Best Habits of Successful People Infographic

Best Habits Of Successful People Infographic

Continuing education is important if you want to get ahead in life, but so few people do it that it seems like a special skill to read after you graduate from college. In fact, a lifelong love of learning is one of the things that binds highly successful people together- Bill Gates makes the time to read 50 books per year, while Warren Buffett spends 80% of his waking hours reading. Physical fitness is a lot more important to long term success than you might think, as well. Richard Branson credits his daily 5am workout routine with giving him an extra 4 hours of productivity each day. Having a positive outlook on life is good for your overall health, but it can be crucial to your long term career success. Looking at failure as an opportunity to learn rather than, well, failure, is the key to pushing through when most other people would give up. Learn more about the positive habits of highly successful people from this infographic!

Keep a Strict Schedule to Get the Most out of Every Day

• Ben Franklin set a strict daily routine for eating, sleeping, and working
  • Founding Father, scientist, inventor, farmer, political revolutionary
  • Followed 13-week self-improvement plans where he focused on one virtue per week and cycled through the plan 4X a year
  • Elon Musk schedules his entire day in 5-minute blocks
  • Founder, CEO, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., worth $12.7 billion
  • Squeeze the most out of every day by thinking logistically
    • Monday/Thursday devoted to SpaceX, Tuesday/Wednesday at Tesla, and Fridays are split between both
  • Mark Zuckerberg wears the same t-shirt, pants, and hoody every day
  • Cofounder, CEO, and chairman of Facebook, worth $53.5 billion
    • Minimizing day-to-day choices by making as few decisions as possible leaves time for the most important ideas

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”—Aristotle

Read (a Lot of) Books to Gain Knowledge from Other Overachievers

• Entrepreneurs look to learn, not to be entertained
  • Read for self-improvement, education, and success
  • Autobiographies and biographies are great for guidance and inspiration
  • Warren Buffett spends about 80% of his day reading
    • CEO Berkshire Hathaway, worth $71.8 billion
    • Read 600-1,000 pages/day when starting his investment career
  • Bill Gates reads 50 books per year
    • CEO, Chairman of Microsoft, worth $84 billion
    • Almost one book a week is very doable—try it
  • Oprah Winfrey started Oprah’s Book Club which has recommended 70 books since 1996
    • Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network, worth $2.9 billion
    • Oprah Winfrey began reading at 3 years old and never stopped

“Books were my pass to personal freedom.”—Oprah Winfrey

Exercise to Stay Productive and Creative Throughout the Day

• Regular exercise increases your productivity, creativity, and energy levels
• Improves your ability to solve problems
• Teaches you to push through barriers
  • Richard Branson wakes up at 5 a.m. to kite surf, swim, or play tennis
  • Founder of Virgin Group, worth $5 billion
    • Claims gets an extra 4-hours of productivity a day from regular exercise
  • Tyra Banks stays fiercely real by keeping it fun
  • Supermodel, businesswoman, actress, & author
  • Recommends working out to entertainment that inspires you to make exercise a habit
  • Mark Cuban does an hour of cardio 6-7 days a week
  • Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, worth $3.3 billion
    • Plays basketball and takes kickboxing and other aerobic classes

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”—Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford University commencement speech

Possess a Strong, Positive, and Flexible Mindset

• Sheryl Sandberg
  • Facebook COO, Lean In Foundation Founder, author, & activist
  • “We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.”
  • Teaches women to empower themselves by leaning in professionally to obtain leadership positions
• Steve Jobs asked himself the same question every morning
  • Cofounder and CEO of Apple, worth $10.2 billion when he died
  • “If today was the last day of my life, would I be happy with what I’m about to do today?”
  • Saying “no” too often, means something needs to change
• Thomas Edison championed the benefits of failure
  • Greatest American inventor, held 1,093 patents
  • “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work.”
  • Learned from failure and pushed the boundaries of innovation until he found a solution
• Peter Thiel often asks others, “Why can’t you accomplish your 10-year plan in the next six months?”
  • Paypal co-founder, venture capitalist, and author, worth $2.7 billion
  • Believes in staying “lean” or “unplanned,” as entrepreneurship is about experimentation