Attitude? Bull-crap – Shaving Thoughts 

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

This simply is not true.  It’s just motivational slop that we listen to so we can avoid work.  Huh?

Going through life with a good attitude is good.  Going through life with a Positive Mental Attitude is positive.  But there are 5 things that we need to do to be leaders that attitude simply will not do.

Maybe it seems harsh to say listening to CDs or speakers about attitude is motivational slop and I could understand you taking issue with it.  The simple truth is posters, slogans and speeches may make us feel good but we rarely remember them a few days later because real life demands 5 things from us if we are truly going to lead.

Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, founder of Success magazine and preachers and teachers of “Thing and Grow Rich” coined the phrase “Conceive, Believe, Achieve” and sadly it morphed into if you can believe it you can achieve it.

It just doesn’t work that way and you already have tons of evidence surrounding you.

SOCIAL PROOF

Think about all the good people you know that have great attitudes but have not achieved their dreams.

I know lots of them…… I was one of them.

I was personally trained by W. Clement Stone and had a positive mental attitude, chanted affirmations, believed and only said positive things all day long.

Moderate success?  Sure.

Dreams realized?  Not even close.

How about you?  Got a good attitude?  Think attitude is everything?  Living your dream?

SET-UP

Attitude does make a huge difference but the true leaders and those who inspire leadership like John C. Maxwell know there are 5 things they need to work on to become the leaders that will inspire others and manifest dreams.

Let me share with you that having a good attitude as you evaluate these 5 points will certainly be the main difference maker.

Here’s my spin and additions to some things I gleaned from Maxwell.

1. YOUR ATTITUDE CAN NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR PERSONAL GROWTH

Attitude does give us the one thing that separates winners from losers – personal growth.

A lot of people talk about their potential and the person that they want to become.  We are all fond of saying “A company can’t go any further than the management team can take it and the management at our company is incredible”.

Have you ever considered that the organization that you are building is just like a company?

And your organization is not going any further that you can take it?

For things to get better we have to get better and that requires personal growth.

Honest assessment, discovering our shortcomings and doing the work to correct them is not done by your attitude.

2. COMPETENCE

Attitude does not make us competent.

I know a lot of people with great talent and a great attitude who simply will not learn the skills that are the underpinnings of competence.  Make no mistake about it confidence and competence are not the same thing.  I would love to play 3rd base for the Boston Red Sox.  I could be positive about doing it, hire personal trainers, take batting practice from the best batting coach on the planet 5 hours a day and fielding practice for 5 hours a day… and do this for 2 years.  I would still never be able to play 3rd base for the Red Sox.  It’s not an attitude problem it’s a competency problem.  Fortunately, in the home-based-business arena the skills required are minimal and the average person can easily learn and master them.  Your attitude won’t master the skills.

3. EXPERIENCE

Attitude does not give us priceless experience.

There is no substitute for experience.  No matter how great your attitude is you can’t get better without failing and learning and improving.  In today’s microwave mentality marketplace the temptation to believe you’re going to make  $10,000 with no experience and a couple clicks of the mouse is strong.  Leaders know they will lose some good people who succumb to the temptation.  They know the winners will migrate to leaders who have experienced challenges, taken their lumps and emerged victorious.

While people have been attracted to the successes we have been blessed with I know the stronger part of my story for all of them are the 5 failures I experienced in the home-based-business arena and learned from.  The great thing about networking is that leaders make more money by helping new people succeed.  This amazing dynamic does not take place in any other industry.  The leaders will share their experience to help you succeed.  Once I realized this I learned from leaders but I still had to experience it myself.

4. RE-SETTING

Attitudes do not re-set themselves

Our attitude is not like a Ron Popeal oven….. it’s not set it and forget it.

It is you not your attitude that has to do the re-setting.

This requires work in the form of a check up from the neck up daily.

5. FACTS

Attitude will not change facts.

Things are going great!

Business is booming!

We’re experiencing record growth!

Yet if we look at your organization and the numbers don’t match those wonderful attitude statements we are just kidding ourselves.

Yeah, yeah….I know….we’ve all be taught ‘fake it till you make it’ …..and …..’it’s your attitude not your aptitude that determine your altitude’……but that is the warm bath thing…..you know….all those warm fuzzy statements are like getting in a warm bath…..sooner or later you’re sitting in cold dirty water.

