There are three types of successful people in the world.
- The Lucky Successes
- The Instinctual Successes
- The Purposeful Successes
You’re up there somewhere. You might just not know it yet. Let me explain who each of these are, and let’s see if you can identify yourself in the list.
The Lucky Success is the person who stumbles onto success. They have no idea what they’re doing, but they just happen to have an idea that takes off without explanation. Unfortunately, this type of success can’t be recreated—even by the one who had the success in the first place.
The Instinctual Success might seem like the lucky person. But these people have an innate sense of what works and what doesn’t. They follow their instincts above all else and they usually steer them in the right direction. Many hugely successful business leaders are instinctual. And that means they don’t always know exactly why what they did worked.
These types of leaders make for lousy book writers, because they can’t explain to others why they achieved success. Their books often are filled with nice ideas that don’t actually work for everyone.
Finally, you have The Purposeful Success. These people might not have the luck and they might not have the instinct. But they learn from other successful people and integrate principles into their lives. This is probably where you’ll see yourself (or where you should see yourself).
Very few people put deep thought into why they do what they do. But the ones who do have the opportunity for success. Plus, they have the opportunity to show others how to succeed after they’ve succeeded.
Where do you find yourself? It’s easy to look at the lucky or instinctual and envy their success. But you have the same opportunity as them. In fact, you have greater opportunity. You don’t need to compare yourself to those people. Just be intentional about what you do. Learn and apply.