Why Attitudes Are More Important Than Skills and Knowledge

by Ben Lai | May 24, 2015

You may have heard that “attitudes are more important than skills and knowledge.” This may seem strange to you, but did you know that 85% of your success in life and business is dependent on your attitudes? The remaining 15% are attributed towards your skills and knowledge. It is not that skills and knowledge aren’t important, but that they are by far less important when compared to your attitudes.

A Demonstration for Why Attitudes Are More Important Than Skills and Knowledge

To illustrate this point, imagine that you need to hire a salesperson for your company. After filtering through dozens of applications, you narrow down the prospective candidates to two. Candidate #1 has an impressive track record of experience and knowledge in your industry. All seems great until you speak to their referee, who subtly mentions that he can be quite lazy, arrogant, and difficult to get along with. Candidate #2 is less experienced and knowledgeable, but their referee gives a glowing recommendation, stating that he is hard working, ambitious, and a joy to work with. I hope it is self-evident for you which the better candidate is!

We learn another important point from this analogy. It is nearly impossible to change a person’s attitudes, but knowledge and skills can be easily taught and acquired. You would be doing yourself a big favour in the long-term to hire based on attitudes rather than skills and knowledge alone.

Attitudes Are More Important Than Skills and Knowledge: The Attitude of Giving

This brings us to the greatest attitude of all: It is better to give than to receive. This is a principle that governs all of life, and is not excluded in the realm of business. This is how it translates into the commercial world: Give more in value than you receive in payment. To illustrate, when I previously sold web marketing services… I always conducted due diligence to ensure that if my client payed our company $2,000/month for our services, that they would reasonably expect $20,000/month or more in returns. People are attracted to givers, not takers. Think about all the people in your life who you admire and respect. Chances are that they have contributed in a significant way into your life. Your long-term success in business will heavily be dependent on this one attitude.

For further reading I highly recommend the books “The Go-Giver” and “Go-Givers Sell More” by Bob Burg and John David Mann. They are both short and easy to read! In addition, the teachings from these books will create a paradigm shift. You will reap benefits for the rest of your career and life!

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