Why does Business Character Matter?

It is wise to know what comes first and what to do first. To begin anything in the middle or at the end is to make a mess of it. The runner who began by breaking the finish line tape would not receive the prize. He must begin by facing the starter line and toeing the mark, and even then, a good start is important if he expects to win.

The first things in a professional manager—and therefore in a truly happy and successful business career—are right habits. Without the right habits, to begin with, there will be wrong practices to follow with, and a substandard and inadequate career to end with.

The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Managers are simple; yet without them, there is no real success and no great accomplishment. To learn them thoroughly, and study how to apply them to all the details of career, is to avoid confusion, and to secure a substantial foundation for the orderly building up of an unshakable business character that matters.

To name the habits is easy, which is but mere words. However, managers must ensure they are fixed sources of action. I will deal with only ten of these habits because they are the most common that I have observed over the past twenty-eight years in successful managers. These ten habits are among the simplest, but they are those that come nearest to every business career. They touch the engineering, financial, medical, technology, science, and several other career fields at every point. The manager who perfects them will rise in the organization over many of the managers without them.

If you would believe that Business Character Matters and truly practice The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Managers, your character and success are uncertain and insecure. The ten habits are ten practices, ten avenues to achievement, and ten sources of knowledge. It is an old saying and a good rule that “Practice makes perfect!” Do not merely read them aloud; you must establish them in your mind. To know them, and receive what they alone can bring, you must do them, and others must see them in your actions.