“It’s hard to be nervous when your mind is on service.”
Servant Leadership at its finest transforms lives.
Servant Leadership Dan Moore
Dan Moore is one of the best Servant Leaders I’ve ever met! At our first Southwestern ConsultingTMSuccess Starts Now! TM sales training seminars, Dan not only was one of our speakers at the event…but he also was the cameraman, set-up crew and clean-up crew. There have been countless times that we’ve been in a business meeting and Dan is the first person to stand up and get everyone a cup of coffee. Dan is the first person to offer the best seat to someone else. Dan is the last person to get his food. If someone needs anything, Dan gets it or does it without hesitating. Dan Moore is a Servant Leader.
Here are the 5 Characteristics of a true Servant Leader:
They care more about other people’s success than they do their own.
They listen more than they talk.
They consider how all of their decisions affect their team, customers, company and other people.
They never try to position themselves to take credit for success. They give other people the credit for success instead.
They live by 2 rules:
Treat others the way they want to be treated.
The first will be last.
Being aware of your actions and decision and being considerate of the effects on others is at the core of a Servant Leader. Being considerate does not come natural for a lot of people (myself included). Being considerate of my teammates, my loved ones and other people in general is a discipline that as a leader I have to practice everyday.
I thank God everyday for putting Servant Leaders like Dan Moore, Henry Bedford, Steve Hillis and Spencer Hays into my life. As a leader striving to be a true Servant Leader everyday, my goal is simple. As Dale Carnegie suggests in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People – stop focusing on what I want and help other people get what they want in life.
Dan Moore (the President of the Southwestern Advantage and partner at Southwestern Consulting) hosted the 26th Annual Southwestern Company “Great Recruiters Seminar” in Nashville, TN recently. After the Freddie’s Awards banquet, I had the honor of discussing Leadership ideas with Dan.
Here are the top 3 leadership lessons from Dan Moore:
1. A Great Introduction Determines the Outcome of the Presentation.
The way you introduce someone is a window for them to see what you really think about them… which will affect the way they see themselves.
Dan Moore’s Tips for a Great Introduction:
Group Introduction Tips
Interview the person you are going to introduce and find out one thing personal and one thing in business that is interesting.
Interview the manager/or a close friend/ or family member of the person you’re introducing and find out about something about their past that other people might not know.
Write down as much information as possible about the person you’re introducing in a bullet point outline of everything you’re going to say in the introduction. That way if you forget a couple of points, you’ll have more then enough information about them.
Study the note card 1o minutes before you introduce and then put the note card away.
One-on-One Introduction
When introducing 2 people who haven’t met, it is a golden opportunity to build them up and help further define their role on the team.
Think of 3 things that are truly unique about each person you work with.
Think of 3 things that each person on the team is gifted in.
Think of a couple of areas each person contributes to the team that other people might not know about.
Don’t hold back about really amplifying how amazing someone is when introducing them to someone who has never met them.
Dan Moore shared a story with me about when Dan was on the Marketing Team at Southwestern and he went to film a speech by Mort Utley and the person introducing Mort did a very sub-par job on the introduction. Dan said that Mort had to spend the first 15 minutes of the 30 minute speech establishing credibility and connecting with the crowd. By the end of the speech, Mort had won the hearts of the spectators over (as he always did) and walked to the back of the room with Dan as everyone was leaving. Mort looked at Dan and taught him a lesson he’s never forgotten, he said “Dan promise me this. When you introduce someone, make sure you put as much energy and enthusiasm as you’d want someone to do for you. Otherwise, you’re setting someone up to spend a majority of their time digging out of the hole you put them in.”
… Stay tuned for the other 2 lessons from Dan Moore in weeks to come.
An event took place in high school that set in course a change in the way I think and believe what is possible. Up until that point, I was never in the top echelon of athletics, grades or really anything at all. I was just a normal kid who did not believe absolutely anything was possible… I had limiting belief.
