INSTANT MBA: One Thing Successful People Always Do

Instant MBA

July 29, 2014

There are a few things that incredibly successful people do differently than the rest of us, says Bernard Marr, a global enterprise performance expert and a best-selling business author, in a recent LinkedIn post. One thing they always do: spot and grab opportunities as they present themselves.

"[This is] an important skill, and one that many of the most successful and powerful entrepreneurs and businesspeople of the world have turned into quite a lot of money," Marr explains.

He offers the following four examples:

Richard Branson never tries to create something entirely new; he looks for opportunities to "improve on what already exists in a meaningful way."

Branson originally wanted to be a journalist and editor, Marr explains, but he quickly realized he had to learn to become an entrepreneur to keep his magazine afloat. "Since then, Branson has become the epitome of the savvy businessman who knows how to spot an opportunity," Marr says.

"Branson's calling card these days involves seeing a somewhat staid and rigid industry — like the airline industry or mobile phone industry — and flipping it on its head, making it cool, unique, different, and calling a very unique set of customers in who weren't being served by the old guard."

Mary Kay Ash saw opportunities in obstacles.

When the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics was denied a promotion, she took $5,000 of her life savings and "turned it into one of the largest, most successful multi-level marketing companies ever at a time when female CEOs were still extremely rare," Marr says.

Ash never let a setback sideline her. Instead, she saw obstacles as "impetus to create something new."

Madam C.J. Walker recognized needs that weren't being met and developed a way to meet them.

Walker, the creator of a popular line of African-American hair care products and America's first self-made female millionaire, discovered opportunities as a matter of necessity.

She was earning less than a dollar a day as a washer woman when her husband died, supporting herself and her young daughter, who she wanted to be able to give a formal education.

"Walker had to take care of her family, but also saw a need for beauty products that catered to her unique needs as an African-American woman," Marr explains. If you want to be successful, you need to realize that opportunity can masquerade as necessity, he says.

Thomas Edison didn't see failure as a sign to stop, but rather a sign to keep going.

Edison once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

"[He] definitely understood the value of work," Marr says. "Edison understood that a single invention was unlikely to make and sustain the sort of success he wanted, so he continued working, challenging, and pursuing new ideas well past the stage when many would have given up."

Opportunity doesn't always present itself as the easiest option, Marr explains. "But sometimes as a reward to those who keep working."

Click here to read the full LinkedIn post.

Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.