What sets Great Business People Apart

Becoming a successful business person doesn’t happen overnight. It takes careful planning and some inherent personality traits to become a top executive. While every individual has their own style and story, there is one thing that all of them have in common: an intense work ethic.

Whether you start from nothing or have lots of financial and career help from others, you won’t have a long and successful career without a strong work ethic. A willingness to work harder than everyone else gives you a leg up on the competition. A strong work ethic can help you in all aspects of your career, from getting a promotion to seeking out a great mentor to solving everyday problems in the workplace.

Many top business people learned the value of hard work early in their lives. Some have a parent or grandparent who grew up during difficult financial times like the Great Depression and valued hard work as a way to keep their families afloat. Others were raised in a poor family and had to contribute to their household financially from a young age. They may have delivered newspapers or worked extra hard in school to get a scholarship. A strong work ethic was a necessity to achieve the things they needed and wanted, not an option.

Having a strong work ethic doesn’t have to be demonstrated by working continuously 24 hours a day. In fact, taking time to regroup and recharge can actually make you a better worker, as you won’t burn out. Having a high productivity rate (versus being at work for extra hours) shows your employer that you value their time and make the most out of a work day. Another way to show you’re a hard worker is to deliver consistently high-quality projects. You can work for a long time or produce a lot, but if you’re all over the place with quality, your employer might question your work ethic.

A determination to succeed is the number-one factor that drives people with a strong work ethic. They not only want success, they need it, and they know that they are the only people they can truly rely on to meet their goals. They don’t wait around for someone to solve their problems. Instead, they’ll take the initiative and seek out the resources they need to achieve whatever they set out to do. Most importantly, they don’t give up. People with a strong work ethic see things through to the end, no matter how many times they fail.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how many people you know when you start your career. Armed with a strong work ethic, you instantly have an advantage over many of your competitors.