If you’re really good at what you do, you’re 20% of the way to success.
The other 80% is behavior.
Adopt these 4 behaviors to open up a flow of opportunities your direction:
1. Don’t be annoying
2. Work on cool stuff and share it
3. Need without neediness
4. Be really likable
Let’s dig into those 4 things real quick:
Don’t be annoying.
Don’t have a negative take on everything. Don’t send spam, don’t burn bridges, don’t take rejection personally, don’t throw tantrums, don’t turn little problems into big ones.
Don’t ask for favors. Offer something. If you do ask for something, don’t make it complicated. Make it easy for people to help you.
I’m not saying any of this to be mean. I’m saying it because the bar for not being annoying is surprisingly low in the world and you can use that to your advantage.
Work on cool stuff and share it.
Contrary to what you see in the movies, the elites who gatekeep the best opportunities don’t actually care about your pedigree, education or economic class.
They care about what you’re up to right now.
If you’re not employed, employ yourself. If a client hasn’t given you a project, create one. Have fun. Ideas flow from you. Turn a few of them into reality. Share the results. If you’re preoccupied with this behavior, you’ll be too busy to act desperate on LinkedIn and that’ll be a really great thing for your career.
Need without neediness.
We’ve all heard the story about the guy who met the love of his life, the day after he decided to stop dating and work on himself. The girl who got a million job offers the moment she stopped aggressively applying. To paraphrase the profound words of Oprah:
“Whatever you chase will hide from you.”
People love to give opportunities to those who have value to offer back. Human beings are attracted to self sufficiency and repelled by desperation and that’s just a beautiful cruel fact of life.
Be really likable.
This happens when you like yourself, and proactively do nice things for others.
I once met a young skateboarder who was aspiring to become a creative leader. He asked me politely for advice, so I met him for coffee. Then he offered to introduce me to the founder of a large personal care brand, with the intention that Intro Limited could become their talent partner.
Did I want that introduction? Yes. How did this skate kid know the founder of a multimillion dollar commercial brand? He was likable.
That’s it.
Do these 4 things, and you’re now a magnet for opportunities.
You don’t have time to seek them out because you’re too busy fielding them.
