Category: Success Attitude

I’ve been pondering the secrets of successful business and why some entrepreneurs are wildly successful while others are just plodding away and ‘getting by’.

As my day unfolded and I observed some of my very own crazy behavior, I realized that it was a very cool mirror for this very question. The answer has to do with being ‘real’, being authentic; successful people and successful businesses tell real stories well.  It’s as simple as that.  And the day showed proved it to me.

This is pretty much how my day went.

I took a cup of fresh spinach, a banana and a pear, a full glass of water and made my first ever green smoothie. It looked gorgeous; deep color, smooth texture and a gorgeous flow into the glass.

It tasted like grass and earth. Ugh!  I poured half of it away and added more fruit.  Then, I have to admit, it tasted pretty good.

I went back to work feeling healthy and extraordinarily self-satisfied!

A few hours later, while icing a cake, I dug into the chocolate icing and a handful or three of M&Ms.

A yummy, healthy salad for lunch was followed a few hours later by a huge chunk of break with a very generous helping of butter…oh and some honey too.

In the midst of all this, I posted to an amazing group of like-minded and like-souled entrepreneurs (in Facebook) – HELP – any cool tips to get back on track, I’m out of control! And the response? Well, wait a minute, I’ll tell you about that soon!!!

So what do you think?

Is this the record of a crazed, addicted and guilt-ridden sugar fiend?

Or a maddening, unbelievable weakness of a health freak?

Or perhaps it’s just that strange and rarely found animal called ‘real’.

Yes, it’s real for me to love healthy food, but also have days of craving sugar and salt and all things unhealthy.

The response I got from my Facebook posting was to be inundated with comments and suggestions, tips and ideas; brilliant, supportive and seriously helpful.

Here’s what I learned from all this that I believe is critical to your business success!

1. ‘Real’ is okay to admit; actually it’s more than okay, it’s super important
2. People connect to ‘real’ and usually respond with compassion and support.  This is how community and tribes are created.
3. It’s important to take people up on their offers of support (asking and receiving help are advanced business skills, seriously!)
4. Life and business are full of paradox and imperfection – accept it, no celebrate it!
5. Being ‘real’ (a.k.a. authenticity) is the new language of successful business; practice your realness by telling your stories.

The annual U.S. celebration of the Declaration of Independence’s signing is this week. While many just eat hot dogs and watch fireworks, let’s Work Positive and discover 3 strategies from the Founding Fathers’ experience that we can use to achieve our own positive business independence.

Attention

The U.S. Founding Fathers viewed “taxation without representation” as the negative mental model cast by a negative British government.

What negative mental models receive your thoughts’ focus? It could be anything from the way you determine your attitude each morning by watching TV “news” to a scarcity mentality from which you grab and rake everything you can wrap your arms around.

Who are the negative people that get your attention? From an employee or coworker, vendor to regional manager, they suck your positive time and energy even after you go home. It costs too much to do business with some people.

Is your business positively growing this way?

The first strategy is to determine today to develop a more positive mental model independent of your status quo. Feed your attitude something more positively nutritional for breakfast. Grow an abundance mentality by thinking about all you do have instead of what you don’t.

Determine to give your attention to positive mental and social energies so your business will positively grow independent of current negativity.

How?

Intention

The second strategy is to declare your positive determination to transform your attention. 

The Founding Fathers of the U.S. signed a document that clearly stated what they believed to be true as the positive recasting of their attention and why. It’s known as the Declaration of Independence.

Our positive thoughts and relationships to which we give attention organize and crystallize when we declare in writing what we believe to be true. The most powerful fuel for focus is your pen.

Write down what you positively declare your independence from today. Write about more than just what you’re against. Notice the U.S. Declaration of Independence primarily focuses on positive truths that to the signers are self-evident. Keep your word count tight and positive as you declare your positively transforming mental model and social relationships.

Action

You’ve determined to do business more positively by transforming the thoughts and people who receive your attention. You’ve declared your determined beliefs.

Now it’s time to act—the third strategy. 

The British response to the U.S. intention for a more positive focus of attention was “Bring it on.” While the U.S. may have preferred acquiescence, war ensued.

Every action has a consequence. In business as in life, you are 100% responsible for your actions and their consequences. You start your journey to Work Positive with the first two steps when you determine to positively realign your thoughts and relationships and then declare them. There are many more steps down that path. Sustaining the positive change means you perpetually act in the 5 core practices of a Work Positive lifestyle.

The Revolutionary War came at a great cost to both the Americans and the British. Yet it was necessary for global growth to occur.

What one action will you take today to positively grow your business?

Create your own celebration as you implement these 3 strategies for your positive business independence.

I live in a part of the U.S. that received a once-a-decade snowfall last week. At least 12,000 flights were cancelled. Millions of people were home from work, rearranging untold numbers of meetings and assignments.

Such rapid change is commonplace in our world today. Snow is forecast. Other changes are not. How you deal with it determines your positive success at work.

Here are five secret steps the positively successful take in response to such rapid change:

Relax

When sudden change interrupts your work flow, your fight-or-flight response to stress emerges just as quickly. You will go thermonuclear or turbodrive away due to an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

Successful business people first relax. They take a breath and see the moment as it is. They resist the urge to go Incredible Hulk or Chicken Little and focus on the positive.

Relate

Successful professionals secondly relate. They quickly turn to others and invest in their social circles. They offer support and gain strength from relationships.

Facebook was filled with pictures of parents at home, playing in the snow with their children. Residents of neighborhoods near highways left their warm homes to push cars stranded in roadside ditches.

Once you relax in the midst of rapid change, your focus shifts from “me” to “thee.” You relate to and invest in others.

Remember

Next, successful business people look behind the moment to previously similar times. They reflect on what they implemented that was most effective. They gather courage and strength from the knowledge that they survived and are in business today. Such emotional fortitude energizes them to deal strategically with the moment.

Everyone has a survival story. Such tales willingly suspend your disbelief in the moment and propel you forward.

Respond

Having relaxed, related, and remembered, successful professionals now choose to respond. Interestingly, the temptation is to first respond. However, success builds from well-chosen inner steps before it emerges in outer steps.

The focusing question behind your response is, “What can I do?” The powerlessness of rapid change paralyzes with a myopic view of “What I Can’t Do.” There is always some sliver of an opportunity open to successful people. They see what they look for. Seizing the moment, they respond with creative imagination and transform the paralysis into a powerful rewriting of the script.

They find an appointment for the patient who stayed overnight in hopes of seeing the doctor. They let the client text the picture of the damaged vehicle direct to claims. They respond positively and creatively.

Reward

Finally, successful business people reward themselves. They take off earlier than usual to play in the snow.

Also, they reward others. They gift the team member who came in on Saturday to complete what couldn’t be done on Friday.

Rewards recognize the importance of others to the success of the business. This secret step may be the greatest of all as it hooks the team member’s emotional engagement in a most personal way. Successful professionals lead from heartfelt recognition that it takes more than themselves to navigate rapid change.

Whatever your source of change, implement these five secret steps of the positively successful and Work Positive!

About the Author:

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), Positive Success coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you “3 Positive Strategies to Deal with an Eeyore Vampire Boss.” I knew there were flocks of negative bosses everywhere, but evidently more than I realized.

Your overwhelming response prompted me to remember some of my Eeyore Vampire bosses. The one who was so insecure she didn’t want the organization to grow. Another who wanted me to trade product for pot. The one whose boyfriend was jealous of my success.

I reflected on what I learned from them and here are “3 More Positive Strategies to Deal with Your Eeyore Vampire Boss”:

Take Charge of the Conversation

From the one who was so insecure she didn’t want the organization to grow I learned that positive success means change. While some bosses say they want to succeed, their definition is to keep things as they are. To prop up the current façade so that it survives, not thrives.

Take charge of the conversation with such bosses and realize that their fear is real, primarily fear of losing control. Rather than waiting until the weekly meeting, have impromptu conversations about some positive outcome and connect it to something familiar that he knows about. That’s comforting to your boss, easing him into growth mode rather than jerking him out of his comfort zone.

Take Care of Yourself

From the one who wanted me to trade product for pot (and promised to share with me) I learned that you have to take care of yourself.

Yes, the job is important. Yes, you respect authority. Yes, you need to make money.

Yes, you have a job and respect authority in jail, but it doesn’t pay very much.

Each morning when you get up and stare at yourself in the make-up or shaving mirror, it’s you. Only you. Your first responsibility is to yourself. As James Altucher writes in his great book, be sure to “Choose Yourself.”

Take care of yourself. Live in honesty, integrity, and love and you’ll always have a job, or better yet, be your own Work Positive boss!

Take Compassion on the Boss

From the one whose boyfriend was jealous of my success I learned that sometimes the boss needs some compassion, too.

I was 22 years old, had tripled the company’s revenue each month in my first three months, even picked up her Great Dane from the shelter when he ran off in a driving rainstorm, and she fired me a week after I returned from my honeymoon because her boyfriend was threatened by me. What did I learn?

It took a while to quit hating her and forgive her. When I did, I realized this company was the first she owned. She was figuring out what it meant to be responsible for all kinds of operational matters that she had little background in. She was in way over her head, which is why she got drunk to fire me. Later she lost the business.

The boss is human and makes mistakes, too. I made my fair share working for her.

Quit hating the boss. Hate hurts only you.

Forgive the boss. No, she doesn’t deserve it, but forgive her for your sake.

Take compassion on the boss for being human, too, take care of yourself, and take charge of the conversation so you Work Positive in a negative world.

About the Author:

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), leading Positive Success expert, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.