5 Trade Skills That Will Accelerate Your Success in Business

Long-time readers will know that I re-read Paul Hawken’s Growing a Business every single year. Whenever I get stuck in my own business, I flick it open at random — and there’s always something useful waiting for me.

In one chapter, Hawken introduces an idea from two authors, Phillips and Raspberry, called Trade Skills. I’ve never managed to track down their book Honest Business (so if you know where I can find a copy, let me know!).

Here’s how they defined the four core Trade Skills:

• Persistence
• Ability to face facts
• Ability to minimise risks
• Ability to be a hands-on learner

Hawken then adds a fifth:

• Ability to grasp numbers

Reading those again, I can’t help but think how relevant they still are today.

Read on, or check out the podcast episode:

A few years ago, I was helping a company recruit hundreds of new people. I rejected almost every candidate they sent me, despite their glowing CVs. The hiring team was baffled — until I explained. For me, the bar was high:

1. They lacked commercial awareness (a bundle of those trade skills above).
2. They lacked communication behaviours.

Without commercial awareness, it’s impossible to work credibly with senior leaders who breathe commercial realities. And without clear communication, even the smartest ideas fall flat.

That’s why I believe these trade skills matter more than ever. Let’s break them down.

Persistence

The word itself comes from the Latin root meaning “lasting, enduring, permanent.” That’s the essence: sticking with it through highs, lows, setbacks, and failure.

Too often we’re told to avoid “bad work” — the dull, hard, tedious stuff. But in my experience, breakthroughs often come on the far side of that work. Persist long enough, and the grind transforms into growth.

Ability to Face Facts

I often call this “leaning into current reality.” It’s about seeing things as they are — not as you wish they were — and moving forward from that place.

Facing facts takes humility, objectivity, and truth. Many leaders avoid it, especially when they helped create the very problems they don’t want to confront. But progress begins with reality.

Ability to Minimise Risks

This isn’t about eliminating risk (impossible), but about managing it intelligently. Risk is always subjective: what feels reckless to me might feel easy to you.

In business, though, we’re playing with people’s money, careers, and reputations. That’s why we need to pause, weigh consequences, and consider impacts. We won’t always get it right — but thoughtful risk-taking is a skill worth mastering.

Ability to Be a Hands-On Learner

I’ve always believed the best learning comes from doing. Theory is only theory until you’ve tested it in practice.

Everything I teach comes from first-hand experience. My Personal Knowledge Management system — Capture > Curate > Crunch > Contribute — is built on putting information into action. Knowledge only emerges through practice.

Nothing worth knowing can be fully taught. It has to be lived.

Ability to Grasp Numbers

I’ll admit it: I’m not a natural numbers guy. My maths teacher once told my parents I couldn’t tell the difference between my backside and my elbow. (Feedback was blunt in those days!)

Still, I’ve learned enough to hold a conversation about profit, customer value, or EBITDA. I may never be a finance whizz, but I know the numbers that matter. And I always make sure my teams know them too — usually by creating simple guides that cut through the jargon.

Numbers tell the story leaders care about. Grasping them, even at a basic level, is a superpower in business.

So there you have it — five trade skills that remain timeless:

• Persistence
• Ability to face facts
• Ability to minimise risks
• Ability to be a hands-on learner
• Ability to grasp numbers

I often bucket these under “commercial awareness,” but they deserve to stand on their own. They’re the foundations of effective work — the kind of skills that make someone not just employable, but invaluable.