If you read this career advice blog with any regularity, you know that I am a big fan of SUCCESS Magazine.  I read it cover to cover every month.  If you’re not a subscriber, I suggest you go to www.success.com and subscribe as soon as you finish reading the career advice in this post.

The February 2011 issue of SUCCESS had a great article called “The Negative 9″ by Pauline Estrem.  The article was aimed at sales people, but I think it has wider applicability.  Tweet 102 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “We’re all in sales.  You have to sell yourself every day.”

In the article, Pauline lists nine behaviors every salesperson – and remember we’re all in sales – should avoid.  Check them out…

1. Failing to adequately prepare.
2. Not following through on your word.
3. Trash talking.
4. Being fake.
5. Misidentifying the prospect’s stage in decision making.
6. Forcing the close.
7. Neglecting the long term client.
8. Shirking accountability.
9. Not self analyzing.

I’m a big believer in stating things in the positive – not negative – manner so I’ve rewritten The Negative 9 in positive terms and in language that applies to anyone on the road to life and career success.

1. Always prepare.
2. Follow through on your word.
3. Speak well of everyone you meet, or say nothing at all.
4. Be authentic.
5. Understand where other people are coming from .
6. Allow things to take their course.
7. Maintain your established relationships.
8. Be accountable – to yourself and to others.
9. Learn from your experiences.

There are a number of tweets in Success Tweets that make these same points.  In this post, I’d like to concentrate on point 9 in both lists above.  Tweet 34 in Success Tweets says, “Treat failures as the tuition you pay for success.  If you have a setback, choose to react positively and learn something.”

Don’t be too hard on yourself when you fail.  My best career advice is to put your energy into figuring out why you failed and then do something different.  Here are four career success coach questions to ask yourself the next time you fail.

1. Why did I fail?  Why did I do to cause the failure?
2. What could I have done to prevent the failure?
3. What have I learned from this situation? 
4. What will I do differently the next time?

If you do this, you’ll be using failure to your advantage.  In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says, “Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”  I know it’s hard to see the benefit or opportunity in failure.  But it’s there – you just have to look hard enough.  It all begins by facing your failures and acting.  The less you fear failure, the more career success you’ll create.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 34 in Success Tweets.  They treat failure as the tuition they pay for success.  Remember, you fail only if you don’t learn something from the experience.  Treat every failure as an opportunity to grow.  Follow this career advice.  Choose to find — and use — the learning opportunity in your failures and you will become more self confident and successful.   It’s sad but true – failure often is the price you pay for becoming a career success.  Don’t be afraid to fail.  Facing your fear of failure — and learning from your failures will pay big dividends when it comes to your life and career success.

That’s my career advice on learning from your failures.  What was your most recent failure?  What did you learn from it?  Please take a minute to share your story with us in a comment.  As always, thank you very much for reading my musings on life and career success.

Bud

If you read this career advice blog with any regularity, you know that I am a big fan of SUCCESS Magazine.  I read it cover to cover every month.  If you’re not a subscriber, I suggest you go to www.success.com and subscribe as soon as you finish reading the career advice in this post.

The February 2011 issue of SUCCESS had a great article called “The Negative 9″ by Pauline Estrem.  The article was aimed at sales people, but I think it has wider applicability.  Tweet 102 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “We’re all in sales.  You have to sell yourself every day.”

In the article, Pauline lists nine behaviors every salesperson – and remember we’re all in sales – should avoid.  Check them out…

1. Failing to adequately prepare.
2. Not following through on your word.
3. Trash talking.
4. Being fake.
5. Misidentifying the prospect’s stage in decision making.
6. Forcing the close.
7. Neglecting the long term client.
8. Shirking accountability.
9. Not self analyzing.

I’m a big believer in stating things in the positive – not negative – manner so I’ve rewritten The Negative 9 in positive terms and in language that applies to anyone on the road to life and career success.

1. Always prepare.
2. Follow through on your word.
3. Speak well of everyone you meet, or say nothing at all.
4. Be authentic.
5. Understand where other people are coming from .
6. Allow things to take their course.
7. Maintain your established relationships.
8. Be accountable – to yourself and to others.
9. Learn from your experiences.

There are a number of tweets in Success Tweets that make these same points.  In this post, I’d like to concentrate on point 9 in both lists above.  Tweet 34 in Success Tweets says, “Treat failures as the tuition you pay for success.  If you have a setback, choose to react positively and learn something.”

Don’t be too hard on yourself when you fail.  My best career advice is to put your energy into figuring out why you failed and then do something different.  Here are four career success coach questions to ask yourself the next time you fail.

1. Why did I fail?  Why did I do to cause the failure?
2. What could I have done to prevent the failure?
3. What have I learned from this situation? 
4. What will I do differently the next time?

