Dare to Think Big
Chapter 2: The Self-Preparing Illness! The Seeds of Failure
In order to be successful, people,
it is the people that you need to study and learn.
Take a close look at the people around you to discover the options
and apply the principles that work best for you.
Now, let’s get started on this fun learning!
You will discover that unsuccessful people always have a mental illness,
let’s call it a “self-justifying” disease.
Almost everyone carries some symptoms of this disease.
When the disease has become severe,
the person will inevitably fail.
The disease of self-justification is the cause of the great difference
between a person who is capable
and a person who is unable to control his own actions and thoughts.
The more successful a man is,
the less he justify himself.
And those who have not yet achieved anything in life,
or have no plans for the future,
often cite many reasons to justify their status quo.
When you observe
and learn about leaders in any field,
whether it’s business,
education or the military,
you’ll see.
Indeed, if he wished,
Roosevelt could use his crippled legs as an excuse,
Truman could argue he never went to college;
just as Kennedy could still complain:
“I’m too young to be president!”;
or Johnson and Eisenhower could resort
to frequent terrible heart attacks
to refuse to accept national responsibility.
Just like any other illness,
self-advocacy will become serious
if not treated promptly and properly.
Usually, the psychological development
of a victim suffering from this disease is as follows:
“I should have done better,
I had to find a reason,
otherwise I would lose face.
Let’s see, could it be due to declining health?
Due to age?
Due to limited knowledge?
Influenced by family matters?
Or is it because of the influence of the educational background?”.
When he has found a “reasonable” reason to defend himself,
he will cling to it to justify
to himself and to those around him,
that that is the reason why he cannot succeed.
You should know that a thought,
whether positive or negative,
will also create a powerful force if repeated many times,
it will become more
and more ingrained in the subconscious.
At first, the patient may be completely conscious,
he realizes that the excuse he was using was nothing more than a lie,
but over time,
he himself
became convinced that it was really the reason why he could not succeed.
Therefore, if you are really determined and want to succeed,
you need to immediately start the first step create a vaccine
that destroys every cell of this dangerous disease.
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FOUR BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SELF-JUSTIFYING
The “self-justifying” disease comes in many different forms,
but the most dangerous is blaming health,
intelligence,
age or luck to justify yourself.
Now, let’s see how we can protect ourselves from these manifestations.
1. “But my health is not very good.”
Blaming health has many levels, mild:
“I don’t feel very well”,
or more severe:
“I am having problems with my heart,
liver,
lungs,
brain”
The excuse of “bad health” is
still used every day as an excuse,
whenever someone doesn’t do what they want,
doesn’t dare to take on bigger responsibilities,
doesn’t earn more money,
or success cannot be achieved.
Millions of people around the world currently suffer from this condition,
but is this the right reason in most cases?
You may have noticed:
all successful people never use their health as an excuse for their failures.
Two friends of mine,
a physicist and a surgeon,
both assert:
physically,
no one in the world is completely healthy.
Everyone gets sick with some disease,
even the mildest.
The same goes for this “health-based self-defense” disease.
Many people have been subdued by it,
more or less.
But people who think positively
and always aim for success do not.
One afternoon,
after I had just finished giving a lecture in Cleveland,
a friend in his thirties asked to meet me privately
for a few minutes.
After congratulating me on my very successful presentation,
he sadly confided:
“I am afraid your ideas cannot help me at all.”
Then he continued,
“You know what,
the constant heart attacks keep me
from being able to do anything about it.”
The young man went to see four different doctors
but no one found out what was wrong with him.
That’s why he wanted to ask me for some advice.
I replied, “Actually,
I have no knowledge of cardiology at all,
but if I,
or any other normal person,
were in your situation right now,
I would do three things right away.
First, I would go to a good cardiologist,
have him do a thorough examination,
and I would listen to his diagnoses.
As you have just mentioned,
you have been to four doctors
and none of them have found anything abnormal in your heart.
So let’s take this fifth as the final check.
Maybe you have a perfectly healthy heart.
