#3 Some personality traits that often lead to failure, You should avoid them

Some successful people failed in the pasts. Today, the whole world talks about them. You see people say their names on TV. You hear their names when you tune in your favorite radio station. You hear people mention their names in the pub. You see their names painted everywhere on the web.

Today, they’re successful, popular and influential. But they started from somewhere, isn’t it?

But they dump some personality traits. They wouldn’t be successful if they had kept those personality traits. Those personality traits always lead to failure. Those personality traits are currently holding you back from achieving your dreams. That’s why you must recognize them, so that you can dump.

Do you want to know those personality traits I’m talking about?

In this article, I will share with you 10 personality traits that are currently separating you from your dreams.

1- Lack of Responsibility for Actions:

You are the boss of your life. It’s only you who holds the key to the door of your success. Unless you step in front of that door and unlock it or you won’t experience success.

You have no excuse for your failures.

Is it that you don’t have those tools required for you to achieve success? Get those tools.

Or, is it that you don’t have the skill to help you realize your dreams? Get that skill.

Or, is it that you don’t have the capital to start a new business? Get that capital.

Yes, I know it might be tough but you’re always responsible. Don’t expect any miracle to happen. Don’t expect someone to wake you up, knock your door and give you that money you needed to start your business. You have to find out ways to make things happen. There’s always a way. Don’t stop until you find it.

2- Fixed Mindset (as opposed to growth mindset):

“If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve.” – Debbie Millman

There are two basic mindsets that shape our lives: They are the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

Let me give you an example of the fixed mindset in action:

James Miller is a 54 years old man who owns a tire store in Brooklyn, NY. He makes $200,000 per year. Miller is happy with his income. In fact, he travels to Asian twice a year.

Miller doesn’t care about increasing the size of his business. He thinks Brooklyn is one of the best areas to run a tire store so he’s not thinking about moving away from there, nor opening another tire store in a new city. Besides, he’s been living in Brooklyn for over 30 years and he has a lot of cool friends there.

Now, we can say Miller has a fixed mindset because he just doesn’t care about growing his tire business.

Let me give you a perfect example of a growth mindset:

Jeff Bezos launched Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore. The business was profitable but Bezos wants more! So the business diversified into selling DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The business was even more profitable and bringing in lots of money, but the truth is that Bezos still wants to grow his wealth. He believed that Amazon could earn more.

So what did he do?

Amazon started producing consumer electronics like Amazon Kindle e-book readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone. The business was making billions of dollars but Bezos still want more. So, he ventured into cloud computing. (Today, Amazon is regarded as the largest cloud computing service provider).

In the middle of 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization.

Amazon now employs over 180,000 people and Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people in the world.

That’s a growth mindset in action.

Imagine Bezos was satisfied when Amazon was just an online bookstore, he wouldn’t be one of the richest men now. And there’s no way Amazon will even surpass Walmart.

When you have a fixed mindset, your only goal will be to match your previous accomplishments. But the sky is your limit when you have a growth mindset. Successful people have a growth mindset. That’s why they are successful.

3- Lack of Imagination:

Here’s how Wikipedia defines imagination:

“The ability to form new images and sensations that are not perceived through sight, hearing, or other senses.”

Napoleon Hill called it the sixth sense.

Everything you see around you today were the works of the sixth sense.

Airplanes, iPhones, iWatch, freezers, cars, light bulbs were products of the imagination.

All these inventions and innovations we have today were first born in the imagination.

You must develop your imagination if you want to become successful in any field. Your lack of imagination is the difference between earning $100,000 per year and $1,000,000 per year.

The world is changing fast. You must learn how to change and adapt as well. But how can you do that without your imagination? You can’t!

That’s why you have to develop your imagination.

4- Procrastination:

Procrastination is a deadly disease. It has sent many to their graves without letting them achieve their life’s dreams. It has wrecked many families, many homes and many souls.

Mr. Procrastination is responsible for the life’s failure of billions of people. Procrastination can only lead to one destination which is failure.

Procrastination won’t help you achieve your dreams. It won’t help you lose weight. It won’t help you get a new boyfriend. It won’t help you get a new girlfriend. It won’t help you get a high-paying job. It won’t help you become a smart student and graduate when others are dropping out. It won’t help you get that fat contract. It won’t help you start a blog. It won’t help you make money online. It won’t help you buy that dream house.

