Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

I am "CA" Atreya (PMP, MBA), the author of this blog. I help businesses in Atlantic Canada achieve their BHAG successfully. You may subscribe to this blog using a feed reader (RSS).

Dave Prouhet at Business Advice Daily tagged me for My Business Life Lessons. This is going to be a ten part series. For links to the rest of the series see the bottom of the post. Here is my third business lesson:

Attitude is more important than skills, talent, experience, education or intelligence. Attitude determines your perception towards yourself and towards others. Attitude determines if your business succeeds or fails and that’s applicable to your life too.

Here are some pointers about getting forward with a positive attitude.

It’s your choice

No matter where you start in business (or in life) your attitude will determine how high you will rise. But let’s make sure we are on the same page about what attitude is: “It is a mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in certain ways”. In other words, attitude is one’s feeling towards things, circumstances or people. It follows that a positive attitude will help you succeed while a negative attitude will derail your success. Attitude is not something we are born with; it is something we have a choice about. We decide each and every second on how we choose to react to things around us. Attitude is your positioning statement about life, about work; in fact everything we do in life.

You are not a salesperson?

You do realize that we are constantly selling something, don’t you? I cannot but feel amused when I meet people who say I am not a salesperson or I cannot sell. Each and every one of us is a sales person. Are you and your family deciding on where to vacation this summer? I am sure each one of you will present the pros of your destination; talk to them individually and try to get them on your side; in short sell them your plan. They are trying to do the same. You are constantly selling your ideas and your solutions. We are all sales people. Your attitude will determine if you choose to veto the majority or choose a more democratic process. The same holds true for your profession; think of your projects at work, the deliverables, the expectations, etc. Having a positive attitude will go a long way in furthering your goals.

Dare to dream

In order to sell, you need to dream. You need a destination. It can be anything; make a million dollars next year; take a trip to the moon; how about that mission to Mars? In order to reach a destination that isn’t random, you need to dream. My goal is to make a difference and help the small business community in Atlantic Canada. What’s yours? The size of your dream does not matter - what matters is whether you have a dream. Visualize yourself achieving your dream. Do that daily for a few minutes and see the difference in your attitude.

Be passionate about your dream

Make your dream your passion. Believe in yourself and your ability to get things done. Dedication to your dream will enable you to learn the skills along the way. But this will only happen if you are passionate about your dream. Does getting out fulfilling your dream and taking calculated risks excite you? If not, you have to ask yourself some really hard questions about your dream. You cannot complain about the lack of information. It is in abundance. You have to go look for it. Learn everything there is to know about your dream. Be passionate. By being passionate you are constantly learning. You can never stop learning.

Their perception matters

You perceive yourself as being the best but your team members disagree. You perceive your product is the best thing since sliced bread but your prospects disagree. You may be right. But your team members’ perception is their reality. The same holds true for your prospects too. Their perception matters. People buy into your solution because you have persuaded them to perceive your product as being the best or as having the best value for money. A positive attitude will help you empathize - a value customers value the most.

To summarize, having a positive attitude is one of the most important business and life lessons. When I fall (or fail) I pick myself up and dust myself. Then I look at the reasons for the fall. Lesson learnt I then move on making sure I never repeat that mistake again.

What do you have to say about positive attitude? Let’s talk!

Other articles in this series:

• Business Life Lesson 1 - Conflict Resolution
• Business Life Lesson 2 - Relationships Drive Businesses
• Business Life Lesson 3 - You Are Your Attitude
• Business Life Lesson 4 - Just do it

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