If you’re like me, you may be fascinated with studying the most successful people and learning from the best in the trade. Whether it’s Oprah, Marissa Peer, Beyonce, the founders of BossBabe or anyone else, there is incredible value in absorbing the readily available wisdom, tips and tricks, and the formula to their success, by simply doing your research.

In today’s age, we can find books, autobiographies, TedTalks, podcasts and videos, to name a few – all relaying the wisdom of those that have worked long and hard to achieve their success, wealth and fame.

By learning from their mistakes and following their advice, you too can emulate the most important traits of successful entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Here are the 10 characteristics that they all have in common…

1. Highly Ambitious

Successful people are go-getters, goaldiggers, they know the sky is the limit and they deserve a slice of the cake just as much as anyone else. They don’t settle for scraps, don’t take no as the final answer, and if there isn’t a way, they will make one. What sets them apart is their drive, that inner fuel that keeps them going even when the going gets tough.

2. Open Mind

They are focused on growth and self development, learning more every day, opening doorways and challenging themselves with every step. They approach life from a positive perspective of “How can this get even better? How can I improve things? How can I achieve more?” instead of “What if xyz happens? This is bad, this is not good enough”.

The key here is focus, because what you focus over, you’re giving your power to, and only attracting more of. As such, when they invest all their efforts into brainstorming how a business can grow, that is what they will actively be nourishing in the future.

3. Thirst for Knowledge

Above all, success is achieved not through hard work, but through smart work. Successful people know that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel and start from zero! This is so important. They recognize the amazing advantages of living in this age – that you can research, read and educate yourself on literally anything. They know they can learn from the most successful and rich people and emulate their behavior, routines, patterns, formulas, strategies, etc. In short, replicate the success that others have already deciphered into patterns and formulas, instead of blindly fumbling in the dark trying to discover your own.

4. Perfectionists

They may have a degree of OCD, but let’s be fair, it is an amazing trait to have as a work ethic in the long run. Work quality is higher, results are higher, income is higher. They know what constitutes a quality product, service or creation, and they don’t stop until the desired result is achieved.

In the end, this trait is what helps them excel and outperform others. The biggest challenge is at the beginning, when you’re still grappling with navigating your perfectionism – don’t get stuck on any anxiety, self esteem issues or dissatisfaction with your current quality of work. The more you work on something, the better you get at it, and the more your skills & results will align with your high expectations with time.

5. Long-Term Thinking

This means they have a strategic perspective over things. They have a keen sense of prioritizing, making sacrifices or compromises for those priorities. They know what makes an investment (something that is rewarding longterm and only increases in value), or a liability (value decreases with time) – and based on that make the necessary decisions – or sacrifices.

Making sacrifices may mean prioritizing their business over anything else, in their first year(s) as an entrepreneur. It may mean saying no to endless weekends of going out for drinks with friends and acquaintances. It may mean overtiming for several days just to get a project done for a pressing deadline. It may even mean taking two weeks of vacation from their 9-to-5 corporate job just so they can focus on the launch of their own business or side hustles, and make sure everything is perfect.

The point is, highy successful business owners know that compromises come with the territory, and they own up to it, and make the best of it. Because once they’re done planting the seeds, when they’re done with the hardcore hustle and grind, they will have the luxury to slow down and re-evaluate how they want to lead their business going forward (ideally, through smart automation so the passive income just flows in while they sleep).

6. Workaholics

For better or worse, many entrepreneurs that achieved 6-figure businesses and more in just several years, did it thanks to their relentless dedication and committment. They put in the effort, the long hours, the overtiming, because they were dedicated to getting things done, finding solutions, making the next breakthrough in progress.

However, don’t mistake this trait as a healthy one by itself – it’s highly effective in professional domain yes, but unhealthy in the personal one long-term. The key is making use of this trait while balancing its pro’s and con’s.

7. Accountability

In order to really succeed, high-performing people know they need to take accountability for their actions. They know that they can have an impeccable business plan and overflow of creativity – but if there is little or no accountability, in taking ownership over their growth rate, over mistakes, over weak points, over any lagging or neglected tasks, then those weak points cannot be improved.

There is nothing wrong with having such points, we’re only human – but the moment you take ownership of what is, you can finally move on to solutions: “Ok, this is where I am, now what can I do to improve it?”

8. Familiar with Failure

Yes, that’s right! If you think the most successful people know little or nothing of failure, you couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, successful people fail a lot, they fail fast, and they fail hard – what matters is not that it happens, but what they do afterwards.

They know failure is not the end of the road but simply a sidestep – furthermore it is an opportunity for learning and doing better. So have a notebook ready whenever you make mistakes, and makes notes of how you can avoid the same mistakes, and how you can improve in the future.

9. Clear Vision

Successful people know what they want. Whatever their end goal may be, they know what it looks like and hold it clear in their minds. If you read the books of highly successful people, listen to their TedTalks or watch their videos, you’ll see they all had a strong vision of their goals.

They employed techniques like journaling, visionboards, visualization, all with the purpose of getting (and feeling) closer to their goals. This all boils down to the principles of how the mind works.

When you don’t know the steps to complete a task, you’ll get brainfog, anxiety might kick in, you’ll start unconsciously procrastinating, right? Why does this happen? Because your mind doesn’t know how to actually, practically get there!

As such, successful people create a mental blueprint through visionboards and journaling, and then they complete the mental blueprint of the goal’s many steps inbetween by researching how to get things done – and this is where #3 comes in. In short, they take advantage of all the tools and techniques at their disposal in order to accomplish their goals.

10. Networking

The more people you know, the greater your influence. When you have so many connections, you know just who to reach out to in order to learn more about a given domain, industry, process or anything else. Successful people know that networking is important because it it widens their community: potential buyers, investors, friends, business partners, the list is endless!

You never know who you might meet next and what opportunities they may bring. The more time you take to nurture your connections, the more doors will open for you, all while making sure that you’re being true to yourself and embodying your authentic self – because forming connections on false pretenses will do you no good.

For this reason, successful people make it a point to travel broadly, visit exhibitions, art galleries, museums, events, conferences, anything that further expands their network.