whether it's negativity, cruelty, the victim syndrome, or just plain craziness, toxic people create stress and strife that should be avoided at all costs.

If you’re unhappy with where you are in your life, just take a look around. More often than not, the people you’ve surrounded yourself with are the root of your problems.

You’ll never reach your peak until you surround yourself with the right people.

What other people think. When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own destiny. While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to hold up your accomplishments to anyone else’s, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within.

Successful people know that caring about what other people think is a waste of time and energy. When successful people feel good about something that they’ve done, they don’t let anyone’s opinions take that away from them.

No matter what other people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain—you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.

Fear. Fear is nothing more than a lingering emotion that’s fueled by your imagination. Danger is real. It’s the uncomfortable rush of adrenaline you get when you almost step in front of a bus. Fear is a choice. Successful people know this better than anyone does, so they flip fear on its head. They are addicted to the euphoric feeling they get from conquering their fears.

Don’t ever hold back in life just because you feel scared. I often hear people say, “What’s the worst thing that can happen to you? Will it kill you?” Yet, death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you...

The worst thing that can happen to you is allowing yourself to die inside while you’re still alive.

The past or the future. Like fear, the past and the future are products of your mind. No amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future. Successful people know this, and they focus on living in the present moment. It’s impossible to reach your full potential if you’re constantly somewhere else, unable to fully embrace the reality (good or bad) of this very moment.

To live in the moment, you must do two things:

1) Accept your past. If you don’t make peace with your past, it will never leave you and it will create your future. Successful people know the only good time to look at the past is to see how far you’ve come.

2) Accept the uncertainty of the future, and don’t place unnecessary expectations upon yourself. Worry has no place in the here and now. As Mark Twain once said,

Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.

The state of the world. Keep your eyes on the news for any length of time and you’ll see it’s just one endless cycle of war, violent attacks, fragile economies, failing companies, and environmental disasters. It’s easy to think the world is headed downhill fast.

And who knows? Maybe it is. But successful people don’t worry about that because they don’t get caught up in things they can’t control. Instead, they focus their energy on directing the two things that are completely within their power—their attention and their effort. They focus their attention on all the things they’re grateful for, and they look for the good that’s happening in the world. They focus their effort on doing what they can every single day to improve their own lives and the world around them, because these small steps are all it takes to make the world a better place.

They focus their effort on doing what they can every single day to improve their own lives and the world around them...

Bringing It All Together

Your success is driven by your mindset. With discipline and focus, you can ensure that these seven obstacles never hold you back from reaching your full potential.

What other challenges do successful people overcome? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

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This is how you’ll pay for things in the future

Interesting read... 'they' are here already..

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Checkout..... Circle
Checkout..... Venmo

Hong Kong Billionaire Li Ka-Shing: An In-Depth Interview

Hong Kong Billionaire Li Ka-Shing: An In-Depth Interview

11 daily habits of self-made billionaires anyone can adopt

If you want to get rich, start by studying the people who have already done so.

“The only person who can teach you how to think like a millionaire is a millionaire,” writes Steve Siebold in his book, “How Rich People Think.”

The same could be said about billionaires.

Below, we’ve rounded up 11 habits of self-made billionaires. You may notice that none of them require dramatic life changes — a few tweaks here and there to your daily routine could result in huge gains.

They meditate

Science says that meditation has a number of mental and physical health benefits, from improving memory to boosting the immune system.

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, told The Huffington Post, “Meditation, more than anything in my life, was the biggest ingredient of whatever success I’ve had.”

Dalio is not alone. Jack Dorsey, CEO of both Twitter and Square, and media mogul Oprah Winfrey say that they practice meditation daily.

They’re charitable

“The world class set their sights on impacting the world with their wealth,” Siebold writes. “Some do it through philanthropy, others through business or various financial vehicles.”

A handful of billionaires have taken to philanthropy, including founder and CEO of Bloomberg Media Michael Bloomberg, who has donated $3 billion over his lifetime.

And then there’s the Giving Pledge, which Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates created in order to invite the world’s wealthiest people to pledge more than half of their wealth to charitable causes either during their lives or in their wills. Some have even pledged to give away more than 99% of their fortunes.

They wake up early

There may be some truth behind the age-old adage, the early bird get the worm.

The wealthiest people tend to be early risers. Take Jack Dorsey, who wakes up at 5:00 a.m. to meditate and work out. Or Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who wakes up at 5:45 a.m. to exercise before starting his work day.

Branson and Dorsey aren’t the only successful people who wake up before the sun. In his five-year study of rich people, author Thomas C. Corley found that nearly 50% of them woke up at least three hours before their workday actually began.

