9 Features That Make a Successful Person Stand Out in the Crowd

It’s impossible to answer the question about what makes a person successful and extraordinary. It can be a mix of a sharp mind and good luck, charisma and leadership qualities, an attractive appearance, and the ability to perceive the world through the prism of irony. There’s no exact formula, but still, we can’t ignore the fact that there are common features that help us spot successful people in a crowd.

We at Bright Side found several unexpected things that unite successful people. If you possess these features, you have every chance to reach impressive success in life.

They prefer glasses to lenses.

The claim that there’s a connection between wearing glasses and intelligence levels is not a stereotype but a proven fact. Believe it or not, people wearing glasses are less likely to take part in things like active sports but instead may prefer to stay home and read a book. Book lovers will opt for glasses over contacts because the latter need frequent replacement and thorough care. Moreover, highly intellectual people don’t feel shy about wearing glasses.

They often say “no.”

When it comes to success, it’s important to be able to control your time, even if it seems like you are letting people down. Billionaire Warren Buffett once said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” After all, when saying yes to everything, you might ruin your reputation by getting overwhelmed with too many responsibilities.

They opt for the same clothes.

We’ve seen that many people who have achieved great success prefer not to dress in trendy clothes from head to toe. After all, a concern with fashion requires additional time and mental costs that can be avoided. And this is because, first of all, trends are forever-fleeting and can change quickly as the person is busy looking for another clothing item from a limited collection. Secondly, you’ll have to spend precious time on the everyday procedures of putting together your looks.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg is well-known for his love of gray T-shirts. Steve Jobs got famous for his black long-sleeved shirts combined with jeans and sneakers. At the same time, Seth Godin, an American businessman and leading marketing theorist, prefers to stand out a bit, which is why he always wears bright socks and proves that one shouldn’t be scared to “leave the template.”

They don’t sleep according to a normal pattern.

Outstanding people often have one more specific habit: a unique sleeping schedule. Nikola Tesla would sleep no more than 2 hours a day, and Leonardo da Vinci would sleep for approximately 20 minutes then work for 4 hours, and the cycle would then be repeated. And Albert Einstein would sleep for 10 hours or more.

It’s hard to say whether these habits affected their genius, but research has shown that people are not programmed to sleep for 8 hours in a row by nature. Therefore, experimenting with your sleep schedule is perhaps not that crazy of an idea after all.

They use unusual tricks to increase productivity.

Some outstanding personalities have done quite strange things to keep them focused. For example, Bill Gates likes to rock in his chair during a moment of tension, while Igor Stravinsky would stand on his head every time he felt like he was in a deadlock.

But that’s not all. The German poet, Friedrich Schiller, used to keep rotten apples in the drawer of his desk for their “inspiring” smell. And writer Jonathan Franzen puts on noise-canceling headphones, blindfolds, and turns off the Internet.

They always jot everything down.

Both the contemporary Richard Branson and the magnate Aristotle Onassis agree that it’s important to always have a notebook on hand. Branson has said many times that he wouldn’t have been able to found his company, “Virgin,” (that brought in $16.6 billion in 2018) without having a regular notebook with him that he carries everywhere. Onassis, in his turn, said, “Always carry a notebook. Write everything down. When you have an idea, write it down. THAT is a million-dollar lesson they don’t teach you in business school!”

They perform eccentric exercises.

Physical activity is important for maintaining clarity of mind and well-being. But some successful people go to extremes when they come up with ways to exercise. Let’s start with a simple example: Tim Cook from Apple wakes up at 4 A.M. to visit the gym before work.

Simon Cowell, one of the most significant representatives of British show business, prefers non-traditional workouts, which is why he climbs trees every day. Nikola Tesla would squish his toes 100 times in a row, while Oscar Wilde would regularly walk outside with his lobster.

They rarely hold personal business meetings.

When the famous billionaire, Mark Cuban, was asked to give a good piece of advice to budding entrepreneurs, he replied, “No meetings or phone calls unless I’m picking up a check.” Meetings steal our time. Not only are people late for them in most cases, but also the amount of discussed topics is so vast that they take up a lot of time that could be spent more wisely.

If you can, it’s better to refuse personal meetings and hold them as rarely as possible. If you still have to hold a meeting, it should be as short as possible.

They prefer certain (sometimes unusual) foods when it comes to eating.

Such successful people are united by the presence of weird eating habits. Steve Jobs, in particular, would eat the same type of foods, like carrots or apples for weeks. He believed that his strict vegan diet let his body stay clean longer, which made bathing once a week enough. Still, experts think that such a diet can harm one’s health. Stephen King, in his turn, likes to eat a piece of cheesecake before starting his writing activities. Also, he never eats anything slimy, like oysters.

Each of us can have such unusual preferences — some like to eat watermelon with bread, others like tomatoes with sugar, the some are delighted by French fries with ice cream.

Do you or those close to you have similar unusual habits or features?

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