The magic button that ALWAYS leads to success

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If there is one common characteristic among those that I see succeeding vs. those that I see failing it’s this…

Attitude

Don’t mistake this article for a lame “rah rah” session.

It’s gut check time.  I’ve got some hard questions for you and some pretty specific observations too.

I literally don’t know ANY people that consider themselves successful in business, personal life, spiritual matters, parenting, marriage or any other area of life that are characterized by having a bad attitude.

Before you start thinking that success in these areas leads to a ‘good attitude’ consider this…

Try to think of ANYONE in your personal history of friends, family, or business associates that started out with a generally BAD ATTITUDE towards life in general and then somehow had some success and ONLY THEN started displaying an overall good attitude. I’ll bet you can’t think of many (if any).

On the other hand I can think of DOZENS of examples of people that, in spite of bad circumstances and obstacles REFUSED VICTIM-HOOD and instead CHOSE to have a good attitude about life and the opportunities in front of them and they went on to do great things and have what anyone watching could easily consider SUCCESS.

Once you’ve been in any sort of business that deals with people day in and day out it becomes second nature to identify people as having a “good attitude” or a “bad attitude”. It’s pretty obvious most of the time.

What makes a “bad attitude” so apparent?

A victim mentality, instant refund seekers, magic button seekers, quick fix short term thinkers and lifelong tire kickers really stand out after awhile.

Daily I hear from people that are MAKING GREAT THINGS HAPPEN and I also hear from victims, complainers, whiners etc. that aren’t doing much except being victimized, complaining and whining.

Which are you?

Is is POSSIBLE that your attitude might be holding you back?

What do you think? Am I on to something? Please leave a comment below…and read the comments left by others.  We can all learn something here.



8 Responses to “ “The magic button that ALWAYS leads to success”

  1. UncleDearest says:

    Jim, don’t you realize that some people are just lucky?

    Occasionally people tell me that I’m just lucky and you know what? I have to agree with them! I’m not a greedy person so I always feel compelled to share my secret to good luck with them. It’s simple!

    The harder I work, the luckier I get!

    They still don’t believe me! UD

  2. Anon says:

    Jim:

    I couldn’t agree more, and nobody has more “right” to feel down than my wife and I.

    A few years ago I was attacked by a lawless legal system in a small Texas town, denied assistance of counsel in a felony trial, and the right to call witnesses in my defense.

    With doctored (falsified) “evidence” I was found “guilty” of a non-crime by a stacked jury I had no say in selecting, and spent 1 year being tortured in the state jail system.

    I was kept in solitary most of the year (even spent some time in a mental facility for telling the truth about delivering all eight of our children at home), was pepper sprayed and denied a shower for 24 hours afterward for daring try to exercise my right to outside recreation 1 hour each week,
    and was starved most of the time, losing up to 25% of my former 177 lb weight.

    Three years later, my wife and I were suddenly arrested, charged with “elderly abuse” from trying to care for her 92-year old mother (who had terminal cancer).

    Dehydration and malnutrition (cachexia) are normal conditions from which many cancer sufferers finally die, and eight days after our arrest she died, deprived of the company of her only daughter.

    My wife and I spent over a month in jail (where we were denied adequate food and I again lost nearly 25% of my body weight), denied bail and legal assistance, while our children were abducted by “Child Protective Services” and more than five months later still have not been returned home.

    One son just turned 18 the first of November but is still being held against his will, even though they are not supposed to have any further right to prevent him from returning home (where he wants to live) now.

    Despite no indictment to date, under $50,000 personal bond each we are thereby prevented from leaving the small rural, retirement community where we cannot find any jobs, our food and money are now nearly all gone and we don’t know how we are going to pay the electric and phone bills this December.

    Yet I do not believe we are victims, but have been given these challenges to overcome and learn vital lessons about life and how to help others in similar circumstances.

    That’s why we started StopStateAbuse.com, so that what we learn can be shared with others.

    We live in hope, and by prayerful faith each and every day.

    So whoever reads this, unless you are suffering from similar troubles, what have you got to worry about?

    Even so, many before you have suffered far worse than us and have pulled through it to live blessed and happy lives!

    History is full of such examples.

    All you need is commitment and dogged persistence, along with the blessings of obedience to a higher law than man’s, and you can do anything you set your heart to accomplish, despite all odds and in spite of all opposition.

    May you live life to the full and prosper!

  3. C. Kowalski says:

    Jim, This is in reply to your question or statement about attitude; I think you are absolutely correct. That having been said, I do believe there are some of us who, for whatever reason, are afraid of success. I know that sounds crazy, but I think we develop a mentality which says success happens to other people, not us. And I do have to include myself.

    Crazy??

