I read USA Today when I travel. Most hotels deliver it to my room. Sometimes I find some great career success advice in it. That was the case last Thursday. The front page of the Sports section had an article entitled “Athlete Tweets Often Create Grief.”

The article quotes Gil de Zuniga of the University of Texas Journalism School…

“The misuse of Twitter is due to a lack of understanding of the power of social media. If you were in the middle of a public square, you wouldn’t yell something you might post on Twitter. But in reality when you tweet that’s what you’re doing. That’s hard to understand when it’s you and the keyboard. There’s a sense of intimacy and anonymity.”

The article went on to say, “In the NBA and NFL newcomers are lectured on the dangers of social medial at educational rookie camps in the preseason.” Most of us never get that type of training. As I’ve said on several occasions on the blog, “Like a diamond, the internet is forever.” Just ask Andrew Weiner. Last week, the New York Post had a two page spread showing the tweets he exchanged with a Las Vegas blackjack dealer. It was like reading a transcript of a phone sex conversation.

Prospective employers will google you. When they do, your tweets and Facebook posts will pop up. If you want to position yourself in a positive way, you need to pay attention to what you tweet. As much as it might seem to be fun to tweet that you got hammered at a friend’s wedding, think twice before you hit the send button.

Tweet 67 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Demonstrate self respect. Be impeccable in your presentation of self – in person and on line.” Google yourself. See what comes up. If it’s something embarrassing, or something you wouldn’t want your employer to see, make sure you remove it. This holds true for your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Be just as impeccable in your on line presentation of self as you are in person.

A while back I did a blog post about a young guy who wrote to me asking if I could delete a comment he made on a blog that I no longer publish. He was looking for a job and thought that his comment might have a negative impact on his search.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t. It was a blog I wrote for a content consolidator who is no longer in business. I couldn’t access there defunct servers. But, this guy’s comment still came up when he googled himself. Let this be a career advice lesson. Once you post something on the internet, it can be very difficult to take it back.

OK – enough of that. I’m sure you get the message. Don’t post stuff on the internet that may embarrass you later. Now for some constructive career advice. If you have some embarrassing stuff on the internet, the best way to fix the problem is to add information that presents you in a positive light.

Comment on blog posts about your industry. Show that you have an understanding of the issues. Tweet about your accomplishments at work, or where you volunteer. Post positive messages on your Facebook page. Comment on others’ posts that are positive. In other words, while you can’t eliminate some embarrassing information on the internet, you can minimize it by posting ideas and thoughts that present you in a positive manner.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense. Your tweets can creative a negative image. On the other hand, your tweets can also create a positive image for you. Follow the career advice in Tweet 67 in Success Tweets. “Demonstrate self respect. Be impeccable in your presentation of self – in person and on line.” Pay attention not only to your physical appearance but to your on line persona. Present yourself on line as the career success you are.

That’s my career advice on managing your on line presence. What do you think? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success. I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained. It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail. Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy. You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

I had a conversation with a prospective new client the other day.  It went particularly well.  It appears as if I will get some significant new consulting business as a result.  As I thought about the conversation that evening, I realized that I followed my own career success advice as presented in Tweets 106 and 107 in my career advice book, Success Tweets.

Tweet 106 says, “Demonstrate your understanding of others’ points of view.  Listen well and ask question if you don’t understand.”  Tweet 107 says, “Become an excellent conversationalist by listening more than speaking.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”

The conversation I mentioned above was a sales call.  You’d think that I’d want to do most of the talking in a sales call.  After all, the purpose of the conversation was to make a sale.  I needed to explain all of the ways I could help this guy and his company.

But that’s not the way things work.  By listening to what he had to say, I got a very good understanding of his problems and concerns.  As he spoke about them, he began to convince himself that he needed my services.  I had to say very little. 

Basically, I listened to what he said.  I made sure that he knew I understood his problems and concerns; I asked questions and I summarized as he spoke.  When the time was right, I shared a couple of stories about my experiences, but in the context of what he was saying.  By doing these three simple things, it became apparent to him that I had the sort of experience that he needs. 

By the time we were finished with the conversation, he was comfortable with me – as a person and as a professional who understands him and his needs.  We set a follow up date to move forward with a consulting project.  In that conversation, I’ll lay out my plan for moving forward and the costs associated with it.  I wish all sales calls were this easy.

This sales call went great because I followed six important conversation steps.

