5 secrets of successful people

This post came out from The Straits Times (14 April 2016)
Title - 5 secrets of successful people

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Be proactive and make things happen
2. Engage in lifelong learning
3. Turn failure into advantage
4. Focus on making small continuous improvements
5. Share what you can with the needy

On Be proactive and make things happen

• Instead of reacting to events and waiting for opportunities, successful people venture out to create their own chances, and in doing so, create their own destinies. They channel their time and energy into aspects within their control, or take concrete actions to improve situations. 

On Engage in lifelong learning

• Successful people believe that learning comes in many forms, beyond formal educational institutions like school and universities. They often continuously expand their knowledge and read widely across multiple disciplines. Most importantly, they apply their acquired knowledge to be more productive and efficient or improve the quality of their work.

On Turn failure into advantage

• Successful people know that failure is an opportunity to learn something new or to finetune the way certain things are done. They learn from their mistakes to increase their chances of success, and do not perceive obstacles as barriers to success but learning experience. 

On Focus on making small continuous improvements

• Go-getters take conscious control of their lives, set goals and work towards achieving them. However, it is easy to give up when our goals seem insurmountable. Divide your foal into small manageable ones that can be achieved one step at a time.
• Making minor incremental improvements will eventually culminate in significant changes over time.

On Share what you can with the needy

• When a person is successful, he or she is likely to possess extra resources to share with the less fortunate. Being charitable makes us aware of the hardships the lower strata of society struggles with, keeps us firmly grounded and deters us from being too caught up in our own success. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big