13 Cs for SUCCESS in Business & in Life

It takes a combination of knowledge, talent and hard work to be successful today.

I find there is so much focus on the tactics of business and just not enough focus on mindset and the soft skills.

From my experience in business, if you want to achieve your goals and a level of success that reaches above the average then you need to not only develop the tactical skills like sales, marketing, and operations but also the soft skills outlined below.

I would argue that these skills are much more important as they are the foundation of a successful life.

To make it fun and easy to remember these qualities, traits, and skills, here are 13 Cs of success.

1) Confidence

Confidence is the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.

To succeed in anything in life whether it be relationships, business, career or family you need to have confidence in yourself and your abilities. Confidence is about trusting, having faith and believing in yourself.

2) Caring

Caring is about displaying kindness and concern for others. It’s about feeling concern or interest for something or someone.

Caring is one of the most important parts of success in that you have to care for your customer, care for your employees, care for your partners and care for your family. If you don’t care about these things, they won’t care about you or your mission, vision or purpose.

3) Character

Character is about the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. The concept of character can imply a variety of attributes including virtues such as empathy, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits.

Having good character means that you have character traits that include honesty, responsibility, and courage. Having a good character about being honorable and honest in the work you do and in your relations with others which is essential to being successful in your life and in business.

4) Creativity

Creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas in the production of an artistic work or idea. Creativity is both important for business and in your personal life. In business creativity and Innovation is the seed that businesses are started from and it’s required for almost any form of problem-solving.

Research shows that creative thinking involves making new connections between different regions of the brain. This implies that we can make ourselves more creative by exposing ourselves to new experiences and learning.

5) Compassion

Compansion is about sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. It’s compassion that motivates you to go out of your way to help the physical, mental or emotional pains of another.

Being compassionate means that you can put yourself in other people’s shoes and see the world and their situation through their eyes. This is an important skill if you want success in any area of your life and has great benefits.

For you, it activates the pleasure centers in your brain, which has a positive effect on self-esteem. It can reduce your stress and the stress of the person you are being compassionate to and it generally helps improve your social relationships which in turn makes everyone happier.

6) Courage

Courage is strength in the face of pain or grief. Physical courage is bravery in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, while moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement, or personal loss.

It takes courage to accomplish anything especially it business. Being an entrepreneur is all about embracing risk and uncertainty and that takes courage.

Courage is about persevering and going after your goals with all your energy and passion. It’s also about dealing with problems that may be uncomfortable or that push your comfort zones.

7) Communication

Communication is everything and how to communicate is a skill that many people still struggle with.

To succeed in life and business you need to be able to communicate with all kinds of people to help you on your journey as well as help them with theirs.

Verbal, written and nonverbal communication are skills to continuously focus on and work to master. Learning how to effectively convey and receive messages in person as well as via phone, email, and social media will help you get your next client, get hired for the job, get promotions, and be a success throughout your life.

8) Common-sense

Common sense is sound practical judgment concerning everyday matters, or a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge that is shared by (“common to”) nearly all people. That being said, common sense is not always so common but it is required for success.

Common sense is how we deal with issues and problems. It’s how we manage our own thoughts, our beliefs, our attitudes and how we cope with other people. It is essentially practical and worldly, not intellectual or academic.

Common-sense grows with the more you learn about yourself and your place in the world.

9) Curiosity

Curiosity is the quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning,

It’s curiosity that leads to discovery, creativity, and innovation in business. It’s because of curiosity that we have so discovered and developed so many great products, services, and art in this world.

Without curiosity, the world would not be a very interesting place.

10) Collaboration

Collaboration is the action of working with others to produce or create something.

Nobody is successful alone. Success, especially in business requires collaboration with many other people.  Collaboration enables individuals to work together towards achieving a common purpose or goal.

When we see any huge innovations or accomplishments in life, it’s almost always the result of good collaboration between many people.  Effective collaboration requires awareness of the shared purpose, motivation to gain consensus in problem-solving, participation and engagement. Learning to collaborate is an essential skill to succeed.

11) Courtesy

Courtesy is about politeness in one’s attitude and behavior toward others. Courtesy and manners go hand-in-hand as courtesy means putting good manner into practice. So it makes sense that to be courteous, you need to have good manners.

Good manners involve saying “Please” and “Thank you”, it’s about not interrupting and listing and so much more.

12) Clarity

Clarity of purpose, mission, and vision is important to anyone that wants to reach their goals. How will you know you’re successful when you’re not sure what success means to you?  Clarity often leads to focus so the more clear you are, the more focused you will be on reaching your goals.

One of the most important things in life is to know and have clarity on are your values. You need to understand exactly what you want and what matters most to you if you are going to succeed at anything.

Clarity is also important in communication with the people you encounter. When you are clear, there is much less confusion and things get done faster when there is less confusion.

13) Calmness

Calmness is about being free from agitation or strong emotion. It is the mental state that can be referred to as peace of mind or at a state of serenity, tranquillity, or peace.

Learning to remain call under adverse situations is a skill any entrepreneur needs to navigate the highs and lows of starting and growing a business.

You need to remain calm in a heated conversation, remain calm when a crisis arises and remaining calm when dealing with difficult people.

The good news is that calmness is a quality that can be cultivated and increased with practice.

Summary of the 13 Cs for success

All of these qualities can be developed and strengthened if you work at them. I hope you found these useful in helping you develop the right mindset for success.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

Thanks for reading. 🙂