1. Acknowledge the other person as an equal.  You cannot have a good conversation if you don’t recognize one another as equals.  Regardless of your hierarchical relation to the other person – if he or she is your boss, peer or subordinate – remember that we are all human beings.  As such, we are entitled to respect and dignity.  Talk with people, not to them and you’ll be surprised at the quality of your discussions.

2. Stay curious about the other person.  People are fascinating.  I have had some of the most interesting conversations with limo and cab drivers.  Often they are immigrants.  It’s interesting to hear their take on life in the USA.  Be curious about the people you know, too.  People are always growing and changing.  When you express your curiosity you’ll be bound to find out new and interesting things about old friends and acquaintances.

3. Recognize that we need each other’s help to become better listeners.  Help others listen.  Think before you speak.  Speak clearly.  Ask them questions; answer the questions they ask you.  Ccommunication in general and conversation in particular is a process fraught with potential misconnects.  So listen hard to others and make it easy for them to listen to you.

4. Slow down to have the time to think and reflect.  When you slow down, you do indeed have time to think.  Don’t be afraid to pause and reflect on a question.  This shows the other person that you are carefully considering your response – not just saying the first thing that comes to mind.  Other people will appreciate you for your thoughtfulness, not knock you for not being quick or clever enough.

5. Remember that conversation is the natural way for humans to think together.  I love this idea.  The idea of “thinking together” is great career advice.  The world would be a better place if we all “thought together” instead of thinking separately and trying to convince others that our thoughts are better than theirs.  Since this is the season, I would love to see political debates where the candidates worked together to develop an approach to handling a problem or issue – instead of watching them advance their ideas while taking swipes at the other person’s ideas.

6. Expect it to be messy at times.  Conversation is messy.  That’s OK.  In fact, I think it’s great.  Some of the best ideas come out of messy conversations.  The willingness to get into the mess and slop around is what frees your creativity.

I really like the last point – expect it to be messy.  My sales conversation the other day was very messy.  While we stayed on track overall, we also discussed David Beckham, Manchester United Football Club, The King’s Speech, Upstairs Downstairs, bachelor parties and the history of the labor movement in the USA.  Did I mention that this guy is a Brit?  He was impressed with my knowledge of his country and his favorite sport – football, or soccer, as we American’s call the game.  All of this made him more comfortable with me as another human being – not just some consultant come calling to sell him something.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are great conversationalists.  They follow the career advice in Tweets 106 and 107 in Success Tweets.  “Demonstrate your understanding of others’ points of view.  Listen well and ask questions if you don’t understand.”  “Become an excellent conversationalist by listening more than speaking.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”  Listening takes a bit of work, but it is worth it in the long run.  It will help you become a dynamic communicator and build solid relationships that will fuel your life and career success.  Remember my six keys for conversation success.  They are great career advice.  1) Acknowledge one another as equals; 2) Stay curious about one another; 3) Recognize that we need each other’s help to become better listeners; 4) Slow down to have the time to think and reflect; 5) Remember that conversation is the natural way for humans to think together; 6) Expect it to be messy at times.

That’s my career advice on conversation and career success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success.  I appreciate you and I value you.

Bud

Greetings from Dublin.  I’m here today and tomorrow working with one of my corporate clients.  I’ll be in the UK Wednesday, Thursday and Friday working with the same client but at a different location.

I’m sure by now you know that I want you to create the life and career success you want and deserve.  That’s why I write this career advice blog even when I’m traveling outside the USA.  It’s also why when I find a great career success resource I pass it on to you.  Careerealism is a great career success resource.  I am a member of their expert panel.

The folks at Careerealism have recently created a new program called the Career HMO.  You can check it out at http://budurl.com/my56. 

The Career HMO has a number of certified coaches who will provide you with individual feedback, job search guidance, resume and cover letter assistance and interview preparation advice – and a lot more.

None of us can go it alone.  That’s why I like the Career HMO concept so much.  Tweet 49 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create your career success.”  Sites like Career HMO help you surround yourself with positive people.  You owe it to yourself to check it out.

Successful people surround themselves with positive people – people who are both positive by nature, and positive about their life and career success. Positive people are optimistic; and optimism is the first step in building your self confidence and life and career success.

Positive people help you feel good about yourself, because they feel good about themselves — and life in general. They help you build your self esteem because they have a strong sense of self esteem. Positive people are there when you begin to doubt yourself.  They are not threatened by you or your career success. They realize that self esteem is not a fixed pie. There is an unlimited amount of it to go around, so positive people are always giving it away.