My Momentum Building Event
I started wrestling in the 8th grade and I was pretty good, but not the best. My Junior year in High school I found myself going to the state tournament at #3 in my area; 189lbs out of Dalton, GA. My weight class and area were considered the hardest in the state, and mostly because of a guy named Brent Hughes from Murray County. Brent had beaten me three times that year. Wrestling Brent was like trying to wrestle a Grizzly Bear. They actually took a picture of him with his shirt off weighing in for the state tournament and put it on the cover of the Georgia State wrestling magazine. Brent hadn’t just beaten me three times that year, he destroyed me 3 times that year! Every time I wrestled him I had this negative, self-defeating self-talk saying, “There’s no way I can beat this guy” or, “What am I going to do?” I felt like I had no chance to win against him.
Historically, if I were winning in the first period, I would win the match. But if I was getting beat or if I got on my back, I would just tell myself, “Aw, screw it” and give up. In my first match in the first period in the state tournament I found myself in a headlock on my back. While on my back and about to have the shortest appearance in Georgia state tournament history, a new thought entered my head. I thought, “You know what, I don’t even care, I’m just going to go nuts, and see what happens.” Something in me just clicked. I arched my back and in a fast furry, I was on top of this guy and pinned him.
In my next match, I was thrown on my head three times. Then a new thought entered my head: “This guy is going to have to kill me to beat me.” Then somehow, in the middle of him throwing me on my head for the 4th time, I ended up countering the throw and pinning the guy. At this point my confidence started building. I won the next match and then two more matches after that and found myself in the semifinals facing Brent Hughes.
Normally I would have been scared and telling myself, “I can’t do this. He’s so much better than me. There’s no way I can do this.” But this time around, I had a new attitude. I stopped thinking, stopped caring about “what if”, and started giving 100%. I went into this match with the thought, “I don’t care if he kills me. I’m going to come at him with everything I have. And even if I lose, I’m going to at least slam him one good time.” I visualized myself picking him up, (Brent Hughes, who could bench press 350lbs in high school), and throwing him on his head. In the past, I would try to finesse him and use wrestling techniques against him, but this time I came at him with everything that I had head on like a savage warrior. Within a minute in the first period I picked up the seemly unbeatable opponent, swung him in the air above my head, and slammed him on his head. He had to take an injury timeout. And to everyone’s surprise (including my own coaches), I beat him 7 to 3 and advanced to the state finals!
In that moment, something happened to the way I looked at myself and my confidence was changed forever. I had just beaten Brent Hughes, who had been expected to win the entire state tournament. And I hadn’t just beaten him, I beat him bad. In fact, the only points he got were from me taking him down and letting him up. I owned him. And I won!
I ended up losing the state finals. I was winning with 10 seconds left and ended up losing only by one point. After that tournament, I thought differently about myself. When I looked in the mirror, I believed I could do things I use to not think was possible. I refer to that day as my “Confidence Anchor Event”.
Anytime I’ve been afraid to do something or just simply didn’t want to do something, I go back to that day and I push through. Utilizing this “Confidence Anchor Event” has made the rest of the challenges in my life such as my first “real job” working with the Southwestern Company selling books door-to-door, starting a sales performance consulting business, starting a sales and leadership coaching business, starting a sales seminar business, writing books, being married, having a new born baby, so much easier for me. Every time the going gets tough I visualized going into that state tournament with the odds against me and I overcame those odds. Then the memory of that “Confidence Anchor Event” helps me push through and not give up.
Now every time I push through a difficult challenge that becomes a new “Confidence Anchor Event”. What is yours? Do you have a time in your life when the odds were against you and you wanted to quit, but you didn’t and you ended up victorious? If not… you can create one by simply never giving up on anything that is a challenge. Babe Ruth said it best “It’s hard to beat someone who won’t give up.”
Other than the Bible this writing is the single most powerful truth I’ve ever read. Enjoy!