If you do this, you’ll be using failure to your advantage.  In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says, “Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”  I know it’s hard to see the benefit or opportunity in failure.  But it’s there – you just have to look hard enough.  It all begins by facing your failures and acting.  The less you fear failure, the more career success you’ll create.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 34 in Success Tweets.  They treat failure as the tuition they pay for success.  Remember, you fail only if you don’t learn something from the experience.  Treat every failure as an opportunity to grow.  Follow this career advice.  Choose to find — and use — the learning opportunity in your failures and you will become more self confident and successful.   It’s sad but true – failure often is the price you pay for becoming a career success.  Don’t be afraid to fail.  Facing your fear of failure — and learning from your failures will pay big dividends when it comes to your life and career success.

That’s my career advice on learning from your failures.  What was your most recent failure?  What did you learn from it?  Please take a minute to share your story with us in a comment.  As always, thank you very much for reading my musings on life and career success.

Bud

Commitment to your career success is one the four success principles I discuss in my latest career success coach book Success Tweets.  Staying committed to your career success when things are going well is pretty easy.  Staying committed when things are going poorly can be more difficult.

Tweet 32 in Success Tweets offers this career advice.  “Stuff happens as you go about creating your life and career success.  Choose to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens.”  In other words, if you want to become a career success you need to be resilient.

Sam Parker of GiveMore.com has some of the best career advice on being resilient that I’ve come across.  Check it out…

Sam Parker’s 4 Point Career Advice on How To Be Resilient…

1) Focus on results. Embrace the fact that results are what we’re all really after. Effort and attempts are great first steps, but we need to act with commitment to delivering (just like we want people to do for us).

2) Make lessons of failures. Minimize the tendency to make a mistake anything more than a lesson on how not to do something. We need to learn from our experiences and accept them as tuition for future success. And yes… Our mistakes might put us in a bind at times and have some uncomfortable consequences but again, that’s real life.

3) Continue on. Smarter.

4) Reinforce. Support each other (and ourselves) by continually reminding and encouraging one another to deliver on the first three points.

You can learn more about Sam Parker and his approach to creating your life and career success on his website, http://www.givemore.com.  Be sure to check out Sam’s Pocket Cards.  They can help you on your journey to the life and career success you want and deserve.

Resilience is echoed in a lot of life and career success writings.  Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has this to say…

 “It’s not really what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.  Of course, things can hurt physically or economically and can cause sorrow.  But our character, our basic identity, does not have to be hurt at all.  In fact, our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the internal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well.”

Dr. Covey provides some great career advice here.  We can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we react to both the positive and negative experiences we have as we go through life.  Successful people choose to make lemonade out of lemons.  Unsuccessful people choose to complain about the bitter, tart taste of the lemons they are handed.

I know the “lemons into lemonade” career advice is a cliché.  However, clichés become clichés because they have an underlying truth. 

The important career success point here is that we human beings are blessed with free will.  As such, we can choose what we do and how we react to the world around us.  We can choose a positive, productive path; or we can choose a path of self pity and inaction – and hurt only ourselves in the end.

Dr. Covey has another quote about resiliency that I really like…

“Proactive people can carry their own weather with them.  Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them.  They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn’t a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.”

I think the concept of carrying your own weather with you also is great career advice.  Choosing to react positively to the negative people and events in your life is the best way to carry your weather – and to take personal responsibility for your life and career success.

The common sense career success coach point here is clear.  Successful people know that they can choose how they respond to everyone they meet and everything that happens to them.  They know that “the devil made me do it” is never an accurate statement.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 32 in Success Tweets.   “Stuff happens as you go about creating your life and career success.  Choose to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens.”  If you want to create the career success you deserve, remember Stephen Covey’s advice.  Carry your weather with you.  In this way, whether it rains or shines on the outside, it will be sunny on the inside.  Choose to react positively to the negative people you meet, and the negative things that happen to you.  When you do, you’ll find that you’ll have less negative things happening and fewer negative people entering your life.

That’s my take on Sam Parker and Stephen Covey’s career advice on being resilient.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success.

Bud

This career advice blog has been blessed lately – several really great people have offered to do guest posts.  All of these posts have provided some great career success advice.  More important, they have provided their own unique perspective on life and career success.

Dan Robey is a friend of mine.  He writes some powerful stuff.  If you haven’t already picked up a copy of his book, The Power of Positive Habits, I suggest you do so as soon as you finish reading his career advice in this guest post.

Dan and I think a lot alike.  The career advice he offers on personal fitness in this guest post closely resembles what I have to say in Tweet 91 in my latest career success book, Success Tweets.  “The better you feel, the better you’ll perform.  Live a healthy lifestyle.  Eat well.  Exercise regularly.  Get regular checkups.”