Here’s a bit of career advice.  Build your self confidence and jumpstart your life and career success by spending your time with upbeat, positive people, like those you’ll find at Career HMO.

This is important in other aspects of life as well. The people around you have an amazing impact on your view of life. When you surround yourself with negative or cynical people, you become negative and cynical. On the other hand, when you surround yourself with positive, self confident people, you become positive and self confident.   The choice is yours. I choose to surround myself with positive people. Not only do they help my self confidence and facilitate my career success, they are more fun to be around.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  No one can go it alone.   Follow the career advice in Tweet 49 in Success Tweets.  “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the career success you want and deserve.”  Positive people are great.  They feel good about themselves and life in general.  They are enthusiastic – and their enthusiasm is contagious.  When you surround yourself with positive people you’ll become more positive and enthusiastic.  And, you’ll be on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  You can find lots of positive people at the Career HMO site.  Check it out.  Who are the most positive people you know?  Get to know them better, spend more time with them.

That’s my career advice on surrounding yourself with positive people and the positive people at Career HMO.  I suggest that you log on to http://budurl.com/my56 and check out Career HMO.  If you do, please tell us what you think by leaving a comment.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read my musings on life and career success.

Bud

I’m not a big one for jargon, so when I received this guest post from Raine Parker on Hedonic Treadmill Theory, I was tempted to ignore it.  However, it actually contains some great career advice about how to create your life and career success by conquering your fears by taking action. 

I devoted four tweets in my latest career success book Success Tweets to action.  Tweet 48 sums up my thoughts on action.  “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and is a confidence killer.  Act: especially when you’re afraid.”

Raine Parker says that Hedonic Treadmill Theory can help you overcome procrastination and take actions that can help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Check it out…

Understanding Hedonic Treadmill Theory for Career Success

Recently, Bud Bilanch the Career Success Coach, posted an article describing different types of fear and how we can overcome these hesitation demons to take action and go for what we want.

Personally, I’ve battled with fear constantly in my career decisions. And I still do. While it is a very normal part of being human, fear can have an incredibly insidious effect on your future career success.

The biggest and perhaps most common fear that has plagued me is fear of making the wrong decision. Before, whenever I’ve pondered any decision, whether it’s personal or professional, I would vacillate for days, weeks, even months. Even trips to the grocery store became exercises in tortured indecision.

Then I read about the theory of the hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation. Understanding the implications of this theory practically cleared my indecision-itis overnight.

Hedonic treadmill theory asserts that despite negative or positive changes in our lives, no matter how drastic, our overall level of satisfaction stays constant throughout our lives.

In other words, a positive change will cause a momentary jump in our happiness, but we eventually adapt and return to our previous neutral mood state. The same thing goes for negative changes. No matter how bad things get, we will adjust. Although research still continues on the topic, scientists agree that happiness is mostly determined by our natural temperaments, and external factors have a minimal, short-lived impact on our overall well-being.

This theory has astounding implications for career success. Many of us go through life feeling stuck fearing change because of our innate trepidation about the future. We wonder if applying for a new job bring us happiness? Will moving to a new city, relocating and disrupting our lives in the process, be worth it?

According to hedonic adaptation no matter what decision we make, the risk is minimal. If it’s the “right” decision, then we’ll experience an increase in happiness, after which we will return to our normal selves. If it’s the wrong decision, things may be unpleasant for a little while, but our happiness dials will balance out.

One more conclusion I’ve drawn from hedonic treadmill theory is that constantly striving for changes, trying new things by stepping out of our imprisoning comfort zones, is what drives overall satisfaction.

If this is the case, career success becomes not an end goal, but a process that goes forward only if we act. Action is everything. I know you’ve heard this before.  But now, science has proven the age-old saying–you literally have nothing to lose.

Raine makes some interesting career success points here.  Fear is a great confidence and career success killer.  Tweet 47 in Success Tweets says, “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence and career success.”

Elbert Hubbard, the author of “A Message to Garcia”  (http://budbilanich.com/garcia) one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written, makes a great point about facing your fears and taking action.

“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”

Read that again.  Those 14 words are powerful!  They are some fundamental career advice.

If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action and your fear will ruin your life and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.

In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business.  I was afraid.  I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed.   I had always worked for large companies.   I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business.  Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward.  Over 20 years later, I’m still at it.  My fears were unfounded – but they were real.  I’m glad I faced them and acted.

Fear is persistent.  It doesn’t go away.  It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike.  If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward and create true career success.
 
