How to Win Client Business When You Don't Know Where to Start

CHAPTER 21The Daily Habits of Successful Rainmakers : The One Hour Each Day That Will Build Your Career

A successful life does not result from chance nor is it determined by fate or good fortune, but from a succession of successful days.

—Ari Kiev, MD, author, A Strategy for Daily Living

We've covered a lot of ground since beginning this quest together. The five rainmaker skills include a broad range of interconnected fields including human psychology, consumer behavior, marketing strategy, and behavioral economics, each illustrated through stories from those who have walked this path before us. We have weaved into our journey a bit of history and philosophy to bring color to our landscape.

Each of the skills we've covered thus far is important to our success in becoming rainmakers:

• Skill One: Create Your Personal Brand Identity
• Skill Two: Demonstrate Your Professional Expertise
• Skill Three: Build Your Professional Ecosystem
• Skill Four: Develop Trust‐Based Relationships

The fifth and final skill, practice everyday success habits, may be the most important. Without applying these skills in our daily lives, it's just theory – nice to know, for sure, but having little impact on our careers. The first four skills are about what to do; the final skill is about actually doing it. This is what sets the rainmakers apart from the rest of the pack.

This reminds me of a quote I read early in my career, in a 1989 issue of Harvard Business Review:

Ideas alone are not good enough. Ideas ...