So, when next you procrastinate, I want you to say these three words: DO IT NOW!

5- Indiscipline:

You’ve read many success stories. You heard and read what those people did to become successful. You can’t wait to become successful too. But why aren’t you successful yet even though you know all you have to know and what you have to do to realize the success those people achieved?

The answer is Indiscipline.

The harsh truth is that the process of achieving success is hard. It’s not everybody that can follow it. That’s why we have few successful people in our communities.

You need a great deal of self-discipline to achieve success in any field.

If success demands that you have to write 5 articles per day, then you should do that. If success requires you to make 10 new friends per day, then you should always be out there. If success needs you to write your new e-book, then you should do that rather than watching the latest episode of Game of Thrones.

6- Egotism:

Ego can destroy families. Ego can destroy careers. Ego can destroy businesses.

Ego had destroyed many notable people in the past. Let me give you two examples:

William Orton, the President of Western Union was invited to buy the patent for the telephone for $100,000 and below is what he said:

“Mr. Bell, after careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities… What use could this company have for an electrical toy?”

Wow, it didn’t take Orton too long to realize that he made a terrible mistake saying that. Graham Bell went on to own the telephone system in the US. Now it’s broken up into AT&T, Verizon and Alcatel-Lucent who are still running the American telecom’s industry to this day.

Steve Jobs said to John Scully, about the Apple Lisa Computer in 1983:

“We’re going to blow IBM away. There’s nothing they can do when this computer comes out.”

Do you want to know what happened next?

The Apple Lisa failed that it was discontinued in 1986.

So learn how to push pause when next you’re about to pound your chest. Control your emotions and breathe deep.

7- Know-It-All Attitude:

There’s no one who knows it all. Even the great investor Warren Buffett doesn’t know everything about the stock market.

Learning never stops. We learn every day.

Saying you know everything is like saying you are the wisest man in the whole world. Who is the wisest man in the world right now? No one knows.

Being open-minded is tough. It can be difficult when you’re faced with new ideas that challenge your own.

But there’s a benefit to it:

Being open-minded allows you to see new opportunities when they appear. It lets you learn and grow. It also helps you gain confidence and be honest with yourself.

If you really want to be successful, then you must open up your mind to learn new things, meet new people and visit new places.

8- Indecision:

There are millions of people on this planet who get up every morning, put on their clothes and drag themselves to work so that someone else can tell them what to do.

Well, if you can’t make decisions for yourself, someone else will make it for you – that’s your boss of course, he tells you what to do all the time. You do it, or you won’t have money to feed your family, buy clothes and get a nice place to live.

But they are some people who work whenever they feel like. They work wherever they feel is good to be. They also get to fix how much they earn. This people made decision. They made the decision to be their own boss and live life to the fullest.

Do you want to be successful?

Then you need to make a decision today, right now.

9-Over-optimism (Stretch Goals):

Goal setting is good. I set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly goals for myself.

Goal setting can lead to increased motivation, productivity, improvement and hard work.

Like I said above, goal setting is good, but there are sometimes when it can be dangerous – that’s when you set stretch goals.

Stretch goals can put your relationships, finance and health at risk. For example, trying to become a billionaire within a year when you only have $10,000 in the bank is clearly a stretch goal. There’s a high possibility that you may never achieve this goal. You’re likely to feel like a failure when you don’t achieve it, which isn’t good.

You will also feel overwhelmed by stretch goals. Then you’ll start to lose the motivation to pursue your goals. What happens next? Failure.

Goal setting is good but I will recommend you start by setting small goals for yourself. Achieve those small goals first before you start to stretch yourself.

10-Lack of a Forgiving Heart:

People who find it hard to forgive are rarely successful.

The lack of a forgiving heart is poisonous to the body. You need to stay fit, calm and healthy to be successful.

When you don’t forgive, the harmony of your brain waves is disrupted. You won’t be able to think clearly and make good decisions as a result.

When you don’t forgive, you feel hurt, guilt, angry, envy and suffering. All these affect the way your body functions, thus your health.

You also feel depressed, have low self-esteem, and deprive yourself of the good opportunities life has to offer you when you refuse to forgive people.

You’re only punishing yourself when you refuse to forgive people. You need a clear mind to plan, visualize and work to achieve your life dreams. That’s why you have to start forgiving people if you haven’t been doing that before.