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The Psychology of Success

Jun 14, 2022 10:15:00 AM

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If you're reading this, you no doubt have great aspirations. Investors, entrepreneurs, and small business owners all have something in common. Your brains are wired for success! Of course, that doesn't mean success comes easily. 

What truly motivates success? How do we achieve it?

Psychology is always at play, so use the psychology of motivation and success to your advantage.

Begin By Better Understanding These 4 Psychological Concepts

Your path to success won’t necessarily follow anyone else’s blueprint. Discovering you path to success means knowing not only yourself and how your mind works, but how to craft and execute a plan.

First Concept: Internal Locus of Control 

The internal locus of control can be summed up in two words: personal responsibility. This is the concept that you are responsible for your success or failure, the good and the bad, based on your decisions. You are not a hapless victim of circumstance, chance, or others. This is foundational to success because it solidifies your agency – your ability to direct, change, and improve your life in the present and future.

Takeaway: You are responsible for your results in life. Don’t let your resources, status, education, or personal challenges prevent you from building something great.

Second Concept: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Even if you’ve only experienced a freshman psychology course, you’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a theory of human motivation based on a pyramid, the base being essential physiological needs, like food, water, and shelter, with the top being self-actualization, which is making the most of your human potential as an individual. In between are motivations of safety (feeling secure and out of danger), love and acceptance (from family, friends, significant others, etc.), and esteem (feeling respected, competent, and accomplished).

Ultimately, this gives us a blueprint for addressing our needs so that we can be motivated by the top of the pyramid: esteem and self-actualization.

Takeaway: Basic needs, including food, shelter, safety, and love, must be met before we can truly focus on and be motivated by success and accomplishments. Are your essential needs being met?

Third Concept: The Three Subprocesses

The psychological concept of success is broken down into three “subprocesses”:

  • Activation – These are the first steps towards reaching a goal. For a small business owner or entrepreneur, this may be meeting with potential investors, researching vendors, running initial numbers, or making that first phone call to a potential partner. This takes your ambitions from your mind and brings them into the real world with actionable steps.
  • Persistence – This is the determined and ongoing effort to achieve a particular goal. You could also call this perseverance. Ultimately, persistence pushes your goals forward even in the face of adversity.
  • Intensity – This is the energy and focus dedicated towards the actions and steps necessary to accomplish the goal.

GIF of Awkwafina holding a trophy under raining confetti

Takeaway: Successful entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners must engage in all three subprocesses for success. If you lack activation, you will never start. If you lack persistence, you will quit or trail off. If you lack intensity, you will extend timelines and become distracted.

Fourth Concept: Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

The fixed mindset is extremely common in Western culture. This is the idea that successful people are inherently born with the talents, predilections, personalities, intelligence, or potential to achieve their goals. It’s the idea that leaders are born, not made. That natural talent is all it takes. People are born lucky or otherwise destined for greatness based on factors beyond their control.

The fixed mindset stunts success because it tells us that if we lack these natural talents and abilities, we either will never succeed or will always struggle.

By contrast, the growth mindset tells us that attitude and effort determine success, often in combination with natural talent. However, talent alone isn’t enough. The skills necessary for success can be learned – from skills and social behaviors to athleticism and money management.

Takeaway: While people rarely fall into one category at a time (we often blend both mindsets), it is enormously valuable for entrepreneurs to practice a growth mindset. This allows you to move beyond perceived limitations and shortcomings and learn how to achieve success regardless of natural-born gifts or circumstances.

In summary, psychology helps us understand ourselves and what we need to flourish. These concepts will help you identify the needs you must meet, the steps to take, and the foundational elements of long-term success.

 

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