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The Chicago Money Market
353 hits
| Apr 16, 2004 8:28 pm |
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re: This week Newsletter |
dsmith727
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Calvin:
I knew there was something I forgot to tell you yesterday. I really enjoyed reading this article.
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
Herm Albright
1876-1944, Author
"Positive thinking won't help you do everything, but it will help you do everything better than negative thinking."
Zig Ziglar
Darren
> Calvin Thomas wrote:
> I hate being late for another newsletter but here it comes. This week we will talk about what it takes to be a success. What makes a good leader? For starters, leaders do not wait for other people to give them permission to do something. They just do it. Leaders accept responsibility for the choices they make in life. They are not sucked into the "victim mentality" syndrome, which is characterized by a persistent desire for people to blame others for their poor choices. Bottom line: Leaders realize that the decisions they make are all theirs, and thus take full responsibility for any resulting failures.
>
>In the world of business - especially network marketing and direct sales - leadership is the defining ingredient that separates the mediocre from the superstars. It is the act of persuasion. It is getting people to see new perspectives and do things they normally would not do. It is about setting your ego aside and having the passion and charisma to get people to follow you. Leaders do not follow. They just do.
>
>Can an average person become a leader? Yes, most certainly. People can transform themselves and make huge strides in leadership abilities just as they do in other areas of personal development. It starts with inner self-leadership and expands outward to influence and move others around you. Leadership is about self-direction and self-control and shows in what "we do." Become the right kind of person (passionate, responsible, doer, believer) and others will flock right into your lap, and not until.
>
>However, like other areas of self-improvement, it is no easy task, because man's natural instinct is mediocrity. Yes, mediocrity. It would be nice if we could all become leaders by simply following a few simple steps. However, the path to leadership requires finding our own way. The direction we take will differ for each of us. However, we can focus on a few key traits.
>
>No Fear But Fear Itself
>
>So what is it that keeps us from pursuing opportunities, leading others, taking action, and doing what we really want to do? One word: FEAR. Fear of rejection. Fear of people. Fear of trying new things. Fear of not being perfect. Enjoying our comfort zone (average).
>
>It is almost as if the fears we have actually begin to become like bondage. Ever feel that way? You can usually tell who lives in fear. They usually wear them on their sleeves. Ever hear people say:
>
>"I would try that but I just don't have time”. "That program will never work. I already tried networking and it didn't work before." "I would listen to you, but that sounds like some pyramid scheme."
>
>The list of the doubts and fears that roll off people's lips is endless. Stand in any line with people, on the bus or at work, and listen to the idle chatter. You will hear people's fear in their everyday conversation. "Oh, I hate working here, but the job market is just too difficult to try and find something else." If you want to be a great leader, learn to conquer your fears.
>
>Embrace Failure
>
>Study the histories of all great leaders and you will see lives littered with failures. It is called "failing forward fast”. In addition, it is one of the top traits of successful leaders. That is why it takes guts to be a leader. Many people are scared of failure and do not like to tackle the tough issues. (Then again, not everyone wants to be a leader, right.) It requires being decisive and a willingness to take chances. In addition, yes, to FAIL - but to accept it, learn from it and move on.
>
>Become A Believer
>
>Children need to "see it" in order to believe it. Leaders believe it BEFORE they see it. Here is something to try: Try doing what you say you will do. (Remember, the odds are against you). When faced with problems and obstacles, choose to learn from the experience and turn them into an opportunities. Do not whine and complain about yesterday's defeats. (It is counter-productive and you look like a fool next to Thomas Edison). Key: Until you are able to wipe out the past mistakes from the movie projector that keeps playing in your head, you will never be able to move forward. Leaders believe in themselves and believe in abundance.
>
>Take Some Risks
>
>Leaders are the ones willing to make huge sacrifices in time, money and family in order to achieve their goals. Risk is the price you pay for success. You must carry the burden and have the backbone to make decisions that are not popular. Be internally directed, not "socially fit”. You will never achieve wealth and success as long as you care what other people thing of you. Yes, leadership has a price, (risk) but it also offers tremendous rewards.
>
>Do not Follow The Crowd
>
>here's a crucial defining trait of a leader: they do not follow the crowd. Nothing great was ever accomplished by a crowd. A crowd merely blows with the wind, like scattered leaves. Crowds have no purpose and end up nowhere. It takes courage to go against the crowd and be a true individual, but it is the most exciting, exhilarating thing we can do. It is also the most difficult and frightening. That is why success is so elusive and so rare.
>
>Take Ted Turner of CNN fame, for instance. He said, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way!" Was Turner moving with the herd? No, he was the captain, not one of the deck hands. Most people live in a state of self-consciousness. They go to work, support their families are active in their communities and are good citizens. Their egos are socially supported which means they go with the flow. Thus, because they are moving with the herd and moving with the group's collective consciousness, they struggle. It is never their goals, their vision, or their choices. Most people rarely, if ever, move into the direction of freedom and true self-_expression.
>
>The leaders are your freedom fighters. These are people like Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, Margaret Thatcher, Thomas Jefferson, and Bill Gates. Leaders usually affect thousands of people. Anytime you share your energy with enough other people, BAM, success follows. The problem though is that the notion of prosperity scares many people because they were taught that money is evil, or are afraid of the responsibility that comes with success.
>
>While the world continues to change, the traits of good leaders remain constant. The principles are timeless. Once you learn how to liberate the leader within you, extraordinary things happen. People need clear objectives set before them if they are to achieve anything of value. Success never comes instantaneously. It comes from taking many small steps. A set of goals becomes a map a potential leader can follow in order to grow. As Shad Helm setter states in You Can Excel in Times of Change, "It is the goal that shapes the plan; it is the plan that sets the action; it is the action that achieves the result; and it is the result that brings the success. And it all begins with the simple word goal." We, as equipping leaders, must introduce our people to the practice of setting and achieving goals.
>
>Lily Tomlin once said, "I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific”. Many people today find themselves in the same situation. They have some vague idea of what success is, and they know they want to achieve it. However, they have not worked out any kind of plan to get there. I have found that the greatest achievers in life are people who set goals for themselves and then work hard to reach them. What they get by reaching the goals is not nearly as important as what they become by reaching them.
>
>When you help your people set goals, use the following guidelines:
>
>Make the goals appropriate.
>Always keep in mind the job you want the people to do and the desired result: the development of your people into effective leaders. Identify goals that will contribute to that larger goal.
>
>Make the goals attainable.
>Nothing will make people want to quit faster than facing unachievable goals. I like the comment made by Ian Macgregor, former AMAX Corporation chairman of the board: "I work on the same principle as people who train horses. You start with low fences, easily achieved goals, and work up. It's important in management never to ask people to try to accomplish goals they can't accept."
>
>Make the goals measurable.
>Your potential leaders will never know when they have achieved their goals if they are not measurable. When they are measurable, the knowledge that they have been attained will give them a sense of accomplishment. It will also free them to set new goals in place of the old ones.
>
>Clearly, state the goals.
>When goals have no clear focus, neither will the actions of the people trying to achieve them.
>
>Make the goals require a "stretch”.
>As I mentioned before, goals have to be achievable. On the other hand, when goals do not require a stretch, the people achieving them will not grow. The leader must know his people well enough to identify attainable goals that require a stretch.
>
>Put the goals in writing.
>When people write down their goals, it makes them more accountable for those goals. A study of a Yale University graduating class showed that the small percentage of graduates who had written down their goals accomplished more than all of the other graduates combined. Putting goals in writing works.
>
>It is also important to encourage your potential leaders to review their goals and progress frequently. Ben Franklin set aside time every day to review two questions. In the morning, he asked himself, "What good shall I do today?" In the evening he asked, "What good have I done today?" I just can't do it!!" My five-year-old son yelled, throwing the pencil to
>The ground. "It's just too hard!!" Angry with himself, he fled the room, his
>Attempts to write his letters properly abandoned in a heap on the floor next
>To the pencil. Torn between running after him and letting him work it out
>He, I lingered behind, retrieving the abandoned pencil and smoothing
>Out the wadded up paper. I glanced down at the meticulous work he had
>Rejected. Pride welled up in my eyes as I gazed upon the backward "S" and
>shaky "G".But those flaws were not what caused my sudden tears and desire to
>run into his room and hug him hard. What I saw was a careful straight line
>of letters that a few weeks ago had been carelessly crooked. I saw a perfect
>?D? In addition, a flair to the ?A? that had been missing from his previous attempts.
>I saw the progress that he did not see. I saw his potential.
>
>The next day, determined to "get in shape" once and for all, I decided it
>was time to add the extra riser to my step and the extra pounds to my
>dumbbells. The morning after, I just lay there, paralyzed by soreness. "Come
>on," I told myself, "Why can't you just get in shape? What is wrong with you?
>
>
>Work was not much better. During the course of the day, I doubted my ability
>to tackle a challenging project, berated myself for dipping into the candy
>dish that perpetually sits on the Administrative Assistant's desk, and
>condemned myself for working late and having to rush out the door to pick up
>my son on time.
