Read, study, work hard, be your best

Work hard to be your best self.  Start with reading every day in the area that will help you the most.  Avoid activites that bring you down.

Everyone is gifted in some way and if you try your best to constantly improve to become your very best, it will pay dividends.  Invest your time wisely to reach your goals.

Don't just float along complaining about others and giving reasons why you can't succeed.  Only you can determine how successful you will be in your career and in all areas of your life.  No matter what your age is, you can enjoy improvement in what you do, so get going.

All you can do ....

All you can do is all you can do!  Given the concept that hard work leads to success, you must remember that there is only so much that you can do.  Hard work sets up the ability to admit, all I can do is all I can do.

If I know that I have given all that I can on the job and I meet with failure or worse, termination, I at least know that it was not me who let me down.  If you take that attitude, you will succeed, by the way.  Give 100% in all that you do and never fear failure.

If you do concentrate single-mindedly on all that you do, you will not need to worry about saving your job, your employer should be more worried about saving you.  An all-out worker is attractive to any employer and word gets around on how you perform on the job.

We are all limited in what we can accomplish.  Remember that because it is important.

More About Hard Work

I am more convinced than ever about the importance of hard work.  How do I define hard work?  Simple.  Concentrate your efforts all of the time that you are at work on the most important task at hand.  Concentrate single-mindedly on completing your assignments in a thorough and timely fashion.

What leads me to this belief about hard work.  Well, think about the things that you can and cannot control.  You cannot control your competition and you cannot control your co-workers' performance.  You certainly cannot control your company's management and their policies and decisions.

If you want to be successful, what is the one thing that you can control?  Answer, your own efforts.  We are competing every day for success.  In our competition with others, we might be underpriced, we might be mismatched by the size of the competitors workforce or the size of their funding, and we might be disadvantaged for other reasons.  Maybe your competion is smarter, or more experienced, or more outgoing.

The one thing that we should never be if we want to be successful is outworked.  Just like in sports competition, you should never be out-hustled, you should never be outworked in your profession.  Be honest to yourself in the assessment of your work efforts.  Give your best effort always!

Avoiding Anxiety

I really think that we can all do better at this.  So many situations in life cause us anxiety but part of the solution is what frame of mind that we bring to the situation.

Often, small problems can be easily fixed without anxiety but we often take that anxious route anyway.  Try to ease your angst by taking a calm approach to every situation you face each day.  Think of the people with positive mental attitudes and take a lesson from them.

Your positive approach will then rub off on others which will further empower your own self confidence and control.  Give it a try.  We can all do better.

Happy New Year

The economic forecast appears to be promising.  Most markets are recovering.  With that being said, it is at least reasonable to start this new year 2011 with optimism for your business and your career.

If you believe in New Year's resolution, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to list the things that you realistically want to accomplish.  Realistic is the key word because anyone can set high goals and give up after a few weeks or months.

If you establish some clear goals for yourself and your business in 2011, write them down, and visit this list often, you may be surprised at this tme next year on just how much you have accomplished.  So take a little time and write down your clearly defined and reachable goals for 2011.

Happy New Year

Success requires a team

Just like the old saying "it takes a village to raise a child," it takes a team for any business or organization to realize success.  It helps to have star players but for an organization to succeed year after year, it requires a great team with great leadership.

I am a sports fan and a very frustrated one because all of the Cleveland sports teams are suffering right now from bad records and failure.  At one time, our biggest rival in football was the Pittsburgh Steelers.  We love to hate the Steelers in Cleveland.

However, if you take a look at the history and record of the Steelers, you will find an excellent example of what I am talking about.  They have an excellent organization that takes great pride in success as a team.  They manage and optimize every aspect of their organization and thus they have realized great success.

The same is true in business.  It is the overall organization that must be great in order for any aspect of the business to experience year-over-year success.  The top management must be totally behind every facet of the business, behind every employee, and aligned with the goals of every division.

Success requires a team, and that includes ownership, top management, middle management, and every single employee.

The End of 2010

I wish everyone a very happy 2011.  Economically speaking, 2010 has been a recovery year for the most part.  All indications point toward a continued recovery in 2011.

This is a great time to take advantage of new business and career opportunities as the recovery continues.

Happy New Year