eight to be great the eight traits
successful people have in common number
to work you know when I when I was
interviewing all these successful people
they kept telling me how hard they
worked and I remember standing there
thinking I geez another comment about
work why don't they tell me the real
secret to their success then finally I
realized hard work is a real secret to
their success all successful people work
very hard Martha Stewart said to me I'm
a real hard worker I work and work and
work all the time
media tycoon Rupert Murdoch said it's
all hard work nothing comes easily but I
have a lot of fun did he say fun yes
successful people have fun working
that's why I say they're not really
workaholics their work up frolics Jim
Patterson chairman of the Jim Patterson
Group is a worker frolic he says
business is my recreation I'd rather go
to our factories and meet with our
people then go to the beach I can tell
you that Dave Lavery the Nassau whiz who
builds those robots for Mars said to me
we work our fingers to the bone but it
doesn't seem like work it's fun it's
what we want to do we don't want to put
things down and go home Bill Gates is a
worker frolic even after he was a
multi-millionaire he worked most nights
until 10 p.m. and only took two weeks
off in seven years and he probably spent
them on his computer
Oprah is a worker frolic she says I'd
never see daylight I come into work at
5:30 in the morning when it was dark and
leave at 7:00 rate one was dark I'm a
worker frolic and over the years I've
gone through many days and even weeks
without much sleep just because I was
having so much fun and I gotta admit at
times like that you say to yourself am I
the only one working this hard because
there's a myth that comes easy to some
people you turn on the TV nobody's
working that herd guy like Chris Rock
stands up on stage tells a few jokes
what's hard about that but even Chris
says I wasn't the funniest guy growing
up but I was a guy who worked on being
funny the hardest trust me I've
interviewed over 500 successful people
not one of them said it came easy
even though they were doing what they
loved and we tend to underestimate work
and overestimate Talent but in the end
work tops Talent Arthur Benjamin
America's best math whiz said to me I
think numbers and I have always gotten
along but I'm sure my talent is just due
to the time and hours and work that I
put into it many talented people don't
achieve as much success as they could
unfortunately because they they sit back
on their talent and never learned to
work heard that's what happened to
Michael Jordan when he first started
playing basketball he had the talent but
he wasn't putting in the work and the
coach actually cut him from the high
school basketball team boy that was a
wake-up call he says I was very
disappointed I started working on my
game the day after I was cut and he soon
became the hardest working player in
basketball who made fun of the other
players who weren't working hurt and
that hard work is what made him the
greatest basketball player of all time
so I'd say the real gift isn't talent
it's the ability to work her and we tend
to underestimate work and overestimate
smarts but in the end work wins over
smarts in fact many successful people
aren't the smartest they just work the
hardest francois Parenteau who
Businessweek called the top independent
analyst on Wall Street said to me I'm
certainly not that smart I can't even
remember my own zip code but he also
says work is a big part of my life I
think about investments pretty much 24
hours a day seven days a week
Nez Hallett the third is CEO of smart
Wireless and I thought that's ironic
because he told me he's not that smart
he says I graduated from high school
with a with a c' average and college
with a c-minus average but now the smart
PhDs are reporting to him how did you do
it he said if you're going to be
successful at anything the key thing is
to work hard I'm not smart as proof
here's my actual 12th grade report card
it was the only one my parents ever kept
don't ask me why they kept it it's
nothing to brag about as you can see I
was a c' student not an A student I
don't think I'd even make it into
college these days so how did I achieve
some success and wealth
I just worked heard many 60 to 80 hour
weeks and now I know I'm not alone
Thomas Stanley studied hundreds of
millionaires and he discovered most
millionaires weren't a students didn't
score high on tests and teachers didn't
think they'd ever succeed but they did
succeed because they worked hard so the
good news is if you're not the smartest
if you're a c' student not an A student
the really good news is you can still
succeed because the word success has to
cease and no ways you can still succeed
as long as you're work hard and what if
you are smart
well I'm sorry there's absolutely no
hope you because many smart people don't
achieve as much success as they could
unfortunately because they rest on their
smarts and never learn to work heard
Yong Kim president of Lucent Technology
says people who are the smartest
sometimes don't realize their full
potential because things get too easy so
they don't push themselves hurt after a
talk I gave one of the world's top 10
business schools a man came up to me and
said you know when I got my MBA here a
few years ago I was one of the smartest
people in the class I thought I had it
made so after I graduated I I sat back
and I didn't work hard and I went
downhill and now at this point in my
life I've gone nowhere I haven't
achieved any success at all he said
thanks for the wake-up call now I know
what I need to do I need to work so the
bottom line is whether you're smart or
not whether you're talented or not just
keep working