5 tips for succsess from the world's richest man - Bill Gates

1. Knowing how to say no.
This is advice Gates got from Warren Buffett, and it's extremely useful for everyone, whether you're rich and successful or not. There will always be an unending supply of opportunities, things to do, causes you care about, and on and on. In this busy world, knowing when and how to say no to projects, social invitations, and other requests for your time may be the most important skill you need. It will allow you to figure out what's truly important, and then focus your attention there.

2. Welcoming criticism.
"Embrace bad news to learn where you need the most improvement," Gates advises in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought.

3. Optimism.
It can be hard to be optimistic in a world where so many things seem to be going wrong. But without optimism, no one would ever start a company, invest in a new idea, or try out a new product or market.

4. Being willing to fail.
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose," he wrote in his book The Road Ahead. Today's can't-fail product could wind up obsolete tomorrow, he explains, which could be what's happening to desktop personal computers and the Windows operating system that often runs them.

5. The ability to focus on a goal and keep progressing toward it.
In an annual letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates drew some lessons from the history of the steam engine. "You can achieve amazing progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal," he wrote. He went on to say that finding the right goal and the right metric for tracking one's progress is surprisingly difficult ... but, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

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