Fear most often manifests itself in procrastination.  When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”  Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it.  Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward through my fear and on to my career success.

Make a list of your doubts and fears.  Decide what you can do to overcome them.  Then act.  Take at least one positive action – not matter how small — every day to overcome your doubts and fears.  Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Remember procrastination feeds fear; and action cures it.  The choice is up to you.  I choose action.  My best career advice says you should too.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.   Self confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their career success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyways.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.”  Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them.  Action is the great antidote to fear.  It puts inertia on your side.  Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward.  It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest.  The simple common sense career success advice on fear is simple.  If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step — act, and then keep on going.

That’s my take on dealing with your fears and the career advice embodied in Hedonic Treadmill Theory as explained by Raine Parker who writes on topics associated with online accounting degrees.  If you want to get in touch with her to discuss Hedonic Treadmill Theory send her an email at raine.parker6@gmail.com.  What’s your take on fear andor Hedonic Treadmill Theory?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success. 

Bud

It’s February — National Self Esteem Month in the USA.  Self esteem goes hand in hand with self confidence – one four keys to life and career success that I discuss in my latest career advice book Success Tweets.   Self confidence and self esteem are so important to your life and career success, that I devoted 20 of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets to them.

If you want to become self confident you need to do three things.  First, choose optimism.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better than today.  Second, face your fears and act.  Fear is the enemy of self confidence.  It often manifests itself as procrastination.  Self confident people are not afraid of failing.  They act.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Jettison the nay sayers in your life.

Tweet 49 in Success Tweets says, “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the career success you deserve.”  Tweet 50 says, “Jettison the negative people in your life.  They are energy black holes.  They will suck you dry; but only if you let them.” 

Unlike negative people who will tell you a million reasons why you can’t achieve something, positive people will be excited for you and your career success goals.  They will ask what they can do to help.  Their enthusiasm will help you when you encounter the occasional rough spot in the road to your career success.

I’m not a big Bible reader, but there is a passage I’ve always enjoyed that goes to the idea of jettisoning the negative people in your life. 

“Jesus said give not which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” 

Your goals are holy to you.  They are the pearls that will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Don’t let the dogs and swine – negative people – trample them.  Keep the negative people in your life at arms length.

As I write this, I’m reminded of a great passage I read in Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  The protagonist is a young Native American boy who leaves the reservation to attend school in an all white school district.  He joins the basketball team.  Check it out…

“Something magical happened to me when I went to Reardon.  Overnight I became a good player.  I suppose it had something to do with confidence.  In Reardon my coach and the other players wanted me to be good.  They needed me to be good.  They expected me to be good.  And so, I became good.

“I wanted to live up to expectations.  I guess that’s what it comes down to.  The power of expectations.  And as they expected more of me, I expected more of myself, and it just grew and grew until I was scoring twelve points a game – as a freshman.

“The coach wanted him to guard the other team’s best player in a very important game.  ‘Coach,’ I said, ‘I don’t think I can do it.’  He walked over to me, kneeled, and pushed his forehead against mine.  Our eyes were like an inch apart.  I could smell cigarettes and chocolate on his breath.

“‘You can do it,’ Coach said.  ‘You can do it,’ Coach said again.  He didn’t shout it.  He whispered it, like a prayer.  And he kept whispering again.  Until the prayer turned into a song.  And then, for some magical reason, I believed him.  ‘I can do it,’ I said to Coach, to my teammates, to the world.  ‘You can do it,’ Coach said, ‘I can do it.’  ‘You can do it.’  ‘I can do it.’

“Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody?  It’s one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they’re the four hugest words in the world when they’re put together. ‘You can do it.’

“’I can do it.’”

As I read those words, I could see that locker room and feel the excitement – not only on Coach’s part, and the part of the young Native American, but the entire team.  We all need people like Coach in our lives.  That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people who will build, not destroy, your self esteem and self confidence.  When you find people who believe in you and tell you “you can do it” you begin to believe in yourself.

As Sherman Alexie says, “I wanted to live up to expectations.  I guess that’s what it comes down to.  The power of expectations.  And as they expected more of me, I expected more of myself, and it just grew and grew…” 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people surround themselves with positive people.  They hold the negative people in their lives at arm’s length.  They don’t give things that are holy – their goals and dreams to the dogs; nor do they cast their pearls before swine.  They share what’s holy to them with positive, supportive people.  Positive people will expect a lot of you, and from you.  These expectations will help you become a more confident person and a life and career success.  Take it from a career success coach.  Never underestimate the power of positive people.  They will help build your self estee and confidence and get you on the path to career success.  Befriend all the positive people you can.  Hold them close.  Treasure them and their friendship.  They will help you achieve your career success dreams.

