157: 5 Traits of Highly Successful People

**Nick Bare** (0:00)
Now, before we dive in to today's episode, I want to let you know about something we got going on here at BPN. Now, we ask you guys to commit to your goals and go all in on that commitment. And we want to help you get there. So what we're doing this year is 25% off all supplement subscriptions. If you sign up for a BPN supplement subscription on our website at bpnsupps.com, it is 25% off. We have never offered a subscription discount of this greatness before. So I would highly encourage you guys to take advantage of this. You can save money and ensure that you are consistent with your commitments throughout 2026 Now, into the episode.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's topic is five traits of highly successful people. Now, there are nuances to each one of these five traits. If you take them for face value alone and don't take the time to truly assess and understand each one, they can actually drive you towards failure as opposed to success. And I want to make this caveat. I'm going to list out, and I'll give an overview before I dive into each one of these five traits that I believe are common denominators of highly successful people. There might be a response. You might be thinking, yeah, but I know someone who wasn't one of these five traits, who didn't embody one of these five traits. I know someone who is X, Y and Z, and they were still successful. Yes, there are always going to be exceptions to the role. Always. In every case, in every situation of life. But I believe that these are widely acceptable traits of majority, the majority of successful people. And we aren't talking about exceptions to the role in this episode, this discussion. And really why I want to discuss this topic is I was sitting back and just thinking about what has led myself and the BPN team to where we are today. At this point in time, 2026, BPN was started 14 years ago. It's a long time to be in business. And I look at people in my life, I look at people in the world who aren't achieving what they say they want to achieve, aren't successful by the terms in ways they define success themselves. And there's a reason why they aren't doing these five simple, not easy, these five simple things correctly on a regular basis. And I was thinking about this during my workout this morning. I had a shoulders and arms workout in my garage or home gym. And as I was training, I was thinking about these five traits and some of the research that I've done in preparation for this discussion. Some of the other entrepreneurs, athletes, world leaders that I've researched in and learned more about in preparation.
And I'm going to say this, it's probably a bold statement, but I truly believe it is much easier and simpler to be successful than many people actually believe. And what holds so many people back is just not doing the simple things right on a regular inconsistent basis. Many of us know what we have to do to get from point A to point B. If you want to achieve something, if you want to surpass a certain milestone, if you want to make a certain amount of money, if you want a certain type of career, if you want to build a business, you want to achieve a goal, we know what it takes to go from point A to point B to achieve. Now along that path, you might fail multiple times before you actually succeed. But eventually, if you keep applying effort, chances are you're going to be successful, you're going to achieve. But what holds so many people back is self-sabotage. It is not an external factor in most cases. It is an internal factor. We hold ourselves back from achieving because we don't do what we know we're supposed to do to get from point A to point B. If I think of the things that I haven't achieved in my life, that I've said I've wanted to achieve, it is my fault. I am responsible. I am accountable. And in most cases, it's because I didn't do what I knew I was supposed to and needed to do to get there. In some cases, it's because it just didn't matter to me anymore. And I abandoned that goal that I originally set out to achieve. And in some cases, other cases, I just didn't want it bad enough. So I didn't put in the work that was required, the effort that was required to get there. I've been in these type of situations where I didn't achieve, but it wasn't because of external factors, it wasn't because of anyone else, it was because of me. In all of the situations that I can think of and remember of why I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve. So the five, what I believe are common traits of highly successful people, and there's probably a whole lot more, but these are five that I want to dive into on a deeper level. Number one, they think big. There is this book, it's called The Magic of Thinking Big, by David Schwartz. In this book, David says, look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. Remember, he isn't stuck with the present. That hit home for me. Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. What is the potential? The magic of thinking big, thinking large. One of my favorite quotes that I've ever heard, and it was from a David Senra podcast. David Senra, who I've mentioned many times on this podcast, he is the host of Founders. And in this podcast, David Senra now has a separate podcast where he interviews founders and entrepreneurs. But in the Founders podcast, he reads biographies and autobiographies of highly successful people. And he breaks down in these episodes, their journey, their story, and what made them different. What made them successful? I first heard this quote in one of his podcasts, and I want to say it was in reference to Kobe Bryant. But the quote is, belief comes before ability. The truth is, you will never have the ability if you don't first have the belief. Straight up, you have to believe that you can achieve something before you can ever go and do it. I've never heard or come across someone who has achieved something great, but didn't think they could get there. You don't just fall into success. It doesn't just happen by chance. Maybe there is an exception to the rule, and someone gets so lucky and hits the lottery in the jackpot, that they become successful overnight by some slight chance. The stars align and just happen. But if you're waiting on that moment, there's a very low chance that it's going to come. You have to have the belief before you have the ability.