They stick to routines

A hallmark of highly successful people is their dedication to ritual.

Take John Paul DeJoria, cofounder of Patron tequila and Paul Mitchell hair products, who starts every day with five minutes of quiet reflection.

“Doesn’t matter where I’m at, which home I’m in, or what hotel room I’m visiting,” he says. “The very second I wake up, I stay in bed for about five minutes and just be.”

They live below their means

Just because they have billions in the bank doesn’t mean they have to indulge in overspending — in fact, some of the world’s wealthiest people choose to live frugally.

As Murray Newlands wrote at Entrepreneur, “Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, famously drove around in a 1979 Ford F150 pickup truck … Mark Zuckerberg owns a modest $30,000 Acura TSX entry-level sedan … Bill Gates was known to fly commercial for years.”

Then there’s legendary investor Warren Buffett, who is notably down to earth — he still lives in the same $31,500 home, and chooses a flip phone over a smart phone.

They pursue their passion

“You’ve got to find what you love,” Apple cofounder Steve Jobs said during his 2005 commencement address to the graduates of Stanford University. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

Jobs isn’t the first to emphasize the importance of pursuing your passion. Author Napoleon Hill, who studied over 500 incredibly rich people in the early 20th century, wrote in his bestseller, “Think and Grow Rich“: “No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like.”

They read

Many of the world’s most successful people are avid readers.

As Business Insider’s Shana Lebowitz wrote:

Investing legend Warren Buffett reportedly spends about 80% of his day reading, and continues to include book recommendations in his annual shareholder letters.

In 2015, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg resolved to read a book every two weeks … Media mogul Oprah Winfrey selects a book every month for readers to discuss online as part of “Oprah’s Book Club 2.0,” and when tech billionaire Elon Musk is asked how he learned to build rockets, he reportedly answers, “I read books.”

They develop multiple streams of income

The richest people focus on earning — so it comes as no surprise that they develop additional streams of income.

Richard Branson, the billionaire chair of the Virgin Group, epitomizes this habit, Corley explains in “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.” Branson has overseen about 500 companies and his brand is on somewhere between 200 and 300 of them. 

Branson “puts the rich habit of having multiple streams of income on steroids,” Corley writes. “His desire to expand the Virgin brand is really a desire to expand his streams of income. Branson learned very early on that this rich habit creates the most wealth.”

They’re self-employed

Along the same lines, billionaires tend to be their own bosses. They’re typically self-employed and determine the size of their own paycheck.

Mark Zuckerberg has been working for himself since age 19, when he first launched Facebook as a Harvard sophomore in 2004. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, who is the youngest billionaire in the world, had a similar path — he created the popular photo-sharing app with two of his former Stanford classmates and has been his own boss ever since.

“It’s not that there aren’t world-class performers who punch a time clock for a paycheck, but for most this is the slowest path to prosperity, promoted as the safest,” says self-made millionaire Steve Siebold, who has also studied over 1,200 wealthy individuals. “The great ones know self-employment is the fastest road to wealth.”

They exercise

Highly successful people don’t just push themselves in the office — they push themselves physically, outside of the office.

Mark Cuban, “Shark Tank” investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, does cardio for at least an hour, six to seven days a week, he told The Dallas Morning News.

Branson credits exercise for giving him at least four additional hours of productivity each day. Science concurs: Working out can boost your memory, concentration, and mental sharpness.

They hang out with other successful people

The wealthiest people like to stand next to the smartest person in the room, notes author and podcast host James Altucher: “Harold Ramis did it (Bill Murray). Steve Jobs did it (Steve Wozniak). Craig Silverstein did it (Who? Larry Page). Kanye West did it (Jay-Z).”

After all, “In most cases, your net worth mirrors the level of your closest friends,” Siebold explains.

Read more at http://www.businessinsider.sg/habits-of-self-made-billionaires-2016-4/#y5sA1wy3Jd3XjuLy.99

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Robert Kuok – The world’s shrewdest businessman

Kuok Cools on China as Tycoon Exits Hong Kong Media

Traditional Asian business leaders appear to be giving way to homegrown Chinese billionaires hungry for acquisitions.

Robert Kuok's move to sell ​Hong Kong's leading English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, to Chinese Internet giant Alibaba may be the start of a new trend of tycoons selling their assets in China.

HONG KONG—Malaysia’s richest man, Robert Kuok, built his fortune by transforming his father’s sugar-trading business into a property-to-logistics empire focused on China, securing prime real estate after being an early foreign investor and loyal friend to Beijing.
Now, Mr. Kuok’s decision to sell his media assets in the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reflects a potential changing of the guard as traditional Asian tycoons, whose investments helped forge China’s economic success, give way to a new breed of homegrown, acquisition-hungry billionaires who come from within the Chinese system.

