We’ve all seen them, the ones who ooze confidence and know all the answers to your questions. Find out how they do it.

Successful people are not your average Joes. They’re different. They do things differently and think differently too. Successful people have a goal in mind and will work smartly to achieve it. We’ve identified key habits that set successful people apart from the rest. Here are a few key characteristics they possess.

They have one plan and stick to it
If you have one plan you’ll work harder to achieve the goals you set out; a back-up plan creates a backdoor for you to escape through just in case you don’t succeed with your initial plan. 

Having a plan or a goal and sticking to it will naturally make you work harder and smarter to achieve it. The plan will require your full attention and commitment because you know that if it fails, that’s all there is. Moral of the story? Pick a plan and stick to it.

Successful people aren't afraid of hard work
Average workers are average because they have average skills. If you want to be excellent you have to put in the effort to be excellent. The only way you can achieve this is to put in the hours needed. Are you prepared to work the hours that no one else is for the sake of mastering your art? You can be good with a little effort. You can be really good with a little more effort. Greatness needs a great amount of work. Get it?

Office hours don’t matter
Putting in an extra half an hour won’t make a difference to anything. Successful people work much harder and (happily) much longer than the average worker. These people have their own to-do list that they want to get done before the next day so they work until they do and not until the clock strikes five. If you don’t want to take on a big workload, don’t count on being highly successful – it obviously isn’t as important as you thought it is.

They follow their own path 
Very successful people don’t follow an idea that’s trending at the moment, they work hard to find a gap in the market and go where the crowds haven’t been yet because they know there’s very little competition on the road less travelled.

They start where others don’t 
Of course all people have a goal, that isn’t special, but the way in which each person starts is. Work from the back and decide what you’d like to ultimately be. Decide what you’d like to achieve at the end of it; do you want to be the fastest employee or have the largest variety of goods in your store? Remember, the bigger you dream, the harder you’ll work to make it a success and the better your chances are of becoming a success.

The first step to the road of success is finding a job that makes you happy. Have you registered on Careers24 yet? It’s easy to get started – simply upload your CV and search for the job of your dreams.