7 Traits of Highly Successful People
The past 5 years or so of my life have really kicked my finances into high gear. It’s not just a feeling of success either; it’s real and backed by data. By tracking my net worth over time, I have the data to tell me whether or not my finances are moving in the right direction. And in the past few years alone, I’ve seen my net worth increase by a couple million! That said, it’s important to self-reflect and understand how I’ve come this far in such a short period of time. In this post, I wanted to share the things that have really helped my partner and I become so successful so young.
Off the top of my head, some of our recent accomplishments from the past few years include:
Buying & selling properties a couple dozen times (and helping many others with their transactions, too). Oftentimes, we deal with several transactions in parallel, which can be quite time-consuming and stressful. In fact, we’re juggling a handful of them now!
Launching this blog and Instagram account during the pandemic. We’re currently striving to grow both exponentially this year!
Climbing the corporate ladder.
Increasing our total compensation several times over.
Raising a child, which has occupied an incredible amount of physical & mental energy & time.
Traveling both internationally and domestically several times per year.
Starting a new out-of-state flipping business this year.
Growing our net worth by a couple million by raking in hundreds of thousands per year from our tech jobs, but also from investing hundreds of thousands into stocks and real estate.
So how do we do it? Below, I’ll dive into some of the key qualities I’ve identified about us that help us get things done.
Self-Aware
In order to even come up with this list, I need to be self-aware. I need to be able to analyze myself and think about my strengths & weaknesses as objectively as possible. On top of that, it’s prudent to be as self-aware as often as possible, so much so that self-analysis becomes a habit. Why? Because it gives you the opportunity to continuously improve yourself over time.
Organized & Prioritized
Being organized and prioritizing aIl aspects of my life allows me to manage my time effectively so that I can live a balanced life. It also helps me focus on my priorities and goals. Some of the techniques and tools I use to stay organized are:
Note-taking. I do this for everything, whether it’s for work, personal, or business. I always write things down so I can refer back to them later if I need my memory refreshed.
Calendars. We are such busy people that having a calendar to visualize our schedules well in advance helps us stay prepared for coming activities. We also use a “time-blocking” technique to pencil in certain tasks on our agendas that require more focus time. Explicitly setting aside time on our calendar for time consuming tasks frees up mental space from constantly thinking about when we’ll get to certain tasks because we know the task has been scheduled and will be taken care of. Lastly, instead of just looking ahead at our calendars, our calendars are automated to notify us ahead of time that something important is coming up.
Lists. If you’ve followed my blog for a while, or at least this year, you know I at least keep a list of my finance goals. I also maintain a short-term TODO list, multiple grocery lists, a list of common recipes my household cycles through, a running checklist of tax-related documents I know I need to collect throughout the year and during tax season, a weekly meal plan, etc. Pretty much everything I do has a list associated with it.
Immediate documentation. This is a habit I’ve built over the years. I know I have a terrible memory. So to combat that weakness, I have to stay on top of my documentation. Usually, that means if I learn something important or know I need to get back to it later, I will write it down on one of my TODO lists ASAP.
Prioritization. Combining all of the aforementioned bullet points together, it makes it much easier for me to prioritize what’s important to me in the short, medium, and long-terms. By prioritizing in different buckets, I can organize my calendar and time efficiently.
Curious & Educated
Both of us graduated (early) with Bachelor’s Degrees from the prestigious UC (University of California) school system. Additionally, to satisfy our insatiable curiosity, we are always reading books & articles and watching educational videos on a daily basis. Without a solid education and a habit of continuously learning, we would have fallen by the wayside many years ago. Instead, we’ve been adaptable, open-minded, and honed our skills over the years to keep up with the times.
Doers with Confidence
While education is crucial to being successful, being a doer is arguably more important. Knowledge on its own is useless; you have to be able and willing to use it. You can have the most knowledge in the world, but if you don’t do anything with it, what’s the point?
Too many people are all talk and no walk. That’s what sets my partner and I apart from the pack; we are very much doers. When we want to accomplish something, we don’t just say it out loud and forget about it like most people do. We add it to our TODO list (perhaps even our bucket list), slap a priority on it, and carve out time to do it.
Instead of just thinking, planning, and playing out hypotheticals all the time, we’ve gained enough hands-on experience over the years to feel confident in our decision-making abilities.
Partners
My partner and I are more than just legally married to each other. We are partners. We are friends. And friends are there to support one another. We are open and honest about each others’ strengths and weaknesses, allowing us to keep our lives in check. It also enables us to hold each other accountable for the things we say we are going to do. By giving each other constant, constructive feedback, we are always finding ways to improve ourselves and keep things from bottling up over time.
Because we’re both software engineers, we both have the skills to collaborate and brainstorm on ideas together very effectively, not only on work-related items but also for personal and business ideas and goals. In our line of work, if you’re not a good communicator, you’re not a team player. And if you’re not a team player, you’re unlikely to hold a job for very long.
Motivated & Balanced
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am a firm believer that everyone should have a FIRE journey. And one of my main reasons for believing that has to do with having finite time. While that’s a scary thought, it’s a motivator for me to use my time wisely and push myself to keep doing more and better. At times, wanting more and more can be stressful and tiresome, which is why I have to remind myself to find balance and be appreciative for the things I have and for the loved ones in my life. Otherwise, I’d find myself burned out and never satisfied. I always advocate for enjoying the journey along the way, not just when I eventually reach the finish line.
Risk Tolerant
I believe that if you don’t take any risks, you are taking the biggest one of all. In order to be successful, you have to learn how to identify the pros & cons of the decisions at hand so you can navigate around risks. If you just stand still in life petrified, you are not making progress. In fact, you are falling behind. Financially speaking, as inflation rises, if your money is not put to work and isn’t keeping up with inflation at a minimum, you naturally fall behind the economy.
Too many times I’ve heard, “Stocks are too risky.” But if you zoom out and look at the big picture, the stock market has never failed to return a positive ROI (return on investment) over the long-term. Short-term investing is not really investing, in my opinion; it’s more like gambling. Additionally, if you’re an individual stock picker, there may not be much of a history to predict what individual companies will return in the future. But the overall stock market does, which is why I prefer investing in index funds to diversify my portfolio with a single purchase. Individual stock picking has much greater risk, in my opinion.
Lastly, I think risk and fear have a strong correlation with each other. When something is deemed risky, people are usually fearful. Similarly, when something is perceived as not risky, people aren’t scared of it. To combat risk and fear, I think that education and experience are the two strongest weapons against them. People usually fear things when it is new or unknown to them. So the more you know about that thing, the less fearful or scared they become.
Knowing how to navigate around risks, educating myself, and gaining invaluable experience over the years has helped me reduce risks. It’s helped me be a smarter investor, and it’s ultimately helped my partner and I make big bucks by investing.
Conclusion
I’m sure there are many other characteristics about us that have made us successful so young, but the traits I’ve outlined in this post are certainly huge contributors. Neither of us were born with silver spoons. In fact, we always seem to be fighting an uphill battle. Nevertheless, we’ve persevered and paved our own futures. As the saying goes, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
