Bill Hoogterp has spent decades advising celebrities, CEOs, and rising stars inside some of America’s most powerful boardrooms. Through his coaching firm, LifeHikes, he’s helped more than 700,000 professionals level up their communication and leadership skills—and personally worked one-on-one with “thousands” of executives, many of whom appear on Fortune’s most powerful lists.
But if you think the secret to their success is raw intelligence or long hours, you’d be mistaken. According to Hoogter, one of the most consistent—and perhaps surprising—qualities shared by the ultra-successful is laziness.
“I would say there’s a juxtaposition of almost counterintuitive traits,” he tells Fortune. “Most successful people, if you meet most famous politicians, they weren’t necessarily the A students. They aren’t necessarily the smartest.”
“What most CEOs have—that almost nobody else has—is that their ambition is way over the top. Now, if you combine that with lazy, you create a really nice blend because if you’re really, really hungry to get success, but you’re always looking for shortcuts, the combination of those two things leads to lots of little breakthroughs.”
Plenty of high-profile founders embody Hooterp’s paradoxical formula. They’re not cutting corners to coast—but to outsmart the competition, innovate faster and remain agile in a fast-moving market.
Hooterp’s claim that the most successful aren’t the smartest doesn’t just apply to CEOs. It’s a theme echoed when it comes to hiring too. Countless CEOs and founders have said that they value attitude over aptitude.