The 92-year-old Mr. Kuok has also considered selling some of his real-estate holdings in China and Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said, as a slowing economy and rising competition have weighed on results. Profit fell last year at seven publicly traded companies in Mr. Kuok’s portfolio, although most saw an upturn in the first half of this year.

Mr. Kuok’s flagship Kerry Properties Ltd. has cut back the amount of property under development in China every year since 2012, according to company filings. Separately, Mr. Kuok’s luxury hotel chain, Shangri-La, has been impacted in China by lower revenue amid a persistent anticorruption campaign, with profits slumping 54% last year to $181 million. Increasingly, Shangri-La is opening in locations further afield, from London to Istanbul, and is planning more openings in India, the Philippines, Qatar and Sri Lanka.

Mr. Kuok’s companies are also building up their networks in Africa and Oceania, including constructing a large, mixed-use development near the airport in Accra, Ghana. The shift to a more global focus is reminiscent of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, whose downsizing of his exposure to China and Hong Kong in favor of billion-dollar assets in Europe stirred criticism from China’s media earlier this year.

“You should see quite a number of Hong Kong businessmen trimming their China businesses in the next year or two, because profitability in China is declining,” said Eric Huang, partner of property-investment firm HCG Capital Partners, who has worked with wealthy Hong Kong families.

However, older tycoons with long-held investments in China are likely to sell at a measured pace, analysts say, wary of being seen to be reducing support for China. Mr. Kuok is likely to remain heavily committed to China, according to people familiar with his thinking.

Mr. Kuok and the Kerry Group companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Over the past few years, new Chinese billionaires have increasingly sought assets outside of mainland China as they look to diversify and broaden their investments. One of the more high-profile acquisitions in recent years has been U.S. theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., which was purchased by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group in 2012. Some mainland billionaires are taking Chinese assets off the hands of Hong Kong tycoons. Earlier this month, Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu-tung’s New World China Land sold three Chinese property projects to mainland billionaire Xu Jiayin’s Evergrande Group.

By investing in logistics and infrastructure in Southeast Asia and Africa, Mr. Kuok is also tapping into Beijing’s more recent plans. The government wants to grow Chinese companies overseas and increase trade and influence through its “One Belt, One Road” initiative that spans dozens of countries as far as Europe.

Mr. Kuok’s firms are now reapplying his China strategy in other emerging markets, brokers and analysts said.
“They assist the local government and its people in developing the cities,” said Terence Tang, managing director at Collier International Capital Markets in Asia, who has worked with the Kuok family. “Thus, they are very much welcomed by the governments from these emerging markets.”

Mr. Kuok initially built his empire on sugar, as tycoons in Southeast Asia focused on traditional industries such as commodities, shipping and infrastructure in the 1970s and 1980s. He first advised Chinese leaders how to resolve a sugar shortage in 1973, according to an academic paper written by Malaysian professors. When Deng Xiaoping announced economic reforms in the late 1970s, Mr. Kuok was among the first tycoons to invest in China.

Mr. Kuok is known for developing close relationships with political leaders, including Singapore’s founder Lee Kuan Yew, said Lee Poh Ping, a professor at the University of Malaysia who has studied the tycoon.

Mr. Kuok began developing the landmark China World Trade Center in Beijing in the mid-1980s, now one of many flagship developments in prime locations in first-tier cities. After some foreign businesses pulled out of China and Hong Kong after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, when the army violently crushed student protests, Mr. Kuok continued to invest in China as a political statement to show that he wasn’t worried about the country, Mr. Lee said.

In 1993, Mr. Kuok expanded into Hong Kong’s media industry by purchasing a stake in the publisher of the English-language South China Morning Post from News Corp., parent of The Wall Street Journal. The paper proved to be a cash cow in the 1990s, stacked with company notices, job listings and advertisements. He bought a bigger stake in the company in 2007.

Managing the South China Morning Post, however, has gotten more complicated in recent years, as anti-Beijing tensions have flared up in Hong Kong and the Internet has decimated traditional advertising revenues. The newspaper has been blamed by Western media-watchers for not being tough enough on Beijing, yet at the same time, it has been blocked in China for coverage disapproved of by Chinese authorities.

“The newspaper has declined in the past few years,” said Ying Chan, director of Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong. “Robert Kuok was happy to sell.”

Mr. Kuok told Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper in an interview last month that the sale was purely a “business decision.”

Write to Wei Gu at wei.gu@wsj.com and Wayne Ma at wayne.ma@wsj.com