What habits led to your success?

Do the opposite everyone else was doing. People behave in herds. That is easy to exploit.

1. someone at my work said I couldn't do that so I did that anyway
2. my direct line manager said I can't do that so I did that anyway
3. internal policies forbid me from doing x,y,z so I did that anyway

You see, most “fabricated” rules within an org, inclusive of whatever crap your manager might say often stem out of anxiety, fear of you surpassing them, or worse, “never change a winning formula”.

If you go left where others go right, outside of the fact that others notice you directly (which is a plus), you'll have the ability to prove others wrong. And if you focus on profit or loss related activities, you'll get a lot of shouting, until you reach the outcome, bottom end, that you managed to make doe ($$$) for the firm, or reduce cost.

Either will silence whoever was bitching at you…

I've always told my teams; you are not here to do your job, you are here to do mine in the future. So I threw them in meetings I was responsible for, and eventually they crawled up. Perfect, because I did the same, so I could hop from Director to Managing Director while they could go from VP to Director. Win-win. The other managers micro-managed the living bejeezus out of everyone else.

Innovation is driven by exploring the steps outside of what we know, outside of what we feel comfortable with. Comfort zone is one of the most poisonous atmospheres that blocks success. Most people (psychologically) prefer a “comfort zone” approach (and become agitated when you cross that line), hence their; “let's not do that approach.” I get it, but don't support it, it does not lead to success, so I just do the opposite… and follow my own path, which lead to obvious success.

1. I mostly do holidays between tuesdays and Thursdays, they are the cheapest (airplane and hotels).
2. I mostly work during the summer, less in the winter.
3. When it rains, I go for a run.
4. When it's horrible weather, I took my family to theme parks. etc.

I like being time-efficient, and above all, these methods are also the cheapest. Win-win. Most don't get that.