The people who fail at everything they touch have one thing in common, and no, it's not being disorganized, it’s not self-doubt, it’s not failing to have an intricate, failsafe business plan–if such a thing exists–and it’s certainly not because they didn’t properly utilize social media; in fact, it’s not any of the things you may have heard that are reasons for failure.
Those things certainly don’t help you succeed, but they don’t single-handedly make you fail if everything else is working properly. People fail through wasting time, but what they waste it on is absolutely fascinating.
I can give you one big tip that will change your life.
Stop focusing on nonsense.
A Juicy One
A case in point below. No offense to all my female followers, but it’s why women get a bad name in business:
A woman who was second only to the CEO of a marketing company essentially ruined her career out of spite. It wasn’t the first time she’d made decisions like this, but in this case, news of her decision got back to the CEO.
A man had resigned about a year previous, on good terms, with an excellent record. A year later, something unforeseen occurred at his new position, and he got in touch with this former manager to see if there was an opportunity to return. She knew, and admitted to the man, that it would be in her best interest to bring him back on board, but ended up saying, “Well, I guess I just can’t get over the fact that you left us.”
That’s childish. And it led to the demise of her job. (In his last year there, the man had grossed the company $250,000.)
Again, no offense to my female fans and followers, but in that particular business, I can assure you that a man would never have made that decision. Simply because men are not as emotional as women. Not usually, anyway.
A man in that position would have gotten out the brass bands and confetti to get this employee back, thinking of the bottom line for the company, not, “you left me, ” snivel snivel.
Steve Harvey, a comedian who I love, wrote a book called Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, and that book was more about relationships than business, but I would urge anybody to read it and apply it to business. Women have a tough enough time in this world without creating more problems for ourselves.
But anyway, this was a woman in a high level management position with a six figure salary but the aforementioned emotion on which she based her decision was her downfall. When the CEO discovered what happened through the grapevine, they suddenly had to “reorganize the business” and she was let go. (A few guesses who they brought in to replace her.)
Another Sad Case
That happens in the literary world all the time too. Even more so, sometimes, because writers, editors, publishers, proofreaders, etc. etc. are often very emotional people.
There was someone in that industry who simply couldn’t let go of a failed partnership and spent inordinate amounts of time trolling the other party, trying to determine if he was, “talking about her,” ( yeah, I know) and otherwise wasting massive amounts of time on a dead issue that the other party had long since moved on from to enjoy a successful life and career.
This person apparently even went as far as to have someone leave a negative review for one of his books that she hadn’t even read. You want to put petty on steroids, there you have it.
It was clear to anyone who evaluated it, through the pattern of reviews, the things stated in the reviews, and that user’s history, that this person had been commissioned to write the review–as well as others–with a specific agenda in mind. Well, failure for that company is probably inevitable in my humble opinion. This is simply because if a person could take time out of his or her day to orchestrate something like that, that person’s focus is about as misplaced as it could be!
And interestingly, those things don’t hurt successful people. They just waste the other person’s time.
What that individual should have been focusing on that day–and every single day of life–is, “what can I do to be successful today?” Giving into endless, petty, nonsense and reacting out of emotion, and God forbid, making business decisions based on emotion–or from a standpoint of “I'll show THAT person,” etc–is a recipe for magnificent failure. You’re not “showing that person a thing or two,” you’re just wasting your own time.
Get up every single morning and say, “What will most benefit my career/company/organization today, and what can I do to get the ball rolling in that direction?” That's what I do every day of my life, and I PROMISE you, it works.
That’s the difference between a gnat flying in crazy circles getting nowhere, and a person who’s slowly, steadily, advancing a successful career.
Image by Stefan Keller
Grown-ups let things go. They don't do silly, childish, spiteful things that make them so small of a person that a spider appears large. I can't even get mad at people like that because I pity them too much. Lord Jesus, help them to just let it go and see that if they focus on their own success, success will be achieved. Write on!