Summary.
Lists about what makes a person — or a company — successful are ubiquitous, and they’re fun to read, but most have some built-in problems. First, the evidence is usually anecdotal rather than rigorous. As a result, the results aren’t reproducible. Most research sets don’t look at a large enough base to include failures, who may follow the same practices as the successes. Most fail to account for context-specific circumstances. It’s easy to explain success in hindsight — but difficult in real time. And finally, there are built-in opportunity costs: people or companies who imitate supposedly meaningful behaviors may overlook opportunities that would be more meaningful.Who doesn’t love a “how to succeed” list? They’re fun to read and easy to share, which perhaps explains why there are so many of them. And the advice they give often sounds reasonable: The World Economic Forum published a post, in cooperation with Business Insider, listing 14 things successful people do before breakfast. It includes items such as drinking water and making your bed. A list that Forbes published claims every successful person shares this quality: “They know when to stay and when to leave.” This list, from Entrepreneur, advises readers to stop seeing problems, and start seeing opportunities; this one, from Inc., encourages readers to give up needing approval and fixating on their weaknesses.