You know successful people when you see them. They move forward as if there’s nothing that can stop them. What motivates them? What are the core attributes that drive them to climb higher?

A while back I wrote about a huge epiphany that was really tough to swallow. For most of my life I was certain that passion was the biggest driver of success. If you went after your goals with a hunger for success, you would achieve them. Through a completely unexpected channel (i.e. person) I became aware acutely aware that passion is not the real driver of your success.

The biggest drivers of success are desire, hard work and perseverance.

Desire

At the root of all success you’ll find desire. Desire is a strong feeling or wanting to have something happen. This internal feeling drives you to do the things necessary to accomplish your goal. It keeps you grounded and helps clarify what to pursue and what to give up. You will need to give up certain things in order to free up time and space for your efforts to succeed.

In his post The Desire to Lead Simon Sinek said: “. True leaders show up to give — and when circumstances require them to give more than they ever thought they would have to, they do so willingly.”

Hard work

When it comes to success, nothing replaces hard work – not personality, not connections, not education. You have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work necessary to achieve the success you’re going after. You’ll need to get others involved in your efforts—build a team to magnify your success—but the most successful people work harder than the people they lead.

Perseverance

Tied closely to hard work is perseverance, continuing forward without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure. If you want to succeed you have to “stick with it” as my dad taught me.

Great things always come through the combination of desire, hard work and perseverance.

How have these three drivers enhanced your success? Please leave a comment below.

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The Product Management Perspective: Desire, hard work and perseverance are vital to creating successful products.  Stick with these sound, proven practices and your customer will thank you.