Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States.  He was a small government Republican.  Comments on his presidency are eerily similar to what is being played out in US politics today.    Many historians look favorably on the reduction of the size of government programs during his presidency.  Others feel that the federal government under Coolidge should have been more involved in regulating and controlling the economy, and are not so quick to heap praise on his administration.

Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal” as he was a man of few words.  But when he did speak, he came up with some gems.  One of my very favorite life and career success quotes comes from Silent Cal Coolidge…

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

I was skimming through Napoleon Hill’s classic book Think and Grow Rich the other day when I came upon his thoughts on persistence.  They reflect President Coolidge’s…

“One of the main causes of failure is a lack of persistence.  You may overcome this weakness through effort and intensity of desire.  Will power is the basis of persistence; increasing your will or desire will help to strengthen your persistence…Persistence is not reliant on education or intelligence, and requires only a little bit of time and effort.  There are four simple, but necessary, steps that will lead to the practice of persistence:  1) a stated purpose, backed by burning desire, 2) a definite plan, expressed in continuous action, 3) a mind closed against criticism and discouragement, and 4) a friendly alliance with at least one person who will encourage you to follow through with your plans.  Persistence should become a habit.”

I really like Dr. Hill’s third and fourth points.  Tweet 49 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the career success you deserve.”  Tweet 50 says, “Jettison the negative people in your life. They are energy black holes.  They will such you dry; but only if you let them.”

Persistent people, successful people, surround themselves with positive people – people who are both positive by nature, and positive about their life and career success.  Positive people are optimistic; and optimism is the first step in building your self-confidence and life and career success.

As Napoleon Hill points out, positive people help you feel good about yourself and become more persistent, because they feel good about themselves – and life in general.  They help you build your self-esteem because they have a strong sense of self-esteem.  Positive people are there when you begin to doubt yourself or when you want to give up.  They are not threatened by you or your success.  They realize that self-esteem is not a fixed pie.  There is an unlimited amount of it to go around, so positive people are always giving it away.  You can build your self-confidence and jumpstart your life and career success by spending your time with upbeat, positive people.

It’s pretty simple.  When you surround yourself with positive, self-confident people, you become positive and self-confident.  On the other hand, when you surround yourself with negative or cynical people, you become negative and cynical.

The choice is yours.  I choose to surround myself with positive people.  Not only do they help my self-confidence, they are more fun to be around.

I’m a big fan of Mark Twain.  One of my favorite quotes of his gets at the heart of surrounding yourself with positive people and jettisoning the negative people in your life…

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Mark Twain and Napoleon Hill thnk alike when it comes to negative people.  Negative people are a drag on your goals and your ambitions.  They can hamper your chances of becoming a truly persistent and successful person.  They are quick to tell you what you can’t do, offer little encouragement, and hate to see you prove them wrong by succeeding.  Hold these kinds of people at arm’s length.  Don’t spend time with them.  Instead, invest in friendships with positive, upbeat people; the kind of people who not only don’t belittle your ambitions, but do what they can to help you make them a reality.

Cynics are negative people.  They are also dangerous, because they are seductive.  They always have something witty to say about others – usually others’ shortcomings.  At first, they seem to be funny and amusing.  But spend time with cynics, and you’ll find that they have little joy in life except in pointing out and reveling in others’ problems and failures.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Persistence will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  But as Napoleon Hill points out, no one — no matter how persistent — can go it alone.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 49 in Success Tweets.  “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the success you want and deserve.”  Positive people are great.  They feel good about themselves and life in general.  They are enthusiastic – and their enthusiasm is contagious.  When you surround yourself with positive people, you’ll become more positive and enthusiastic.  And, you’ll be on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Who are the most positive people you know?  Get to know them better, spend more time with them.  Don’t let negative people into your life.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 50 in Success Tweets.  “Jettison the negative people in your life.  They are energy black holes.  They will suck you dry, but only if you let them.”  Avoid cynics.  They are jealous and petty, unhappy when others succeed.  Avoid jerks too  – people who are rude, insulting, sarcastic and two-faced.  They will only drag you down.  Make a conscious choice to spend time with positive, optimistic people.  Avoid negative, pessimistic ones.

That’s my career advice on how positive people can help you become more persistent – and to achieve the career success you deserve.  What do you think?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  Thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I really appreciate your support.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Over the weekend, I received an email from the folks at JustSell.com that had some great career advice.  It was a quote from Voltaire, the French philosopher.  Check it out…

“Shun idleness.  It is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.”

I would amend this to say that idleness is the rust that attached itself to the most brilliant minds.  Or as Neil Young says, “It’s better to burn out than rust away.”

Regardless of whether you prefer Voltaire’s original quote, my reinterpretation or the rock and roll version,  there is an important career success idea here.  Idleness is a career success killer.   Career success comes from being active and working hard – not settling for good enough.

Tweet 96 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Good truly is the enemy of great.  Don’t settle for good performance.  Today good is mediocre.  Become a great performer.”

Hard work is the best way I know to become a great performer.  In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins hit the nail on the head when he began with the idea that good is the enemy of great.  He’s right, good is the enemy of great.  There are lots of good performers, but only a few great ones.  To achieve the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to become a great performer – not just a good one.

Good is seductive.  For many of us, it’s not too difficult to be good.  And good has a nice feeling attached to it.  On the other hand, good performance won’t get you to the top of the promotion list and keep you off of the layoff list.  Great performance will.