WHAT YOU ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE YOU ARE NOW BECOMING: BY JIM MCEACHERN
ONE OF THE MOST SOBERING THOUGHTS I HAVE EVER BEEN CONFRONTED WITH IS THIS. “WHAT YOU ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE YOU ARE NOW BECOMING.” YOU ARE NOW, THIS MOMENT, EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING ALL YOUR LIFE.
ARE YOU NOW THE PERSON YOU DREAMED ABOUT BECOMING? IF YOU HAD WRITTEN DOWN SEVERAL YEARS AGO EXACTLY THE TYPE OF PERSON YOU WANTED TO BE NOW, WHAT KIND OF PERSON WOULD YOU HAVE DESCRIBED? HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO BECOMING THAT PERSON?
WHAT KIND OF PERSON DO YOU WANT TO BE A YEAR FROM NOW? OR TWO YEARS FROM NOW? OR FIVE YEARS FROM NOW? OR 10? OR 20?
RIGHT NOW YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING THE PERSON YOU WILL BE IN A YEAR, OR TWO, OR FIVE, OR 10 OR 20 YEARS FROM NOW. THE HABITS YOU HAVE NOW WILL DETERMINE THE KIND OF PERSON YOU WILL BECOME UNLESS YOU CHANGE THOSE HABITS NOW.
WHAT ATTITUDE WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE SOMEDAY? THE ATTITUDE YOU HAVE NOW IS A GOOD INDICATION OF THE ATTITUDE YOU WILL HAVE SOMEDAY, UNLESS RIGHT NOW YOU BEGIN TO DEVELOP A NEW KIND OF ATTITUDE.
IF YOU ARE NOT NOW DOING THOSE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO TO BECOME WHAT YOU WANT TO BECOME, WHAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU EVER WILL?
DO YOU HAVE SITUATIONS OR CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ARE PREVENTING YOU FROM BECOMING WHAT YOU WANT TO BECOME? THOSE SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES WILL PASS BUT THEY WILL BE REPLACED BY NEW SITUATIONS OR NEW CIRCUMSTANCES. IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A BETTER (OR DIFFERENT) KIND OF PERSON, YOU BETTER GET STARTED NOW. YOU CANNOT WAIT FOR SITUATIONS OR CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ARE JUST RIGHT.
HAVE YOU EVER TOLD YOURSELF. “SOMEDAY I AM GOING TO BEGIN TO SAVE SOME MONEY ON A REGULAR BASIS?” ARE YOU SAVING NOW? IF YOU ARE NOT NOW, YOU PROBABLY WON’T EVER—UNLESS YOU BEGIN NOW. IT WILL NEVER BE ANY EASIER, EVEN IF YOUR INCOME DOUBLES OR TRIPLES. IT WILL NEVER BE ANY EASIER, EVEN IF YOU SOMEDAY EARN TEN TIMES AS MUCH AS YOU DO NOW; SAVING/MONEY REGULARLY HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH INCOME. IT RELATES TO THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE. IF YOU WANT TO DEVELOP A GOOD SAVINGS ACCOUNT, YOU BETTER BEGIN NOW. IN ALL PROBABILITY, IT IS NOW OR NEVER.
DO YOU PLAN TO HAVE GOOD “WORK HABITS” SOMEDAY? DO YOU NOW HAVE GOOD “WORK HABITS?” IF NOT, YOU PROBABLY NEVER WILL, UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO BEGIN TO DEVELOP THEM RIGHT NOW. WHAT YOU ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE, YOU ARE NOW BECOMING. MAYBE YOU HAVE SAID, “SOMEDAY, I AM GOING TO SET ASIDE TIME TO READ THE BIBLE AND PRAY EVERY DAY.” WHY SOMEDAY? IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO SET ASIDE TIME NOW, YOU PROBABLY WON’T DO IT SOMEDAY. IF YOU PLAN TO EVER BEGIN, YOU BETTER START FORMING THE HABIT TODAY.
