Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has given the most important aspect to be successful. From all, he chose responsiveness for his number one attribute to be successful:

… My basic rule is this: respond immediately unless there is a good reason to wait. Obviously, this isn’t always possible, especially since I spend so much time in meetings. Nevertheless, I rarely let messages sit longer than a day. Twenty-four hours is the outside edge. If you can’t respond now, then at least acknowledge that you have received the message: “I received your message. I don’t have time to give it the attention it deserves right now, but you can expect to hear from me before the end of the day tomorrow.”…

Recently I have been dragging my time with email responses because of the increase of meetings and phone calls. This is a great reminder for me to make more attentions on this.

What’s the Secret to Your Success? – [Working Smart]