No matter what you want to succeed at in life—your career, a hobby, your personal life—there are a few universal truths that can be applied to the pursuit of success and a few mistakes that can be considered universal barriers to achieving it. As I’ve watched and studied successful people in my life, I’ve noticed five mistakes that they seem to be able to avoid at any cost. Do you fall into the trap of any of these mistakes? If so, you may be putting roadblocks on your own path to success

1. 5 Mistakes Successful People
Don’t Make

2. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Title
Text
Introduction
Want To Be Successful?
Then Avoid These 5 Mistakes!
No matter what you want to succeed at in life—your career, a hobby, your
personal life—there are a few universal truths that can be applied to the pursuit
of success and a few mistakes that can be considered universal barriers to
achieving it.
As I’ve watched and studied successful people in my life, I’ve noticed five
mistakes that they seem to be able to avoid at any cost.
Do you fall into the trap of any of these mistakes? If so, you may be putting
roadblocks on your own path to success.

3. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Avoid Responsibility
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
– Winston Churchill
One of the first things you will notice that successful people don’t have is a
blaming or victim mentality. When things go wrong, what is your first response?
Successful people won’t say, “I couldn’t succeed because of X, Y, and Z” or “It’s
actually this person’s fault.”
They’re much more likely to own a mistake rather than blame others for their
failure or misfortune. I believe the key here is that by owning a mistake, we are
more likely to learn from it and much less likely to repeat it.

4. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Procrastination
"Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after
tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.“
- Napoleon Hill
Successful people tend to take action, regardless of whether it is the “perfect”
time or not. When Gutenberg invented the printing press, the literacy rate was
almost non-existent—not exactly perfect market conditions for mass producing
books.
And no one knew they needed a “smart” phone until Apple invented one. Don’t
wait for the perfect time to do something. Work hard and don’t give up—
regardless of what might be going on around you. Success is very often the
accumulation of many small achievements over a long period of time.

5. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Follow the Trends
"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads
and popular opinion."
–Jack Kerouac.
Every day we produce 2.5 quintillion (1018) bytes of data. In that flood of
information, it's tempting to think that we have to jump at every new
development and try every new thing (we sometimes call it "shiny object
syndrome"). But jumping at every new thing will leave no time to develop the
deep understanding that pursuing lifelong learning might.
Focus your energies on understanding the root of what you hope to succeed at
and ignore the rest. For example, if you hope to succeed in sales or marketing,
you might choose to study human psychology rather than the latest social
media marketing schemes.

6. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Try to Go It Alone
“Life is not a solo act. It's a huge collaboration, and we all need to
assemble around us the people who care about us and support us.”
–Tim Gunn.
One of the most vital things successful people do is to surround themselves with
other successful people. No man is an island, and having a network, a
mastermind group, surround oneself with clever people can make all the
difference between success and failure.
This is true whether you hope to succeed at a personal goal like weight loss
(studies show people lose more weight in a group than alone) or a business
goal.

7. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Lack of Belief
"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but
reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or
happy."
–Norman Vincent Peale.
This isn’t about positive affirmations or visualizing success, but rather, as Peale
says, “a humble but reasonable confidence” that you can achieve what you set
out to achieve.
Think about it the other way round if you are skeptical; if you don’t believe that
you can succeed, why would you even try? You must cultivate a strong belief in
yourself even in the face of setbacks or adversities if you hope to ultimately be
successful.

8. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
No matter what you want to succeed at in life—your career, a hobby, your personal
life—there are a few universal truths that can be applied to the pursuit of success
and a few mistakes that can be considered universal barriers to achieving it.
As I’ve watched and studied successful people in my life, I’ve noticed five mistakes
that they seem to be able to avoid at any cost.
Do you fall into the trap of any of these mistakes? If so, you may be putting
roadblocks on your own path to success.
Conclusion

9. © 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

10. BernardMarr
hello@bernardmarr.com
www.bernardmarr.com