Lists about what makes a person — or a company — successful are ubiquitous, and they’re fun to read, but most have some built-in pro

Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do

submited by

Style Pass

2022-09-23 02:30:29

Lists about what makes a person — or a company — successful are ubiquitous, and they’re fun to read, but most have some built-in problems. First, the evidence is usually anecdotal rather than rigorous. As a result, the results aren’t reproducible. Most research sets don’t look at a large enough base to include failures, who may follow the same practices as the successes. Most fail to account for context-specific circumstances. It’s easy to explain success in hindsight — but difficult in real time. And finally, there are built-in opportunity costs: people or companies who imitate supposedly meaningful behaviors may overlook opportunities that would be more meaningful.

Who doesn’t love a “how to succeed” list? They’re fun to read and easy to share, which perhaps explains why there are so many of them. And the advice they give often sounds reasonable: The World Economic Forum published a post, in cooperation with Business Insider, listing 14 things successful people do before breakfast. It includes items such as drinking water and making your bed. A list that Forbes published claims every successful person shares this quality: “They know when to stay and when to leave.” This list, from Entrepreneur, advises readers to stop seeing problems, and start seeing opportunities; this one, from Inc., encourages readers to give up needing approval and fixating on their weaknesses.

But as palatable as these lists are, they can do damage. There are several reasons why they may be not only useless but also potentially harmful to decision makers, managers, and entrepreneurs.