If the axiom is true, and I think it is, your mindset should precede your skillsets. Many companies are now subscribing to the philosophy that we should hire attitude and teach skills. It is easier to teach skills than it is to get people to embrace a positive attitude.
Let’s assume that we have a great attitude and the willingness and capabilities to learn the skills required in our job. We eagerly participate in training activities and prepare ourselves for success. One of the next things to consider is the contacts we have and the resources we can tap to be successful in our chosen endeavor.
This brings us to the critically important topic of relationships we have that can be helpful to us in our quest for success. One of the greatest assets most people have that they can’t even put on their financial statement is their relational capital.
A great example of combining a positive attitude and relational capital is how fortunate I was in the first ten years of my career in sales training and employee motivation. I met and worked with several profoundly talented and well-known individuals, and today I want to tell you about my relationship with Zig Ziglar. I met Zig in 1969 when our firm was promoting sales rallies and being one of the featured speakers, he had a significant impact on my attitude, enthusiasm and skills for the business. About four years later, I had worked my way onto the speakers' circuit and had many opportunities to speak on programs with Zig. We became great friends over the years and did around 3-400 programs together.
One thing Zig often did in his seminars was an exercise where he worked with his audience members to analyze the attributes of successful salespeople. He got a flip chart and asked those in the audience to name the attributes of high performers. They began to yell out things like optimistic, determined, knowledgeable, friendly, hard-working, persevering, etc. as he wrote them all on the flip chart. After completing the list, usually consisting of 35-40 items he would go back and ask the audience members to help him label each as “attitude” or “skill”. Invariably, 80-90% of them were ATTITUDES, thus the phrase Attitude makes the Difference! was born.
Years ago when my wife, Terri moved from Chicago to Memphis, one of her girlfriends called her and said “Terri, I hear you moved to Memphis! Why Memphis?”
Terri said “Well, there’s this guy here who I want to be near (She bought a condo down the street a couple of blocks from my home). Her girlfriend said “Who is it?... Tell me about him.” Terri began a description of me, which prompted her friend, a few minutes into the conversation, to ask “Does he have money?”
Terri said, “I have no idea how much money he’s got, but I do know that he's a Billionaire in friends!” I told Terri later that that is probably the nicest compliment I’ve ever been paid.
As I thought about it later, she was probably right! I treasure my relationships and consider them very valuable to me, as I enjoy win-win relationships with so many wonderful people. That's one asset I can't fit in my financial statement!
My friend, Nido Qubein says to “Always give without remembering and receive without forgetting.” That’s a good policy.
Zig says “You can get anything you want out of life if you just help enough other people get what they want”. With the right mindset and relationships, we can, indeed, enjoy great success!
