8 traits the world’s most successful people share

Each person’s path to success may be unique, but there are many commonalities among the world’s most successful people.

For his book, “The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common,” author Richard St. John conducted interviews with more than 500 highly successful people, from the likes of Bill Gates and Richard Branson to Martha Stewart and Ben Cohen, the cofounder of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

St. John entered transcriptions of every interview into a database in order to analyze more than 300 possible success factors. He found they all shared eight traits, which he calls the “8 to be great” because “they’re the foundation for success and greatness in any field.”

St. John writes that he once read an article saying there was no correlation between success and hours worked, but he disagrees. Every successful person he interviewed works long hours.

Some of the people he interviewed take an unconventional approach to the workday. Rather than the standard 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift, they look at each workday as a 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. shift. Oprah Winfrey, for example, told St. John that she “would never see daylight.”

But it’s important to avoid burnout. He writes that successful people aren’t workaholics; they’re “workafrolics” because they have fun doing what they’re doing.

Having an 80/20 split is a good guideline, he says, meaning 80% of your work should be enjoyable and the remaining 20% should consist of the serious, not-so-fun stuff.

“Success means narrowing down and focusing on one thing, not being scattered all over the map,” St. John writes.

But there’s more to it than just picking a field and focusing on it. You should start out thinking wide and then narrow it down into one specific focus.

“We have a million things on our minds every day,” St. John writes. “But we can’t succeed at a million things. It’s hard enough to succeed at just one thing.”

St. John uses Warren Buffett as an example, who told him that putting money in a lot of things is “a Noah’s Ark way of investing — you end up with a zoo that way.”

Pushing yourself starts with getting out of your comfort zone. You must push through shyness, doubts, and fear, St. John writes.

There are seven specific ways St. John highlights to help you push yourself toward success:

1. Get a goal to push you.

2. Get a challenge to push you.

3. Get a deadline to push you.

4. Push yourself with self-discipline.

5. Get others to push you.

6. Get competition to push you.

7. Get a tormentor to push you and a mentor to support you.

The old saying goes “practice makes perfect,” and repetition was a key part of legendary basketball coach John Wooden’s philosophy.

It’s also important to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. It’s fine to be bad at a lot of things, St. John writes, as long as you’re really good at one thing.

7. Successful people provide value to others.