We need to look at the facts, make adjustments if we are not getting results we want and improve.  While I agree that doing this with a good attitude is wonderful…..it is not attitude that makes the changes needed…..it is assessment of facts, seeking course corrections and execution, consistently, of the right course corrections that will get us results, not attitude.

Attitude will not change facts.

Adjustments that get better results create AUTHENTIC POSITIVE attitudes…..singing the company song, chanting our goals and staying positive does not do the job.

I know that and deep down inside you do too.

DEPRESSING?

We need those 5 things to grow any business…..that attitude will not do them for us is not depressing.

It’s exciting.

Learn the skills needed in our chosen field, go out and use them…..this is what it is all about, gaining experience as we improve and by embracing the defeats and successes for what they really are…..impostors of success and failure…..

we grow personally….

and as we grow personally something stunning happens…..we attract others to us effortlessly.

And nothing will boost your attitude more than this scenario

Skills===>Practice===>Experience===>Personal Growth===>Results===>Attraction by Example.

P90X Update

It is a killer, it really is but …… played tennis with The Fabulous Davene yesterday.  Our game has not improved very much but we have.

I can see how much easier, faster and more energetic we both were…..the entire time.

We are both in better shape and stronger.

Just like networking……we are paying the price in the living room an hour a day and the dividends are priceless……..just like people who learn what to do and take consistent action. hmmmmm

APROPOS OF NOTHING

1. Why do all the people selling ‘secrets’ refuse to tell you the company?  Even when you ask? Duh?  2. Experienced or coachable?  Why do experienced people always tell you they are coach-able when they are anything but? 3. Did I miss something?  According the people selling systems and leads and branding and social networking, MLM as we know it is dead….unless we do it their way.  Huh? 4. Saw a guy telling a friend about a party at the beach ….friend thanked his and asked if he should bring anything…..forgive me…..isn’t that networking?  Someone telling someone else about something they think other’s might like or enjoy? …oh, yeah….I forgot….Networking as I know it is DEAD. 5. I really miss Tommy, my English Setter…coming next month.  Amazing looking dog….hell of a networking assistant…..get’s me into 2-4 conversations every time we walk.  Wonder if he knows networking as he knows it is dead.  He’ll be really bummed…..thank goodness he’s not online.

5 Updates from My Mentors

1. I sweat real sweat and I shake real shakes. Elizabeth Taylor

Funny, like most people, I did not believe big earners got bad numbers, answering machines or had to deal with rejection.  Everyone experiences the same percentages of the same stuff….it’s just what we do with it that makes a difference.   Goes for presenting too……show me a speaker/presenter who is not nervous and I will show you a very bad speaker.

2. Early on, if I was alone two-three nights in a row, I’d start writing poems about suicide.  Jack Nicloson

Everybody has self-doubt from time to time, everybody.  Suicide is giving up our dream…..we all do that too.  The biggest blessing in this industry is that it’s a group of dreamers and staying connected to your up-line and sub-culture within your company shortens those suicide thoughts about our dreams……Dream on, baby, dream on…..this is living.

3. Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect.  Nietzsche

We think it is luck…..we think it is the pay-plan….we think it is the product….or market……oh, and timing…..we all think it is timing…..Timing, timing, timing…..we all think all these things effect our success….till be have it and once we do, we realize it was just letting go of ego, learning some new things, practicing and work.  Go figure.

4. He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Nietzsche

We are not talking goals here…..no one really likes working for money.  I discovered as soon as I found my passion for something, my bliss…..that the ‘now’ did not matter.  Rejection, politics inside a group or company, changes in pay-plans….it all went away when I found my bliss.  So, once you’ve built it and paid the bills, taken the ‘trip’ , paid for the kids college…..why you life?  Not a typo…..not ‘what do you want to do with your life?’…..but ‘why your life?’…….why are you here and how can that help others…..you find that passion and nothing else don’t mean crap……especially the crap……you don’t even see it any more.

