Richard T. Harris, Sagemark Consulting
Where are you? No, not “Where are you?” on the face of the planet. Where are you in your journey through this life? Are you pretty much where you planned to be or where you wanted to be? These questions are questions that we ask ourselves along the way, especially if things aren’t going as well as we hoped.
If you determine that you are not where you planned or hoped to be, what do you do about it? Do you choose to gripe and complain, blame others, develop a negative attitude about just about everything or do you take a good look at where you are and begin to develop a plan for how to make it better?
What are two things over which you have been given complete control? Your attitude and the choices you make belong entirely to you. You can’t always keep difficult or hurtful things from happening, but you can decide how to deal with it, either positively or negatively.
A positive response to a negative circumstance enables you to begin to formulate a plan about how to deal with it, aiming for a beneficial outcome. A negative response to that same circumstance can block your creativity minimizing your ability to create a more positive outcome.
Over time, we become the sum total of all the choices we make, good or not so good. If we consistently make choices that expose us to negative outcomes, we might get used to negative outcomes. Not so good, or is it? Taking a risk is a requirement for growth. You might fail but you might not. And if you fail, you can give up or give it another shot. Pole vaulters get three tries at every height to make it over the bar. How many times have you seen a competitor quit after two failed attempts? A fairly significant percentage of the vaulters make it on the third try. Why is that do you think? Could it be that they learned a little something from each failed attempt? I think so.
Can you think of a career where you’re at the top of your game if you fail two out of three times but are considered among the best if you manage to succeed only once out of every three times….? Of course! Baseball. Hitters who only succeed 2 ½ times out of 10 at the plate are well paid athletes. Those who succeed at bat three out of ten times are stars!
Let’s apply this idea to sales. If you succeed one out of three times to help folks buy your product, you will make a good living, if you see and talk to enough people. Those who are most successful are willing to risk failing in order to succeed. The baseball player who doesn’t go to bat doesn’t risk failing and will surely not succeed as a player.
Thomas Edison tried 10,000 different materials as filaments for the light bulb before he found one that worked. When asked “How do you keep trying when you fail 10,000 times?” Edison responded, “I didn’t fail 10,000 times, I successfully found 10,000 materials that didn’t work.” We call that an attitude of gratitude. He could have stopped at any point and not been accused of failing, but he would have been guilty of failing. His attitude led to his choice to keep on keeping on. His attitude and choices turned the lights on for all of us.
England’s great Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, once said, “America always does the right thing…..after they’ve tried everything else and they have failed”. The lesson here is to not give up just because something you try doesn’t work. Think what you could do differently or better and give it another shot. Failing often does not make you a failure until you give up. Do a little more research and try again. You always have the right to choose a positive attitude and make choices to do something different that just might work or choose a different direction altogether.
Always, always recover your positive attitude and get enough information to make an informed decision. The more decisions and choices you make the better equipped you will be to make better, more informed decisions. It is all a part of being a lifetime learner. That’s how the good get better!
About The Author
Richard T. Harris has been associated with Sagemark Consulting since 1980 where he has developed a financial planning practice focusing on wealth accumulation and conservation and business succession planning issues and exit strategies. Throughout his 30 year career with Sagemark he has attained qualification for the company’s Chairman’s Council four times and President’s Cabinet twenty-eight times. His professional designations include: Chartered Life Underwriter, Chartered Financial Consultant and the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification.
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