That’s my career advice on the importance of positive people, self confidence, career success and National Self Esteem Month.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading for this career advice.

Bud

I have a huge library of career advice books.  One of them is called Mentor: The Kid and The CEO, by Tom Pace.  Mr. Pace is a member of the National Speakers Association.  He sent me and other members a complimentary copy of Mentor with a unique guarantee.  “I want to extend you a personal guarantee; which is if you read my book and believe it to be a waste of your time, then I will personally give you $100.  I read the book and have no plans for asking Mr. Pace to send me $100.

Mentoring is an important part of career success.  We all need a little help now and then.  Mentors are the people who help us along our career success journey. 

Tweet 51 in my latest career advice book Success Tweets says, “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”  And that’s exactly what the book Mentor is all about.  It shows how one man made a difference in the life of another and helped put him on the road to life and career success.

Mentor is the story of a young man, Tony “The Kid,” who is in trouble.  It begins with him in jail on a petty theft charge.  He gets sentenced to 90 days.  During that time he meets Malcolm, a local CEO who volunteers his time at the prison in the hopes of helping inmates get their lives on track and build some life and career success.

Tony heeds Malcolm’s advice.  When he is released from jail, Malcolm becomes his mentor.  Malcolm helps Tony find a job and a place to live, and to eventually start his own business.  In the process, Tony helps Malcolm through some tough times of his own.  It isn’t high literature; but it is an uplifting story, the kind that warms your heart.

Mr. Pace does something in the book that I really like.  He created what he calls “The List.”  The List is 135 short pieces of life and career success advice, usually two or three words.  One item from the list appears at the bottom of every page of the book.  Some appear twice.
 
I like The List because it says a lot about how to become a life and career success in bite sized chunks.  I also like it because it contains a lot of ideas on how to become build strong relationships with the important people in your life.  See for yourself.  Here are ten items on The List.

• Have integrity.
• Have values.
• Listen well.
• Don’t take things personally.
• Help others.
• Encourage others.
• Repay favors.
• Accept responsibility.
• Value people.
• Share in others’ joy.

If you incorporate these ten items in your daily life, you will become a life and career success.  You will be doing the small things that make you a person of value.  Other people will recognize this, and want to be around you.

You can get a complete copy of The List by logging on to www.mentorhope.com.  I suggest you do.  As I’ve mentioned above, The List provides some great life and career success advice in easily digestible, bit sized chunks.  It’s similar to what I tried to do when I wrote Success Tweets.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Pay attention to the career advice in Tweet 51 in Success Tweets.  Find yourself a mentor to help build your career success.  Build strong relationships with the important people in your life if you want to become a career success.  Do this by practicing the advice dispensed in the book Mentor.  Act with integrity. Live by your values.  Listen well.  Don’t take things personally.  Help and encourage others. Repay favors.  Accept responsibility.  Value people.  Share in others’ joy.  These items are on Tom Pace’s list in Mentor.  They are great career advice, and a good place to start your journey to the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s a little bit about the career advice you’ll find in Tom Pace’s book Mentor.  I love this book’s message and common sense message about life and career success.  Get it and read it and let us know what you think by leaving a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my career success advice.  I appreciate you, and want to help you become the life and career success you deserve to be.

Bud

Did you watch the State of the Union address last night?  The theme was “winning the future.”  As I watched I couldn’t help but think that there is some great career advice in those words.  We all need to win our individual future career success.

President Obama closed his speech last night saying that in America “we do big things.”  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to do big things too.

To do big things, you have to be an optimist.  Tweet 42 in my latest career success book Success Tweets says, “Choose optimism.  It builds your self confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better yet.”

Optimism is the key to self confidence and life and career success.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am a big fan of The Optimist Creed.  I have a copy of it just above my desk.  I look at it several times a day.  It’s the first think I think of when things get rough.

Here is The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

The last point of The Optimist Creed captures the very essence of optimism – “be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.”

“Great career advice,” you say.  “But how do I do all that?”  I admit it’s not easy.  I worry sometimes.  Sometimes I get angry.  Sometimes I’m scared; and sometimes I let my troubles bog me down. 