Check out what Dan has to say…

You are a Corporation.

What does that mean? I want you to start thinking of yourself as a “personal services corporation.”

It does not matter what you do in life, you are providing services to someone. Housewives, salesmen, CEO’s, mothers, fathers, we are all providing services to someone and should think of ourselves as a personal services corporation.

OK, now that we have established that YOU are a personal services corporation, how does that positively affect your life?

If you are employed you now look at yourself as a corporation that is providing services to another corporation.  You are now on equal footing with your company.

What makes you valuable to the company you work for? You guessed it…..the services you provide to your company.
 
The better the quality of service you provide, the more money you are entitled to earn.

What should YOU, the corporation do to improve the services you provide, and thereby increase your earning potential?

Go the extra mile.

Study the products and services your company provides, read books on how to better manage the sales process, read books on how to set and reach goals, read books that help you become a better provider of services to the company you work for.

What is more important than the health of a corporation?

Not much really. How important is your health to your own personal services corporation…..YOU?

It is of the utmost importance!

There is a famous quote that goes like this: “without health, money, power and fame are all MUD!”

How true this is. If you are not healthy and running at 100% mentally and physically your personal service corporation will suffer:

You will have more sick days at work. If your health is compromised can you enjoy life with your children and spouse?

Your mind will not be as alert as it could be and your productivity will suffer regardless of what services you provide to whom.

Therefore it makes sense that your mental and physical health should be your #1 priority.

Here is the big question. “Are your mental and physical health your top priority in life?”

I am willing to bet that many of you answered “NO.”

Here is something I see all the time:

Bob goes to work everyday. He is busy, busy, busy! He gets home late everyday. He gets up early everyday.  He spends zero time maintaining the health of his personal services corporation…himself.

He is falling apart, he has migraines, his joints ache from arthritis, he can’t sleep at night, he is in a mental fog from taking painkillers everyday.

Do you know anybody like this?  I bet you do!

Their mistake is so glaringly obvious yet they do not see it.

They spend virtually ZERO time on maintaining the mental and physical health of their own body, their personal service corporation’s most important asset.

They spend more money on maintaining their cars then they do on maintaining their own bodies.

What should Bob be doing?

Bob should be MAKING time to perform the tasks needed to maintain “HIS” body. Bob should join a gym and workout every morning. Bob should eat healthy everyday. (no fast foods, no fried foods, protein from lean sources like fish, broiled chicken, more vegetables and salads)

Bob should read books on how to keep the machine known as his body running at full capacity. There is nothing more complicated then the human body….if you think fast foods and poor nutrition combined with a sedentary lifestyle will keep this machine running like a Ferrari you are VERY, VERY wrong!

One day mother nature will let you know with a myriad of maladies that will make your life miserable.

If you are reading this you have a choice.

It matters not what your age is.

The body is an incredible regenerating machine, there is almost no degree of poor health that cannot
be reversed.  

I know!

When I was 26 years old “I WAS BOB!”

One book saved my life. (It is no longer published otherwise I would tell you the title)

I read it and applied the techniques, I changed my diet, I changed my lifestyle, I changed my habits. “The wheels of nature turn slowly but they grind exceedingly fine.”

Remember that quote always.

The human body is an amazing healing machine, it can recover from almost any condition, even at an advanced age!

I went from being a sickly 26 year old young man who had so many health problems he could not even count them, to a healthy person who rarely got sick. It took more then a year but it saved my life.

If this message hits home decide to change right now!

Decide to be a champion right now!

Decide to become the most successful personal services corporation that ever walked this planet!

Most importantly know this……

You can do it…..I know you can.

You will have help….I am always here!

It is your destiny to do it!

I love Dan’s career advice about thinking of yourself as a personal services corporation and paying attention to your personal corporate heath.  I sometimes pay too little attention to my corporate health.  I am going to change that this year.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are like high performing corporations.  They take care of their personal corporate health.  They follow the career advice in Success Tweet 91.  “The better you fell, the better you’ll perform.  Live a healthy lifestyle.  Eat well.  Exercise regularly.  Get regular checkups.”  You don’t have to be a fitness junky to become a high performer.  But choosing to make wise decisions about things like diet and exercise can make a big difference in your health and career success.  If you take care of yourself you’ll be more likely to become a high performer, and high performance is a key to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s Dan Robey’s career advice on the relationship between your health and your career success.  I think it is great career advice.  How about you?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts about Dan’s ideas by leaving a comment on this post.  As always, thanks for reading my career advice.

