Entrepreneurs' Table Part 3 - Attitude

The A in TABLE is for attitude. Attitude determines altitude. You will fly no higher than your attitude determines. It is more important than aptitude because it is the arena of choice where you decide which opportunities to embrace, which to shun, and which to postpone.

I take the OH GOSH approach to attitude. I will simply lay it out here and discuss it further in subsequent articles. Essentially, OH GOSH stands for Opportunity. Hope, Gratitude. Optimism, Service, and Humility.

O = Opportunity. The attitude of a winner in network marketing or any other endeavor is that of viewing every obstacle as an opportunity for any number of valuable things including learning, growth, meeting new people, helping others, validating one's credibility, and even laying down the cobblestones of success. After all, the road to success is paved with the cobblestones of failure.

H= Hope. Hope gets us up in the morning. It informs our attitude that it is OK to dream, plan, and work because something very likely will come of it. Hope is not a guarantee of no pain or discomfort. Rather it is something stronger than a possibility. It says that our futures are not in the hands of  a fatalistic principles of doom, but of a loving God who calls us to cooperate with Him in shaping them.

G = Gratitude. An attitude of gratitude recognizes the debt we have for all we have been given in life. The old joke is that if you see a turtle up a tree and he tells you he got there on his own, he is either lying or he doesn't understand the nature of things, or both. (Note: I heard this in a workshop hosted by Blanchard.) We thrive on an attitude of gratitude. With it, we grow better instead of bitter through the trials of life.

O = Optimism. We choose whether to look on the bright side or the dark side of things, to focus our gazes forward or backward, and to affirm our faith rather than our doubt. Optimism is not the foe of realism. What makes us think that pessimism is more realistic than optimism? It is often the choice that determines the outcome. Get real; bring back Pollyanna.

S = Service. If we, who dabble or delve into to the realm of networking and other business ventures will adopt a servant attitude, we will stop wasting time complaining about our inconveniences, perceiving slights, and nursing wounds. Zig Ziglar called networkers to a higher focus when he said, "You can have anything you want if you make it your main objective to help other people get what they want." (paraphrased)

H= Humility. If we are servants, we will be humble. We will succeed faster if we learn that it is not all about us. It is about the IT of it and it is about the other person. Humility is not negative self-image. A person with a healthy self esteem can be very humble because he/she has nothing to prove, no reputation to fight for, no need to be heard above everyone else, and is not threatened by the success of others. Humility is an attitude we will need to discuss later. It is vital.