My Borrowed Thoughts For The Day: 9 things unsuccessful people do. Observations from my holiday in the UK.

Borrowed from my LinkedIn Blog.

Right now, at this moment, financially, I am unsuccessful. I know this, as this year, we had to book a holiday, to a place we wouldn't normally go. But as it happens, it was the perfect place to observe a few things about the "unsuccessful".

Now, before you get upset. Let me clarify.

What do I mean by unsuccessful?

For me being 'successful' means you have more than a million in the bank. It's purely a financial thing for this definition. I know it's not great but there it is.

You have your own version of being successful or unsuccessful, I know that, we all do. That’s yours… This is mine. However, what I do know, for a fact, is that.

People love reading about success.

LinkedIn, with it’s millionth person publishing, is full of articles about the top things successful people do. So are Inc. and The Next Web and every other entrepreneurial magazine.

We love reading about the successful and their habits and tricks. Especially when the titles have numbers in them. So you get to read "9 successful things the successful you probably don’t do yet." *1 Or what the super successful do over the weekends.*2 Or what the successful, do to be ‘successful’ on a Monday morning. *3

But, I am unsuccessful so far. I am on my 9th startup idea / business and not one of them has made me a million pounds. (Yet.)

And ... I DO MANY of the below. At least 5 of them.

How many do you do?

"9 things the unsuccessful do."

1. Shout over each other.

This is a naughty one, as rich people shout as well. I think it's called 'braying' when they do. But do "self made" people do it as well? The real point is that it's not the shouting, it's not moving nearer to one another once the shouting starts. There is no attempt to minimize the social disruption. The "shouter" simply continues to shout over the top of you, at the person they are shouting at.

2. Buy tat.

By this I mean stuff that breaks easily, is made from plastic, is cheap and throw away able. Ironically, it last for years, as broken plastic, but that's another story entirely.

3. Gamble.

This really should be just seen as a tax on the poor. Giving money to something where you know that 30% goes to the house (at least) just seems silly and counter intuitive. (But as 9 out of 10 starts ups fail... I will leave this one alone.)

4. Have lots of kids

This is a controversial one - as children cost a lot - the average expense now at a staggering £225,000 (to raise one until 21 in the UK *4.) It could be a chicken and egg moment i.e. three or more children and you spend A LOT. Ironically, therefore, if the numbers are right with 4 kids you already have spent like a millionaire. *4

5. Have tattoos.

It was staggering, the percentage of people who had tattoos on the holiday and the how much of their bodies were covered. Around 80% of the adults had tattoos and big ones too. The UK average is around 25%. I have a tattoo too but it's tiny compared to the "amount of ink" people had.

6. Smoke.

A BIG one for me (as an ex smoker.) A huge number of adults smoked, often with their children around or right next to them. But would this make you less successful? Maybe as according to some, smoking could cost you around $1 million in your lifetime. So you have less to invest or make wealth with whilst apparently, poorer countries are smoking more, as rich countries are starting to stub out their cigarettes.*6. Which might say something.

7. Overeat.

Ok, an aptly bigger one for me. As I am overweight and I am not alone. As in the UK, 64% of adults are classed as being overweight or obese *7. I overeat and over the past four years, after Mia was born, I put on weight. And kept on doing so. Without much exercise and a laptop bound lifestyle I am now a chubby entrepreneur. It's not good. However, on this holiday I would think at least 95% of the people I saw were overweight and some massively so.

8. Drink LOTS.

I do this and it has to stop. It has made me even more 'chubby'.

9. Care.

I saw more people with elderly relatives than ever before. Lots of families, most of them with three generations all together. From this I took it that they cared for each other. I might be wrong. I kinda hope I am not.

So what should we do?

The above 10 are things that unsuccessful people seem to do. But perhaps we could all do with doing the last one a little more as we strive to become more "successful." As the happy startup people *8 put it perhaps:

"You can measure success in terms of the relationships you’ve developed, the experiences you’ve been part of and your impact on the lives of others. These will be the things you remember and get remembered for."

By the by...

I haven't mentioned where we went BUT... It was an amazing holiday for my daughter 4 year old daughter Mia. She will remember it :)

What do you think?

What other things have you noticed "unsuccessful" people do?

Please do comment below. Without gossiping or name calling ;)

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Points and References for this article.

About the Author:

Dan Sodergren is co founder of Follogro - a social media tech start up - a serial entrepreneur, occasional keynote speaker and full time digital marketing trainer.He specialises in mobile and social marketing with ideas ranging from augmented reality, to RTB and back again. He trains companies and individuals in best practice on social and mobile marketing platforms, gets to talk about it all on radio and is even occasionally seen on the BBC.

My Borrowed Thoughts For The Day

Wednesday 15 July 2015

9 things unsuccessful people do. Observations from my holiday in the UK.