Dennis’ Magic Ingredients for Success: Passion, Discipline and Confidence

Sometimes, work gives you the opportunity to meet great people, high performers that inspire other people to be the best version of themselves. This was the case with Dennis, whom I met last year – albeit virtually. We started a project together and working with him was nothing less of rewarding. It should come as no surprise then that I chose him as a study case for success.  

Dennis is a well-known LinkedIn expert and a social media influencer. As a LinkedIn Profile Makeover Expert, he found his calling by giving the right voice to whoever you already are, by presenting your background in the best possible light, and by making you and your already acquired skills stand out in a sea of other competent professionals. As you will see in the interview below, the underlying theme of his success, is a combination of discipline, passion, and confidence. Being passionate about what he does might make it easier to succeed, but having the right mind set, confidence, and discipline to stay focused on the tasks at hand make success a certain outcome.

Like many other successful people, Dennis exudes confidence, self-reliance, and resourcefulness. Here are his answers to my questions:

  • What are your three most important factors for success? What keeps you going?

Focus Discipline Organization.  The fact that I love what I do and I do not see it as a job keeps me going. I wake up every morning and I want to go to work. If I do not work for one day I can’t wait to go back to work. I am addicted to my work!

  • Successful people also want to improve. Please give one example of what you would like to change about yourself or improve on?

I would say there is always room for improvement in all aspects of one’s self. I would not just focus this in one thing.

  • We all fail at times. Sometimes failures set us up for later success. If you would, please describe one of your failures, what you learned from it and how it propelled you forward.

In my early teens I was a basketball player. Had 0 talent at the game. Was not even a member of my school team. With super discipline, determination and hard work, within a couple of years, I managed to become the captain of my school’s basketball team, as a teenager part of a distinguished men’s basketball team, with athletic performances of a top athlete. Lesson learned: you can achieve anything you set your mind on if you put enough focus, discipline and determination to it always coupled with the right mindset.

  • What advice would you give young people to help them set up for success?

I would give them the following advice: Nowadays in order to succeed, you need to be super focused, super disciplined, have the right mindset, invest a lot of your time and stay away from people and circumstances that keep holding you down. And believe it since You do not get what you want in life. You get what you believe you are capable of.

  • There are a lot self-proclaimed experts that would give advice on how to be successful. Some of it, even if it’s bad, if repeated often enough becomes reality. What is the worst advice you hear being distributed by so called “experts” in your area of expertise?

The worst I do not know, the best advice I hear is this: to be successful, you need to have the mindset of someone that is ready to receive success.

  • What is the best learning experience that you ever had?

Learning from the mistakes of others consist of the best learning experiences for me. We do not have enough time in this life to learn after we have made our own mistakes.

To wrap it up: Passion, Discipline and Confidence seem to be Dennis’ magic ingredients for success. If you like to learn more about Dennis and his work you can find him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexperts/.

Which are yours? Drop me your ideas at: ioana@ioanastraeter.com.

Keep growing
Ioana