It’s that time of the year when high school, college and university graduates are receiving a lot of advice from people of many different backgrounds and occupations. Several speakers have already told graduates such things as, “I have no idea what the commencement speaker said when I graduated, nor do I even remember who the speaker was.” The same probably holds true this year. Twenty or twenty-five years from now, some graduates will remember details — most won’t.

But I ran across some “worth remembering” advice from Maurice Gibbons, a specialist in innovative approaches to instruction. After receiving his BA degree from the University of British Columbia, his MA from the University of Washington and his doctorate from Harvard (where he was on the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review), he led a research team to help discover what traits are found in successful people, even when they have little or no formal education.

Dr. Gibbons and his research team studied more than 450 successful people. The group included Harry Truman, Walt Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright, George Bernard Shaw, Will Rogers, Pablo Picasso and Henry Ford, none of whom were formally educated beyond high school. The study presented 40 character traits. The top ten, in order of importance, included:

In-depth experience. The people usually worked their way from the bottom up. They immersed themselves in the specific endeavors in which they were involved. Through this experience, they became highly proficient.

Industriousness. Simply put, they worked hard. Not only did they carry their weight but they often stepped in and worked overtime for those who did not carry their own load. They were not lazy.

Perseverance. They experienced failure, rejection, disappointment and discouragement. They learned from their failure and refused to listen to others who dissuaded them. They kept on keeping on when most people would quit.

Self-disciplined study. They learned as much as they could about the work they were doing. They kept on the cutting edge of what was happening in their areas of interest and often sharpened the cutting edge.

Curiosity. They constantly questioned why something would or would not work. They experimented with various ideas and methods. They built on the questions they asked themselves and others.

Single-minded pursuit. Rather than trying to do several things pretty well, they concentrated on doing one thing great. They did not spread thin their time, talents and focus.

Creativity. They focused on taking what they had, where they were, and getting the most from it. They were the embodiment of “doing a common thing uncommonly well.”

Ingenuity. They developed a skill in devising the most efficient and effective way in which to make something happen. They were clever and resourceful in inventing, constructing and organizing methods to make their ideas work.

Self-confidence. They believed in what they were doing and in their capability to do it. This confidence is what kept them going when failures and rejections plagued them and people discouraged them.

Natural ability. They became aware of their strengths and built on them. Their interests and pursuits meshed well with who they were. They may not have been the most talented in their fields, but their other traits magnified their basic abilities.

© 2010 by Carl Mays, speaker and author whose mentoring site, www.MyMerlin.net, is based on his book and program, “A Strategy For Winning.” E-mail to carlmays@carlmays.com, call 436-7478 or visit www.carlmays.com.