The One Overlooked Critical Element to Success

There are a lot of things that go into being successful and maintaining success.  Hard (and smart) work, grit and the ability to keep going, seizing opportunities and actioning them as they present themselves, dedication, focus, and many more.

I could write many posts about the ingredients to consistent success, but I feel it especially important to write about one characteristic I've seen consistently across almost every entrepreneur I meet or interview.

That characteristic is this:  It is not one major thing that they do that sets the apart from their peers and competition, but a lot of little things done just a little different or better that add up to a huge advantage for them.

Many of these things are thing that all entrepreneurs do - lead people, work with clients, make sales, manage finances, create and work toward a vision, etc.

The key difference is that the most successful entrepreneurs either do these things differently or more uniquely than others or focus intently on how to be better than even the best they are up against.

For example, I recently interviewed Alicia Jarrett out of Australia.  Alicia invest in real estate in the US and is highly successful to the point where her "competition" is coming to her and her business partner to teach them what they are doing to succeed.  Alicia's secret is in a couple areas.  First, her and her partner have a developed a unique process to mine and manage data to find the absolute ideal prospects that are currently in a position to sell their property at a discount.  Next, they market to them through not just one method, but multiple.  Additionally, Alicia has carved out a very specific niche in that she buys vacant land that prospects have had for many years that has potential, but usually has a couple roadblocks that had kept it from being developed.  Alicia and her team have put together everything they need to alleviate those roadblocks, so they can buy the property at a discount taking the burden off the owner's hands, then fixing the issues, and selling it for a great profit.

As you can see Alicia does a number of things uniquely and differently and her obsession with fine tuning prospect data to find the perfect lead is better than others.  These things all combined give her a great competitive advantage and have made her and business partner consistently successful.

How about you?  What areas can you get just a little bit better than you biggest competition in?  What things can you do in a more efficient or unique way that will help give you an advantage?  Start thinking on these questions and jotting down your thoughts and you'll find there are a number of opportunities that present themselves.  Use this critical element to success to your advantage!