It seems that particularly successful people have certain qualities that others simply lack. But is it really the case that you just have to accept it if you have not yet achieved success? In this article, Daniel Schäfer explains why you can actively work towards being successful.

If you understand your brain, you have taken the first step towards success.

Psychology and neuroscience have long known that our environment shapes our inner attitudes. Everything you experienced in your childhood, the values you were taught, and the expectations you had to meet, all shape you and your way of thinking to this day.

Compare, for example, a child who grew up in a well-educated family in Switzerland with a child in the South American rainforest. Both have to face completely different challenges in order to survive in their respective environments.

For the child from Switzerland, it is not important to know how to find food in nature, and equally, for the child in the rainforest, it is unimportant to know and apply certain social conventions when visiting a restaurant. Both adapt to their environment, and their brains prioritise what is important to them. Some attitudes that one child has are completely unknown to the other, simply because they play no role in daily life and are of no use.

We can therefore conclude that our brain only stores things it considers important and for which it has proven useful to know them.

How you can programme your brain for success

But what would happen if both children were to swap roles overnight? Both would find themselves in an environment that presents challenges whose solutions are completely unfamiliar – their respective brains have no information about which behaviour is correct.

As a child, adapting would probably still be relatively easy. Children learn by observing and are good at quickly figuring out what benefits them and what does not. But as adults, that is no longer enough. The older we get, the more important reflection and logical understanding of certain actions become.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the topic.

The answer is obvious: You too have stored behaviours and rules in your brain that provide the best solutions for your current environment.

However, the truth is that for most people, entrepreneurial success is not an environmental factor. For example, if you have previously worked as an employee, you simply cannot know what is required to be successful. You lack role models in your environment. And this applies to most people.

Where you can quickly recall solutions for everyday challenges in your brain, when it comes to success, there is simply nothing stored.

Step by step, removing barriers to success

You might argue that you are not responsible for your upbringing and your inner attitudes – after all, you were born into a certain environment and could not choose in advance whether your family included a number of successful entrepreneurs or civil servants and employees.

That is true, but you are not helpless in this situation if you become aware that you can still learn, regardless of your age. The first step is to understand what you have learned today.

It may be that, when it comes to success, your brain is currently a blank slate, but you always have the opportunity to fill this slate with the right information.

Two things are crucial for this:

1. You can consciously decide to close your knowledge gaps. Invest time in your knowledge and the skills you need to get closer to success.
2. Seek out an environment where people have already achieved success. This could be certain clubs or even a single mentor who can share practical insights about what is important.

If you need support in programming your mindset for success, we are happy to help. Let us have a non-binding and free conversation so we can get to know each other and show you the first steps to prevent standing in the way of your own success in the future.

About X-Group

Belief in your potential and a focus on the things that truly move you forward are the top priorities at X-Group GmbH in Berlin. You receive tailored support that identifies the most important bottlenecks. This way, you remove obstacles and can work purposefully towards your success.