But great performance comes with a price.  You have to work at it.  In The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame quotes several great performers on paying the price…

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.”  Michelangelo

“When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team.  But what impressed me was that he was always the first one on the floor and the last one to leave.”  Steve Alford, Head Basketball Coach, University of New Mexico.

“If I miss a day of practice, I know it.  If I miss two days, my manager knows it.  If I miss three days, my audience knows it.”  Andre Previn, Pianist, Conductor and Composer.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt.  What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”  Stephen King, Bestselling Novelist

Here are four people – an artist, a basketball player, a pianist and a writer – all saying the same thing: good is the enemy of great; and to be great, you have to work hard.

Your natural talent might allow you to be good.  Great — and career success – however, requires determination and persistence, never being idle, always working towards your life and career success goals.

Jerry Rice is in the NFL Hall of Fame.  He was well known for his commitment to fitness.  He worked out harder and longer than any other pro football player.  When he was asked the secret of his success, he said, “I am willing to do the things today that others won’t do, so I can do things on Sunday that they can’t do.”  In other words: don’t be idle, work hard, prepare, commit to taking personal responsibility for your career success.

It’s simple, really.  Career success is all up to you, and me, and anyone else who wants it.  We all have to take personal responsibility for our own success.  I am the only one who can make me a career success.  You are the only one who can make you a career success. 

Become willing to do things that others are unwilling to do – and this can be a million little things like working hard, keeping your clothes in good repair; shining your shoes; rehearsing your presentation out loud; proofreading your emails, not just relying on spell check; staying up-to-date on your company, your competitors and your industry, building relationships by doing willingly for others.

If you already do these kinds of things, bravo.  You’re in the minority.  Too many people do only what they have to.  Successful people always go the extra mile.  As Jerry Rice says, they do the things others won’t.

Think for a minute.  What are the kinds of things that you can do that go above and beyond, that demonstrate your commitment to your own career success?  Make a list.  Then go about doing these things regularly.

Activity and persistence will make you an outstanding performer.  And they are the key to putting the career advice in the Voltaire quote at the beginning of this post to work.  Activity – even 1% more than you currently do – and persistence – fighting through problems and setbacks – will yield positive results in the long term.  But you have to commit to both of them.

Some of the best career advice on persistence that I’ve come across comes from Calvin Coolidge, 30^th President of the United States…

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.  The slogan, “press on,” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are great performers.  They follow the advice in Tweet 96 in Success Tweets.  “Good truly is the enemy of great.  Don’t settle for good performance.  Today, good is mediocre.  Become a great performer.”  Hard work and persistence are the best ways to become a great performer.  If you practice longer, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation, you will find yourself creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Keep at it.  Don’t become idle.  Don’t let your brilliance rust away.

That’s my career advice when it comes to avoiding idleness.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of common sense career advice explaining each of the tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.

I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you’re enjoying reading them.  I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing.  You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 96…

Good truly is the enemy of great.  Don’t settle for good performance. Today, good performance is mediocre.  Become a great performer.

In his book Good to Great Jim Collins hit the nail on the head when he began with the idea that good is the enemy of great.  He’s right, good is the enemy of great.  There are lots of good performers, but only a few great ones.  To achieve the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to become a great performer – not just a good one.

Good is seductive.  For many of us it’s not too difficult to be good.  And good has a nice feeling attached to it.  On the other hand, good performance won’t get you to the top of the promotion list and keep you off of the layoff list.  Great performance will.

But great performance comes with a price.  You have to work at it.  In The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame quotes several great performers on paying the price…

“If people know how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.”  Michelangelo

“When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team.  But what impressed me was that he was always, the first one on the floor and the last one to leave.”  Steve Alford, Head Basketball Coach, University of New Mexico.

“If I miss a day of practice, I know it.  If I miss two days, my manager knows it.  If I miss three days, my audience knows it.”  Andre Previn, Pianist, Conductor and Composer.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt.  What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”  Stephen King, Bestselling Novelist

Here are four people — an artist, a basketball player, a pianist and a writer – all saying the same thing: good is the enemy of great.

Your natural talent might allow you to be good.  Great, however, requires determination and persistence.

Here are some interesting ideas about the difference between good and great when it comes to sales.  They come from a study done by Herbert True at Notre Dame University.

• 44% of all salespeople quit trying to sell their prospect after the first call.
• 24% quit after the second call.
• 14% quit after the third call.
• 12% quit trying after the fourth call.

Great sales people make the fifth and sixth calls.  According my Mr. True 60 % of all sales are made after the fourth call.  And, according to his research, 94% of all salespeople give up after four calls to one prospect.  The 14% and 12% of salespeople who give up after the third and fourth calls are probably pretty good salespeople.  However, the great salespeople make the fifth and sixth calls – and make more sales.

Recently, I worked for about six months to close a large (for me at least) sale.  At first, I seemed to be getting nowhere, but I believed in myself and knew that the services I was selling were valuable to the company to which I selling them.  After six months and way more than six meetings with numerous people, all of whom had some input into the buying decision, I received a signed purchase order for $105,000.  I was great – at least when it came to this sale.

My best career advice on going from good to great is to persist.  Practice harder, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation and you will find yourself creating the career and life success you want and deserve.

Some of the best career advice on persistence that I’ve come across comes from Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States….

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are great performers.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 96 in Success Tweets.  “Good truly is the enemy of great.  Don’t settle for good performance.  Today, good is mediocre.  Become a great performer.”   Hard work and persistence are the best ways to become a great performer.  If you practice longer, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation you will find yourself creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 96.  What’s yours?  Please share your stories of going from good to great in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud