There are hundreds of self-help books, seminars, articles, and gurus out there who will claim to give you the “secret sauce” to being successful. And many will ask for your credit card up front before they share with you their proprietary blend of skills and qualities. But is being successful really that difficult? Well, yes it is. It will require a lot of you. But do we tend to overcomplicate the process by breaking every step down to its most granular components?

I tend to believe being successful requires the development of some core attributes, which then facilitate the attainment of success.

But first, I think it’s important that we actually qualify what success is, because too often it’s unfortunately misconstrued as financial wealth. And it’s understandable why this is the case. For instance, the dictionary definition of success actually lists riches, wealth, and opulence as synonyms. But don’t get me wrong, I believe that financial wealth can be a signal of success, but it’s not the definition of it.

Instead, I look at the alternative definition given in the dictionary: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

This broader definition of success allows us to understand that success is completely relative and can be achieved in other aspects of life other than business. But the core qualities to achieve success in any field are often the same. I believe they boil down to these five attributes, which when worked on individually, result in successful outcomes.

Trustworthy

Trust really is a simple thing to identify. It’s usually a yes or no question.

Do you trust this person with X? The answer is rarely, maybe.

And to achieve success, especially in personal relationships and business, trust is a critical factor that must be developed.

Think about most of your interactions with people on a given day. A lot of what you do depends on whether you trust someone or not. For instance, you go to work because you trust that the owners will pay you for your work. Also, we choose vendors once we decide we can trust them with our budgets. And the other night about a dozen candidates got up on a stage for the republican candidate debate and tried to convince the US population to trust them.

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