Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of business owners. Some of them are massively successful. I soon noticed that these super-successful people shared certain habits. They did things, which the average business owner didn’t do.

I decided to learn from them… to acquire their habits, to see if it would help me. It did. It really did. In big, meaningful, measurable ways. Today, I’m going to share some of what I learned from them with you.

Let’s go.

1. They personalize their business, so it’s uniquely theirs. One of a kind. Rare and valuable. This is true, regardless of their industry or profession.
2. They are driven by a passion to do something big. Something that motivates them AND those around them.
3. They know success is about more than money. Because if you’re rich and unhappy, you’re still broke.
4. They show people, rather than tell people. Anyone can claim anything, so they walk the walk.
5. They out-care their competitors. And it shines through everything they do.
6. They out-smart their competitors too.
7. They set standards, extremely high, self-imposed standards. Then, they achieve them.
8. They throw away the manual and write their own rules.
9. They focus on what they want, not what they fear. Sounds obvious, yet it’s the polar opposite of what small business owners do.
10. They are excellent decision makers. They get the information required, study it, request advice if needed, then decide. This is one of the master skills for success in every area of life, not just business.
11. They avoid those costly detours, which come disguised as shortcuts to success. Warren Buffett often says a key reason for his amazing results, is his commitment to get rich slowly.
12. They do all the work required. You can’t sleepwalk your way to the top. Or even the middle.
13. They also relax. If you work smart during work time, you can relax when it’s family and friends time. In fact, it’s essential.
14. They seldom watch TV. None (zero) of the most successful people I know, bother with much TV.
15. They are extremely selective who they associate with and who they recommend. Your associates have a huge impact on what you think and your expectations.
16. They lead. The world already has enough followers and the followers need leaders.
17. They manage their time extremely well.
18. They deliberately build a valuable network of people — before they need them.
19. They are willing to stand out. They know it’s the only way to be outstanding.
20. They summon the courage to do what’s required, rather than what feels comfortable.
21. They make promises and keep them. They know it’s a superb way to build trust and earn a great reputation.
22. They look for opportunities to over-deliver. I call this approach radical contribution. I’ll cover it in detail, in a future post.

I hope you find those observations useful. More importantly, I hope you decide to turn at least one of them into a habit.

If a wonderful opportunity came your way today, how prepared would you be?

I was prompted to write about this after speaking with a friend. Amy told me that she had been invited to appear on a national radio show. She’s an architect and the show was a perfect fit for her. Plus, the audience is huge.

As I was about to congratulate her, she explained that she refused the offer.

“I just couldn’t do it Jim. I’d be too nervous”.

It happens to us all

I’m sure all of us have, at some point, refused an opportunity because it took us a little too far from our comfort zone. I know I have. The thing is, everything is difficult, before it becomes easy. To get to the point where things are easy, we need to push through the difficult part.

The problem with avoiding opportunities like that, is that we fail to give ourselves the experience required, to overcome the fear. We need that experience, for example, to become comfortable and confident on radio, TV or public speaking. Then, when an opportunity comes our way we can eagerly snap it up.

Justin Timberlake and 200 million viewers

It reminds me of something I saw a couple of years ago. It was a very brief conversation, between Justin Timberlake and one of the hosts of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. The host was deliberately trying to make Timberlake feel nervous, ahead of a live performance.

The show’s presenter asked him if he knew how many viewers were about to watch his performance. He replied, “No”. The presenter said, “Around 200 million people”. Timberlake replied, “Ha. That’s cool”. He then got on stage and sang as if he were performing in front of a dozen close friends, rather than almost twice as many TV viewers as the Super Bowl!

It turns out that Timberlake has been performing to millions on TV since he was just 11 years old. So, he pushed through the hard part years ago. Today, he’s comfortable with the TV cameras and the thought of millions of viewers tuning in. His performance was fantastic.

Creating unstoppable momentum

Opportunities come in different sizes. Smaller opportunities come with very little upside, but they’re usually within our reach. However, the best opportunities almost always require you to stretch. To push yourself.

Every time you embrace a great, challenging opportunity, you become more prepared for the next one. The more prepared you are, the easier it gets. The more opportunities you accept, the more opportunities you attract.

You create momentum. Unstoppable momentum.

This momentum leads you to an increasing number of bigger and better opportunities. And that’s exactly what you need, for your business to reach its full potential.

As a business owner, there are 2 ways you can choose to market your services. One works extremely well. One doesn’t. And most people are choosing the wrong option. I don’t want that to happen to you.

Here are both options, along with how to make the right choice for you and your business.

1. Try and appeal to as many people as possible.
2. Intentionally choose the type of customers or clients you want to service. And ignore the rest.

The first option seems to make sense

The thinking looks like this: If we try and appeal to as wide a range of people as possible, we’ll have more prospective customers. This should mean we’ll make more sales (or attract more clients).

The reality is different. Very, very different.

By trying to be relevant to almost anyone who could have a need for your services, you end up being directly relevant to no one.

Here’s the problem: Only a directly relevant message has the power to motivate a prospective customer to take action.

Vague, diluted, semi-relevant messages are ignored.

Here’s a far better approach

The most successful business owners get specific. They decide exactly who they want to serve. They then intentionally focus on communicating with this section of their marketplace. They learn what matters most to this group. They uncover their main challenges. They then connect with them in a way that’s directly relevant and therefore exceptionally powerful.

That kind of specific, directly relevant marketing is what’s required, to inspire people to buy from you or hire you.