MANY YEARS AGO SPENCER HAYS ASKED ME, “JIM, WHAT KIND OF PERSON DO YOU WANT TO BE IN FIVE YEARS? WHAT KIND OF HUSBAND DO YOU WANT TO BE? WHAT KIND OF FATHER DO YOU WANT TO BE?” I ANSWERED SPENCER BY TELLING HIM THE KIND OF PERSON I WANTED TO BECOME. I TOLD HIM WHAT I WANTED TO BECOME AS A HUSBAND AND AS A FATHER. SPENCER THEN TOLD ME ONE OF THE MOST FRIGHTENING THINGS I HAVE EVER HEARD. HE SAID, “WHAT YOU ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE YOU ARE NOW BECOMING.” THEN HE ASKED ME, “IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DO THOSE THINGS NOW, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU EVER WILL?” I RESOLVED THEN TO BEGIN DOING THOSE THINGS WHICH WOULD ENABLE ME TO BECOME THE PERSON, THE HUSBAND AND THE FATHER I WANTED TO BECOME.
WE ARE FACED WITH A CHOICE. WE CAN EITHER BEGIN TO DO THOSE THINGS THAT WILL ENABLE US TO BECOME WHAT WE SOMEDAY WANT TO BECOME—OR WE CAN LEARN TO LIVE WITH REGRET. I WOULD PREFER TO DO EVEN THOSE VERY DIFFICULT TASKS THAT WILL ENABLE ME TO BECOME WHAT I WANT TO BECOME THAN TO LIVE WITH REGRET. EVERY TIME YOU DO THOSE THINGS YOU KNOW YOU OUGHT TO DO, YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF. WHEN YOU DO NOT DO WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO, YOU FEEL BAD ABOUT YOURSELF.
EITHER WAY YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING WHAT YOU ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE.
ALBERT GRAY SAID, “THE SECRET OF SUCCESS OF EVERY MAN WHO HAS EVER BEEN SUCCESSFUL LIES IN THE FACT THAT HE FORMED THE HABIT OF DOING THINGS FAILURES DON’T LIKE TO DO.” TO BECOME WHAT WE WANT TO BECOME REQUIRES FORMING THE HABIT OF DOING THE RIGHT THINGS, THE THINGS FAILURES DON’T LIKE TO DO. THE BEST TIME TO BEGIN FORMING A GOOD HABIT IS RIGHT NOW.
WE ARE NOW, DELIBERATELY AND CONSCIOUSLY, CHOOSING TO BECOME WHAT WE WANT TO SOMEDAY BE, OR WE ARE UNCONSCIOUSLY MAKING THE CHOICE. EITHER WAY WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING WHAT WE ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE. KING DAVID IN THE OLD TESTAMENT DELIBERATELY SOUGHT GOD’S WILL IN MOST FACETS OF HIS LIFE AND BECOME A GREAT MAN. HE APPARENTLY DID NOT CONSCIOUSLY DECIDE WHAT KIND OF FATHER HE WOULD BECOME. AS A RESULT, HIS CHILDREN WERE THE CAUSE OF MUCH SORROW. ONE OF HIS SONS GATHERED AN ARMY TO OVERTHROW HIM. ANOTHER SON RAPED HIS OWN SISTER. THE SON WHO COMMITTED THE RAPE WAS MURDERED BY ANOTHER OF DAVID’S SONS. YOU ARE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING THE PERSON YOU’RE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE.
I’VE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF HEARING MANY OUTSTANDING SUCCESS STORIES. THE ACHIEVERS OF THOSE SUCCESSES INVARIABLY STATED. “I DECIDED TO.” IMMEDIATELY AFTER DECIDING THEY TOOK ACTION THAT ENABLED THEM TO BEGIN ACHIEVING THAT WHICH THEY DECIDED TO DO. IT IS THROUGH ACTION THAT WE BECOME.