Bud

Yesterday was a holiday in the USA.  A lot of people had the day off.  I was traveling.  I had to get from Denver to Boston because I am facilitating a cross function team building session today. 

I usually work on planes, but because it was a holiday I took some time for myself and read a novel, Primal Threat by Earl Emerson.  Earl is a little known, but great, writer.  I enjoy the stories he tells.

Interestingly, I found some career advice on the final page of the book.  The protagonist had survived a forest fire, rescuing his girl friend’s brother in the process.  Several years later in a reflective moment he comes to a realization about luck and hard work…

“He’d been lucky in life.  He’d fought hard for that luck and knew the fighting was the single biggest factor in it.”

This brings me to two pieces of career advice I’d luck to share.  Luck and career success a function of two things: 1) hard work and 2) being tuned into what’s happening around you.

Let’s talk about being tuned in first.  People often ask me where I get the ideas to write five blog posts a week, every week.  Sometimes it’s luck, I stumble into a good idea – like today’s post about luck and career success.  I found my inspiration on the last page of a novel I read on a plane. 

On the other hand, I had that luck because I’m tuned into my work as a career success coach, author and blogger.  When I read the passage about luck that I shared above, I knew that I could use it to make a point about luck and life and career success. 

The passage jumped out at me because I am always thinking about my work.  I’m always looking for ways to get across my message about how to create the life and career success you want and deserve. 

I got lucky and stumbled across a quote in a novel because I am tuned into my work and what goes on around me.  It’s amazing what you can pick up if you just pay attention.

Here’s another story.  Evan Williams founded Blogger – software that makes it easy for people to blog.  He believes that “the open exchange of information can have a positive impact on the world…I’ve learned that giving people the ability to express themselves is really powerful.”  Blogger and other blog software like WordPress give people the ability to express themselves.

Evan sold Blogger to Google and started Odeo, a podcasting company.  Podcasting is another way for people to express themselves.  While he was running Odeo he and Jack Dorsey created Twitter – perhaps the ultimate way for people to express themselves on line. 

Evan has gotten rich by helping people find ways to express themselves.  Was he lucky?  A little.  But I believe that a lot of his luck and career success came from his passion for helping people express themselves coupled with paying attention to the power of technology and the internet – not to mention some hard work.

Which brings me to my second point — hard work brings luck.  Working hard to make your own luck is the best way I know to get lucky and create the life and career success you deserve. 

There is a story about Joe DiMaggio, one of the most famous New York Yankees, that makes this point.  Joe was a center fielder.  One day a ball was hit into left center field.  The left fielder called for it, but bobbled the ball when it hit his glove.  Joe had run over to back up the left fielder.  He saw him drop the ball, and he reached out and caught it for an out.

After the game, a reporter commented that it was lucky that Joe just happened to be next to the left fielder when he dropped the ball.  DiMaggio said, “It wasn’t luck at all.  I back up every ball that’s hit to left field or right field.  I’m always there.  You usually don’t notice it because my teammates very seldom drop fly balls.”

What a great career success example of the idea of hard work in action.  Joe DiMaggio worked hard.  He ran to back up every fly ball hit to the left or right of him.  Usually this was unnecessary as the balls were caught.  But on this one day, his hard work was necessary and it paid off.  One day though, one of his teammates dropped a ball and he was able to catch it for an out.

I’ve seen the quote “The harder I work, the luckier I get” attributed to a variety of people; Thomas Jefferson being one of them.  Regardless of who coined the phrase, it makes sense to me.  In fact it’s common sense.  Hard work results in good luck and career success. 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve, put in the hard work necessary for realizing your personal vision of career success.  There are no two ways about it.  If you want to create your life and career success, you need to put in the time and effort necessary to succeed and you need to be tuned into the world around you.   Sometimes this means working longer hours than others.  Sometimes it means going beyond what is expected.  Sometimes it means laboring in obscurity to develop your reputation as a valuable employee.  I have found that a well focused extra hour a week can yield big results.

And, I’ve also found that being tuned into the world around you and being focused on your work can help you find the luck you need to become a career success.  Pay attention to what’s happening around you.  Think about how what you observe can help you in your career success journey.  Put these observations to work.

That’s my take on how to get lucky and create your career success.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts and stories with us.  As always, thanks for reading.  I really appreciate it.

 Bud

Today is Martin Luther King Day in the USA.  Dr. King is a personal hero of mine.  He did a lot to promote racial equality and harmony in this country.  I am old enough to remember watching his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial live on television.  It was August 28, 1963, two weeks after my 13th birthday.

Here are some excerpts from that speech…

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

These are powerful words.  They focus on tolerance and civility and the basic dignity of all human beings.   Tolerance and civility are important today.  Our political rhetoric has gotten out of hand.  Our society is becoming increasingly intolerant and uncivil. 