  4. Hey Jim, You hit the nail right on the head with this one! Trying to sell anything is difficult because there are so many nay-sayers out in the real world. The best thing to do is just move on to the next person. We all should know by now it’s just a numbers game. I will say this though, if you are successful you have a better chance then someone who is starting off because the people you are trying to sell to need to see your success to be able to follow you. Thanks for all your info, Alan Cinqmars

  5. Gloria says:

    First off, I want to reply to UD, the first commenter. I don’t believe in luck. I think people throw that word around as a cop-out! Oh, he’s just lucky-no, maybe he decided to work for, at least toward a goal! I think so many of us have the mentality of “I’ll believe it when I see it”! That’s backwards thinking! If you believe it first, THEN you’re more likely to see it! When I first started pursuing a living online, I believed with all my heart that I would make it and I will! I’m not where I need to be yet, but Thank God I’m not where I used to be either.I’m OK and I’m on my way! It’s a process and I’m learning as I go. I’ve never required a lot to live and be happy. To me,just being allowed to live makes me happy! It doesn’t take a million dollars or more, just good to know I have a roof, a floor,walls around me and a family that loves me. I’m not that big of a “dreamer”that I think it doesn’t take money to live,it does!I’m just saying, if I never make a million dollars, that’s OK, I’m already rich!! Thanks for listening. Gloria

  6. Rachel says:

    Gloria, I think that you might have misunderstood the intent of UncleDearest. Read his post again, as I had to do. At first, I too thought he was advertising “luck” as his ticket to success. However, after reading the post again, I think I see the “tongue-in-cheek” way in which he stated his cause for success: Work. He said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get!” I think he’s trying to say (in a sarcastic way) that luck had nothing to do with it.

    By the way, this was a great article on attitude – something I can/should work on.

    In the way of encouragement, probably the number one thing that has helped me as an eBay seller is research. Before I list anything on eBay – and before I even buy anything with the intent of selling it on eBay – I research each and every item. If the item doesn’t look promising (when viewing similar completed auctions), I don’t bother trying to sell it. Yes, researching takes time. But so does listing tons of items that don’t sell. And researching (on eBay, at least) doesn’t cost anything. Listing items that don’t end up selling DOES cost money.

    I think a lot of people either don’t take the time to research, or they are overly optimistic about whether there is a market for the items they want to sell. (And, let’s face it, some sellers do not have “the eye” for what to sell, they take awful photos, and/or they do not provide enough information about their items.) I honestly don’t understand how some sellers are making any money when only 10-20% of their items are selling. It seems like the listing fees would eat up their profit.

    If you are like me and find your items at retail stores, yard sales, thrift stores, etc., here’s a suggestion: find a friend or two who are willing to help you with the research. While on my shopping trips, when I find something that I am unsure about, I have a couple friends that I can call and they are happy to check completed auctions on eBay for me. Those friends, in turn, know that I am always willing to do the same for them. The other way to solve this is to buy a phone with Internet capability. Although I am a Top-rated Power Seller, my husband and I don’t yet feel like an iPhone is worthwhile for us. Besides, what are friends for, but to help eachother?

    Also, if you find some sellers who consistently sell most of their listed items (ideally, find a friend who falls into this category, so you can chat with them about their eBay experiences), then periodically check out their completed auctions. This is a great way to learn what sells and what doesn’t.

    Despite my research efforts, ocassionally some of my items do not sell. Sometimes, the market for an item suddenly disappears. You have have researched it before you bought/listed the merchandise, but by the time you put it on eBay, there’s no buyers. But, I’d say that about 90% of my auctions do sell the first time, and another 5% sell the second time. I generally do not relist the third time, unless I feel that trying it again at a different time of year might help. Along those lines, don’t be afraid to store something until a more appropriate season. If you find a deal on designer sandals, wait until summer to sell them.

    So, that’s my personal tip for the day: Research, research, research. Keep a positive attitude, but don’t be unrealistic.

  7. Steve Rechel says:

    All of the comments so far were made with good points and well taken.Some people are in a better position because of working a regular job to sort of fall back on when sales on ebay might be down a little.I have plenty of time to research because I lost my job last May after having seizure activity starting three years ago so we tried to pay off most of our higher interest rate type of bills etc.I do sometimes find items other people are doing ok selling.Then the only problem is finding some of these same items yourself at the price where you can make a profit.But sometimes I think they are a little ahead of the game in that they have found a source of the items that has a great wholesale price that is unknown or really tough to find for the average ebay seller.I do know that if their were millions of the smartest ebay/marketers all trying to make a living selling on ebay eventionally something would have to give.I am not a negative person but rather a realistic person.I can work just as hard as the next person but if you can’t make a breakthrough sometime in a niche time will eventionally run out.I am 57 myself and I will never give up.I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and good luck with your ebay sales.

  8. Leszek Cyfer says:

    Where does good attitude come from?

    It comes from expecting good things to happen, expecting that everything will eventually straighten out and whenever sth bad happens looking at the bright side – what you learned from it, what opportunities it gave you etc.

    For example when I severed my Achilles tendon this year I had to be operated, endure glummy Polish hospital conditions, but I asked my family to bring me my laptop and though I couldn’t sleep from pain I used sleepless nights to listen to great motivational audios I got stacked on my laptop and normally didn’t listen out of lack of time. This helped me to be positive and outgoing – I was helping my fellow patients in my room and had a blast talking with my and their guests, was making little Origami presents to make the nurses smile. The doctors were amused by my – as they put it – fast and easy healing of operation wound.

    Then when I went home, spent month and a half in cast, then three months on crutches, with severely reduced mobility.

    I used this time to get back to my paper modelling hobby – a few weeks ago I got silver medal on Polish military model championships with my paper airplane model I made during my reconvalescence.

    In every adversity there is a seed of something grand.

    Merry Christmas to everyone.
    Leszek Cyfer
    Poland

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