How to Succeed

CNN has a series, "How to Succeed in 2007"

We asked 50 of the brightest minds in business how they do what they do - and how you can cash in on their advice in the year ahead.

I read all 50 replies and thought these below were the most practical and useful:


Donald Trump Chairman, Trump Organization
OBSESS ABOUT SOLUTIONS, NOT PROBLEMS

There's a lot to the credo that success breeds success. It puts you on a high that makes more success like a magnet. I'm a positive thinker who does frequent reality checks. Negatives turn into positives, problems can be solved, things can turn around. The image of success is important, but even more important is the ability to focus on solutions instead of on problems. That way, you'll never be thinking like a loser, and you probably won't look like one either. Andrea JungChairman and CEO, Avon ProductsReinvent Yourself, Not Just the CompanyLast year the momentum of Avon's business turned abruptly from five years of record-breaking sales growth to a major slowdown. And it became clear to me that Avon had to reinvent itself - and I had to reinvent myself along with it. You can't ask an entire company to change and not change yourself. I have set higher expectations for myself and our people, I've raised the level of accountability, and as an organization we have become more focused and disciplined. Avon and I are both still in a period of reinvention, and I believe in order to remain competitive, the process should never end.



Sergey BrinCo-founder, Google
SUCCEED WITH SIMPLICITY

Simplicity is an important trend we are focused on. Technology has this way of becoming overly complex, but simplicity was one of the reasons that people gravitated to Google initially. This complexity is an issue that has to be solved for online technologies, for devices, for computers, and it's very difficult. Success will come from simplicity. Look at Apple, the success they have had, and what they are doing.

We are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.




Debra LeeChairman and CEO, BET Networks
DON'T BE A BRIDGE BURNER

In my negotiations with business partners, I always maintain good relations whether the deal is successful or turns sour. You never know who you will be dealing with next or even who you may report to next. Philippe Dauman, who is now CEO of Viacom and to whom I report, once was a board member with me on a now defunct company. We had a terrific relationship, but who knew that several years later he would be my boss.




Chris AlbrechtChairman and CEO, HBO
TRUST YOUR GUT

You can't guess at what's going to be popular. You have to use your instinct, intuition, and intelligence to try to help you determine what will be high quality. I think if you err on the side of quality, you never really fail.



Edgar Bronfman Jr.CEO, Warner Music Group
TURN GRIPE SESSIONS INTO BRAINSTORMS

The first thing I did when we bought Warner Music was to fly to every major location and hold town hall meetings. I introduced myself, told them why we bought the company and what our vision was. I followed that up with regular town halls.

I also have what we call employee roundtables, where every other month I'm meeting with 15 or 20 junior-level employees, and we hold completely confidential two-hour sessions. I've held them in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, other European cities, and Hong Kong. I usually start them off with a 15-minute soliloquy on where I think the company is headed and what I want to accomplish from the meeting. Once the discussion starts, it's very free-form. Everything that happens in that conference room remains confidential within the group. So if people have criticisms that involve a more senior person in the company, nobody gets threatened, which is both informative to me and also builds a feeling of trust between the employees and their senior leadership.

It's a little like going to an AA meeting. You make a pledge and ask them to honor their commitment. As it turns out, because you give people that freedom, it doesn't turn into a gripe session. Instead they give us ideas about how to make the company better. There are waiting lists now for these roundtables.



Carly FiorinaFormer Chairman and CEO, Hewlett-Packard
TURN A SETBACK INTO A COMEBACK

Don't wallow in it. View it as an opportunity to do things differently. The goal is not to make the same mistake twice. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn the lesson, and move on.
Richard BransonFounder and Chairman, Virgin GroupLearn How to Say No (Even if You're Known as "Dr. Yes")I turn people down with extreme difficulty sometimes, because the people I'm saying no to are people I don't want to discourage. And it should be difficult. Saying no shouldn't be an easy thing to do, and you have to be good at it. I often used to dodge doing it myself, and hide behind other people and delegate it, but if you're the boss, that isn't the right thing to do.

I remember when I was a 15-year-old asking Vanessa Redgrave or James Baldwin for an interview, and the fact that they took the time to respond meant an enormous amount to me. It inspired me. So it's extremely important to respond to people, and to give them encouragement if you're a leader. And if you're actually turning people down, if you must say no, whether it's for a job or a promotion or an idea they're proposing to you, take the time to do it yourself.
I met two big San Francisco entrepreneurs recently, and they said they get e-mail like this too, but they just dump it all in the dustbin. They don't try to answer at all. I asked them why, and they said, "The time we spend responding could be used to create something of value for our business." That may well be pragmatically right, but I still think it's morally wrong, and I suspect that anything that is morally wrong is ultimately bad for business.



Rachael RayChef, Author, and Entrepreneur
TURN YOUR PASSION INTO AN EMPIRE

You have to be open-minded when those early opportunities present themselves. Take advantage of them, whether they're going to make you a lot of money or not. I did 30 Minute Meals for five years on local television, and I earned nothing the first two years. Then I earned $50 a segment. I spent more than that on gas and groceries, but I really enjoyed making the show and I loved going to a viewer's house each week. I knew I enjoyed it, so I stuck with it even though it cost me.

I've also learned that you can't be all things to all people. Whatever it is that you're successful at, that has to be the No. 1 goal. In my case, it's accessibility. So all of my products have to be usable, accessible, affordable. The olive oils we're developing with Colavita will be priced to be competitive with every other affordable olive oil. We chose to be in grocery stores, not fancy food stores, because that's where most of my audience shops. Our pots and pans have to be heavy-bottomed and sturdy but also affordable. Decide what it is that you are and then stay true to that thing. My brand is based very much on how I live my day-to-day life.