Pearce Flannery - Ask for the Order!

Published by OAK TREE PRESS, 19 Rutland Street, Cork, Ireland

www.oaktreepress.com

2011 Pearce Flannery

A catalogue record of this ebook is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781846210372 (PDF)
ISBN: 9781846210389 (ePub)
ISBN: 9781846210396 (Kindle)

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How important is attitude to success in business? It is more important than you might think. How many times have you been in a great mood, only to meet someone who looked as if it hurt him or her to smile? This influences your own mood. A bad attitude infects those all around you. Likewise, a positive attitude empowers everyone that it comes in contact with you.

Ultimately, you need to enjoy what you are doing. Your attitude needs to reflect this. There will be bad days but these are the days when you need a positive attitude most of all. Work is only a chore when you would rather be doing something else. If you like what you do, you never have to work a day in your life.

During the research for my book, Grabbing the Oyster, I examined the recruitment philosophy of some of Irelands leading business icons. These people were all significant business successes in their own right and employed considerable numbers of people. They each identified one single attribute as being of greater importance than any other, including education, experience or communicative abilities. That attribute was a positive empowering attitude, one that was open to success. These successful entrepreneurs all strived to ensure that their business teams were staffed primarily with people with the correct outlook and attitude.

Attitude was the critical factor in the success of every team. Skills and knowledge take second place and can be taught to anyone who displays the correct attitude.

As a generalisation we can classify the members of any team into three broad groups the Three As:

Achievers: These are the people we all wish to be. They are the people that we all gravitate towards at social functions. They exude confidence and energy. They have that indefinable quality called charisma. They have an excellent attitude and approach to life in general and more specifically to the team. They have a positive impact on the dynamic of any team. Such people are essential to success.

Adequate: Unfortunately, this is where most of us find ourselves. Exactly as it says on the tin, we are people who fulfil their function but rarely rise above mediocrity. We are foot-soldiers. But foot soldiers are essential to victory. This group interacts with the other groups and are essential to the team dynamic.

Arseholes: We can all recognise someone from this group. They are the born cynic; the person who perpetually lives in the valley of excuses; the person whose fault or responsibility it never is; the person who could be great but for If allowed to prosper, this group will have an immense negative impact on the team dynamic and infect the second group with their negative, cynical deadbeat attitude. Stay away from them, ignore them and, whatever you do, do not listen to them. Cut them out of your life now.

Managing any business or team is down to how you manage the interaction of these three groups. Effective business managers waste no time in cutting cynical perpetual underachievers from a team. Why should you be any different? Life is too short to waste on arseholes; surround yourself with winners. Start by identifying the achievers and surround yourself with them. Suddenly, your average will start to soar.

Your personal and professional stock will rise. You will be on your way, simply because you will have changed your attitude and enhanced your outlook.

So attitude is the key. It really does define altitude. Write it down. Study it. Put it on your bedroom wall. Embrace it because there is no getting away from it and there is no substitute for it. Cutting-edge companies always hire for attitude and train for skill. This is no coincidence. It is the defining reason for their success and is precisely why they are regarded as cutting-edge.

The point is that, no matter who you are or what you do, your life both personal and professional will be greatly enhanced by developing a positive can-do attitude.

Developing a positive attitude takes a little work. There is no fast track or easy method. But, once you have achieved the right outlook, you are empowered to choose who you are and what you want to be. A positive attitude and mindset can be acquired by anyone by simply making a decision to think and act differently.

I am convinced that anyone can improve their chances of success by improving their energy levels. Successful people are often energetic individuals and are usually physically fit. By maintaining a reasonable physical fitness regime, you will be able to enhance your mental fitness and stamina also. If you keep fit and have a reasonably good diet, you will be in a position to devote your considerably increased energies to the projects at hand. Energy for your business and life can be developed in three simple steps:

Watch your diet: Cut out or cut down on all fatty foods, caffeine, alcohol, etc. Eat healthily at least most of the time. Watch the balance of your food intake. Eat more whole-grains, eliminate saturated fats, and take occasional vitamins if you are feeling run down.

Get enough sleep: Keep to a regular sleep pattern, with a minimum of seven hours sleep per day.

Get more exercise: Walk outdoors for 30 45 minutes at a brisk pace, three or four days a week. Outdoor walking (golf does not count!) is more beneficial to the mind as it enables the system to replenish its oxygen levels and stimulates the mind and body. It is also provides an opportunity to think and plan what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Having a fitness and health regime will radically improve your results and has the added benefit of helping you to live longer to enjoy the fruits of your endeavours.

To help change what you believe and how you think, investigate the ideas of people you admire. Analyse the characteristics of successful people and develop role models. Successful people make references to other successful people and certain characteristics, traits or actions that they possess and that they admire. They take the time to study people, especially successful people in a variety of fields.

If you wish to commit to changing your personal headspace, you need to be willing to make certain changes in the way you do things and in your approach to life. First, I recommend you change the way you talk by resolving that you will stop complaining. Simply put, if you cannot say anything positive, do not say anything at all. Get into the habit of saying positive things, thinking positive thoughts and committing positive actions. If you develop this habit, you will radically change the way you approach things and the way people perceive you.