And if you keep worrying,
thinking about it,
chances are you’ll end up with real heart disease!
The second thing I advise you is to read Dr. Schindler’s book:
Live Every Day to the Full.
In that book, Schindler states
that three out of every four hospital patients have EII
(Emotional Induced Illness).
Just imagine,
three out of four of those people could be healthy
and not be hospitalized
if they knew how to control and control their emotions.
He tried reading that book to learn how to ‘control his own emotions’.
And lastly, to tell you the truth,
I myself am always determined to live to the fullest until my last breath.”
This is also the most sincere advice
I received a few years ago from a true friend.
My friend has tuberculosis.
From that moment on,
he knew his life would always be associated with regular treatment sessions,
strict health regulations.
But he wasn’t bothered,
scared or worried at all.
He is still optimistic about pursuing law,
building a happy family and enjoying life.
Now he is 78 years old.
After many years of hard work on the road of life,
he has summed up the concept of life for himself:
“I never worry,
think about life or death.
As long as I’m still alive in this world,
I’ll really live it,
live it to the fullest.
Anytime I worry about my death,
that’s when I’m dying.”
Then I took a flight to Detroit.
On the plane,
I witnessed the second story,
a completely different story.
As the plane took off,
I suddenly heard a ticking somewhere.
Slightly startled,
I looked over at the man in the seat next to me,
for the noise seemed to be coming from him.
He smiled friendly,
said: “Ah, not a bomb.
That’s the sound of my heart beating.”
Noticing a mixture of surprise and disbelief in my mirror,
he slowly told me his life story.
Three weeks earlier,
he had undergone surgery to replace an artificial heart valve.
He said that when those ticking noises will be gone.
Hearing that,
I asked about his next plans.
He happily replied:
“Ah, I have a lot of great plans.
When I return home to Minnesota,
I will enroll in law school.
I hope one day I can work for the government.
The doctors said that after resting for a few months,
I will be completely healthy again
and can work like any other normal person.”
There are many other cases
where I testify about the disease blamed on health.
I am actually a diabetic who has had 5,000 insulin injections.
The doctors advised me:
“Diabetes is just a physical disease.
My new mental state made me much worse.
If you worry, or think negatively,
you will have serious problems.”
Since learning I have the disease,
I often come in contact with
and get to know many other diabetics.
I will tell you two completely opposite stories.
A person who always thinks
that he is about to die
even though his illness is not to a worrying level.
Out of fear of infection,
he stayed away from anyone who had a runny nose,
even a slight sneeze.
Afraid of being exhausted,
he hardly dared to move his hands or feet.
He was always worried about what might happen next.
People around are bored
because all day long they have to listen to complaints and complaints.
In fact, his illness is not diabetes,
but a disease that blames his health to justify his laziness.
The story of being the regional director
of a major publishing company is quite the opposite.
He has such severe diabetes
that he has to inject 30 times more insulin
than the guy in the story above.
But he never thought he was sick,
always worked hard and enjoyed life.
One day, he said to me,
“It must be very uncomfortable
and inconvenient to be sick like this.
But I don’t want to stay in one place to worry all day.
You know, every time I inject myself,
I thank and pray for those who have found insulin.”
John, one of my best friends,
is currently a lecturer at a prestigious university.
In 1945, after World War II,
he returned
from Europe with only one arm left.
But John is always smiling,
ready to help others,
as optimistic as any healthy person.
Once John and I talked for a long time about the future
and the future obstacles that he will face in life.
He shrugged and smiled:
“I only lost an arm.
Of course,
two is better than one.
Although I lost an arm,
my spirit did not waver at all.”
Have you ever seen a great golfer with only one arm?
But my friend did it.
Once, I found out how he overcame his loss
to achieve so many achievements
that the average golfer could only hope to hit or close to him.
He just smiled and said:
“Ah, I have learned a valuable experience:
if I have a positive and optimistic attitude,
I can definitely beat opponents with full two hands
but always with a positive attitude”.
