Intelligence, ambition and industriousness are evergreen qualities that will always help power your success in the business world. However, that world is changing rapidly, and there are a few qualities that are more important than ever before if you want to be a success. The digital world has changed the availability of information, how you present yourself and how you manage your time, and getting a handle of all three of these is crucial.
Critical Thinking
Thanks to the internet, there’s never been so much information at the fingertips of so many people. Unfortunately, also thanks to the internet, there’s never been so much misleading information available. Just because you read it online or it came from a prominent person doesn’t mean it’s good information. It’s important to examine the expertise of the source and see what others have to say about it as well. This is important at every stage of your business career, whether you are researching undergraduate business programs, writing a business plan or weighing advice you’ve been given about expanding into an industry you’re unfamiliar with. You’ll need to do this a lot with abstract information, but it can be necessary with more concrete things as well. A simple example is researching the availability of student loans to finance your education. You may find arguments for why a variable or fixed rate is better or what kind of repayments terms are most advantageous. You’ll need to take your own situation and priorities into account as well as the reliability of the site you’re getting your information from. Don’t just assume that the first article you read about the topic is sufficient.
Authenticity
There’s a saying that on the internet, no one knows you’re a dog. There’s even a term, catfishing, for presenting yourself online as someone you aren’t. Every once in a while, a story breaks about a social media influencer who depicted a very different version of life online compared to their actual offline life. In a time when people can present themselves as anyone they want to be as long as they don’t have to leave the virtual world, authenticity is a stronger currency than ever before. In the end, relationships between individuals still drive the business world. Focus on establishing real relationships offline and work on strengthening the connections you make online.
Focus
The ability to focus has always been critical to business success, but there are new challenges to maintaining focus. Once upon a time, the only ways you might be contacted were by telephone, letter or personal visit. These days, you face a steady stream of distraction from email, text messaging, social media and more. If you aren’t careful, you can while away half a day simply reacting to the messages you are getting. Learning to set aside distractions and focus on the work you need to do is critical to success. Whether this means blocking out just one or two times a day to respond to messages, hiring an assistant or some other solution, being proactive instead of reactive about managing the many channels of communication will set you apart from your competitors.