However, as I soon as I recognize the symptoms of worry, anger and fear, I choose to let them go and focus on the positive things I can do to deal with them.  Focusing on the positive things you can do to deal with problems and setbacks is great career success advice.  I follow it in my own life.

Free will is one of the great things about being human.  We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we will react to it.  I choose to react in a positive way to the bad stuff that happens.  You should too.  It’s the only way to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

When I’m feeling fearful I embrace that fear.  I admit it and accept it.  Then I do whatever it takes to get past it.  Recently, I spent a lot of time and effort – not to mention money – to get my new career success book  Success Tweets, finished.  You can download a free copy at http://www.SuccessTweets.com.

Every time I write a book I’m a little bit afraid that no one will read it.  Or worse yet, people will read it and hate it.  I can’t control whether or not people will read or like my books.  I can control, however, the amount of time and effort I put into the writing, editing and design of my books.  My editor and designer will tell you how I obsess over every detail of my books.  I do the best I can to make sure they are the very best I can do. 

And you know what?  Every book I’ve written is better than the previous one.  That’s because I spend a lot of time listening to the feedback I get on my books. 

I follow my own career advice.  I use the feedback I get on my books to do better the next time.  I’m not afraid of negative feedback.  I don’t get angry when people tell me they don’t like what I’ve written.  I ask them why they don’t like it, and what I can do to make my next book better. 

I know that by the time one of my books is published, it’s the very best I can do,  I don’t worry about what people will think.  I am happy because in my heart of hearts, I know I did the best I could do.  I can control my effort.  I can’t control how others will receive what I’ve written.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a movie that really highlights the tenth point in The Optimist Creed.   It’s the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, Jean-Do to his friends.  Mr. Bauby was the editor of Elle, the Paris fashion magazine, when he had a paralyzing stroke.  He was left completely paralyzed, able only to blink his left eye. 

Think about this for a second.  Mr. Bauby’s mind was fine.  He could still think.  Only, he could do nothing physical for himself.  People had to bathe him and clean up after him.  He was trapped in his own body – what he referred to as being in a “diving bell.”

As you can imagine, at first Mr. Bauby was despondent and wanted to die.  However he found immense strength and was able to write his memoir over a period of 14 months, one blink at a time. 

His speech therapist arranged the alphabet in a manner that began with the most commonly used letters.  At first she, then later his ex wife, would sit with him and recite the letters.  When he heard the letter he wanted, he would blink.  When he came to end of a word, he would blink twice.

I sometimes find it difficult to write sitting at my computer and will full use of my hands and body.  What Mr. Bauby accomplished in writing his memoir is nothing short of remarkable.  His ability to write a memoir in such a painstaking manner proved that he truly was “too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.” 

Mr. Bauby passed away in 1997 shortly after his book was published.  However, his book and movie, both called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, are a testament to the spirit of man, not to mention the power of optimism.  In his review of the film, Roger Ebert, who has dealt with his share of challenges, called Mr. Bauby’s accomplishment “heroic”.  I agree. 

The common sense career success coach point about the last point in The Optimist Creed is simple to grasp, but can be difficult to put into practice.  Instead of worrying what people think, do the absolute best you can on everything you do.  Instead of getting angry when things don’t go your way, figure out what you can do next time to get the result you want.  Instead of being paralyzed by fear, identify what scares you and embrace it.  Then do something constructive to beat that fear.  Finally, instead of letting trouble get you down, keep working and believing in yourself. 

Most important, keep moving forward.  As the old saying goes “tough times never last, but tough people always do.”  If you want to win the future and create the career success you deserve, become someone who does big things.  Doing big things begins with having the optimism necessary to begin and keep moving forward

I have created a .pdf of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your office, just like me.  If you want one, please go to http://BudBilanich.com/optimist.  Once you get your copy, think about those ten points and how they apply to you and your life every day.  They will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my take on the career advice in The Optimist Creed.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read my career advice.  I appreciate you for reading and commenting.

Bud

I was reading the February 2011 issue of SUCCESS Magazine yesterday, a great career success resource.  I saw some great career advice from Jackie Chan.  He said, “Surrounding myself with talented people helps me tap into my own creativity.”  As I’ve said, I think this is great life and career success advice.

Before I go any further, let me remind you that SUCCESS is a great magazine, full of really important career advice.  If you’re not already subscribed I suggest you go to www.Success.com and do so as soon as you finish reading the career advice in this post.

Tweet  49 in my latest career success book Success Tweets echoes Jackie Chan’s career advice.  “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the career success you deserve.”  It’s true; none of us can go it alone and become the career success we want to be.