5. In every real person a child is hidden that wants to play. Nietzsche

I referred to it earlier…..success and failure are impostors…..if you are not having fun failing to get traction yet and stressed out….and think you’ll start having fun when you get to a certain pin-level or income level……you better quit or start having fun….

People join real people……not stressed out marketing dudes and dude-etts…….let the kid play, a lot…..now.

I’m going swimming …..sure I live in Kauai…..but I did something fun everyday once this Nietzsche quote hit me…..

Real people play……people join real people……not plans

Believe

mark januszewski

World’s Laziest Networker

About the Author

  • Website is pre-Mark J. New one coming shortly. Mark, you nailed it again. Your brain has fantastic wiring.

    Keep it coming. Everybody else seems to be in a parroting fog. Must be the ocean breezes in Kauai blow away the fog.

    Mark this down. Within a year I am coming to Kauai to thank you personally.

  • Attitude is just one of the tools in my tool box like learning skills but I don’t believe attitude is over rated. Speaking for myself if I have a off day and have a bad attitude and it shows then all the tools in my tool box aren’t worth squat.

  • Hello Mark,
    The more I read and listen to the skills, the more I realize I still have more to learn. I have given your site to my business partners, some are taking it seriously and really getting it to it, while some others are busy complaining that they can’t use these skills. I have practiced on some new prospects, and they do in fact work. I’m really glad that I found your site, while looking for something from “Big Al”. Thank You Mark and also the Fabulous Davene for encouraging you to “give these skills away for free”.
    Sincerely,
    Dan Myers

  • Michael

    Thanks for stopping by and your kind words….

    The largest coffee plantation in USA is right down the street…..looking forward to your visit, drinking coffee and letting the breezes keep our heads clear.

    It would be great to Master Mind with you and interview you right here

    believe & keep growing
    mark j

  • Wish I had a few dollars for all the awards I got for having a great attitude!! Sure great attitudes are contagious, people want to be around people who have great attitudes… but without the skills of learning how to actually RUN a homebased business, a great attitude becomes more of a smoke screen to fool yourself and others that business is great.. Nothing builds a great attitude better than being proud of yourself for facing your challenges, excepting the fact that you need to improve, and then making a commitment to yourself everyday that you’ll study the skills..

  • Thanks for stopping by Dan

    The skills work and people who do not to learn skills are leaving their businesses to ‘hope’……and we all know ‘hope’ is not a strategy

    Big Al is a great friend of ours, major influence on our careers…..

    I really like that you are getting results…….your business partners who are not taking it seriously yet, the skill stuff……here’s all you have to do….to get their attention.

    Go get the biggest, fattest check you can…they’ll come around 🙂

    believe & keep growing
    mark j

  • Hey Gary

    thanks for stopping by

    I love your comment…..I hope folks understand we’re not saying it’s not important…..but…..what they really need to grow a successful business is the core of your thought…..persojnal responsibility……..if we have that…..the order of attitude, goals, tools, skills……makes very little difference.

    I love that you addressed that so perfectly

    thanks man 🙂

    believe & keep growing

    mark j

  • Rock on Su-pah Star……

    What a head fake you gave me the other day with your ‘gift’……you played me beautifully…..I really thought I was getting some Lob-stah

    The Fabulous Davene is still laughing about me saying ‘it’s not polite to not eat food people send’

    Nancy, you got me……very skilled, aren’t you ? 🙂

    Not only did you pay the debt ……you faked me out of my pants……AWESOME!!

    Thanks for stopping by here and your points of view…..I love the $$ for all the ‘attitude awards’ …amen to that

    believe & keep growing
    mark j

  • Thank you Mark and Davene for all of your free skills. It is not pay, pay, pay and I really appreciate that. I am playing those skills over and over and learning a lot to help me. When I learn how to do this properly you can be sure that I will come over and visit you. I am slow but I am learning.
    Thanks you so much
    Aileen

  • Thank you, Mark for all the free skills. I was caught up in all the secret hipe of buy this secret and then have to buy another secret to get to the next step and just when you thought I finally got, you had to pay for that tooooo. Ended up being the opposite of what I want to do and that is make more money and spent less. The blog about inclusion language gave me a wake up call. I use exclusion language all the time! i will start using inclusion language today! Thank you and “I agree and Let’s do it”

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