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What makes a successful business person?
Business people who are tops in their field have a lot in common, and art professionals can learn a lot from their successes and strategies

By Murray Raphel

I have a theory on doing business. If my business is good, it’s not because of the weather, the time of year or the economy. It’s because of me. I’m doing something right. If my business is bad, it’s not because of the weather, the time of the year or the economy. It’s because of me. I’m doing something wrong. Somebody is always buying something from somebody, so how can I make them buy from me?

First of all, you need confidence in yourself and your merchandise with clear goals and knowledge of the products you are selling. Only then can you inspire dedication from your staff and a willingness to buy from customers.

Successful business people, no matter what their industry, have been found to share similar traits. Today’s world is no longer satisfied with simply success – we want to know how the successful get to the top. The Russians developed a concept called “anthropomaximology,” in which they try to answer the question of why some individuals outperform others. Through the years I’ve done some anthropomaximology of my own and found there are certain qualities that describe successful business people. Here are a few:

1) They constantly set higher goals.

Successful business people are mountain climbers who, having climbed one peak, look beyond to the next highest. They are the retailers who send 1,500 mailers to their customers and yield a good turnout of 100. But instead of being satisfied with 100, they ask how they can increase that number to 150 the next time. […]

2) They avoid “comfort zones”

To a successful person, standing still feels like going backwards. People who stay in their comfort zones do what they did before because it’s “the way we’ve always done it:”[…] They blame any lack of business on the weather, the time of the year, the economy – anything except for themselves. […]

3) They rehearse the future as they see it

“I believe our future is a one-stop shop for decorating. In addition to limited-edition prints and posters, we now offer collectibles, gift items and small occasional furniture pieces,” said Christine Knoll of the Art Gallery of Hog Hollow in Chesterfield, Mo. Successful people move towards the pictures they create in their mind. They can rehearse coming actions or events as they “see” them. […]

Many successful athletes will say they practice “seeing” themselves winning the race, hitting the home run or scoring the touchdown. They actually visualize a future event which gives them the impetus to achieve the goal. […]

Source: <www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_

m0HMU/is_9_30/ ai_108785318/pg_2/?tag=content;col1> Acesso em: 21/07/2010.

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