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Comment by CPLX | Hacker News Reader

I clicked on this expecting to hate-read it and then post something snarky, but it's actually pretty reasonable, assuming you read the title as "How To Be Sucessful In Business"

With that said I think it's missing a hugely important area -- which is mental and emotional health.

One of the things I've noticed in friends who have incredible business success, and have noticed in myself during periods of greatest productivity, is that successful people are able to keep their emotional state in check.

They don't get rolled easily by criticism or praise, they don't get dragged into short term thinking or fake crisis, and they don't let an emotional state push them into saying or doing something that they'll regret, or will blow up a relationship, or give away info in a negotiation.

I think it's up in the top 3-4 attributes of those who are able to fit the description described in the article.

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I think you're right.

The first big step in Emotional Intelligence is being able to understand and regulate your own emotions, and it's the first step for a reason.

Kids who passed the famous marshmallow test (were able to resist the impulse to eat the marshmallow when unsupervised) were far more successful in later life

I have two brothers who occasionally get very angry, cut off relationships on whims and sabotage themselves through acts of defiance and misplaced protest, and neither of them is very 'successful' (however you define it). There is definitely a link.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/01/famed-impu...

Unfortunately the marshmallow test as a predictor of later success is debunked. It's part of the replication crisis in psychology. Half of the psychology we learned may be wrong. People just aren't that straightforward.

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/576223

The 'replicators' here are assuming humans are blank slates even though the best evidence is concienciousness is 40-60% heritable.

We also know people with high time preference/ delayed gratification are wealthier.

So now - what is controlling for parental wealth doing? It's removing this genetic component.

Social science is confounded by genetics all the time, once you start to look for it.

> I have two brothers who occasionally get very angry, cut off relationships on whims and sabotage themselves through acts of defiance and misplaced protest, and neither of them is very 'successful'

On the other hand, becoming the POTUS is presumed to be the definition of "successful" (cf some comments on here yesterday) and Trump is all of those ^ things and more.

It's hard to be sure if he is that way, or if he plays the role because he learned that it gives him an advantage at this point.

I think the preceding 50 years of him in the public eye gives us a pretty good handle on who he is as a person. I would venture he's not playing a role.

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