Successful people surround themselves with positive people – people who are both positive by nature, and positive about their life and career success. Positive people are optimistic; and optimism is the first step in building your self confidence and career success.

I’m a big believer in The Optimist Creed.  I have it hanging in my office.  I’ve created a .pdf of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your workspace.  If you would like a copy, go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.

Positive, optimistic people help you feel good about yourself, because they feel good about themselves — and life in general. They help you build your self esteem because they have a strong sense of self esteem. Positive people will be there when you begin to doubt yourself.  They won’t be  threatened by you or your life and career success.

Positive people realize that self esteem is not a fixed pie. They know that there is an unlimited amount of self esteem to go around, so they are always giving it away.  You can build your self confidence and jumpstart your life and career success by spending your time with upbeat, positive people.

Jim Rohn, the well known motivational speaker who passed away recently was fond of saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”  If this is true – and I believe it is – you need to follow Jim’s career advice and spend time with positive people.  When you surround yourself with positive self confident people you become positive and self confident.

When you surround yourself with negative cynical people, you become negative and cynical. Tweet 50 in Success Tweets says, “Jettison the negative people in your life.  They are energy black holes and will suck you dry; but only if you let them.”

The choice is yours. I choose to surround myself with positive people. Not only do they help my self confidence and career success, they are more fun to be around.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  No one can go it alone.   Follow the career advice in Tweet 49 in Success Tweets.  “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the success you want and deserve.”  Positive people are great.  They feel good about themselves and life in general.  They are enthusiastic – and their enthusiasm is contagious.  When you surround yourself with positive people, you’ll become more positive and enthusiastic.  And, you’ll be on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Who are the most positive people you know?  Get to know them better, spend more time with them.

That’s my career advice on the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading this career advice.  I hope it is helpful to you.

Bud

As usual, the January 2011 issue of SUCCESS Magazine has some great life and career success advice.  Are you a subscriber?  If not, I suggest you subscribe to this great print mag as soon as you finish reading this post.

In an article entitled “The 6 Deadly Fears of Entrepreneurship” Beth Douglass Silcox lists six fears common to entrepreneurs.  I think these six fears apply to everyone – not just entrepreneurs.  Take a look…

• Fear of Failure
• Fear of Inadequacy
• Fear of Risks
• Fear of Financial Insecurity
• Fear of What Others Will Think
• Fear of Growth

Before we go on, let me say some things about fear.  Fear is normal.  Fear is common.  Fear is human.  And fear is a career success killer. 

We’re all afraid sometime.  Successful people face their fears and act.  I’ve learned a few things about fear over the years.  Fear breeds indifference.  Indifference breeds self doubt and worry. Often, it’s easier to go with the flow and do nothing than attempt to do something of which you’re afraid.  When you say to yourself “It’s OK, it doesn’t really matter anyway,” ask the next question – “What am I afraid of here?”  Identifying your fear is the first step in dealing with it.

Self doubt is a form of negative self talk. Our words can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Positive self talk leads to success.  Negative self talk leads to fear and failure.

If you catch yourself saying things like “I can’t do this; I’ll never be successful; I’ll never get out of this mess,” then you never will. 

If you say things like “I can do this; I have what it takes to succeed; I can solve this problem,” then you will.

Worry and excessive caution will paralyze you and stop your quest for career success dead in its tracks. Some people spend so much time worrying about the bad things that could or might happen that they never take action and actually do something to prove that good things happen too. Worrying too much can bring you and your life to a screeching halt.

A boat that never leaves the harbor is pretty safe. However, it is not doing what it is meant to be doing. The same is true for people. If you never take a risk, you’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing.

Fear is a confidence and career success killer.  Tweet 46 in Success Tweets, my latest career advice book lists four steps for dealing with the fears that can sabotage your life and career success:

1. Identify it.
2. Admit it.
3. Accept it.
4. Do something about it.

Let’s look at how you can use these four steps to beat the fear that is holding you back from achieving the life and career success you want and deserve.

