What Does Your Q-factor Have To Do With Your Success?

Hello, my marvelous Plante Lifers!

March is a big month for women. International Women’s Day was last Friday, and the celebration of the vital role women have played in American history lasts all 31 days, baby! So be sure to take some time this week to honor the amazing women in your own personal sphere who have been role models, mentors and true friends to you.

As we look back on the contributions of women, it’s easy to see that our place in contemporary society was a hard-fought victory. It got me thinking about what determines success, since many of these pioneers didn’t necessarily know they would be able to make the big changes they did, while they were making them.

Thankfully, modern science has an answer to help YOU figure out whether the odds are in your favor…

Your Q-factor.

Read on to find out just what this little letter has to do with your future, why you’re never too old to make a huge impact on the world and how you can amplify your chances of success at work, in your personal life and (if you’re up for it) in history! 

The term Q-factor comes from the Q Score, which is a marketing rating television shows and brands use to determine how much people know, like and trust them or their celebrity stars. First coined by network scientist Albert-László Barabási, your Q-factor is basically the same thing about you, and he writes about it in his book,  The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success.

Barabási has been studying people who find tremendous success later in life and uncovering the commonalities between people in a wide spectrum of different fields – from scientists, politicians, actors, and business owners to the chef extraordinaire herself, Julia Child. (Yep, she was 50 when she hosted her first TV show!)

He determined that “Your chance of success has little to do with your age.” Woohoo! Instead, it has to do with your tenacity and your “ability to turn an idea into a discovery”. And he even found a way to mathematically quantify success into a formula. He is a physicist after all.

The formula is: Success = Q (for Q-factor) multiplied by r (the value of any random idea)

So, if you have a high Q-factor, you can turn a bad idea into something moderately decent, and a great idea into something phenomenal.

Here’s how that works in our daily lives…

When you’re young and just starting out, your hard skills are what set you apart from your fellow job applicants. Betty Liu, an anchor on Bloomberg Television and founder of Radiate, Inc, a media technology platform, describes hard skills as how fast you are at completing your work, how well you know certain technology, how well you meet deadlines, etc. But as we get older and gain more experience, the people around us — our co-workers, other people vying for the same jobs and contracts — level out. We all have the same set of hard skills and competency.

This is where our soft skills come into play. Liu says soft skills are how well we communicate, innovate and motivate our team to accomplish big goals. It’s our Q-factor that lands us the promotion or the contract or the role. It’s how likeable we are, but that doesn’t necessarily have to mean we’re well-liked. For example, Steve Jobs was known to be difficult to work for but was able to turn smart technology into new ways we experience our lives.

Now, Barabási believes that your Q-factor is determined from the beginning of your career: “We all start our careers with a given Q, high or low, and that Q-factor stays with us until retirement.” But even if that’s true, there are a few things you can do to take your Q-factor and put it to work for you (because just like age, this factor ain’t nothin’ but a number!).

1) Play to your strengths. Barabási shares how when he was younger, he wanted to be a sculptor but was better suited for physics. When he made shifts in his career path toward the things he naturally excelled at, he was happier and more successful.

I’m not suggesting you immediately quit a job you’re struggling at, but if you are constantly unhappy, it is at least time to reevaluate where you can make small changes. If you love to be around people, telecommuting might not be the path for you. Or you may need to create some outside interactions with fellow freelancers to help you bounce ideas around and give your strengths some exercise.

2) Try, try again. Barabási puts it best: “let the qualities that give you your Q-factor do their job by giving them a chance to deliver success over and over.” Successful people don’t often rest on their laurels; they continue to produce. And when they find an idea that doesn’t work (with that low r value, for the math fans), they simply try another idea.

Failure is not an option, simply because it doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. As Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Persistence pays off, if only to help you weed out ideas that aren’t worth your creative energy.

So how will you put your Q-factor to use? Do you now see a pattern in your own success that sprung from tenacity and communication? Let me know in the comments below!

And thank you for being a part of my circle of wonderful, badass women!

 

LOVE + game on!