BY BILL MURPHY JR., WWW.BILLMURPHYJR.COM@BILLMURPHYJR

For Inc.

Photo: Getty Images

Think of the most successful people you know.

Perhaps you’re thinking of someone you grew up with or went to school with. Maybe the people you imagine include someone you’ve worked with, or been fortunate to recruit as a mentor.

Maybe — although you’d never admit this out loud — they include you.

Regardless, no matter whom we’re talking about here, I’ll bet I can identify seven skills these people never stop trying to improve. Let me know how far I am from the mark.

1. Writing

I’m a writer, so perhaps it’s inevitable that I’m going to put this one first. But there’s more to writing than communicating.

Writing is the key to thinking things through. It’s why people can sit through a brief presentation and feel as though they’ve mastered a subject, only to realize when they’re really challenged to explain it, they don’t know it at all.

The more you write, the more you learn. And the more you learn, the better armed you are for what comes next.

2. Public speaking

One-on-one communication is vital, but so is one-to-many. Yet so often people’s mediocre presentation abilities get in the way of excellent ideas. So, the most successful people among us seek out opportunities to present, to speak, and to share ideas.

(Not sure where to begin to improve your public speaking abilities? Maybe start here.)

3. Problem-solving

This skill is often a mash-up of other skills, of course. But the most successful people train themselves to see the opportunity in every problem, instead of the problem inside every opportunity. Among the crucial skills is the ability to break down seemingly insurmountable problems into much more manageable tasks.

Related realization: The second-most challenging problems in the world are the ones without obvious solutions, but the most challenging problems are the ones that most people take for granted — to the point that they don’t even realize they are problems.