Attitude! Keeping your attitude in the right place is critical to running a successful small business. Owning your own business is like going to school. There is always something you can learn.
Before we start learning lessons in business, very often the best lessons we learn are as children. I have had many things from my childhood that have helped me in my business career.
When I was a young boy one of the things I had to do was clean up the property after the winter. There were limbs and various tree trash from the ice storms and the snow.
And, to be brutally honest, I hated doing it. My Dad and I would go out and spend the better part of a Saturday cleaning up. Of course, this was the first nice Saturday in Spring after a long Winter. I did not like it because while my friends were playing I had to work.
My attitude in terms of productivity was not good. Because I was unhappy I went about doing the work slowly. The result was that it took most of the day.
Then one Spring I had a revelation. What if I attacked the work with the goal of finishing it in the shortest possible time? This was an entirely new concept to my twelve year old brain. I reasoned that if I didn’t like it I just needed to plow through it to get to something I liked.
That morning my Dad and I went out and I got after it. In fact, we were finished in about three hours. My Dad and I sat down for lunch. He told me how appreciative he was of my attitude and getting after the job.
He told me how he thought it was going to take all day. Then he paused. He asked me, “Steve, how would you like to go to the Yankees home opener this afternoon?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. With a big “Yes” I ran over and hugged him. We lived in the country about an hour north of New York City.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I was going to see my FIRST major league baseball game. To a twelve year old boy who loved sports this was one of the best things that could happen.
Many years later I still vividly remember that day. I got my attitude right. When I did I had great input into doing the work. The output, or result, was excellent. But, the reward was unbelievable.
In your small business and your life many things will come up that you would rather not deal with. When they do, have a good attitude. A good attitude will help you have the right input. As a result you will receive better output. And, the reward will be that you can move onto something better.
I’d like to hear your stories about attitude and how it impacted you.