The founders of the Civility Project have closed it down because of the angry emails they have received. The Civility Project asked us all to do three things:

• Be civil in your public discourse and behavior.
• Be respectful of others, whether or not you agree with them.
• Take a stand against incivility when you see it.

I took the Civility Pledge.  I think it is good for our society.  I also think it is important career advice.  Behaving in a civil manner is the best way to build the relationships that can lead to your life and career success.

Career success is built on relationships.  Relationships are built on tolerance and civility.  Tweet 124 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Everyone has something to offer.  Never dismiss anyone out of hand.” 

Successful people have a deep respect for the dignity of each individual.  It doesn’t matter if the person in front of you is the President of the United States, a member of the opposite political party, your boss, a co-worker, a waiter, a taxi driver, a security guard or the housekeeper at your hotel. 

Treating every person you meet with dignity and respect is a great first step in building the relationships that will lead to your life and career success.

Cathy, my wife, is the best example of someone who values every person she meets.  She is friends with everyone – the pharmacy techs where we get out prescriptions, the couple who own the dry cleaners where we do business, the supermarket checkout people and baggers, the servers at the restaurants we frequent, and on and on and on.

Cathy is genuinely interested in these people.  She knows their names, their spouses’ names and their kids’ names. She inquires about their lives.  She knows about their vacations, what grades their kids are in school and lots of other things about them – all because she values them as individuals and takes the time to get to know them.  She is one of the least judgmental and most accepting people I know.

The other day I called home when I was traveling.  Cathy was upset because one of the women who attended a birthday luncheon she organized was rude to a waiter.  She said to me, “I was embarrassed by the way she treated him.  It just wasn’t right.  He is a human being too.”  She understands the importance of civility.

If you want to create the life and career success you deserve, take a lesson from Cathy.  Pay attention to the people around you.  You will learn a lot and your life will be richer for it.  Don’t judge people by what they do.  Get to know others as individuals.  You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

I have had some very interesting conversations with taxi drivers in New York City.  These days, most of them are immigrants.  They love this country and are well informed about it.  When I get into a taxi, most often the driver is listening to NPR or an all news station.  I have had some great conversations about local and national politics, the state of the US economy, and sports with taxi drivers.

In Denver, I occasionally use a car service to go to and from the airport.  This service is a cooperative.  The members of the coop are all immigrants from Ethiopia.  They were all political refugees.  They are happy to be in the USA and are willing to discuss it in depth.  I love my rides to and from the airport with them.

And, I learned something very interesting.  Ethiopia was a Catholic country until the schism in 1066.  The Ethiopian Church sided with the Eastern Church in Constantinople and broke with Rome.  I was raised Catholic, but my father’s parents were Orthodox Christian, or Russian Orthodox, as we called them.  In that tradition they celebrate Christmas on January 7 because they use a different calendar.

I remember having two Christmases when I was young.  I always got a small present on January 7.  Imagine my surprise when a guy from Africa told me that he couldn’t drive me to the airport on January 7 because he chose to stay at home and celebrate Christmas with his family. 

This led to a very interesting discussion on how Ethiopia participated in the schism.  When the Ethiopian community in Denver was building a new church, Cathy and I were some of the donors.

See what I mean about treating everyone as if he or she has something to offer?  I never would have learned some valuable information about how similar the life experiences of a black guy from Ethiopia were to my own growing up had I not taken the time to engage him in conversation.

Dr. King had a dream that people will be judged by their character – not the color of their skin.  I believe that we should judge all people by their character, not the color of their skin, their national origin, their sexual preference, their religion, their political views, or anything else that really doesn’t matter. 

If you want to create the life and career success you deserve, you need to listen to other people and build relationships with them.

One of the pieces of career advice I repeat most often is a practical application of tolerance and civility…

“When someone starts to speak, and you think to yourself ‘that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard’ listen real hard because that’s when you have the greatest opportunity to learn something.”

Civil discourse helps open your eyes to different perspectives.  You may not agree with what you learn, but at least you’ll have an opportunity to see the world from a perspective different from your own.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  On this Martin Luther King Day resolve to be more civil and tolerant.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 124 in Success Tweets.  “Everyone has something to offer.  Never dismiss anyone out of hand.  Take the initiative.  Actively build relationships.” 

Following this career advice will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  More important, it will lead to a richer and fuller life.  When you engage people, when you expect to find them to be interesting, you will open yourself up to a world of ideas that will not only help your career success, you will be helping to make this a more civil world – one in which the dignity of every person is respected and honored.

That’s my take on how Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech relates to your life and career success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on this topic.  As always, thanks for reading.  I value you and your comments.

