I sit on the long haul from the East Coast to Las Vegas, Nevada to once again attend @IngramMicroOne #ONEIngram event as a TrustXAlliance member (formerly VentureTech Network – VTN) and reflect back on something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve spent a few years wanting to write a regular blog to give back to others, to share my experiences, successes, failures and lessons learned from many years of business, life and coaching.
Will anyone want to listen, who knows, time will tell. At least it gives me a place to put on paper experiences that I think will help others who follow in similar footsteps or just like to hear the sometimes humorous rantings of someone who has made a lot of mistakes.
Still have 30 mins of very bumpy flight to write before the crazy of the Ingram ONE event starts, so here goes nothing.
I’d like to start off this first part of my brain dump with something I learned very early on in my life and professional career. You have to be willing to make mistakes and learn from them to be able to grow and succeed. I know this has been said in so many ways from so many people, but the essence of it rings true to me every day. I’ve guided teams of people over the years who, if they know me, know this about me. I try to not just pay lip service to this notion, but live it, and encourage those who I surround myself with to do the same. When someone makes a mistake, the first question I ask myself is, was it with MALICE? Did they do this on purpose with intent to hurt. If they did, there is no learning from their mistakes. They should be addressed directly and with an appropriate response to the severity of what they did.
Once you know it’s not with malice, the goal is to help learn from their mistake. Not to attack, demean or belittle them, but encourage them to do a true debrief of what happened, and learn from it. Effective debriefs attack the issue, not the person, but that’s a blog for a different day. Being able to not make the same mistake again is goal. Everyone learns at their own pace, and some will make that same mistake again. Coach to get the learning based on the ability of the individual, but if the mistake continues after appropriate coaching, that person needs to be moved off the team. Coach, coach, coach, change.
For those who are reading this who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years, I hope that this way of handling things made you better for it, I know it did me as a leader and more often than not, friend.
The next introduction topic is the title of this post and of the entire Blog, ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING. Again, those who know me have heard me say this. Sometimes it comes out as CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE EVERYDAY! It’s the same message regardless, you are in control of your life and your happiness. Not your family, not your friends, not the person who bumped into you or the world. They owe you nothing. YOU are in control of YOUR attitude every day and that controls your happiness. I firmly believe that when a person realizes they can choose the amount of happiness in their life, they are free, they can overcome anything.
I’ll share a little trick I learned almost 20 years ago while listening to @TonyRobbins Unleash the Power Within (on cassette tape no less!). I have a tremendous respected for Tony Robbins, his amazing attitude and what he has done to affect so many people. The trick is this… Feeling down, need a quick pick me up? Crack a big smile, look up, way way up, hold it for a bit. How do you feel? You can’t be down when you do this. It changes your body, your attitude and will kick-start feeling good. Try it!
Both of these topics I will write about more, with examples, funny stories and introspection in future posts.
My hope is many of those who I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years, who have impacted my life and vice versa will enjoy hearing stories about the many lessons we learned and will jump in and add their views and comments to these stories. For many, I’ll use their first names and they will know who they are. For others, where it won’t be fair to call them out, I’ll use an alias for privacy.
Are you willing to join me on this journey that has been almost 30 years in the making for me?
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If you would like a topic discussed, email suggestions to yourattitudeiseverything@gmail.com
To choosing your attitude every day!
Rich
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!
Well written Rich! Man, almost 15 years of stories here we come 🙂
Great post Rich. Looking forward to reading more.
I agree, Attitude is EVERYTHING!