Don't let your schooling interfere with your education.

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” ~ Albert Einstein

Be Growth-Oriented

When you grow yourself, you grow your influence!

To help with my storytelling throughout my book, Blue-Collar Leadership & Teamwork: 30 Traits of High Impact Players, I introduced the reader to "Blue-Collar Bob".

Blue-Collar Bob is not a real person, but rather a character I created. At times, you may see yourself in Bob. Other times, Bob may remind you of someone you know.

Blue-Collar Bob gets it right sometimes. You'll also discover he is subject to get it wrong too. But either way, you can learn from Bob. If you will simply look for the lessons, you'll discover everyone is capable of teaching us something.

A lesson from Blue-Collar Bob...

One morning, Blue-Collar Bob noticed a quote posted on the bulletin board at work. He had never noticed quotes on the board before.

“Wonder who put that there?” he thought as he began to read the words of Mark Twain, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Bob found Twain’s words thought provoking.

It took him a few minutes to figure out the meaning in Twain’s message.

Then, it finally hit him as he thought to himself, “Schooling and education are two completely different things. We get our formal schooling in traditional K-12 schools, technical colleges, and universities, but we get our ‘education’ throughout our lives.”

Bob reflected on his life and realized he had been relying too much on his “schooling” and hadn’t been focused enough on his “education.”

He thought to himself, “I haven’t even read a book from cover to cover since I finished school and that was years ago.”

When Bob was no longer required to read books, he did what most people do. He stopped reading books.

Blue-Collar Bob made his way to his work area and kept busy the rest of the day. However, Twain’s words stayed with him.

Bob was thinking about his “education” and wondered, “If I get serious about my ‘education,’ what will change? Can I improve? Should I improve? How can I improve?”

“You don’t have to be sick to get better.” ~ Michael Josephson

Several days had passed since Blue-Collar Bob had received the common-sense lesson on “schooling” and “education” from the legendary 1800’s Mississippi River Boat Captain, Mark Twain.

Bob was on his way to the bulletin board once again. He discovered something interesting on the board last time, so he thought he would swing by to see if anything new had been posted.

To Bob’s surprise, Twain’s quote had been taken down. But, it had been replaced with another quote.

Bob began to read these words from Jeffrey Gitomer, “A positive attitude is a self-imposed blessing.”

Bob was often frustrated and angry as he worked hard on the front lines.

He had a negative attitude because he didn’t have much influence with his team: his boss and the co-workers he interacted with regularly. Bob had all kinds of ideas, but no one would listen to him, much less ask for his opinion.

As Bob walked away from the board and toward his work area, he repeated Gitomer’s words, “A positive attitude is a self-imposed blessing.”

He was trying to decide if the statement was true or not.

What Bob knew for sure was he didn’t have a positive attitude.

Bob went about his day as usual, glum and downcast. But, he couldn’t quit thinking about the quote. Even after work, it was still on his mind. That night, he decided to change his attitude to test out the principle contained in the quote.

He knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he knew he was missing out on something.

“Life shouldn’t be so dreary and miserable,” he thought to himself, “I’ll give it a try.”

The next day, Bob approached everyone with a smile and a hello instead of a scowl and a growl. He was intentionally positive all day. It was hard, but he did it.

That evening Bob reflected on his day.

He was still physically tired from the work, but he wasn’t mentally tired from stress. Nothing on the outside had changed, but something on the inside had changed. For the first time in a long time, Bob had a good day.

“That was a self-imposed blessing. Be positive.” he thought to himself.

“When morale is low, the only way to get the ball rolling is to start pushing it yourself.” ~ John C. Maxwell

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Create a Culture of Teamwork

Developing an?understanding?of?the?impact of?each of the 30?characteristics?is critical to creating an environment of teamwork.

Blue-Collar Leadership? & Teamwork: 30 Traits of High Impact Players?helps shift the mindset of team members from “me” to “we” by?providing a simple, yet powerful and unique, resource for developing?30?key characteristics that?support?high performance?teamwork.

Blue-Collar Leadership??& Teamwork?will?motivate and?inspire?team members to align themselves?with?these?unifying principles?which will?ultimately?contribute to the achievement?of?the?team’s?unifying purpose.

Blue-Collar Leadership? & Teamwork?was created specifically to?facilitate high impact teamwork at every level?and within every department?of the organization, regardless of?one’s?position or title. It has been intentionally formatted with only 90 pages (30 chapters, 3 pages each) for easy reading and?for?conducting team-based book studies. Watch our "How to Facilitate a High Impact Book Study" video.

There's also a Blue-Collar Leadership? & Teamwork online video course. Watch the preview here.

Want to discuss onsite development options? Text or call me (Mack Story, Blue-Collar Leadership?) on my cell at (334) 728-4143 or email me at [email protected]