Tai Lopez is an investor, author and entrepreneur. He is on a mission to find ‘the good life’. He also runs the second biggest book club (second to Oprah’s) in the world.
He was being interviewed by Tom Bilyeu on one of his Impact Theory talk show interviews.
I have heard the quote that ‘hard work’ is a bigger predictor of business success than intelligence.
In the interview, Lopez had something different to say. He stated that conscientiousness was the biggest predictor of business success. Hard work was only 25% of the equation. Conscientiousness was made up of four parts of which diligence (or ‘hard work’) was only one.
Lopez states the science comes from a personality test called HEXACO. He states it is more reliable than the big 5 or Myers Briggs. And conscientiousness and it’s four components are part of this test.
Perfectionism
Second of the four parts was perfectionism.
Do you double-check your work? If you were producing a report or a table of figures for someone, do you double-check that report before sending it? When you are up against a deadline it is very easy to just shove the words or the numbers in and get it sent off. To be able to stop, to take a moment, and check through it is a valuable habit. You will still make mistakes. You will still get things wrong. But the chances of that happening reduce significantly.
Are you thorough and detail orientated? Do you just take an overall picture of the situation, just try and get the gist of what is going on? Or do you try and understand something? Breaking it down into its smaller parts then building it back up again. Knowing how something works. Knowing how to fix it when it is broken.
Do you continuously try to improve things? Do you do something once then wonder how you might do it better next time? You don’t have to make radical improvements but just make things at least a 1% better. Continually tweaking and trying new things out.
Organisation
Third of the fourth parts was organisation.
Do you like to have things organised, especially in your surroundings? Do you like to have a tidy desk, a tidy office and a tidy home? A place for everything and everything thing in its place.
Do you like to structure your tasks? Do you like to create a to-do list on a morning? Do you like to prioritise what is most important and needs doing first? This process of organising your tasks. Putting the most important one first allows you to get the big things done. Rather than doing all the little things around the edge. It’s doing the right task at the right time.
Do you weigh up your options carefully? Do you spend time to look at your options, to see what is important and urgent? Do you think through the consequences of doing or not doing a task? How long each one might take you. When you can fit it into your workload.
Prudence
The fourth part was prudence.
This is about making the right choices. When making a choice you pull on several sources to make your decision. You might pull from other people’s opinions. From your own past experiences. From your own beliefs (what you believe to be true).
This is the tendency to deliberate carefully and not make rash decisions. To take your time. To reflect. To be patient. To think things through and predict how they may turn out before making a decision.
This is to weigh up your options carefully, to be cautious and self-controlled. This is to look at the options you have. To compare each option. To look at the pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages, the positives and the negatives. To ask questions if necessary. To decide which rewards you are after and which consequences you are willing to bear.
Takeaways
This is an idea that conscientiousness can be correlated with business success. The more conscientious you are, the more likely you are to have business success.
If you look at all these elements, they are all skills and habits. They are all things you can learn. There is nothing there that requires innate talent.
If you can start building the habit for these traits into your life then you can set yourself up for success. You can put in place the tools that you will need later to build the life you want.
You still need to figure out your destination. You still need to figure out the path that you choose to follow. But these elements are the vehicle to get you there.
Footnotes
Here is the link to the HEXACO personality test
Here is the interview between Tai Lopez and Tom Bilyeu.
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