What follows is the continuation of success habits that will become part of a book I’m writing, “100 Rules of Success”.
RULE: Lights On; Lights Off
Do you remember the movie, ‘The Karate Kid’? One of the most memorable scenes was when master martial artist, Mr. Miyagi, agrees to train Daniel in the art of self-defense. For what seemed like months, Daniel’s training consisted of waxing cars and Miyagi would incessantly repeat, “Wax on, wax off!”…much to Daniel’s frustration. As it turns out, this ‘work’ was basic training for effective blocking techniques that Daniel would later use to defeat his archenemy. Before I started my first job, my father gave me this advice, “How you conduct yourself in the first six months of work will set the tone for how your employer sees you forever. Make an effort to be the first one at the office and the last one to leave. Your employer will notice and in his or her mind, will see you as a hard worker.” I took that advice and found that what started out as a 6-month goal became a habit that helped me start my own business. One side benefit is that more time on the job equated to more job experience and a shortening of the learning curve. I also found that folks were more willing to mentor the ‘new kid with hustle’. So start your new job with a secret weapon, “lights on…lights off!”
RULE: Create Your Perfect Attitude
Think for a moment about the people you most enjoy spending time with. What’s their disposition? Is it upbeat and outgoing or is it downtrodden and pessimistic? I’m guessing the former. Did you know that you get to ‘choose’ your attitude? Yep, if you are more introverted and don’t naturally have that ‘sunny’ disposition, you can decide to change it. In, fact, your future success may very well depend on it. I began my career as more of an introvert with a more ‘reserved’ (sullen?) disposition but I quickly learned that did not produce the best results so I decided to change it. How? I reflected on how blessed I was to live in the greatest country; come from a great family; and have an opportunity to create my own future. The first phase of my transformation was ‘fake it til you make it’! I learned to smile; speak to people (even people I didn’t know) and if you asked, “How’s it going?”, my typical response became “Perfect!” I found that if you smile a lot, speak to people and genuinely care about how they are doing and what’s going on in their lives and are consistently upbeat about your own circumstances, you can’t help but have a great attitude.
RULE: Adopt a ‘Whatever it takes’ attitude.
Don’t be a ‘That’s not my job!’ type of employee. Most businesses in America are small businesses and everyone in the company needs to be prepared to help where needed. In fact, ideally you want to become the ‘go-to’ person when a special project comes up. To learn more about business go to Lee S. Rosen Website.
When someone is interviewing for a new job, what do you think is one of their first questions? If you came up with “How much vacation time do I get?”, you’re really going to need this book! Most want to know their job description. When we hire someone at our firm, our written job description is: ‘Whatever it takes’…then we proceed to list what we call ‘Primary Areas of Responsibility’. Be prepared to do whatever it takes to help your company succeed and I assure you, the right people will notice.