What makes a person successful

Type of the lesson: English practice

Age of students: 21-22 (5-year students)

General topic of the unit: Business

Topic of the class: Business people

Goals of the class:develop speaking skills, increase critical thinking, provide students with important and interesting information, teach to express personal opinion and provide them with more analytical skills.

Goals of the activity: train the traits of a successful person in each student.

I Pre-reading exercise.

1) How can you characterize a successful person?

2) Do you know any successful personalities among your friends/ relatives/ acquaintances? What makes them successful?

II Reading exercise

27 Traits Of Successful People (by Tim Brownsons)

Is it really possible to become a successful person in just one day? I actually believe you can become a successful person in just one second.

Why? Because to be a successful person you only have to change your thoughts and start to think like a successful person. Your have to program your brain to respond differently to situations that it was previously refusing.

But how exactly are successful people made and how do they think? I’ve read and studied a lot of books on the subject, as well as experimenting and asking around. The following is list of 27 traits that distinguish successful people from ordinary people. If you take the commitment to apply every day each principle in your life, you’ll start to see amazing results in no time.

They are positive. Successful people don’t let negative events alter their ego. They see the glass half full and not half empty. They are known as the ones who raises positiveness among others. Benefits: other people want to stay with them because they make them feel better.

They say yes to everything. They take every opportunity they can. They are not afraid of doing something new, like giving a talk in public. They take everything like a challenge with themselves. Update: what I really mean is that they are not afraid of trying something new, but at the same time they still focus on those few activities with the highest return.

They don’t say no. Of course they can’t say yes to everything. But instead of just saying no, they explain their answer instead of finding excuses.

They never criticize others. Successful people don’t criticize others when when they are not listening, because otherwise people among them will recognize them as persons who tend to talk behind others.

They never complain. Every one is able to complain about things. Bad things happen and complaining about them it’s not a good solution to stop them to happen.

They offer their help for free.
Successful people offer their help for free whenever they can. Some examples include blogging and free consulting. They do so to rise their popularity and interest among other people.

They smile. They smile often and genuinely to rise positiveness and build strong relationships.

They offer solutions. Successful people are problem solvers. When something doesn’t work as expected they try to find solutions instead of complaining about the problem.

They give more than what’s expected. When you pay for something, you usually receive only what you paid for. Nothing wrong, but what if you receive something more? Of course you would be happier and you would buy more (or recommend) in the future. Successful people know this and give more than what’s expected so that other people will remember them.

They are genuinely interested in other people. Successfully people are genuinely interested on building strong relationship with others, they don’t just do it because it’s networking is important.

They know how to listen. People like to talk. Why? Because they think there is someone listening, so in reality people like to be listened. Successful people talk less and listen more. If they don’t know what to say, they ask questions instead of talking about themselves.

They make others feel important. They make other feel important by letting them figure out important things themselves. By doing so, they are recognized as intelligent people.

They are calm and they think a lot. They pause before talking, they don’t say everything that comes out from their brain just because they can. By doing so they appear more intelligent and interested in the argument being discussed.

If they’re wrong, they admit it. What’s the worst thing that could happen if you say that you were wrong? I don’t know, but I do know that admitting to be wrong is a sign of superiority, and that’s what successful people do.

They don’t say that you’re wrong. What’s the point? Seriously, how do you feel when someone points out that you are wrong? So why would you want to have all reasons at all costs? What about saying something like: “Hey, I thought something else, let’s try to dig deeper and figure out something more”?

They encourage other people. They inspire others to follow their path. They teach how to became successful at something. Many people do this with blogs to reach the highest number of people possible.

They take responsibility. Successful people are responsible for what they do. Even when something out of their control affects their feelings, they promptly act and take responsibility for improving the situation.

They are excited in everything they do. Can you imagine being excited to hear the sound of your alarm clock in the morning? It’s an awesome sensation and it can be reality if you are excited about what you’ll do today. Successful people are excited in everything they do, and they try to deliver the best possible outcome with every opportunity.

They fail. You can’t be always right the first time, everyone fails, and those who win more are those who fails more. Failure it’s an integrant part of success, and successful people try and fail until they reach their goals.

They learn everything they can. Successful people are avid learners. They try to learn everything they can get their hands on. But they don’t spend their whole days on books because they put in practice what they learnt to see if it really works or not.

They network with other people. You’ll have an hard time becoming successful without the help of other people. Don’t skip this part. Start today and make as many genuine connections as possible. Successful people know this, and they all agree that a huge part of success is built with the help of others.

They are persistent. If you want to see results, you have to persistent and try for a long enough period of time. Successful businesses as well as successful person, are not built over night. They had to work long hours before enjoying the four hour work week.

They are optimistic. Having an optimistic mentality is everything. Scientists are telling us that people who are optimistic are getting the most out of their actions. Being optimistic helps in every situation from work to life. Successful people know this and they are optimistic when they start a new project.

They know how to focus. Probably the most important element in productivity, focus is essential for the completion of your goals. Successful people don’t like to be distracted when they are working, and for a good reason.

They do less, and they do it well. Successful people think that it’s highly unproductive to have a lots of projects going on. To contrast this, they get rid of all the projects where they are wasting time and they focus on the few that are providing the highest value in return.

They are open mind. Everything changes. Twenty years ago nobody was using computers and internet, but today it’s an essential tool for every business. Still, there are many people who don’t know how to properly use one. Successful people embrace changes and take advantage of technology to improve their business.

They are confident. Successful people believe in themselves and in their actions. They know that everything will turn right if you give it enough time and passion.

III Post-Reading exercise

1) How do you think, which traits of the character are the most important to be a successful? Why?

2) With which points of the article above do you agree and with which ones do you disagree? Why? (You may use citations from the article if you need)

3) Create a top-10 list of the most meaningful traits of successful person's character. Be ready to explain why.

IV Now I would like to offer you a video of Donald Van de Mark - a newsman, who has investigated and reported on those who have reached "the top of the top" in the fields of politics, business, and culture. What he does is observe them at length and interview them about how they think and make choices, so he can decipher how their minds and hearts work.

V Now, after you've watched the video, can you name 3 basic internal skills of the successful person? What great example does he give, how can you explain the self-motivation of the person who reached success after starting to work as a coffee-seller?

Home assignment:

- Watch the following video attached.

- Name the main points Donald Van de Mark is talking about. Give some proves of the examples of successful person's traits of character (basing on the video material).

- Do you agree with all the points the newsman is talking about? If yes -why, if no-why.

- Write a short essay basing on what we have discussed during the class. You may write about any point that impressed you most of all.