8 traits of successful people - Richard St. John

Summary

The speaker humorously dismisses the label of 'motivational speaker,' instead positioning himself as an 'informational speaker' on success. His journey began with a conversation with a young girl on a flight, which led to a decade-long exploration of success factors. After interviewing over 500 successful individuals across various fields, he distilled their stories into 8 common traits: love for one's work, hard work, focus, continuous self-improvement, creativity, serving others, and persistence. These traits form the foundation for success in any field, with specific skills built upon them.

Takeaways

• 🎤 The speaker is not a motivational speaker but an informational speaker who shares insights on success.
• 🛫 The speaker's journey to understand success began with a conversation with a teenage girl on a plane.
• 🏆 The speaker admires figures like Terry Fox and Bill Gates as examples of success, highlighting different forms it can take.
• 🏃‍♂️ Personal achievements of the speaker include winning awards in marketing and completing over 50 marathons, showcasing success in various areas of life.
• 🌍 The speaker's and his wife's adventurous spirit is demonstrated through their climbs of two of the world's seven summits.
• 💑 A successful relationship lasting over 35 years is also considered a form of success by the speaker.
• 🤔 The teenage girl's question about being a millionaire prompted the speaker to reflect on his own success and the importance of money.
• 🧐 The speaker's curiosity about the factors leading to success led him to interview over 500 successful individuals.
• 📚 The interviews were analyzed to identify common traits among successful people, leading to the discovery of 8 key traits.
• 🔍 The 8 traits for success identified are: love what you do, work hard, focus, keep pushing, come up with good ideas, improve, serve others, and persist.
• 🏅 These traits form the foundation of success, upon which specific skills for different fields can be built.

Q & A

What is the speaker's profession and how does he describe himself?

The speaker is an informational speaker who shares insights about success. He humorously mentions that he is not a motivational speaker due to not meeting the height requirement and being called a 'de-motivational speaker' by his employees.

What was the speaker's initial reaction when the teenage girl asked him if he was successful?

The speaker initially denied being successful, citing Terry Fox and Bill Gates as examples of true success. However, after sharing some of his accomplishments, he admitted to the girl that he has had some success.

What are some of the speaker's accomplishments that he shared with the teenage girl?

The speaker mentioned his achievements in communications and marketing, his love for running and winning his age group, his marathon record, running over 50 marathons on all 7 continents, and climbing two of the world's seven summits.

How did the speaker and his wife handle the challenge of running a marathon in Antarctica?

Due to high waves preventing them from reaching the shore, they sailed 200 miles further south to calmer seas and ran the entire 26-mile marathon on a boat, completing 422 laps around the deck.

What was the teenage girl's concern regarding her future and how did the speaker respond?

The girl expressed her concern about being poor and not being smart enough to succeed. The speaker reassured her by sharing his own struggles with school and lack of popularity, emphasizing that intelligence is not the only factor for success.

What sparked the speaker's idea to interview successful people and find out what leads to success?

The idea came to him at the TED conference when he realized he was surrounded by extraordinarily successful people from various fields, and he decided to ask them about their secrets to success.

How many successful people did the speaker interview over the course of his project?

The speaker interviewed over 500 successful people face-to-face and collected thousands of other success stories.

What is the significance of the 8 traits the speaker discovered that successful people have in common?

These 8 traits are considered the foundation of success. They are common factors that emerged from the analysis of the interviews and are believed to be the core elements that contribute to a person's success.

What are the 8 traits that the speaker identified as common among successful people?

The 8 traits are: 1) Love what you do; 2) Work really hard; 3) Focus on one thing, not everything; 4) Keep pushing yourself; 5) Come up with good ideas; 6) Keep improving yourself and what you do; 7) Serve others something of value; 8) Persist, because there's no overnight success.

How did the speaker approach the task of analyzing the interviews and identifying common factors?

The speaker analyzed and sorted millions of words from the interviews, word by word, line by line, and categorized them into factors that people said helped them succeed.

What was the speaker's emotional journey during his project, and how did it impact his findings?

The speaker experienced self-doubt and hesitation at the beginning of his project, but he overcame it and went on to have a rewarding journey filled with fun and meeting interesting people. This personal growth and interaction with successful individuals likely influenced his understanding and identification of the common traits of success.