I’m often asked where I find the inspiration for this career advice blog.  It’s simple.  I pay attention to what’s happening in the world around me.

March Madness, the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments start this week.  Like a whole lot of Americans I watch with great interest.  I watch because I really like basketball.  Also, I watch because of how much the young men and women who play care about the game.

As the NCAA ads say, almost all of the athletes will be going pro, but not in sports.  Very few will ever play in the NBA or WNBA.  Almost all of the seniors in the tournaments will be playing their last organized basketball games ever.  This creates a real sense of urgency and passion in the games.  It’s obvious how much these young athlethes care.

Tweet 100 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Care about what you do.  If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer.  If you care, a lot you’ll become an outstanding performer.”  If you take the time to watch the college basketball tournaments, you’ll see just how much these young men and women care about basketball.  It shows on the jubilant faces of the winners.  It shows even more on the sorrowful faces of the losers.

It’s the same when it comes to creating your life and career success. 

Take me for an example.  I really care about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve.  I care a lot.  That’s why I wrote Success Tweets and give it away for free.    You can download your fre copy at http://www.SuccessTweets.com

I wrote a series of career advice blog posts explaining each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets in detail because I care.  I care so much about helping you create your personal career success that I committed to writing 700 or 800 words every day for 28 weeks.  You can see all of my posts on the tweets in Success Tweets at http://www.SuccessTweets.com/blog.

I’ve also committed to doing a podcast on each of the tweets.  I do this because I care.  I care a lot about helping you achieve the life and career success you deserve.  And I know that this caring will pay off for me.  Because of all ths writing and thinking about career success, I’ll  become an outstanding career success coach – somebody who gives really great career advice.

When you care you do your very best.  Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of my favorite books To Kill a Mockingbird.  There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me.  It’s in Chapter 11 and spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film.  He’s speaking to Scout, his daughter…

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.  It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

As Harper Lee points out, it takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there.  You do your best.  And doing your best can be a scary thing.  When you care — when you consciously do your best — and fail, it’s heartbreaking.  But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.

I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard.  I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could.  I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook if I didn’t get accepted by saying “I could have written a better application, but I just didn’t spend the time I should have.” 

When I put my application in the mailbox – we still did quaint things like that back in the old days – I was proud of what I had written.  I knew it was the very best I could do.  I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough.  After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools.  Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?

This story has a happy ending.  I was accepted and got my degree.  Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Just like the young men and women who will be playing in March Madness this year, successful people are proud of what they do.  They care.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 100 in Success Tweets.  “Care about what you do.  If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer.  If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.”  Does your work show that you care?  Or does it reflect an “it’s good enough” attitude?  Take it from a career success coach, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable, make sure that how much you care shows through in every single piece of work you do.

That’s the career advice I take from March Madness.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my thoughts on life and career success.  I appreciate you and your input.

Bud

I’m often asked where I find the inspiration for this career advice blog.  It’s simple.  I pay attention to what’s happening in the world around me.

March Madness, the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments start this week.  Like a whole lot of Americans I watch with great interest.  I watch because I really like basketball.  Also, I watch because of how much the young men and women who play care about the game.

As the NCAA ads say, almost all of the athletes will be going pro, but not in sports.  Very few will ever play in the NBA or WNBA.  Almost all of the seniors in the tournaments will be playing their last organized basketball games ever.  This creates a real sense of urgency and passion in the games.  It’s obvious how much these young athlethes care.

Tweet 100 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Care about what you do.  If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer.  If you care, a lot you’ll become an outstanding performer.”  If you take the time to watch the college basketball tournaments, you’ll see just how much these young men and women care about basketball.  It shows on the jubilant faces of the winners.  It shows even more on the sorrowful faces of the losers.

It’s the same when it comes to creating your life and career success. 

Take me for an example.  I really care about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve.  I care a lot.  That’s why I wrote Success Tweets and give it away for free.    You can download your fre copy at http://www.SuccessTweets.com

I wrote a series of career advice blog posts explaining each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets in detail because I care.  I care so much about helping you create your personal career success that I committed to writing 700 or 800 words every day for 28 weeks.  You can see all of my posts on the tweets in Success Tweets at http://www.SuccessTweets.com/blog.

I’ve also committed to doing a podcast on each of the tweets.  I do this because I care.  I care a lot about helping you achieve the life and career success you deserve.  And I know that this caring will pay off for me.  Because of all ths writing and thinking about career success, I’ll  become an outstanding career success coach – somebody who gives really great career advice.

