Have you noticed how many successful people just keep racking up more wins? Here’s the secret to that kind of serial success…
When researchers wanted to test the accuracy of the old adage “success breeds success”, they designed a study that randomly assigned “rewards” to certain subjects. In all scenarios, receiving a modest reward early on “triggered a self-propelling cascade of success” for those participants. The study’s author reasoned that when people receive early success, it raises their expectations for future success.
Here’s how that works:
- Self-belief: After experiencing initial success (even something as mild as winning a game), people positively reevaluate their own abilities. This subjective self-confidence can play a crucial role in future performance, and contribute to putting identical people on different paths in terms of long-term success.
- Status: As a person’s success builds, so does their network and reputation, which easily opens more doors to success. And the work of high-status people can receive greater recognition than work of similar quality by lesser-known people.
- Optimism: Everyone fails at some point, but failure is not what inhibits success. A person’s outlook after that failure is what matters. Expectations, optimism, and positive beliefs are powerful drivers of success.