4 things you can do to overcome illness blamed on health
The best vaccines against this disease include the following four:
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1. Avoid talking about your health.
Talking too much about an illness,
even a common cold,
will make you feel worse.
The repetition of sickness
and disease is like fertilizing the seeds of “negative” seeds.
Moreover,
complaining about your health all day is not a good habit.
It makes people bored
because then you are like a pretender,
always wanting to be the center of the universe.
Successful people know how to overcome that common tendency:
they never complain about their illness.
People can only
(please allow me to emphasize the word can) sympathize a little
when someone complains all the time about their illness and illness,
but they will never respect, or wholeheartedly,
serve such people at all!
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2. Don’t worry too much about your health.
Dr. Walter Alvarez,
Honorary Counselor of the Mayo Clinic recently wrote:
“For those who live in fear and anxiety,
I have begged them to practice self-control. more.
For example,
a man insists that his gallbladder is not right
though eight X-rays show him perfectly fine.
I had to try to convince him to stop taking X-rays.
I have also asked hundreds of other people
to stop all ECG tests because of the fact
that their hearts are completely normal.”
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3. Be grateful to life that you are healthy until now.
There’s a saying that’s worth repeating over and over again:
“I’ve always complained just
because I had old-fashioned shoes
until the day I met a man who had no feet to wear shoes.”
Therefore,
instead of complaining about “feeling unsettled”,
you should be happy and happy
that you are still healthy and healthy at this time.
That will be much better for you.
The best vaccine to avoid tormenting pain
and illness is an attitude of optimism,
contentment and gratitude for the health you have now.
*********************
4. Remind yourself regularly,
“Better worn out than rusted”.
Life is yours, enjoy it to the fullest.
Don’t waste your life with idle thoughts about illness.
“But it takes wisdom to succeed!”
The illness of blaming the mind by complaining,
“I’m not very smart” is very common.
Would you be surprised,
if you know this disease is so common
that 95% of people around you have it,
with different levels.
Unlike other forms of “self-advocacy,”
people with this condition often suffer in silence.
Not many people easily admit that they are less intelligent.
Instead, they often feel it deep within their souls.
When it comes to intellectual capacity,
most of us often make two basic mistakes:
1. Overestimate one’s intellect.
2. Overestimating the wisdom of others.
It is because of such false judgments
that many people almost look down on themselves.
They can’t handle difficult situations just
because they think they don’t have the brains to do so.
However, people who don’t care much about their intelligence
or thinking ability always get the job done.
In fact, the way you use your intellect
when solving a problem is much more important
than the amount of intelligence you have.
Dr. Edward Teller,
one of the most prominent physicists in the United States,
when asked “Should a child strive to be a scientist?”, he replied:
“To become one?” a scientist.
A baby doesn’t need a lightning-fast reflex,
doesn’t need a magical memory,
and doesn’t need high scores.
The only thing that matters is that the kid has a real passion for science.”
Passion and enthusiasm are always important factors in all fields,
including science.
A person who has an IQ of only 100 but always has a positive,
optimistic and willing attitude to cooperate,
will definitely have a better income,
be admired and respected by everyone,
and also will be more successful than people with IQ 120 but always pessimistic,
negative and have no desire to cooperate with people around.
Just have enough passion to do the job to the bottom of things,
whether it’s an errand,
or a big project,
would be much better than someone who has plenty of brainpower
but doesn’t know what to use it for.
When you have passion,
you have a 95% chance of success.
In the past,
at an alumni party organized by my old university,
I met again with Chuck,
a good student who graduated with honors.
We haven’t had any contact with each other for decades.
I remember the last time we met,
he talked about his goal of starting
and running his own business in west Nebraska.
At the party that day,
I asked Chuck what business he is in now.
He honestly admitted:
“Well, actually,
I haven’t started my own business yet.
Last year, even until last year,
I dared not tell anyone about what I was about to share with you.
I had anticipated all the difficulties that could come,
researching the reasons
why a business should be small business goes bankrupt:
“You must have abundant capital”;
“You have to define the exact business cycle”;
“Is the demand for the type of product you are going to offer high?”;
“Is the local business stable?”
There are actually 1,001 things you have to pay attention to.
And what bothered me the most was the story about my friends from high school.
Although they are not very smart,
even some of them have never attended university,
but now they are very successful in their business.
And I just lazily followed with the job
of a freight checker sending goods.
If only I had been taught how to lead a small business to success in the past,
I could have done so much more now!”
Obviously Chuck was smart but he didn’t know
how to use his intelligence in the right direction to succeed in business.
Why do some people who are exceptionally smart still fail?
For many years now,
I have been quite close with a man
who has all the qualities of a genius,
a transcendent mind,
who belongs to Phi Beta Kappa.
Despite his innate intelligence,
he is one of the least successful people I know.
He has a temporary job
(for fear of taking on the responsibility);
never married
(for fear of the prospect of a series of marriages ending in court);
only a few friends
(because everyone is sick of playing with him).
He also never refuses to invest money in any field
(for fear of losing money).
Instead of using his genius mind to find the path to success,
this man uses it to make arguments
that prove everything will go nowhere.
It is because he allows negative thoughts
to dominate his brain that in the end,
he can do almost nothing,
contribute nothing to society.
Just a little change in attitude
or way of thinking,
he will do many great,
useful things.
He has a brain that can deliver massive success,
but lacks willpower.
Let me tell you another story about a friend
that I have known for a long time.
He was drafted into the military shortly
after receiving his doctorate from a top New York university.
During his three years in the army,
what did he accomplish?
Not becoming an officer,
nor a personnel trainer.
For three years in a row he only drove a truck.
Why? Because his mind is always filled with arrogant,
negative thoughts about his fellow soldiers
(“I’m much better than them”),
about the military’s training methods (“They’re silly”) . ).
People like him won’t be respected by anyone.
Everything he learns is in vain.
It was his negative attitude that inadvertently turned him into a mediocrity.
Remember, to solve problems,
how you use your intelligence is far more important
than how much intelligence you have.
Even a PhD is no exception to this basic principle.
A few years ago I became a close friend of Phil F.,
the marketing research director
of a well-known advertising agency,
and he’s always done his job well.
Did Phil succeed by raking “a transcendent mind”?
Absolutely not! In fact,
Phil knew almost nothing about research methods
or statistical operations.
He never graduated from college
(although all the staff under him are bachelors).
Phil never pretended to be comfortable with everything.
So what helps Phil earn over $30,000 a year,
while none of his subordinates make $10,000?
The answer is simple:
Phil is a “human engineer”.
He knows how to inspire people at work,
especially when they fall into disappointment or discouragement.
Phil always lives to the fullest
and knows how to arouse his heart passion,
enthusiasm in others.
He understands what scares people,
and he truly loves them.
Compared to a person with a higher IQ,
Phil is worth many times more,
not because of his intellect
but because he already knows how to use his mind.
According to statistics, in the US
less than 50 people graduate from college for every 100 people.
I was very curious about this situation,
so I asked the head of the admissions department of a large university.
“It’s not because they’re less intelligent,” he explains.
If they lacked the ability to think,
we wouldn’t have multiplied them in the first place.
It is not a matter of tuition fees,
because everyone can afford their studies.
The problem is in the attitude.
You will be surprised to know
that many young people drop out of school just
because they don’t like their teachers,
don’t like the subjects they have to study,
or don’t like their classmates.”
Negative thinking is the reason
why the door leading to senior management
and executive positions is closed
in front of many young employees.
It is not the ability to think,
but the irritable,
negative, and contemptuous attitude of others that holds them back.
As a senior, senior professional confided to me:
“Very rarely do we reject a young person
just because he lacks ability,
but often because of his lack of positive attitude.”
I once lingered with an insurance company
to find out why the top 25% of employees sold 75% of the total volume,
while the bottom 25% contributed only 5%.