Bud

Career advice based on baseball may seem to be a little strange this time of year.  The college football season ended a couple of days ago when Auburn beat Oregon for the National Championship – although I think the folks at TCU might beg to differ about who is the national champ.  The NFL playoffs are in full swing – not to mention that basketball and hockey are in mid season.

However, I came across something interesting about a baseball player over the holidays.  Cathy and I were visiting her mother in Carlsbad NM.  As it turns out, Cody Ross is from Carlsbad.  If you’re wondering who is Cody Ross, he was the MVP of the National League Championship series, and a member of the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. 

The town of Carlsbad gave him a parade and inducted him into its sports hall of fame.  It was a great day for him and his family.  But it wasn’t always so great for Cody.  In his major league career he has been traded several times, suffered quite a few injuries and was cut by the Florida Marlins in early September.  He was told over and over again that he was too small and too slow to be a real major league baseball player.

The Giants signed him after he was cut by the Marlins and he really helped them in the playoffs.  He hit safely in 10 consecutive games, hit five home runs and had three game winning RBIs.  Cody Ross went from being almost out of baseball to a World Series champion in the space of two months.

I’m telling you this story because Cody Ross is persistent, a career success characteristic.  In the speech he made the day of the celebration in Carlsbad he said…

“Never, never, ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do something you dream of doing.  I had a lot of people through the years tell me I would never make it professional baseball…Some of these people we even coaches and friends.  Let me be proof that if you set your mind to do something and you believe in yourself anything – I mean anything – is possible.  Dream big.”

Besides being persisitent Cody Ross is tenacious.  I talk about tenacity in Tweet 10 in my career advice book Success Tweets, “Find your purpose and pursue in tenaciously.” 

Tenacious people commit to three things.  First, they take personal responsibility for their life and career success.  They embrace the fact that they are responsible for their own life and career success.  They are willing to do the things necessary to succeed.  Second, tenacious people set high goals — and then do whatever it takes to achieve them.   Third, tenacious people know that stuff happens as they go through life.  They realize they will encounter many problems and setbacks.  Tenacious people choose to react positively to the negative stuff that happens and move forward toward their goals and their career success.

Playing professional baseball is Cody Ross’ purpose.   Cody exemplifies the third point about tenacity.  He suffered through several setbacks – the most serious being cut by the Marlins in September.  He could have quit.  He didn’t.  Quitting would have meant giving up on his career success dreams.  He caught on with the Giants and helped them become World Series champions.

As I frequently say to my career success coach clients, “Stuff will happen as you go through life – good stuff, bad stuff, happy stuff, sad stuff, encouraging stuff, frustrating stuff.  However, it’s not that stuff that happens that’s important, it’s how you react to it.” 

You can’t control the people and events in your life.  You can control how you react to the people and events in your life.  That’s what Cody Ross did.  That’s what you need to do if you’re going to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

Cody Ross chose to react positively to the people and events in his life – especially the bad stuff, sad stuff and frustrating stuff that happened to him.  He chose to tenaciously follow his dreams.  That was his message to the people of his home town who honored him last December.  I urge you to be like Cody Rodd and do the same if you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

I know this isn’t always easy.  In fact, it’s seldom easy.  But the harder you find it to react positively to negative people and events, the more important it is for you to do so. 

Don’t blame people or circumstances when things go wrong.  Instead, take responsibility for your career success.  Choose to be tenacious and learn the lesson behind every less than successful event in your life.

When you look for the lesson behind problems, setbacks and failures you are being tenacious; you are taking responsibility for your life and career success.  Find the lessons in the bad stuff that happens and then do something to put those lessons to work.  Commit to taking responsibility for yourself, your life and your career success. 

Put yourself in the driver’s seat.  Don’t let events and people stop you from achieving your goals and career success.  Be persistent.  Be tenacious.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their life and career success.  Heed the advice in Tweet 10 in Success Tweets.  “Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.  Find your purpose and pursue it tenaciously.” 

Only you can make you a career success.  You have to take personal responsibility for creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Tenacity and persistence are the hallmarks of people who are committed to taking personal responsibility for their life and career success.  Tenacious and persistent people keep going; even in — no especially in — the face of difficulties and problems.  Promise yourself that you will commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  Be like Cody Ross.  Be persistent.  Be tenacious.  Keep at it, and you will reach your goals.

That’s my career success baseball story in the middle of the NFL playoffs.  What do you think?  How tenacious are you?  If you have a personal stories about when your tenacity paid off please share them with us by leaving a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I am committed to helping your create the life and career success you want and deserve.  That’s why I am a career success coach, author, speaker and blogger.

