People may not know the secret to success in life, but they surely believe that they do. A recent poll by All Russian Public Opinion Research centre discovered what locals think about the keys to prosperity and revealed the statistics of how people think.

What do people need to succeed in life?

• Education leads the poll with 39% of respondents ticking this box in the question about things that are required to succeed in life.
• Personality or character is the second quality required for an individual to prosper in Russia, as per the poll: 33% of participants chose this option.
• Being goal oriented only scored the third place on the list: 27% of answers included this choice.

Financial wellbeing is #4 on this list, followed by a job (15%) and health (14%).

Professionalism is only in the seventh position, having scored mere 12%, just about the same as family (11%), which is #8 quality needed to succeed in life, according to Russians.

Support from the state is #9, with protectionism in tenth position in the rating.

Luck and circumstances attracted 6% of votes each.

“Origins”, which could be translated as the type of family a person was born in, got the tick of approval from 5% of survey participants as the quality required to succeed in life.

Practical experience is closer to the bottom of the list, with only 2% of locals believing one needs it to score.

Faith is the last quality on the list, which scored only 1% of votes.

People could pick up to 5 qualities from the list in the survey.

What do you lack to prosper in life and achieve a higher standing in the society?

• The majority of respondents think they need more money to prosper and be valued by the society: 40% of respondents chose this option.
• Education is on the second place, but it didn’t come any close to the most popular option (lack of money): Only 15% of people think they lack knowledge to succeed in life.
• 14% of participants believe they lack the required personal qualities such as ambition, purposefulness, conscientiousness, communication skills, etc).
• 12% of locals think that they need better connections to prosper.
• 10% blame geography: They think that moving to a different city or country would allow them to thrive.
• Only 9% think they should upgrade their qualification through courses to succeed.
• 4% blame their social situation and origins, such as parents’ status, in the lack of success. The same share of respondents think that they need to marry well to prosper.
• 3% believe they simply have ran out of time, being too old. The same share of participants stated they’d need better health.
• 1% of respondents think their nationality is the problem preventing them from achieving success. The same share of residents think the country needs better laws, more jobs and more stability.

16% of participants stated they have already achieved the high status in the society; so they didn’t need to choose any reasons why they can’t succeed.

What do you think about achieving a great financial success?

• 18% of respondents believe people need to work as much as needed to be prosperous, even if it’s detrimental to health, spending time with the family and kids.
• 68% of locals think they need to work to achieve success without hurting their health and time with the family.
• 11% think that only modest life standards are required and there is no need to strive to earn more.

What’s interesting, people in Russia have been thinking nearly the same 27 years ago in 1991. The share of people who think they only need to work as much that their time with family doesn’t suffer grew slightly, but it could be because the number of people who found it difficult to answer dropped substantially: In 1991 8% of participants chose this option, while in 2018 only 3% didn’t provide an answer to this question.

Data: WCIOM.ru