Leaders See What is Invisible to Everyone Else

One of the common traits of self-made millionaires is that they are leaders. Ninety-one percent of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study who pursued the Big Company, Virtuoso or Entrepreneur Path to building wealth held leadership roles in their respective companies.

There are many studies on leadership. A common trait often cited among those studies about leaders is that they were visionaries – they had the ability to see things that were invisible to everyone else. They see potential problems down the road that could interfere with the pursuit of their goals and create secondary plans to deal with those problems. They see solutions to problems, others cannot see. They see opportunities in situations where others only see pitfalls. They see a path towards success where others only see obstacles.

What separates leaders from everyone else is their ability to visualize solutions, opportunities and alternate routes towards success.

Acquiring this trait, however, takes practice. Vision is an acquired habit.

And this habit emerges only by developing a positive mental outlook. When you have a positive mental outlook you open up your mind to possibilities. Positivity gives you a type of Superman X-Ray vision.

Conversely, those with a negative mental outlook, are only able to see problems, pitfalls and obstacles. A negative mental outlook narrows your vision, making you blind to solutions, opportunities and alternative paths to pursue goals/dreams.

There’s a lot of science to back this up. Dr. Barbara Frederickson, University of North Carolina, published the results of a study she conducted on this very topic, which she called the Broaden and Build Study. According to her findings, when you are able to adopt habits that shift your thinking from negative to positive, you expand, or broaden your thinking.

Positivity helps turn on your entire brain, which then goes to work helping you see solutions, opportunities and alternate paths to take in the pursuit of success.