It’s easy to think that highly-successful people have some hidden advantage that sets them apart from the rest of us. In fact, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers does provide several examples of wildly-successful people who did have non-obvious advantages. They weren’t just smart, talented, and driven, although that does help.

I’m going to ignore both the obvious and hidden advantages that people like Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, and Elon Musk have (or had) that propelled their career success. The number one behavior that the most successful people exhibit is easily accessible to you, me, and absolutely everyone:

They don’t ask for permission.

By “successful people” I don’t mean those who are featured on the front page of Time, Forbes, Rolling Stone, or Sports Illustrated. You know how I feel about that. I mean everyday people who are living well and living life on their own terms. That is something we all should aspire to achieve.

Some…