Occasionally I participate in internet giveaways – but only if I think they are worthwhile and can help you create the life and career success you deserve.

Today I want to let you know today about a Self Improvement site that will allow you to download hundreds of self help gifts. And the best part is that it is absolutely FREE!

If you’ve had enough of plodding along year after year and you want to improve yourself to make 2011 your BEST ever year, then you need to go here: http://selfimprovementgifts5.com/go/1656

Self Improvement 5 will be open only for a VERY LIMITED TIME from January 6th to January 27th 2011. When you go there you’ll find a multitude of products – all FREE – provided by Self Improvement and Marketing experts from all over the world. Here is just a small sample of what you will find:

• Success Tweets – by me
• How to Become an Advanced Early Riser – Steven Aitchison
• Turn Your Passsion into a book… – Warren Whitlock
• Total Wellness Guide – Craig Raphael
• Living the Rich Life – Julia Busch
• Achieve Your Dreams – Brenton Lindo
•  I Have Value Meditation – Estra Roell
• Creative Visualization Mastery – Bruno Auger
• Wealthy You 2011 Vision Sheet – Nachhi Randhawa
• Self Hypnosis Sessions At Home – Paul Mihai Pavel
• Wake Up to the Dream -  Eva Gregory
• And TONS (OVER 700+) MORE!
   

Get all of these and hundreds more here: http://selfimprovementgifts5.com/go/1656
 
The organizers of the event are Stephanie Mulac, Carolyn Hansen and Dr. Joe Rubino.  This is Stephanie’s 5th Self Improvement Giveaway. Stephanie started this style of event in 2006. It’s in the form of a Giveaway which is sort of like a giant electronic trade fair where 100’s of experts offer their products free to the public.
 
Because it has become so popular, this year Stephanie has enlisted the services of Carolyn Hansen, renowned fitness professional, and Self Esteem Expert, Dr. Joe Rubino.
 
You only have to walk into any book store in any country to see how popular the subjects of self improvement, self awareness and personal development are. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry churning out hundreds of new books, audios, CD’s and other paraphernalia every year.
 
These can be very expensive but at http://selfimprovementgifts5.com/go/1656 you can pick this information up completely FREE.
 
With 2011 upon us, what better time is there than right NOW to set yourself and your business up for future success? This event is a life-changing experience for those who take it.
 
Come and join Stephanie, Carolyn, Joe and me and see for yourself.
 
If you want to grab the largest collection of self improvement and internet marketing products you’ll find ANYWHERE – all FREE – then go to http://selfimprovementgifts5.com/go/1656 now and claim your bounty!

I wouldn’t participate in this giveaway if I didn’t think that it can help you create the life and career success you deserve.  Check out  http://selfimprovementgifts5.com/go/1656 to get your 2011 off to a rocking start.

Bud

One of the ways to tell if a blog is catching on is the number of requests for guest posts it gets.  Lately I’ve been getting a lot of requests from folks who are interested in providing a guest post for this career success blog.  That pleases me.  Keep those requests coming folks.  I appreciate them.

Today I have a guest post by Dr. Steve Levinson, inventor of a great little device called the MotivAider that can help you build positive habits that will lead to your life and career success.  Positive habits are important to your career success.  Tweet 90 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Habits are like muscles.  The more you use them, the stronger they get.”  Anything that can help you build positive habits is helpful to your career success in the long run.

Here’s what Steve has to say about the MotiveAider.  Check it out…

The MotivAider is a remarkably simple electronic device that’s designed to enable people of all ages to change their own behavior and habits quickly, easily and privately.

The MotivAider grew out of my discovery that there’s a fundamental flaw in the design of the normal human mind that causes us to waste much of the intelligence, motivation, effort and hope that we invest in self-improvement.  

As a clinical psychologist, I was struck by how ironic it is that while we can do such a  great job of figuring out what we should do to achieve a highly desired goal,  we often do a really lousy job of staying focused on actually doing – consistently – what we’ve decided we must do to be successful. 

The problem, I realized, is that the mind contains some leftover primitive wiring that nearly guarantees that we’ll get distracted. And without a mechanism to dependably keep our attention focused on our good intentions, our intentions are bound to get lost in the shuffle and go to waste.

So I set out to create a solution – a way to make up for the attention-focusing mechanism that the mind is missing. I eventually came up with the MotivAider – a device that virtually guarantees that you’ll stay focused on making virtually any behavioral change you’ve decided to make.

The MotivAider looks like a pager and weighs less than three ounces. You simply clip it on your belt or waistband or carry it in a pocket. It uses a silent, pulsing vibration signal to repeatedly capture your attention and focus it on making whatever change you’ve decided to make.  

By taking advantage of the mind’s capacity for associating a desired meaning with a neutral signal, the MotivAider is able to communicate with its user in a way that’s as private as a thought.

Here’s how the MotivAider works: 

First, you create a brief personal message — a word, phrase or image — that reminds and motivates you to change the behavior you’ve decided to change. (For example,  years ago, after reading about how cheetahs survive by always running as fast as they can even though they catch their prey only one out of ten times they try, I used the message “Cheetah” to remind me to always invest fully in the chase despite the odds against succeeding.)

Next, you associate t your personal message to the MotivAider’s vibration so that whenever you feel the vibration, you’ll automatically think your message.  (Whenever I felt the MotivAider vibrate, I thought “Cheetah.”)

Finally, you set the MotivAider to send you private signals — and therefore your message — as often as necessary to keep you focused and on track to make the desired change. (Every ten minutes all day long, I was reminded to give it my all.)

By automatically sending a steady stream of private reminders flowing through your mind, the MotivAider keeps your attention riveted on making the desired change until the change becomes a habit.  (Although it was a departure from how I had been before, being cheetah-like eventually became second nature for me.  To this day, if I decide a goal is worth pursuing, I give it everything I’ve got.)

Yes, the MotivAider is a simple device based on a simple idea. But it’s helped thousands of people in 42 countries become more effective and successful simply by keeping them focused on making desired changes. 

I think what Steve has to say makes sense and is some great advice for building positive habits that lead to life and career success.  I’m going to get a MotivAider and try it out.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  But for now, I think it is a great piece of technology that has the potential to put you on the path to career success and help you stay there.

If you’ve used the MotivAider please share your experiences in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

This is my first career advice post of 2011.  This year I will continue writing about how to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

I have seven main pieces of career advice for you.  I discuss them in my latest career success book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less, and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  Take a look…

1. Clarify the purpose and direction for your life and career.
2. Commit to taking personal responsibility for your career success.
3. Build unshakeable self confidence.
4. Create positive personal impact.
5. Become an outstanding performer.
6. Become a dynamic communicator.
7. Build strong, lasting mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

In one way or another all of my blog posts, articles, tweets and books focus on at least one of these career advice tips.  Since we are beginning a new year I thought I’d it makes sense to do a quick overview of each of them.

Clarity

There are three things you need to do to clarify the purpose and direction for your life and career.  First, develop your personal definition of career success.  Second, create a vivid mental image of yourself as a career success.  Third, clarify your personal values.

Commitment

There are three things you need to do to commit to your life and career success.  First, take personal responsibility for your life and career.  Second, set high goals, and do whatever it takes to achieve them.  Third, choose to respond positively to whatever happens to you as you go about creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Confidence

There are five things you need to do to build unshakeable self confidence.  First, choose optimism.  Believe that you can and will succeed.  Second, face your fears and act.  Don’t let fear paralyze you into inaction.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Jettison the negative people in your life.  Fourth, find a mentor to help you grow and create your career success.  Fifth, mentor others.  Your confidence and career success will grow as you share your knowledge and expertise.

Positive Personal Impact

There are four things you need to do to create positive personal impact.  First, create and nurture your unique personal brand.  Second, demonstrate respect for yourself and others in the way you dress and present yourself.  Third, remember that your on line presence is as important – or more important – than how you present yourself in person.  Present yourself on line as the competent professional you are.  Fourth, learn and follow the basic rules of business etiquette.

Outstanding Performance

There are three things you need to do to become an outstanding performer.  First, become a lifelong learner.  In today’s fast paced world, if you’re not learning you’re not standing still, you’re going backward.  Second, manage your time, life and stress well.  Third, live a healthy lifestyle.  It’s easier to create the career success you deserve when you are at the top of your game.

Dynamic Communication

There are three things you need to do to become a dynamic communicator.  First, become a great conversationalist.  Listen more than you speak.  Ask questions and respond appropriately.  Second, write in a clear, concise, easy to read style.  Third, become an excellent presenter – to groups of two or 200.

Relationship Building

There are three things you need to do to build strong relationships.  First, get to know yourself.  Use this self knowledge to better understand others.  Second, pay it forward.  Give with no expectation of return.  Third, resolve conflict positively.  Always look for where you agree with a person with whom you are in conflict.  Use small points of agreement to build creative solutions to your differences.

This was a quick overview of my best career success advice.  I’ll be blogging about each of these ideas in detail during the days and weeks to come.  I’m always interested in your ideas on what I have to say in this blog.  So please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.  Send me your questions.  Let me know which topics you would like me to focus on in the days and weeks to come.  And, as always thanks for reading.  I hope 2011 is your best year yet and that it brings you the life and career success you want and deserve.

Bud