>
>Why is it so easy for us to set our kids up to win, but we constantly set
>ourselves up to fail? With our children, if they do something even close to
>what they are trying to do, we admire and encourage them. For us, we tell
>ourselves "close, but no cigar."
>
>And as a result, our kids grow and expand at an astronomical rate, while we
>often struggle along just to survive.
>
>I was playing Yatzee Jr. with my son the other night. I was having a
>fantastic game, with four "Yatzees" (they are easier to get in Yatzee Jr,
>but still?) on my scorecard. He, however, did not do as well. "That's okay,
>Mom”, my son enthused. "I tried. Let us play again. I will bet I will win this
>time!" Alright, his manipulation to get me to play another game worked.
>After all, how could I argue with such an optimistic outlook? He did not pout
>that the game was fixed. He did not complain. Instead, he recognized that he
>tried, and saw the potential to try again. He set himself up to win. And he
>did!
>
>Despite our inclination to do otherwise, we can all set our lives up to win.
>For example, I can feel my aching muscles in the morning and be proud of the
>extra effort I put into my workout. I can face a project at work with
>enthusiasm for the challenge rather than self-doubt. I can be thankful that
>I was able to only take from the candy dish one time rather than dip into it
>all daylong. And I can be proud of my commitment to complete a task and
>happy for a car that I love to ride in with an awesome stereo to inspire me
>as I drive frantically to pick my son up on time. Rather than crumbling up
>my life into a wad and rejecting it like an old piece of paper, I can look
>at it and see my progress and potential, not my flaws. And you can do it
>too! It is not easy, but it is worth it. Give yourself the same benefit you
>give your kids ? and set yourself up to win!
>Use the 80/20 Rule
>
>The 80/20 rule is as applicable to individual salespeople as it is to a large sales force. Fully eighty percent of your success as a salesperson will be determined by your attitude and only twenty percent by your aptitude. Some people feel that attitude is ninety percent of success in all human endeavors involving other people, but we can quite comfortably use eighty percent as a figure for the purposes of this article.
>
>Develop a Positive Attitude
>
>A positive mental attitude, or a constructive and optimistic way of looking at yourself and your work, goes hand in hand with sales success in every field and in every market. The development of this unshakable attitude of cheerfulness and enthusiasm is your springboard to greatness as a salesperson, no matter what is going on around you.
>
>Learn Your Product Well
>
>The twenty percent of sales effectiveness that comes from product knowledge and professional selling skills is terribly important as well. It is only when you are thoroughly knowledgeable about what you are selling and thoroughly skillful in your ability to present it effectively that you develop the calmness and confidence upon which a positive mental attitude depends.
>
>Upgrade the Quality of Your Thinking
>
>The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life. If you improve the quality of your thinking, in any area, you improve the quality of your life in that area. By using your mind, your ability to think, you become a creator of circumstances rather than a creature of circumstances. You move from being powerless to being powerful. You determine everything that happens to you by the way you think about it, in advance. You may not be what you think you are, but what you think, you are!
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>Change Your Inner Attitudes of Mind
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>The most rapid and positive changes in your personality and your sales results come about when you change your thinking about yourself and your possibilities. When you reprogram your subconscious mind so you feel a sense of unshakable optimism and self-confidence, every part of your life begins improving immediately. As William James of Harvard wrote in 1905, "The greatest revolution of my generation is the discovery that individuals, by changing their inner attitudes of mind, can change the outer aspects of their lives."
>
>Expect the Best
>
>The very best salespeople have an attitude of calm, confident, positive self-expectation. They feel good about themselves and they have absolute faith that everything they are doing is contributing toward their inevitable success. They are cool, relaxed, happy, and cheerful about their lives and their careers. They know, deep in their hearts, that they are good at what they do, and their customers know it as well. Often, their customers decide to buy from them even before they have made a sales presentation or described their product or service. They are the champions, or superstars, of selling everywhere, and you can be one of them by developing the same attitudes and attributes that they have.
>
>Action Exercises
>Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:
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>First, resolve today to develop and cultivate an attitude of calm, confident, positive expectations towards yourself, your customers, and your career. Expect the best!
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>Second, take complete control of your thinking and concentrate on the solution rather than the problem. Look for the good in every situation. Be positive and cheerful, no matter what happens.
>
>Well I guess that is it. Till next week.
>
>
>
>Calvin J. Thomas, Jr.Private Reply to dsmith727 (new win) |
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