Attitude the Fuel that Powers the Engine of Success!

As I contemplated the first week of the New Year and began composing my sales direction for the 2016, I started to read a number of articles and internet blogs on how I could improve on my skills, not only as a sales person but as an employee. Repeatedly a recurring theme doggedly kept presenting itself to me so I felt compelled to weigh in on this subject.

Not being a big New Year’s resolution guy but always looking to be the consummate sales professional, and invariably always looking for a new edge in my selling technique. I began to do some research on this theme, since it seemed to screaming to me; my attitude and happiness! So I googled the topic, and a myriad of even more articles began to bombard me from how I can actually test my current attitude, to even a link to a song, yes song… the Partridge family theme song blared across my lap top, at one point, “Come on Get Happy” so without question, either through pure coincidence or Devine intervention I was starting out this New Year with a head banging mantra involving “Happiness” and “Attitude”.

Now I live in California and I am really not too far from what Disney advertises as the “Happiest Place on Earth”, you know Disneyland, and though I have not been to this bastion of over whelming joy in a few years what I do remember is enormous crowds, ice cream glued to every surface in the park, and small infants with unending bouts of tearful spasms, perhaps out of happiness or pure misery. I am not entirely sure, but for me I was just glad to leave. Now I have lived in other fine states in this country but California is pretty unique, Disneyland, great weather, and at least according to the Beach Boy’s I should simply be in love with this place since California girls are the cutest in the world, and can’t be beat. But I have noticed that California with all the beautiful people and climate; Californians do have a knack for complaining…perhaps I have seen too many Hollywood red carpet interviews, with movie actors going on, “Oh my blonde hair is much too thick, and it is so difficult to carry on my head, it makes my neck strain and want to fall over”. Or, “I hate my blue eyes, they are so fair that I will probably get eye cancer, I need dark brown eyes or even black retinas”, now please. First I never complain about my hair, or say “I am having a bad hair day”, since if my hair would hear this, it might just get insulted and leave… my hair may be thin but at least it is still for the most part sticking around, and I am not going to give it any excuse to feel unwanted, NEVER… Perhaps I am being too critical of my current home state, and I lived in Texas for many years as well, if you had a problem most Texas folks with a macho flair would say, “Just rub some dirt on it and you will be fine”. This may just have involved a minor flesh wound or bruise, not my mental state or mood, but who knows, perhaps I just needed a good mud bath from head to toe and I would have been eternally happy.

As I continued to do some more reading on attitude and happiness I came across a professor at Harvard who actually studies happiness named Dr. Dan Gilbert. Professor Gilbert talks about our human physiological immune system, and such topics as natural happiness and synthetic happiness. His experiments and research describing this subject are quite intriguing and seem intuitively very accurate regarding the human psyche towards happiness. But Dr. Gilbert after all is an instructor at one of the most prestigious Universities in the world and he actually gets to study and teach about happiness. I am certain I would be happy about this all the time, if I had such a fantastic gig. At least I think I would be happy, however if I prescribe to what Dr. Gilbert exposes, it ultimately might not make any difference, so this maybe his point. Shakespeare, may have figured this out centuries before, as he expressed in Hamlet, “nothing either is good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. So would you rather have gall-bladder surgery or a vacation to Hawaii? Dr. Gilbert even wrote a best-selling book on this very topic “Stumbling on Happiness”, and scientifically evaluates these types of scenarios via mental experiments.

So what is it? Can you be happy regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in, and will you be happy? At this point I am going to differ to another expert on the subject Charles Swindoll. The solution to your circumstance might just be your attitude, and chances are the issues you are facing are not as cut and dry. At least according to pastor and instructor Mr. Swindoll who says, “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than the past, than education, then money, than circumstances, than failure, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a business, a home, a friendship, an organization. The remarkable thing is I have a choice every day of what my attitude will be. I cannot change my past. I cannot change the action of others. I cannot change the inevitable. The only thing I can change is attitude. Life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it.” Now attitude is not everything; perhaps you have heard only this, since you do not walk around in a catatonic bubble of unending joy, but I certainly will prescribe to the ninety percent quota.

I also earlier in my post might have been slightly unfair to Hollywood actors complaining too much. Because one movie this last year did portray a character named Mark Watney played by Matt Damon in the movie the Martian, (he gets trapped on Mars, but I won’t spoil it for you) which from an attitude perspective at least on an interstellar scale did capture a great attitude to be emulated. Not just on Mars but on Earth too, with the main character saying, “At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home” I know it is just a movie, but accept your reality and have some can do attitude!

John Paulsen - Senior Sales Engineer for “Industrial Machinery Engine Applications - IMEA LLC". He also modestly admits that he is an endless enthusiast in his sales approach, and due to his passion for engine mechanics (as the title of his post recognizes); that attitude is truly the fuel that powers the engine of success.