THIS WORLD IS LITTERED WITH FAILURES. THESE PEOPLE DID NOT INTEND TO BECOME WHAT THEY ARE; THEY INTENDED TO ACHIEVE GREAT THINGS. THEY INTENDED TO BECOME MUCH MORE THAN AVERAGE, BUT THEY WAITED FOR THE RIGHT SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
WHAT ARE PEOPLE WAITING FOR? CHILDREN ARE WAITING UNTIL THEY FINISH SCHOOL. ADULTS ARE WAITING UNTIL THEY GET PROMOTED. MIDDLE-AGED PEOPLE ARE WAITING UNTIL THEY CAN RETIRE. MANY ARE WAITING FOR CIRCUMSTANCES TO BE “NORMAL.” IN THE PROCESS OF WAITING THEY ARE BECOMING WHAT THEY ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE, EVEN THOUGH THAT IS NOT WHAT THEY INTEND TO BECOME. LIFE DOESN’T WAIT. YOU’RE, RIGHT NOW,
BECOMING WHAT YOU ARE SOMEDAY GOING TO BE. WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW TO BECOME WHAT YOU WANT TO SOMEDAY BECOME?
LOSERS DON’T INTEND TO BECOME LOSERS. THEY BECOME LOSERS WHILE WAITING FOR CIRCUMSTANCES TO GET RIGHT. WINNERS DON’T WAIT. THEY DO WHAT IT TAKES TO BECOME WHAT THEY WANT TO BECOME. THEY DO IT NOW.
-JIM MCEACHERN (1930-2011)
For information about the Southwestern Company Leadership Coaching:
Nothing great can be done half-ass. You’re either in or out. It’s all or nothing.
The unfortunate reality is that we live in a mediocre world where people embrace something challenging with the attitude of “well, I’ll try this out and see what happens”. There is no greater travesty than people die after living a life of having a non-committal attitude towards life.
My new friend Chasity recently inspired me as she was on her way to run a Urbanathlon where she runs 10.5 miles with 9 obstacle courses throughout the run.
Urbanathlon
She found out about the Urbanathlon while flying and reading a magazine and immediately registered online after she landed. I then came to find out that earlier this year she had won a body building contest in TX, and before that she was a college cheerleader. It was energizing just speaking with her. Even though her world is completely different from mine, after our conversation she motivated me to embrace life to the fullest… even more than I already do.
We only live this crazy life one time. Our time on earth is too short to have regrets. Tim McGraw said it best “Live like you were dying” and I think Steve Jobs took it to another level when he said “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
– Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)… (Side note… God bless Steve Jobs. He truly changed our world!)
What is on your list of things you want to do before you die? Why haven’t you done them yet? How would you feel if you went to the pearly gates and St. Peter reviewed your life with you and all you can think is “I wish I would have…”.
My favorite annual exercise is creating a vision board. Every year I make a list of what kind of person I want to be more like, what things I want to do, places I want to go, and things I want to have. Then I cut out pictures that represent all of these things, and then for the rest of the year I focus on all of the things on my board. Everyone should have a vision board!
One of the reasons I wear Nike shoes is because they inspire me to “Just Do It”. If this blog inspired you to do something you know you’ve always wanted to do… go put on your Nikes!
Just Do It
… need help “just doing it”? The Southwestern Consulting Certified Coaching team helps people “just do it” everyday.
Lester Crafton is an expert in “linguistic influence” from the Southwestern Company. In a recent interview I had with Lester, we were discussing the importance of every word that comes out of someone’s mouth. Mr. Crafton says, “paying attention to every single word that comes out of someone’s mouth is as valuable as gold bars.”
“Golden Nuggets” is the term we use at Southwestern Consulting to describe the seemingly insignificant things that people say throughout the course of conversation. A common denominator amongst most successful “influencers” of people is that they pay attention to every word that comes out of someone’s mouth.
Earlier this year, I was following a sales rep in the field for a sales performance consulting project. I was perplexed how many things the prospect was saying that the sales rep wasn’t paying attention to. It was like gold bars flying out of the prospects mouth, and instead of taking out a net and catching the gold bars, the sales rep was dodging them and trying to get through their presentation as fast as possible.