When you care you do your very best.  Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of my favorite books To Kill a Mockingbird.  There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me.  It’s in Chapter 11 and spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film.  He’s speaking to Scout, his daughter…

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.  It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

As Harper Lee points out, it takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there.  You do your best.  And doing your best can be a scary thing.  When you care — when you consciously do your best — and fail, it’s heartbreaking.  But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.

I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard.  I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could.  I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook if I didn’t get accepted by saying “I could have written a better application, but I just didn’t spend the time I should have.” 

When I put my application in the mailbox – we still did quaint things like that back in the old days – I was proud of what I had written.  I knew it was the very best I could do.  I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough.  After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools.  Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?

This story has a happy ending.  I was accepted and got my degree.  Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Just like the young men and women who will be playing in March Madness this year, successful people are proud of what they do.  They care.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 100 in Success Tweets.  “Care about what you do.  If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer.  If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.”  Does your work show that you care?  Or does it reflect an “it’s good enough” attitude?  Take it from a career success coach, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable, make sure that how much you care shows through in every single piece of work you do.

That’s the career advice I take from March Madness.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my thoughts on life and career success.  I appreciate you and your input.

Bud

I’m still writing about the ideas in my new career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I have a little less than 100 more blog posts to go to further explain each of the tweets in Success Tweets.  When I’m finished, you’ll have an in depth discussion on each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets.  I hope you’re enjoying reading this series of posts as much as I’m enjoying writing them.  You can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.  If you want to actual book, you can purchase a copy on Amazon.com and your local bookstore.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 52…

Identify the self confident people you know.  Pay attention to how they act and carry themselves.  Watch what they do.  Act like them.

I’m a basketball fan.  I like high school, college and pro basketball.  I especially enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament – March Madness as it’s called.  In March of 2009, I did a blog post in which I told the story of tiny Siena College’s upset of Ohio State in the NCAA tournament.  Part of that story is worth repeating here…

Siena is a small liberal arts college near Albany New York.  It has a total enrollment of about 3,000.  Ohio State is one of the largest universities in the US.  It has a total enrolment of over 60,000.  I bet there are some dorms at Ohio State that have more residents than the total number of students enrolled at Siena.

None of that mattered last Friday night.  Siena beat Ohio State 74 – 72.  It took them two overtime periods to do it, but they did it.  The Saints, as Siena is called, were losing by 11 points at one point in the second half.  They demonstrated the power of optimism.  They refused to quit.  They believed in themselves.  And they won a hard fought victory.

This is a great story in and of itself.  However, Ronald Moore’s story is even better.  Ronald is the Siena point guard.  As the first overtime period was winding down, he found himself with the ball and Siena trailing by 3 points.  At that point he was 0 for 4 in three point shooting in the game.  He shot and made a three point basket that sent the game into a second overtime.  Then he did it again!  With 3.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime, and Siena losing by 1, Ronald made another three point shot to win the game.

Ronald Moore made his last two three point shots attempts after missing his first four.  That takes some guts.  He hadn’t made a three point shot in over 44 minutes of play, yet with the game on the line, he made not one, but two, three pointers to win the game.  Talk about facing your fears and acting.  Ronald demonstrated the power of optimism by his willingness to take the shots he needed to win the game.  Good for him  — and for Siena. 

Siena lost in the next round, and that the memory of that game has faded.  However, there is some career advice to be gained from repeating the story.  Ronald Moore demonstrated supreme self confidence in the Siena win in that basketball game.  He was willing to take a three point shot in overtime when he hadn’t made one all game.  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to follow Ronald’s example.  Take your best shot, even when things aren’t going well.  Look your fear in the eye and act.

Ronald Moore and the 2009 Siena basketball team’s story is nice, but you don’t have to look for athletes to show you how to act in a self confident manner.  You can find self confident people all around you.

I bet you know someone who is in sales.  Watch him or her make several calls one day without a single sale – and then get up the next day and do it again.  That’s self confidence.

You probably know someone who is in business for himself or herself.  Watch him or her go about building his or her business.  That’s self confidence.

Summer is budget time in many US corporations.  If you work for one of them, you probably know some people who have to do budget presentations.  Watch them as they prepare and present.  That’s self confidence.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful, self confident people follow the advice in Tweet 52 in Success Tweets.  “Identify the self confident people you know.  Pay attention to how they act and carry themselves.  Watch what they do.  Act like them.”  Self confident people are all around you.  If you pay attention to what they do and how they act you’ll notice that they have several things in common.  They are optimistic.  They believe things will turn out well.  They face their fears and act.  They take the shot, make the sales call, start a business, make the presentation.  They surround themselves with positive people.  They work with mentors.   They mentor others.  Follow their lead, and you’ll become self confident too.  Who are the self confident people you know?  What can you learn about life and career success from them?

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 52 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud