Optimist Creed
Success Tweet 131: Be Happy for Others’ Career Success
Oct 18th
My new career success coach book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is turning out to be quite a hit. Over 2,000 people have downloaded the free eBook version and several people have purchased multiple copies of the hard copy book. I think it’s a great addition to my career advice writings. Go to www.SuccessTweets.com to get a .pdf of Success Tweets for free.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 131…
Be happy to see others succeed. Use the success of others to motivate you to greater success.
A while back in a post I did on optimism and self confidence, I mentioned a quote in which a guy by the name of Ambrose Bierce bashed optimism – and I am an incurable optimist. I advocate optimism as a way to create self confidence and career success.
Anyway, Ambrose defined optimism as…
“The doctrine that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong… It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.”
I come across quotes from Mr. Bierce frequently. Check out this one, “Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.” Both of these quotes are really cynical. I wondered what kind of guy would produce them.
So I decided to learn something about Ambrose Bierce. As it turns out, he was called “Bitter Bierce” by his contemporaries. And I can see why. First he bashes optimism, then he suggests that human beings see the good fortune of others as a personal calamity.
Ambrose Bierce was an interesting character. He was born in 1842, and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. No one knows for sure, but it is thought that he died in 1914. In 1913, he traveled to Mexico to get involved with the revolution going on there.
He joined Pancho Villa’s army in Juarez. On December 26 1913, he posted a letter to a friend from Chihuahua. That was his last correspondence. Wikipedia says, “Several writers have speculated that he headed north to the Grand Canyon, found a remote spot there and shot himself, though no evidence exists to support this view. All investigations into his fate have proved fruitless, and despite an abundance of theories his end remains shrouded in mystery. The date of his death is generally cited as ‘1914?’”. His disappearance is one of the most famous in American literary history.
In 1906 Ambrose Bierce published “The Cynic’s Word Book.” The title was changed “The Devil’s Dictionary”. It is a book of satirical definitions of English words. Ambrose was clever, I’ll give him that. I often see quotes from this book online, including the one that inspired today’s post, “Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.”
But I digress. I wish he were around today, because I would like to ask him where he got his bleak view of human nature. He defines politeness as, “The most acceptable hypocrisy.” In another quote, he defines perseverance as, “A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.”
Do you know any people like Ambrose Bierce? If you do, hold them at arm’s length. While you may find them to be witty and entertaining at first, they will drag you down in the long run.
People like Ambrose Bierce may be clever, but their views are incompatible with becoming self confident, creating positive personal impact, building strong relationships and becoming a life and career success.
Successful people look for, and usually find, the best in others. They are polite because it is the best way to build strong relationships. They are willing to extend themselves to help others, even when they can see no immediate return to them for so doing.
If you read this blog regularly, you know I am a big fan of The Optimist Creed. Point 6 says,
“Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are of your own.”
This is 180 degrees from the Ambrose Bierce quote that I cited at the beginning of this post and from his life view in general. Successful, self confident, optimistic people aren’t jealous or upset by the success of others. They are genuinely pleased when they see others succeed. They use others’ success as an inspiration that motivates them to achieve their own life and career success.
If you would like a copy of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your workspace, go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.
The common sense career success coach point here is clear. Successful people are self confident. They create positive personal impact, are interpersonally competent and adept at building strong relationships with the people around them. In part, they build these relationships by being genuinely pleased about the success of others. They are not jealous, nor petty. They are happy to see others succeed. They follow the career advice in Tweet 131 in Success Tweets. “Be happy to see others succeed. Use the success of others to motivate you to greater success.” Successful, self confident people use the success of others to motivate themselves to greater career success. They aren’t jealous. They are happy to see others succeed, if for no other reason, others’ career success can be a springboard for their own life and career success.
That’s my take on the career advice in success Tweet 131 and on Ambrose Bierce, self confidence and how one reacts to the career success of others. What’s yours? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts on these ideas. As always, thanks for reading – and writing.
Bud
Success Tweet 108: Live People Are More Important Than Phone Calls
Sep 15th
My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is about to go into its third printing. That really pleases me. It has become a greater success than I thought it would be. I’m glad that people are finding its career advice to be helpful. You can pick up a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download it for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.
I’m in the home stretch of a series of blog posts that further explain the career advice in Success Tweets – just 33 more to go. Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 108…
Live people take precedence over phone calls. Continue in person face to face conversations, rather than answering your cell phone.
I am really sorry that Women’s Edge Magazine is no longer with us. I used to find a lot of great career advice and wisdom in its pages. The January 2008 issue of Women’s Edge had two great quotes that relate to the career advice in Success Tweet 108.
“Communicate respect in every encounter with every person, regardless of position or background.” Robyn Hall, Raleigh Police Department
“Listen and speak at the same time, meaning that you actively engage people with your full attention.” Judy Fourie, J. Fourie & Company
These are two pieces of great common sense career success advice. They will help you become known as an interpersonally competent person.
Focusing on live people – rather than your electronic gadgets – is the best way to demonstrate your respect for others. Respect is the key to building strong relationships with the people in your life – not just those who can do something for you, but everyone you meet.
Cathy, my wife, is a good example of this. She makes friends with everyone, because she treats everyone with respect. The dry cleaner, pharmacy clerks, mailman, paper delivery guy, our housekeeper, all love her because she treats them with the respect they deserve as fellow human beings. She is genuinely interested in them as people. This interest communicates her respect for them.
Many people show a lot of respect for people above them in the hierarchy, and little respect for those below them. This is too bad. Often people below you can do as much or more for you than those above you. But that’s not the point. The point is that they’re people too, and as such, are entitled to your respect.
The Optimist Creed has some great things to say about respect. It encourages us to, “Promise yourself to make all your friends feel as if there is something in them…and to give every living creature you meet a smile.” If you want a copy of The Optimist Creed to hang in your office, go to http://BudBilanich.com/optimist.
The second quote is interesting for what it has to say about human interaction. I like the idea of “listening and speaking at the same time.” In other words, as you engage someone, listen very carefully to what he or she has to say so you can respond appropriately. What you say should be directly related to what he or she has just said. This demonstrates that you are listening. It also demonstrates that you value what he or she says – a great way to show someone that you respect him or her.
Being fully engaged means that you shut out the distractions of the world and focus your attention on the person with whom you’re having a conversation. People tell me that I seem to never answer my cell phone. This is true. I tell everybody that my cell phone is not a good way to contact me because it is usually off. My cell phone is usually off because I am often in conversations with my clients. I don’t want the distraction of a ringing or vibrating cell phone when I’m trying to concentrate on another person and what he or she is saying.
The two quotes at the beginning of this post are complimentary. One of the best ways to show others that you respect them is to engage them. One of the best ways to engage people is to listen to what they say and respond appropriately. If you keep these two pieces of common sense in mind as you meet people, you’ll be on your way to becoming known as an interpersonally competent person, and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Demonstrate your respect for other people by paying attention to them and what they have to say. Follow the career advice in Tweet 108 in Success Tweets. “Live people take precedence over phone calls. Continue in person face to face conversations, rather than answering your cell phone.” Focusing on live people – rather than your electronic gadgets – is the best way to demonstrate your respect for others. Respect for others is great career advice. It is the key to building strong relationships with the people in your life – not just those who can do something for you, but everyone you meet.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 108. What’s yours? Please take a minute so share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 100: Care About What You Do
Sep 3rd
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 100. It is the last tweet in a series on becoming an outstanding performer.
Care about what you do. If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer. If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.
The NFL begins play next week. If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I grew up in Pittsburgh. My dad had Steelers season tickets for many years. He gave them up only because he moved to Florida. He learned to use the internet at age 70, so he could follow the Steelers on line. He really cares about the Steelers. I’m not that much of a fanatic, but there is no professional sports team more near and dear to my heart than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
On Sunday February 1 2009, Steelers won the Super Bowl. On Monday February 2 2009, Mike Tomlin, their coach noted that because the Steelers were in the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, he was “a month behind getting ready for the 2009 season. We’ve got to be thoughtful in how we prepare our football team.”
Some may say, “Chill Mike, savor what you’ve just accomplished.” However, Mike Tomlin knows that outstanding performers don’t rest on their laurels. They care about what they do, and they care about their life and career success. High performers always set higher goals and look towards greater achievements. The Optimist Creed urges us to “Press on to the greater achievements of the future.”
That’s what Mike Tomlin was doing the day after he won the Super Bowl, and that’s what all outstanding performers do. They care about their life and career success. They set high goals and meet them. Then they set higher goals and meet them too. Pay attention here. This is some important career advice.
Mike Tomlin was 36 years old when he won the Super Bowl. He is the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. That’s pretty impressive. But not to Tomlin. Because he cares deeply about winning he says he expected that kind of success and expects more. On the other hand, he is humble. He realizes that football is a team game. Coaches don’t win Super bowls on their own; neither do players. They need one another…
“I’m an unrealistic dreamer sometimes. I’m blessed, extremely blessed. I’ve been around some great people – coaches, players, ownership – and I’m a product of that. That’s my story.”
And a great story it is. It shows the power of caring about what you do.
I care about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve. I care a lot. That’s why I wrote Success Tweets and I give it away for free. That’s why I am writing this series of blog posts explaining each of the 141 tweets in more detail. I care so much about helpingyou achieve the life and career succes you deserve that I’ve committed to writing 700 or 800 words every day for 28 weeks. I’ve also committed to doing a podcast on each of the tweets. I do this because I care. I care a lot about helping you. And I know that this caring will pay off — for you and me. The thinking and writing that goes into this work will help me become an even better career success coach – somebody who gives really great career advice.
When you care you do your very best. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of my favorite books To Kill a Mockingbird. There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me. It’s in Chapter 11 and spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film. He’s speaking to Scout, his daughter…
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
It takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there. You do your best. And doing your best can be a scary thing. When you care, when you consciously do your best and fail, it is heartbreaking. But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.
I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard. I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could. I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook if I didn’t get accepted by saying “I could have written a better application, but I just didn’t spend the time I should have.”
When I put my application in the mailbox – we still did quaint things like that back in the old days – I was proud of what I had written. I knew it was the very best I could do. I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough. After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools. Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?
I cared about the quality of my application, so I did the very best I could. The story in this case has a happy ending. I was accepted and got my degree. Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are proud of what they do. They care. They follow the career advice in Tweet 100 in Success Tweets. “Care about what you do. If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer. If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.” Does your work show that you care? Or does it reflect an “it’s good enough” attitude? Take it from a career success coach, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable, make sure that how much you care shows in every single piece of work you do.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 100. What’s yours? Please care enough to take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 95: Trust Yourself
Aug 27th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 95…
Get into a high performance mindset. Don’t question yourself. Trust your skills and abilities.
If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve you have to trust yourself. Trusting yourself is one of the key components of self confidence. Self confident people cultivate a high performance mindset, one in which they believe they will succeed at whatever they attempt.
If you read this blog, you know that I am a big fan of The Optimist Creed.
Point 4 of the creed says,
“Promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.”
Point 7 says,
“Promise yourself to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”
You have to trust yourself to put these two bits of common sense career advice into play. Optimists trust themselves. They trust themselves to do whatever is necessary to meet the goals they set for themselves. They trust themselves to develop the skills they need to meet their goals. They trust themselves to create the life and career success they want and deserve.
There is a lot of great career advice in The Optimist Creed. I have prepared a .pdf of it that you can download, print and hang in your office – just like I have done. If you would like a copy of The Optimist Creed, go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.
Here’s a personal example about trusting yourself. I have trained thousands of people in leadership skills, I’ve led hundreds of team building workshops, I’ve coached hundreds of people, helping them create the life and career success they want and deserve. Recently, I decided that I wanted to reach a broader audience – not just the people who work for the Fortune 500 companies who have engaged my consulting and coaching services.
To do this, I needed to make my ideas more widely available via the internet. Several years ago, I realized that I didn’t have a clue about how to prepare, present and market my ideas on the internet. I trusted my knowledge and wisdom, but I didn’t know how to get it to a broader audience. This might have stopped some folks dead in their tracks. But I trust my ability to learn new skills.
First I learned how to blog, and then I committed to blogging five days a week. I’ve kept that commitment for the past five years. I blog every Monday through Friday with the exception of two weeks at the end of the year. That’s 250 posts every year. Then I learned about social media. I spend about an hour a day on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sharing my thoughts on life and career success. Finally, I’m continuing to learn about internet marketing – affiliate programs, membership sites, etc. When I started, I had no internet marketing skills. Today, I am a bit of an expert. I say this realizing that I need to keep learning and growing in this field.
I trusted myself. I knew I had something of value to give, and I knew I could learn the skills necessary to reach large numbers of people. By the end of this year, I will have launched several information products on the internet – all because I trusted my ability to learn and my motivation to do new things.
How about you? Do you trust yourself? Do you believe that what you have to offer is important and of high quality? Do you believe that you can learn what you need to know to succeed? I bet you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog post.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people believe in themselves. They follow the career advice in Tweet 95 in Success Tweets. “Develop a high performance mindset. Don’t question yourself. Trust your skills and abilities.” Trusting your skills and abilities means knowing when you need to learn something new, and then doing whatever it takes to gain that knowledge. Be a self confident optimist. Trust yourself. Know in your heart of hearts that you will succeed.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 95. What’s yours? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. I appreciate and value every one of your comments. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 59
Jul 8th
I’m still enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you are enjoying reading them. You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.
Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 59…
Give so much time to building your self confidence and improving yourself that you have not time to criticize others.
This tweet has its roots in Point 9 of The Optimist Creed. “Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.”
Like everything else in The Optimist Creed, this is great common sense career advice. I know that I have a lot to learn. There are many things about me on which I can improve. I’m just guessing here, but I bet that’s true for you too. That’s why I choose to focus on improving me rather than criticizing others.
I’m not a real religious guy, but I do remember a few bible stories. There’s one where people are gathered to stone a woman who is accused of adultery. Jesus disperses the angry crowd by telling them, “Let he who has no sinned cast the first stone?” I know I am in no position to be casting stones. I doubt if you are either. None of us are perfect. If we both choose to put our energy into building our self confidence and improving yourselves – not criticizing others for their failings – we will be happier, more confident and successful, and the world will be a less contentious place.
I first learned about Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs when I was in college at Penn State. The model was structured as a pyramid with “self actualization” at the top. Dr. Maslow defined self actualization as “being all that you can be” – something the US Army borrowed for its TV recruiting commercials several years ago.
According to Dr. Maslow self actualization is an unattainable state, because no matter what you achieve, you soon realize that you can achieve even more. You can take this one of two ways. You can see it as negative and frustrating because you’ll never reach the goal of being self actualized. Or you can see it as positive and inspiring because you’ll always have another dream to chase, another goal to reach.
I choose the latter. I was telling someone the other day that the whole web 2.0 phenomenon has been great for me, because I have begun really learning lately. I’ve always kept up in my field, but I’ve felt for the past few years that most of my learning was incremental. I wasn’t making any quantum leaps forward.
However, since I’ve begun blogging and tweeting, I’ve learned a lot – really a lot. And, as the ninth point of the Optimist Creed points out, I haven’t had the time, nor the inclination, to think about what others are doing, much less criticizing them. I’m busy learning and growing -– and that’s cool and fun and exciting.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. If you want to build your self confidence, work on improving yourself and achieving your goals. Don’t worry about what others are doing, or comparing yourself to them. Be too busy with your own growth to worry about anyone else. Follow the advice in Tweet 59 in Success Tweets. “Give so much time building our self confidence and improving yourself that you have not time to criticize others.” This is great career advice. Criticizing others is a waste of your precious time. It robs you of the ability to set and achieve your goals and create the life and career success you want and deserve. Besides that, you’re probably not in the position to be casting stones anyway – I know I’m not.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 59 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 58
Jul 7th
I’m still enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you are enjoying reading them. You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.
Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 58…
Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Help all people recognize that they are special.
This tweet contains advice from two more points in The Optimist Creed. Point 6 says, “Be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.” Point 3 says, Make all your friends feel that there is something in them.”
Let’s talk about Point 6 first…
All teachers know that the best way to really master a subject is to learn to teach it. I learned this firsthand when I was teaching in the Business School at Northeastern University when I was completing my dissertation at Harvard. To be an effective teacher, you have to have complete mastery of your subject. You need to be able to present it in a number of different ways to that people with different ways of thinking will be able to grasp the ideas you are presenting.
I have found that this is true for self confidence as well. The more you help others develop their self confidence, the more yours will grow. This is true for me. As I’ve worked with my career success coach clients, I have seen them grow, develop and flourish. I am really happy when my clients put my career advice to use and succeed. Seeing them grow and flourish makes me happy. And my self confidence also grows.
In yesterday’s post I mentioned my bestselling book, Straight Talk for Success. I got the confidence to write this book from watching my coaching clients succeed. As I watched them put to work my career advice, I came to believe that I was really on to something and that I should share my thoughts with a broader audience.
In other words, by being “enthusiastic about the success of others”, I became more self confident and enthusiastic about the chances of success of my books – that’s why I wrote Success Tweets as a follow on to Straight Talk.
It’s karmic. I’ve put out some positive energy – both my career advice and my enthusiasm for other peoples’ success. And I’ve seen my career success coach clients benefit from this energy. As a result, I have benefited by being able to gather my thoughts, publish them and help more people create the life and career success they want and desereve.
Now lets’ talk about Point 3 of The Optimist Creed…
Everybody likes to feel special. Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics said it really well. “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, ‘Make me feel important.’ Never forget this message when working with people.” She’s right. That’s the main message here.
I’d like to take the advice in The Optimist Creed one step further. I suggest that you promise yourself to make all the people you meet – not just your friends — feel that there is something special in them. When you do this, two things will happen. 1) You’ll make their day. 2) You’ll feel better about yourself. And, feeling good about yourself is an important part of self confidence.
Let me tell you a story. A couple of years ago, I was in New York to facilitate a meeting at a client’s office. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7:30. I always like to turn up early for meetings I am facilitating.
I arrived at the client’s office about 6:50. Since 9/11, they have a security card system. Because I do a lot of work for them, I have a contractor security card. When I swiped the card that day, I was denied access. The Security Guard on duty looked at my card and told me that I have limited access — 7:00 am to 7:00 pm — to the building and that I would have to wait 10 minutes.
I didn’t know this. I’m usually not there that early. It was winter. I was cold. I was tired. I had arrived at my hotel at 12:30 am the previous night. I tried to convince the guard to let me in to the building. He was unyielding (as he should have been). I expressed my frustration at this “silly rule”, and went to the coffee shop next door to wait until 7:00.
When I came back at 7:02, I apologized to the Security Guard. He was genuinely surprised. He said that similar situations happen a couple of times a week, and a lot of people get really angry at being made to wait. He told me that I was actually quite pleasant for someone who was being denied access to the building.
And that’s the common sense point here. I apologized to the guard and told him that he was not only “just doing his job”, but that he was doing a good job. He was firm in upholding the company’s policy, but he did it in a professional, non confrontational manner. This was some positive feedback for someone who is in a role where positive feedback isn’t all that common.
I could tell that he appreciated my comments. He felt a little better about himself because he did the right thing – and that someone who was frustrated by him doing the right thing recognized and appreciated the value of what he did. Both he and I began our days with a smile.
I felt better about myself because I chose to apologize for the little bit of grief I gave him, and I did something small to make his day just a little bit brighter.
Self confident, optimistic people feel good enough about themselves to help others feel good about themselves. This is a powerful way to build relationships with others and to become a life and career success. Try it. Look for ways to help everybody you meet to feel as if there is something special in them.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Self confident, successful people aren’t threatened by, or envious of, the success of others. They follow the career advice in Tweet 58 in Success Tweets. “Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Help all people recognize that they are special.” I am reminded of a quote from Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in major league baseball, here. “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me…all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” Being enthusiastic about others’ successes and helping others recognize that they are special are two great ways to respect them as human beings. No one of us can succeed on our own. We need the help and support of others. The best way to gain the help and support of others is to help and support others. Being enthusiastic – not envious – of others’ success is a good way to start.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 58 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 57
Jul 6th
I’m still enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you are enjoying reading them. You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.
Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 57…
Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past. Press on to better things.
This tweet is a combination of two points of The Optimist Creed. The first part comes from point 5 of the Creed: Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best.
This is an important point. Too many people settle for mediocrity. They take an “it’s good enough” attitude. Good enough is certainly not the best. In my opinion, it is not even good enough.
In 2001, Jim Collins published a great book, Good to Great. The very first words in Chapter 1 are “Good is the enemy of great.” Later, on the first page, he says, “Few people attain great lives, in great part because it is just too easy to settle for a good life.”
And that’s what the fifth point of The Optimist Creed is all about. Don’t just be good, be great. Why not? All it takes is a little more effort.
Here’s a personal example. I have found that blogging is a great way to write a book. I blog every day, so I have a lot of material. A couple of years ago, I took many of the posts from this blog and tied them together into a book. I was all set to publish it, when one of the people I had asked to read it said, “This is good, but it could be great. It reads too much like a series of blog posts. Your voice doesn’t come through well enough.”
I didn’t want to hear that. I wanted to get the book published. My first thought was, “This is good enough, I don’t want to do a lot of rewriting.” My second thought was, “I can write a great book, why settle for a good one?” So I rewrote the book. The first one wasn’t a total loss. I published it is an e book called Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success. You can get a copy by going to http://budbilanich.com/starpower.
I rewrote Star Power, and changed the title to Straight Talk for Success. This book came out in both hard cover and paperback editions in February 2008. It became an Amazon.com bestseller. Straight Talk for Success is better than Star Power. It’s better than Star Power because I took the time to rewrite, to make my voice come through. I thought only of the best, worked for the best, and expected only the best of myself.”
When Straight Talk for Success went to the printer, I was really proud of what I had written. I think it is great. It is the best I could do. In my heart of hearts, I knew that Star Power was good, but that I could do better. Someone challenged me to go from good to great, and I did – in my opinion at least.
I am proud of what I have accomplished in Straight Talk. I feel as if I have been true to myself by not settling for something that is merely good when I had the chance to be great by putting in a little more time and effort.
The second part of the tweet comes from Point 7 of The Optimist Creed: “To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”
What happens to you, or the mistakes you’ve made aren’t important. How you react to it is. Don’t dwell on negative stuff or your mistakes, use them as a springboard to action and creativity.
Successful people develop the habit of focusing on the positive and putting the negative out of their minds. Positive habits like this are an important key to career success. Habits are like muscles. The more you use them, the stronger they get. Dan Robey is the King of Positive Habits. His eBook, The Power of Positive Habits, is one of my go to books when I need to give myself a little boost. You can get a copy at www.ThePowerOfPositiveHabits.com. I discussed Dan’s ideas in detail in the post on Success Tweet 37. Check it out if you missed it.
In her book, Forget Your Troubles: Enjoy Your Life Today, Evelyn Brooks suggests that you get S.M.A.R.T. about putting past mistakes behind you.
- S Smash the negative.
- M Maximize the positive.
- A Act.
- R Relax.
- T Target your next action.
One of my favorite piece of career success coach advice is…
“Stuff happens as you go through life; positive stuff, negative stuff, happy stuff, sad stuff, frustrating stuff. The important thing is not what happens, but how you react to it. In other words, smash your negative thoughts; replace them with positive ones. Don’t dwell on the negative, use it as a springboard to action and creativity. This will help you maximize the positive in your life.”
