Shaun Osher’s ‘The RED Report’ examines all things real estate from resales to new development, offering opinions, analyses and forecasts from his point of view.
Often times when asked the key to success, you’ll get responses about working hard, surrounding yourself with trustworthy people or to never compromise your integrity. But sometimes it’s the advice you’re not given that will ultimately help you reach your goals. Here are my five controversial traits nobody tells you that you need to have to be successful.
1) Have an ego.
Yes, I know it isn’t politically correct – but you need an ego. You need to have a bullet proof belief in yourself and what you are building, because there will be many people who will try to shoot you (and your ideas) down. I have yet to meet one successful business leader who doesn’t have this ego and belief.
2) Dive in.
If you’re creating something new, the odds are you know very little about what lies ahead of you. If you wait until you have a clear idea you’re probably too late. There will be many moments that will demand you to go blindly into the future. Letting go and seeing what happens is a part of the excitement of the journey.
3) Screw the spreadsheet.
You can run a business model every way possible, but at the end of the day it is the intangibles that will define your business’ success. Until the day they discover a calculator that quantifies common sense, integrity, culture, and heart, a spreadsheet is only a rough guide of what can and cannot be.
4) Don’t pay attention.
I honestly don’t care what my competition is doing. I care about what we are doing, and that’s what I focus on. If we work toward our mission and use this as our guide, we will continue on our own path. The more you focus on your competitor, the less time you spend on your own growth.
5) Don’t shave.
Be who you are. Flaunt the things that make you special, because it is your “specialness” that makes you valuable. Individualism is contagious and creates a different kind of company – in a good way.