[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.]
People with great soft skills seem to dominate many areas in business . I think of leadership and sales first, though also entrepreneurship.
People erroneously see people who succeed in those areas as born, not made. Or they at least ask if great leaders or salespeople are born or made.
The media propagate this myth because it leads to drama, which sells copy and movie tickets. Unsuccessful people like it because it excuses them from trying. “Well, of course he is a great leader. He was born that way. If I were born that way I would also be a great leader,” they lament.
Research shows that success in these areas doesn’t come from innate traits but from skills. And not just any skills but skills anyone can learn.
If you want to improve in these areas, you can do it by developing your skills.
If you don’t learn the skills, you won’t likely succeed. If you do, you have a chance.
More importantly, if you have this belief, you’ll motivate yourself to develop yourself. You’ll feel responsible to. And you’ll know you can because that’s how everyone else did it.