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people follow the advice in Tweet 57 in Success Tweets. “Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past. Press on to better things.” This advice comes from The Optimist Creed. The first part is point 5: “Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best.” I think the first few words in Jim Collins book, From Good to Great, sum it up well – “Good is the enemy of great.” If you never allow yourself to settle for “good enough” you will be expecting only the best from yourself. The second part of the career advice in this tweet comes from point 7 in The Optimist Creed: “Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.” If you want a free .pdf of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your workplace, go to http://BudBilanich.com/optimist. Remember, it’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it. Don’t dwell on the negative or past mistakes, use them as a springboard to action and creativity. Smash the negatives in your life and create positive thoughts, habits and routines. Use the negatives that come your way as learning experiences that will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve. The idea of creating positive habits – like not settling for good enough — is a powerful piece of career advice and that help your become the life and career success you deserve to be.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 57 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us – and your triumphs over past mistakes – with us. As always, thanks for reading. I really appreciate it.
Bud
Success Tweet 42
Jun 15th
My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is now available on Amazon.com and in bookstores. I am in the process of blogging about each of the tweets in it. You can get a free copy of Success Tweets at www.SuccessTweets.com. If you like it, I’d appreciate a positive review on Amazon.com.
We’re on to the self confidence tweets, 41 — 60. This career success coach post is on Tweet 42…
Choose optimism. It builds your confidence. Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better yet.
I’m a big believer in the power of optimism. I think it is the foundation of all self confidence and career success. You can’t be self confident if you’re not optimistic. And, optimism is a choice. I get up every day believing that good things will happen – and then I go about making them happen.
When I was a kid, I participated in the local Optimist International chapter’s oratory contest. I won my section, and finished third in the state. The topic that year was “Optimism, Youth’s Greatest Asset.” That’s hard enough for a ninth grader to say (think Joe Pesci in “My Cousin Vinnie”) let alone write and deliver a ten minute talk.
Optimist International is a great service organization. They help kids build self confidence and become more optimistic. The Optimist Creed defines them. It’s powerful stuff. Take a look…
The Optimist Creed
Promise Yourself:
- To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
- To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
- To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
- To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
- To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
- To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
- To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
- To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
- To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
- To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
I love The Optimist Creed. I have it framed and hanging in my office, just above my desk. I have made a .pdf of The Optimist Creed that is suitable for framing. If you want a copy, just go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.
One thing that you’ll notice about The Optimist Creed is that it is proactive. It asks you to promise yourself to do ten things that will help you create the life and career success that you want and deserve.
It suggests that optimism is related to action – action you can take to become more optimistic and to build your career success. I think it is some of the best career advice I’ve come across. I do my best to live the 10 points in The Optimist Creed every day. You should too.
I especially like the fourth point – promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. This point goes directly to the idea of committing to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success. I know it’s difficult to look at the sunny side of things when you’re mired in a problem or are dealing with a failure. However, if you look for what you can learn from problems and failures, you’ll be looking at the sunny side. More important, you’ll be on your way to making your optimism come true.
Christopher Reeve is no longer with us, but he exemplified the idea of looking at the sunny side of things. Even though he was paralyzed from the neck down after a riding accident, he devoted himself to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. I loved the way his optimism comes across in this quote…
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
Christopher Reeve looked at the sunny side of his injury and did what he could to make his optimism come true. His foundation carries on the work he started.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are self confident. Self confident people are optimists. They follow the career advice in Tweet 42 in Success Tweets. “Choose optimism. It builds your confidence. Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better yet.” The Optimist Creed is a great guide to becoming more optimistic and self confident. Its proactive approach to life is a great guide to creating the life and career success you want and deserve. Remember the old saying, “Whether you’re an optimist, or a pessimist you’ll be proven right.” I choose optimism, and suggest you do too.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 42 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Please share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
