Would you like to succeed in your career? Would you like to make more money? Wouldn't we all. Air America's Marc Sussman has put together a list to help you thrive in your career. After the jump check out 10 common characteristics of successful people.

I loved the celebration, don’t get me wrong. I was just apprehensive. From that moment when California and Pennsylvania had been decided, and those words flashed on the screen – “Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States.” Exhale.

Then, the interminable three month wait. Three months is an eternity, especially when wolves are guarding the henhouse. $750 billion later we had set the stage for the most difficult road a President has traveled since FDR.

I understand that we haven’t had anything to celebrate for 8 years and it was a great relief to be rid of the Bush Administration. In the recent words of Liz Holtzman, “we had come dangerously close to a military dictatorship, and we have to admit that”. There were times that I imagined this election not coming off. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons that the celebration was so incredible.

Then, it was finally here, and he spoke. He was serious, focused, direct, confident, no nonsense. From the first, it was clear that we were not going to hear a reprise of “I have a dream”. There is no time for dreaming. This was the wakeup call. No cheerleading, no pom-poms, and for good reason. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, get going.

The immediate reactions to the speech ranged from disappointment at the serious tone, the lack of a memorable phrase, a “hook” as was described by Rush Limbaugh. The flap over the benediction, over the flub during the “oaf of office.” It was clear that the words “ it is time for us to set aside childish things “ had been misunderstood.

In his first days, we saw a clarity which has been sorely missed. Wage freeze for his senior staffers, restrictions that will safeguard against the influence of lobbyists. China put on notice regarding currency manipulation. Close Gitmo, end the War in 16 months. As Emeril might say, BANG!

Cause and effect. It is amazing how disconnected we can be from the cause of our problems - we are so focused on the effects. It is the reason that little is learned from history. One thing is certain--Barack Obama is not the cause of our problems.

In the coming year, we’ll see a continuation of our economic decline. The housing market collapse will continue along with an epidemic of corporate consolidations and bankruptcies. The future of the auto industry is in doubt. Credit markets will continue to remain tight. 2009 sizes up to be an historically bad year. Eventually we'll see inflation, reminiscent of late 70's early 80's. We won't see our way clear until the beginning of 2011. We'll be smaller, simpler, and better.

It has always been termed socially responsible investment – and I’ve always had a non-specific aversion to this description. The issue - so compelling - reduced to that word. Responsible. Yuck. It sounded like the castor oil of the investment world.
Not only did it not identify the problems, it took all the excitement and energy out of the possibilities. For me, It wasn’t about being responsible – it was about being human, connected and more importantly, courageous.

Now, we enter the age of investment we will call ESG – Environmental, Social, Governance. All the issues are contained in the clarity of these three words, these three letters. As the financial tragedy we are living through unfolds, these words will become part of our common lexicon.

The Obama administration will bring with it a groundswell of environmental activism. The financial disaster we’ve created has set the stage for different priorities, slowed us down. Extravagance is taboo. Authentic is what we will admire.

There will be difficult challenges. Barack Obama’s support of clean coal technology was easy, a political maneuver necessary for him to carry certain states. It’s easy to support a technology that doesn’t exist, because it is so easy to abandon it. The coal industry is perceptive in mounting one of the great public relations campaigns supporting the future of what they call “clean coal”. Coal is an industry on the verge of extinction. Carbon sequestration and capture, the theoretical process of injecting CO2 into the ground, is no more a reality than Santa Claus (sorry kids). We are decades away from anything resembling such a technology, and we just don’t have the time.

As not to downplay the importance of the upcoming election, let me say that if you don't kmow who to vote for at this point, I will pray for you. Moving on.

Some time ago, I began writing a series of articles called America in Recovery. I did this because addiction is very easily identified – if you’re an addict. Let me be direct about what I see. I have been there.

We’ve all known family members who seem to be able to hold it together, to keep jobs, have relationships, to function in spite of something so destructive really going on.This is exactly what has been developing in our country for decades, and now accelerates in our financial system. Our financial infrastructure is crumbling, despite the frantic efforts being made to shore it up. America is fast approaching its bottom, (the addict bottom- not the market one) and our financial problems though seemingly insurmountable are not our biggest problem - but more on that later.

Now, I have never made the short list of those considered for the Nobel Prize for Economics. In the past I’ve needed an interpreter to understand the comments of then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. My financial credentials and background do not include MIT, Princeton or any of the many impressive think tanks that have produced so many of the “smartest guys in the room”. It’s not investing acumen that caused me to begin to reallocate client money to CD’s 2 years ago. I just know an addict when I see one. Most of the finance world trusted, blinded by our “apparent” success, but forgot that good ideas are nothing without good intentions.