What Do successful Business people have in Common?

I was just reading through the list of forbes top richest persons as at September 18th 2008. This led me to research the World's richest people. The top 5 are Warren Buffett ,Carlos Slim Helu ,William Gates III ,Lakshmi Mittal ,Mukesh Ambani.

Bill Gates has once again reclaimed the number one spot from Warren Buffett and is worth 58 Billion dollars at age 52!!!....blimey!....and here I thought I was doing pretty well. So what made these people who they are today? Well it all depends on the way you look at it I suppose... According to http://valhallaisland.com studies show that 60% of these listed rich have a university education. What I loved about the article was this statement

"Just as you can’t conclude that the lack of a university degree guarantees you’ll be unsuccessful, you can’t conclude that having a degree guarantees success. It’s important to note that billions of dollars (or money at all) does not equate to success or happiness, it’s just the only thing we have available to measure."----So true....

But that question again....what are some things that successful people have in common? in a nutshell what they all have in common is their unique ability to keep goals clear, to focus and concentrate on how, when and with what they intend to meet these goals. I don't like to use too many words in an article since I think this discourages persons from reading it, but I think I do need to elaborate on the above. Successful people have plans. They have a strategy. They have solid, achievable and realistic goals. They know what they are selling or offering and they know it better than anything. They have commitment and self-drive. They don't only think success is based on the economy or political connections, they believe the key to success is mostly up to them. Not to reinvent the wheel, I think an article by Murray Raphel sums it up nicely.
Successful people:

1. Constantly set higher goals
2. Avoid comfort zones
3. Are driven by accomplishments rather than money
4. Acknowledge and solve problems rather than lay blame
5. Look at the worst possible scenario's and outcomes while planning a strategy
6. They rehearse the future as they see it
7. They have a high uncertainty tolerance (contrary to popular believe they do NOT take risks per se...they always anticipate the outcomes and possible responses)

All it all I dare to repeat myself, successful people have solid, dynamic strategies and plans. They plan for success, contemplate and plan for failure and are just plain old hard working and self-driven.

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