No one makes a goal to fail. Think about this for a moment, do you know anyone that upon their decision to achieve something did so with the full intention of failing? I don’t. Sure there are those that are failing miserably in life, but I would argue that the blame for this failure does not rest solely on the individual. The key to success in any endeavor is leadership. Look at any successful person, speak with them about their success and they will undoubtedly attribute all, or at least part of their success to a role model, mentor, or leadership influence that happened at some point before or during their quest for greatness. In many cases, anyone seeking success first finds success in someone else. This is most evident in the business world, to include the sports and fashion industries. In several magazine and television interviews, David Robinson, Navy Officer and 10x NBA All-Star; and Tyra Banks, model, media mogul and businesswoman, both attribute the bulk of their success to people that left positive impressions on them.If you are a person that does not have positive influences in your life I would share this piece of experience with you: Find some! Change up your flow, rotate your friends and acquaintances and start to move forward of other people instead of staying stagnant at the same pace or direction. Don’t sweat static talk from negative influences and those who don’t share your aspirations for success.
Remember the story of “Crabs in a Bucket?”
One day a man was walking along the beach and saw another man fishing in the surf with a bait bucket beside him. As he drew closer, he saw that the bait bucket had no lid and had live crabs inside.
"Why don't you cover your bait bucket so the crabs won't escape?" he said.
"You don't understand," the man replied. "If there is one crab in the bucket it would surely crawl out very quickly. However, when there are many crabs in the bucket and one tries to crawl up the side, the others grab hold of it and pull it back down so that it will share the same fate as the rest of them."
So it is with people. If one tries to do something different, get better grades, improve oneself, escape his or her environment, or dream big dreams, other people will try to drag him or her back down to share their fate.
Moral of the story: Ignore the crabs. Charge ahead and do what is right for you. It may not be easy and you may not succeed as much as you like, but you will NEVER share the same fate as those that never try.
Okay, now for the “three behaviors for success.” Yes, there are only three. Many have debated this but if you really look at these three facts you’ll find that anything else you can conjure up will inevitably fall into one of these headers:
#1: Be on time all the time. This is the first fact for a reason. Don’t be late; it’s a bad start from the get-go. I know of no one in the history of employment that has been hired as a result of being late for the interview. If you are assigned to be somewhere, be on time, every time. A good rule of thumb is, "Early is on time, and on time is late." Whenever possible, try to be early.
#2: Personal appearance is a must! This is about more than dressing to impress; this is about your ability to communicate and behave in a business environment. Businessmen and women have titles for a reason, use them! This respectful behavior of addressing people as sir, ma'am, Mr. Mrs. or Miss. will serve you well when it’s time for evaluation by those senior to you, or investing in you or your business.
#3: Know your gig!!! Learn everything there is about your profession, and when you think you know it all, learn more! This is called diversification of talents. A person with diverse talents is very valuable to the organization and the organization will do damn near anything to keep this person happy. A person with diversified talents is very valuable to an investor and he or she will pay the price to be on your team or afford you on their team.
That’s it! If for some reason you find you're not succeeding, check the facts and start over. It's never too late.
"Thanks for reading, thanks for visiting!"
Copyright © 2010 by Palmer Pinckney II