1. Identify what you fear.  Figure out why you’re afraid. Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of inadequacy?  Is it fear of risks?  Is it fear of financial insecurity?  Is it fear of what others will think?  Is it fear of growth? Is it fear of making the wrong decision?  Is it fear of a lost opportunity?  Are you afraid that you aren’t up to task?  Once you identify the reason behind your fear, you are well on the way to overcoming it.
2. Admit what you fear.  It’s OK to be afraid. You wouldn’t be human if you were never afraid. A common definition of courage is the ability to feel fear and still do what you need to do regardless. In 1988, I faced a very frightening decision. Should I stay in a comfortable but ultimately unsatisfying job with a large corporation, or should I start my own business?  I was afraid of failing.  Failing would mean that I would lose my savings and have to start over again, looking for a job in another corporation.  However, once I identified and admitted my fear, I was able to take the next step – acceptance.
3. Accept what you fear.  Accepting your fear is important, because it shows that you know you’re human.  Once I accepted that I was afraid of failing, I was able to start my business and succeed.  In fact, I embraced my fear of failure. It made me work harder; it pushed me to work the long hours and learn the entrepreneurship lessons necessary to be successful as a self employed career success coach, consultant and speaker.
4. Take action.  Action cures fear.  It is the most important of these four steps. Do something! The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll find it was the wrong thing to do – and you will have eliminated at least one thing from your list of possible actions.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people don’t let fear sabotage their self confidence and career success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 46 in Success Tweets.  “Four steps for dealing with fear that can sabotage your success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.” 

Action is the antidote to fear. In most cases, you’ll make good decisions and your fears won’t be realized.  In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined.  Successful people learn from their failures.  By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts. You win if you make a good decision and things work out.  You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

That’s my career advice on dealing with the fears that can sabotage your career success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading – and don’t forget these four steps the next time you find fear interfering with your life and career success.

Bud

The first week of 2011 is almost history.  Hope is was productive for you and brought you closer to the life and career success you want and deserve.

Last Friday (New Year’s Eve) one of my friends who reads my career advice and knows I am an incurable optimist repeated something that he had seen on line…

An optimist stays up to welcome the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year goes out.

I admit that I have had a few years (but not too many) that I was happy to see end.  However, I am always look forward to every new year with a sense of optimism.

In yesterday’s career success post, I shared The Optimist Creed with you.  You can get a copy of it to frame and hang in your office by going to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.

I think that optimism is so important to career success that I devoted three tweets in my latest career advice book, Success Tweets, to it.

Tweet 42 says, “Choose optimism.  It builds your confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better yet.” 

Tweet 43 says, “Optimism is contagious.  Become a positive optimistic person.  Surround yourself with positive people.”

Tweet 44 says, “Be an optimist.  Believe that things will turn out well.  Don’t sulk when they don’t.  Learn what you can and use it next time.”

As you can tell, I’m a big believer in the power of optimism.  I think it is the foundation of all self confidence.  You can’t be self confident if you’re not optimistic.  And, optimism is a choice.  I get up every day believing that good things will happen – and then I go about making them happen.

When I was a kid, I participated in the local Optimist International – the people who created the Optimist Creed — chapter’s oratory contest.  I won my section, and finished third in the state.  The topic that year was “Optimism, Youth’s Greatest Asset.”  That’s hard enough for a ninth grader to say (think Joe Pesci in “My Cousin Vinnie”) let alone write and deliver a ten minute talk.  This experience contributed mightily to my career success.  It gave me the confidence to become a professional speaker.

I especially like the fourth point of The Optimist Creed.  “Promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.” 

This point goes directly to the idea of committing to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  I know it’s difficult to look at the sunny side of things when you’re mired in a problem or are dealing with a failure.  However, if you look for what you can learn from problems and failures, you’ll be looking at the sunny side.  You’ll be on your way to making your optimism come true.  And, you’ll be on the road to the career success you want and deserve.

Christopher Reeve is no longer with us, but he exemplified the idea of looking at the sunny side of things.  Even though he was paralyzed from the neck down after a riding accident, he devoted himself to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries.  I loved the way his optimism comes across in this quote…

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

Christopher Reeve looked at the sunny side of his injury and did what he could to make his optimism come true.  His foundation carries on the work he started.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people are optimists.  They follow the career advice on optimism in Tweet 42, 43 and 44 in Success Tweets.  And, they live by the Optimist Creed — a great guide to becoming more optimistic and self confident.  Its proactive approach to life will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  (Get your copy at http://BudBilanich.com/optimist.)  Remember the old saying, “Whether you’re an optimist, or a pessimist you’ll be proven right.”  I choose optimism, and suggest you do too.

Next December 31 I hope you choose to stay up to welcome 2012, not to make sure that 2011 leaves.  As always, thanks for reading my thoghts on career success.  I really value your thoughts and comments.  Please share them with us in a comment.

Bud