Flying By Gold Bars
So what are the little things you should be listening for?
Here is a list of “golden nuggets”:
- hobbies and things they do for fun
- people they know that you know as well
- things that they are interested in
- what they like about your product or service
- their answer to all of your questions
- people they say would be interested in your product or service
- what they don’t like about the current service provider
- why they didn’t buy from the last person they talked with
- why they accepted the meeting with you
- what grade their kids are in
- where they work
- what area of town they live in
- where they grew up
- what they say after you answer their objections
- why they bought
- why someone didn’t buy
- what they like the best about your product or service
- what kind of dog they have
- what kind of car they drive
- their favorite sport
- how they know the referrals they gave you
- what they did before the job they’re at now
Take a look at this list and ask yourself “how effective am I at getting ‘golden nuggets,’ remembering them, and then using that information at the right time to answer objections, influence someone to see things my way, set an appointment, or close a sale?” I recommend creating a “Golden Nugget” note book that you write down all of the detailed information you gather about the people that you interact with daily. Then before every meeting or phone call where you’re talking with someone that you’ve got “golden nuggets” about, you pull out your “golden nugget” notebook and review the valuable information you know about them before engaging with them.
Southwestern ConsultingTM has been helping people reach their potential in over 35 cities across the world from London to Los Angeles by training, motivating, coaching, and consulting top sales professionals from every different arena. We have trained the #1 Remax broker in the nation and the #1 Keller Williams agent in the nation. We have coached the top 1% of producers and managers from companies such as Northwestern Mutual, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Yellow Pages, Wells Fargo, Verizon, Toyota, Bankers Life, State Farm, and many more.
What we have found is that the cream of the crop in every industry has 5 common reasons why they choose to work with their company. We have also found that those same 5 reasons are why great entrepreneurs and team builders attract top talent to work with them. More importantly, we’ve found that these same 5 reasons are why people stay with a company for more than 1-2 years, and are why people build 30 year long careers with a company.
Debunking the myths
If we were to survey a room of managers and ask them what are the top 5 things people are looking for in a job? Most would reply with the following:
1. Money
2. Security
3. Contribution
4. Co-workers they like
5. Creativity
The problem with this thinking is it comes from a very short-term perspective. I recently saw a job advertisement that was promoting a job where the top money earner made over $300,000. That’s a great ad for hiring someone who is hungry for money in the short term to go work somewhere that they possibly aren’t passionate about. Yet they could still go to work there because of the opportunity to earn big bucks. However, we have found that the best of the best people who are satisfied in their jobs do not always go to the opportunity where the employers are throwing money at a certain job. Don’t get me wrong. Making a lot of money is a great thing as long as you are making it in an area about which you are passionate.
The other day I was on a coaching call with a woman who has been working in her job for less than a year. She was explaining to me how she isn’t motivated. Here were the 6 reasons she was miserable.
1. Her boss was “arrogant”. – Any time a company is “personality-driven” the people working for that personality will feel less than the ego-driven owner. Look for companies that are “principle-driven”, rather than “personality-driven”. 2. Each time she came up with an idea her manager took credit for it. – True leaders will give credit to the team and others for the great ideas, and the true leader also will take the blame when things go wrong. 3. She felt like her opinion didn’t count. – If your opinion doesn’t count, why have one? Why should you care if the company succeeds if they don’t care about your opinion? 4. She knows that the management team did not care about her as a person. – You are not a number. A good leader should be interested in your passions, family and life. 5. The office environment was negative. – Your attitude will always be a reflection of the people around you. I once heard a fallacy that you don’t have to be positive to be successful. I would define being successful as being positive all the time regardless of the circumstances. 6. No one appreciated her for any extra effort she was putting in. – Appreciation is the fuel for enthusiastic effort.
She didn’t mention one word about how much money she was making or the security of her job.