To find the answer,
people have respectfully examined thousands of personal records
and discovered that there is not much difference
between these people in terms of innate intelligence.
On the other hand,
educational disparities also do not explain
why they have different sales abilities.
In the end, it was discovered that the biggest difference
between a successful person
and a failure lies in their attitude,
ability to control and direct their thoughts.
The best are usually enthusiastic,
love the people around them,
and don’t have to worry to the point of obsession.
In fact,
the innate character we are given from birth,
we cannot completely change,
but we can still make a change in the way we use our knowledge.
Knowledge becomes power,
if we use it properly.
The “blame mind” disease is often associated
with some intellectual misconceptions.
We often hear people say knowledge is power.
But this statement is only partially correct,
and used only at a potential level.
Knowledge becomes real power only
when used properly and for the right purpose.
When asked,
“How many feet is one mile?”
Einstein replied, “I don’t know.
Why do I have to stuff my head with numbers
that I can easily find in any popular reference book!”.
Einstein did indeed teach us a valuable lesson.
He always believed that things would be much better
if we used our minds to think,
not storehouses of obvious truths.
Henry Ford once sued the Chicago Tribune for libel
when they called him an idiot.
Ford told them,
“Prove it!”
In response,
the newspaper asked Ford
to answer a few simple questions such as:
“Who is Benedict Arnold?”;
“When did the North-South war take place?”
and a few more sentences.
Because he did not go to school from a young age,
Ford could hardly answer any questions.
Finally, Ford declared,
“I can’t answer them all,
but in five minutes I’ll find someone who can answer them all.”
Henry Ford was never interested in such information.
But he knows what a senior executive needs to know:
that the ability to find and process information is far more important
than using your brain as a warehouse to store everything.
A person filled with book knowledge,
how much are they really worth?
A few days ago,
I had an enjoyable evening with a friend.
He is currently the director of a production business,
which is newly established
but has developed very quickly and has achieved much success.
During our conversation,
we happened to switch the TV to one of our favorite game shows.
The players on the show
that day answered a lot of questions in different areas,
but most of them made no sense at all.
After he finished answering a silly question about a mountain in Argentina,
my friend asked,
“How much do you think I would pay this guy,
if he worked for me?”
I was curious: “How much?”
“Um. I will pay exactly 300 dollars, nothing more, no less!
Not $300 a week or a month, but a lifetime!
You must be surprised,
but actually I was thinking about signing.
This “expert” of ours doesn’t know how to think.
His ability is only an income to store knowledge in his brain.
In essence,
he is nothing more than a “living” encyclopedia.
For 300 dollars
I could buy a book completely good encyclopedia.
Maybe 300 dollars also….
Still too high,
by the fact that we can look up 99% of what this guy knows on google.com
almost completely free.
He continued:
“I want my associates to be problem solvers,
creative and come up with new ideas.
They must know the dream,
then turn the dream into concrete action.
Only a thinking person can make money with me,
but a person who can only read
and store everything in his head can’t really do anything.”
Three ways to cure the disease “blame the mind”
Here are three fairly simple ways to completely cure this disease:
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1. Never underestimate your own intelligence,
and never overestimate the intelligence of others.
Remember to never put yourself down.
Take care of what you have,
discover the hidden possibilities in you.
Remember that your intelligence is more
or less important than how you use it.
Use your intelligence in a useful way,
instead of just worrying about whether you are smart or not.
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2. Every day remind yourself:
“The attitude you show is much more important
than the intelligence you have”.
Whether in work or life or everyday life,
always think positively.
Try to find reasons to prove you can do it,
instead of you can’t.
Always maintain and promote the spirit:
“I will win”, use your intelligence in a useful,
creative way to find the way to success,
don’t let it lead you to failure.
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3. Remember that the ability to think is worth far more than the ability
to acquire and store knowledge.
Use your brain to think and develop creative ideas,
to find newer, more logical paths,
no matter what you’re working on.
Always ask yourself:
“Am I using my mind to make history,
or am I simply using it to record the history made by others?”
“Oh, it’s no use,
I’m too old (or “I’m too young”).”
“Age blame” is a disease that makes you feel
that your age is not suitable to do anything,
you are afraid of failure.
This disease usually has two very recognizable types:
either “I am too old”,
or “I am too young”.
You must have heard hundreds of people
of different ages justifying their lack of poverty.
It’s amazing how few people feel like
they’re “the right age” to do something.
Unfortunately,
this excuse has caused hundreds of thousands
of people to miss valuable opportunities.
When the opportunity comes,
they think they are too old
or too young to dare to marry,
they don’t even bother trying to catch me once.
Thinking “I am too old” is the most common form
of the “blame age” disease.
The disease spreads in subtle ways that are difficult to detect.
Recently, a TV program reported on a senior manager
who lost his job after his company merged with another company.
He kept looking for work for several months,
but no place accepted him.
Finally, after he was so depressed and tired,
he said to himself:
“Well, at this age,
I can rest.”
Plays and articles written on the subject:
“Why did you fail at 40?” very popular,
because the topic is very attractive
to the anxious souls looking for an excuse for themselves.
Controlling the “age fault” disease?
This disease is completely curable.
A few years ago,
while conducting a sales training program,
I found an effective remedy that not only cures monkeys
but also prevents
and helps you avoid this disease.
Among the participants in the training program was a practitioner named Cecil.
Cecil was 40 years old that year.
He wants to change and improve himself
so that he can become a representative of a production company,
but he is a bit older than he is.
Cecil once said to me:
“I haven’t done anything good so far,
I should probably start everything from zero.
But I’m 40 now,
I can’t find the time to start everything again”.
In my conversations with Cecil about age,
I always remind him:
“You’ll get old if you think you’re old all the time!”.
But that advice has brought almost no results.
(Whenever people hear that,
they respond, “I really feel old.”)
Finally, I found a way,
tried it on Cecil.
One day,
after training,
I approached him and asked:
“Cecil, in your opinion,
when is the most productive time of a person’s life?”
Cecil thought for a moment,
then replied,
“I guess when he was in his 20s.”
“Good.
When do you think people can’t continue to do good work anymore?”
He replied,
“If one is always healthy and enjoys work,
one can work well
until the age of 70 or so that’s it.”
I continued,
“Let’s just say what you just said is true.
So the time a person can do good work is about 50 years
– half a century right?
Hey Cecil,
you’re 40 years old now.
So how many productive years of your life have you used up?”
Cecil replied,
“Twenty.”
“So how many years do you have left?” “Thirty.”
“That’s right, Cecil.
In other words,
you haven’t used up half of the time you could have worked well,
you’ve only used 40% of it.”
Now, Cecil understands that it is not age,
but a negative attitude about age
that is a major obstacle on his way to success.
Save yourself from negative thoughts about age,
and you will seize many good opportunities
that you have previously thought impossible.
For decades,
a relative of mine has been
through many different jobs: sales,
self-employed, working in a bank,
but he still has not found a job
that he is most passionate about.
In the end,
he concluded:
there is one thing he wants to do more than anything else,
and that is to be a statesman.
But when he thought about it,
he feared he was getting old.
At the age of 45,
he is still responsible for three children,
while still not saving money.
Happily, he made up his mind:
“Being 45 years older is not a problem for me.
I’m going to be the governor.”
Despite nothing but strong convictions,
five years later,
he was appointed Governor of Illinois.
Since then,
along with his associates,
he has fulfilled the role of governor perfectly.
Then I had the opportunity to talk to this man.
He said,
“You know, if I didn’t make that right decision five years ago,
at 45 years old, then maybe for the rest of my life
I would just watch the time go by,
live a sad life bored,
just bored.
Now I feel as refreshed,
energized and enthusiastic as I did in my twenties.”
Indeed, he looks much younger than his age.
When you have dispelled the worries of old age,
you will naturally feel
within you youth and endless optimism.
Defeating the fear of old age means
you have increased your own life and success.
A former colleague of mine at the university,
Bill, is also an interesting example of the ability
to completely reverse the “age-blaming” disease.
Bill graduated from Harvard University in the 1920s.
After 24 years of working
as a stockbroker without saving much,
he suddenly realized he wanted
to be a university professor.
Friends warned him that he would have
to go through study programs,
otherwise he would be exhausted.
But Bill was determined to achieve his goal,
he enrolled at the University of Illinois at the age of 51.
Four years later,
he graduated.
Currently,
Bill is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics of a prestigious university
of social sciences and humanities.
He is very happy.
Bill often laughs:
“I still have a third of my good years left!”.
Thinking of being old is a disease that leads to failure.
Beat it,
don’t let it stand in your way to success.
So, when is a person considered too young?
Thinking “I am too young” also has many unfortunate consequences.
About a year ago,
my 23-year-old friend Jerry came
to me for advice on a problem that was bothering him.
He is a good and talented guy.
Before that, Jerry was a paratrooper,
after being discharged from the army,
he passed the entrance exam to the university.
While studying,
Jerry still earns money to support his wife and children by working
as a salesman for a large warehousing and shipping company.
He excelled both at work and at school.
But that day Jerry came to see me with anxiety.
He said,
“Dr. Schwartz,
I’m having a hard time thinking about it.
Currently, the company is proposing
to appoint me to the position of sales director.
If I accept,
I will have eight employees under me.”
I exulted:
“Congratulations, what a great news.
But why do you look so worried?”
He replied,
“Yes, because the eight people
under the management are all older than me.
The oldest person is older than me
21 years old,
and the youngest is 7 years older than me,
do you think I should take that position?
Will I be able to do it?”
“Jerry, when the general manager of the company intended
to appoint you to this position,
he certainly believed you were qualified.
If not, he chose someone else.
Always keep three things in mind,
and everything will be fine.
***********************
First of all, don’t worry about age.
In the field,
a boy will become a man,
if he can prove himself capable of doing the things that grown men usually do.
Age didn’t mean anything at that time.
This is also true for you.
As long as you prove yourself qualified
to take on the position of sales manager,
you are old enough to do it.
***********************
Second, don’t abuse your authority.
Always respect your subordinates,
listen to them.
Make them feel like they’re working in a good team,
not just a team work for a dictator.
If they could do that,
they would cooperate well with him
instead of plotting against him.
***********************
Third, practice getting to know the staff
under you who are older than you.
Many leaders in many different fields are often younger
than the people they are managing.
So get used to it, Jerry.
And remember,
age is not an obstacle,
unless you allow it to stand in your way.”
Right now everything with Jerry is going well.
He likes the transportation business
and is planning to start his own company in the next few years.
Young age becomes an obstacle only
when young people attach themselves to such guilt.
You often hear about jobs that require a certain maturity,
like stockbroking or selling insurance.
It makes no sense for an investor to bet on age:
you have to be young or reach a certain age.
What matters is how well you know your job.
If you know the job well and understand the people around you,
you are mature enough,
mature enough,
experienced enough to do it.
A lot of young people feel they are held back just
because they are young.
Nowadays, it is a fact that in companies
there are still lazy and unreliable people,
who hinder your way forward
by relying on age or some other reason on it.
However, those who really care about the growth of the company will not do so.
They will give you the most suitable jobs.
Show everyone you are capable,
optimistic,
positive,
and then your youthful dynamism will become an advantage.
In short, the cure for “age blame” is:
***********************
1. Look at age in a positive way.
Always think “I am still young” not “I am old”.
Always open your eyes to new horizons,
increase your enthusiasm and youth.
***********************
2. Try to calculate how much time you have left to be productive.
Remember that a 30-year-old still has 80%
of his productive time ahead of him.
And a 50-year-old is still up to 40%
and also the most energetic period in life.
Life is actually much longer than most people think.
***********************
3. Spend the next time doing what you really want.
Everything will be too late,
if you keep wallowing in the pessimistic line of thinking “I’m late”.
Stop thinking,
“I should have started ten years ago.”
That’s the mindset of losers.
Instead, be optimistic thinking,
“I’ll start now,
there’s a lot of time ahead.”
That’s how successful people think.
***********************
4. “My case is very different.
I’ve had bad luck all the time.”
Recently I overheard a public works engineer discussing traffic safety on expressways.
He said that every year up to 40,000 people die from accidents.
The most important point,
which he wants to make clear in his talk,
is that there is really no such thing as an “accident”.
What we are used to calling “traffic accidents” is just a failure of a human,
or a machine,
or both.
What this expert points out proves
what wise men of all times have said:
Everything has a reason.
Nothing happens without a cause.
Therefore, human affairs are no exception to this principle.
Almost every day that goes by,
at least once you hear someone complain about your bad luck.
There are also rare days
when you don’t hear someone insisting
that one’s success is solely based on luck.
Let me give you a few examples of how people give in
to this “blame luck” disease.
A few days ago,
I was invited to lunch
by three young board members.
The subject of the conversation that day was George C,
a fellow in the group who had just been promoted to a higher position.
In response to the question
“Why was George appointed to that position?”,
the three of them gave a series of reasons,
which was luck,
which was due to the status
of his wife helping his superiors.
They used everything they could think of as an excuse,
except the truth.
The truth is simple:
George is the most deserving of all.
He is always hard-working,
completing the assigned tasks with much higher efficiency than others.
I know the company’s leaders spend a lot of time considering
which of the four is the best fit for the position.
My three disillusioned friends should have understood
that senior leaders never choose important management positions by lucky draw.
Another time,
I had the opportunity
to talk about the severity of the “blame luck” disease
with the sales manager of a tool
and machine manufacturing company.
He was very excited about the topic
and told me about his own experiences.
“I have never heard of the concept of this disease,
but it really is one of the most difficult problems that sales managers face.
Just yesterday,
something happened at my company
that could be a great demonstration of what you’re talking about.
At about 4 p.m., John
–One of our salespeople
– brought in an $112,000 machine tool order.
There was another salesman in the office at the time.
His sales are always low.
Hearing John announce the good news,
he couldn’t hide his jealousy
when he offered a reluctant congratulation:
“Congratulations John,
you’re lucky again.”
That’s it, this incompetent employee refuses
to acknowledge the fact that
there is no connection between luck
and the large order John has won.
John had had to persevere with the customer for months before,
had to stay up all night to figure out the financial arguments,
even ask the engineers to assemble the preliminary equipment,
set to convince customers of technical benefits.
John had no luck,
it was good planning and persistence that made it lucky.
Let’s assume that luck was used to reform General Motors.
If luck were the deciding factor in who did what and where,
all American businesses would go bankrupt.
If General Motors were to be completely reformed on the basis of luck,
then,
if one wanted to find the company’s board of directors,
one could just put the names of all the employees in a box for a lottery!
The first name to come out will be the chairman of the board of directors,
and so on down to the lowest positions in the company.
Sounds silly, doesn’t it?
Yes.
That is often called the way of explaining things by luck.
You can overcome the “blame luck” disease in two ways:
***********************
1. Accept the law of cause and effect.
Take a hard look at how lucky you think someone is,
and you’ll realize they’re successful
because they’re prepared,
have a plan,
and are determined to succeed.
At the same time,
take a look at the bad luck someone is having.
Observe and analyze carefully
to recognize obvious causes leading to consequences.
Successful people learn a lot from failure.
On the contrary,
mediocre people do not know
what to draw from their own experience
but to make amends.
2. Don’t be a dreamer.
Don’t let each day pass in vain just
to fantasize about a path to success without effort.
We cannot succeed solely on luck.
Success comes from a hard-working attitude
and the ability to consistently apply the principles.
Don’t expect luck to help you get ahead,
take you to glory,
or get good things in life.
Instead, focus on perfecting
and developing yourself to become a winner.
