Why Your Attitude is Everything in Business
Imagine what it would feel like to be at work and have your boss crying next to you. He’d tell you that it was all too much. That he couldn’t face the rest of the day and wasn’t sure if he and the department were going to be around in 90 days and, for that matter, whether the company was going to survive the year.
The impact on your drive and attitude would be severe. Fear and sadness would rush over you and the gremlins of stress and anxiety would take charge. While this is an extreme example, many bosses fail to realize that their people are a reflection of their attitude.
Bigger Than Yourself
If you, as the leader of your company, are a ball of anxiety, then your people will also become balls of anxiety. If you are worried and glum, your people will be worried and glum. If you are hyper and unfocused, then your people will be, too.
On the flip side, if you are happy and confident, focused and enthusiastic, optimistic and powerful, etc., then your people will follow suit. The fundamental truth is, the universe—people you interact with at your business—will be in lock-step with your approach.
Whatever lens you are viewing the world at any given time is exactly how the world will present itself. If you are scared, you will only find more evidence to support your fear. If you are positive and enthusiastic, you will discover ways to reinforce that energy.
The Road Less Traveled
In middle school I read a book by M. Scott Peck called The Road Less Traveled. If my memory serves me, at some point in the book Peck advocates saying out loud when you wake up in the morning, “Today is going to be a great day.”
Generally speaking, since I was 13 I have approached every day as if it was going to be a great day. Just like you, I have had difficulty. But my challenge is to understand that my difficult days are still great days, because the harder they are the more opportunity there is for learning.
If you want the people around you to have wonderful attitudes and approach everything they do with energy and enthusiasm, then you must, too. If it were up to me, I would change M. Scott Peck’s words to say, “I am going to be great today.”
Peck’s version is as if your great day happens to you, my version puts the onus on you to lead yourself to a great day. When you lead yourself to being great, you are therefore leading your people to be great.
You Are the Sun
Are you going to be a ray of sun lighting the world around you, or are you going to be a dark storm cloud drizzling cold rain on everyone you interact with? If I had one key point to anyone who was looking to build the life that they love, it would be this—your attitude is EVERYTHING.
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For more advice and anecdotes on how to start and run a successful business, order my book, Grind: A No-Bullshit Approach to Take Your Business from Concept to Cash Flow.