When it comes right down to it, there are few people who are motivated by money alone. If you’re one of those people, more power to you. For the rest of us, here are the top 5 things we have found that successful people look for in a job that they actually enjoy. 1. Co-workers that you respect and truly enjoy being with – When you work with friends, your job becomes a hobby. 2. Contribution – Make sure that your company understands where the best ideas come from…the people actually doing the work! 3. Creativity – If you do not have the flexibility to create your own style and adapt the system given to you, then you might feel like a robot working for the man. 4. Money – Make sure that you have the opportunity to earn what you need to make the proper investments to live the life of your dreams. 5. Security –I have rarely seen a company that would terminate someone who was productive, positive, contributing, and believed in the mission of the company.
For everyone who is currently on the job hunt or anyone who is unhappy with their current job, here are 2 questions to ask yourself when making one of the biggest decisions of your life.
1. Would I want to spend time with my boss outside of work?
Do you think your potential boss is full of integrity and will do what he/she says he/she will do? Do you see characteristics in your boss that you want to emulate?
2. Am I passionate about the service this job provides the world?
Is the product/ service something you believe in and would buy for yourself? You can be successful at anything you believe in and are passionate about!
Take an educated risk Step 1. Identify what you are passionate about. (i.e., cars, travel, fashion, helping other people succeed, etc.) Step 2. Make a list of the characteristics you want to see in the people you work with. (i.e., humble, innovative, honest, caring, hard working, kind, etc.) Step 3. Break down how much money you need to get started and then figure out how much money you will need to make to invest and live the life of your dreams. (Many times the best opportunities do not come with a guaranteed amount of income. However, great companies will provide you with the support and structure to blow past any guarantee with a small commission. Most of my personal coaching clients who earn over $500,000 per year started with a small draw or straight commission or started their own business and went in debt for several years before building their momentum in what they were passionate about and living the life of their dreams.)
Don’t waste your life chasing a buck. Go after what you are passionate about with all your might, and when the dust settles you will be on top!
The Art of Not Thinking is my new book that will be coming out in 2012.
the art of not thinking
Here is a sample of what The Art of Not Thinking is about:
Chapter 1- Why Do Smart People Not Think?
Calvin Coolidge says “The world is full of intellectual giants and emotional midgets”. The world is consumed with the notion that we need to think our way into success. People turn to books and seminars trying to learn “the secret”. Parents all want their kids to get straight A’s, go to college, get a good job, and be a “normal” member of society.
I am 29 years old as I write this and I recently found out my wife and I are having a baby girl! At a social gathering a friend and I were discussing how I don’t want my girl to be “normal”; normal is boring, normal is forgettable, normal is average, the normal people secretly wish they were like the abnormal people. We all want to be the best and we want the best for our families… However it is fascinating how hung up we are with being the best at the wrong things. For example grades… I work at the 155 year old Southwestern Company, we interview over 10,000 people per year for various jobs. The number one thing we look for in a candidate is previous successful work habits, the last thing we look for is someones GPA. I think Michael Thompson said it best “The truth is that many indifferent students do extremely well in business because the set of skills required to be a good student does not match the set of skills to be a success in the world,” says Michael Thompson, a University of Chicago-trained psychologist and co-author of the bestseller, Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. He likes to quote the old line: “School is a place where former A students teach mostly B students to work for C students.” It may be an over generalization, but it has “more truth than educators are comfortable with,” he says.
Thinking is a good thing to do at the right time. The problem is that most people don’t think when they should be, and they are thinking when they shouldn’t be.
Recently a good friend asked, “I know your company does sales training, but what does that mean?” The fact that my good friend didn’t know exactly what Southwestern Consulting does inspired me to create this video with a handful of clients to describe what Southwestern Consulting does in our sales coaching & leadership coaching programs.
If you find yourself asking “how do I make more money“, “how do I increase my teams sales“, “how do I skillfully manage my time“?
With over 155 years of experience from over 150,000 sales professionals at the Southwestern Company, the Top Producers Edge sales coaching program & the Managers Edge leadership coaching program are designed to get you results!
For more information about our Sales Coaching and Leadership Coaching program:
