Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The overriding message in many motivation and how-to books is that if a person
just maintains a positive mental attitude and works long, hard hours, he
ultimately will succeed.
A nice thought, to be sure, but one that borders more on mysticism than reality.
How many times have you seen a person get all charged up after reading a
motivation or self-help book, then, after the initial high wears off, become more
frustrated than ever when he realizes that he is no closer to achieving his goals
than before reading the book? Perhaps it’s even happened to you. To be sure, I
experienced this phenomenon many times earlier in my career.
Because I find it cumbersome to use hybrid pronouns such as his or hers, and
am opposed to debasing the English language by mixing singular nouns and
pronouns with plural pronouns such as “they,” I have, for convenience only,
chosen to use the masculine gender throughout this book in most instances
where the neuter has not been employed.
There’s no question that the illusions created by the hyperbole and enthusiastic
verbiage contained in many motivation and self-help books can be very uplifting,
but almost without exception they fail to address the realities that confront a
person when he ventures into the Businessworld Jungle and comes face to face
with its indigenous predators.
Unfortunately, this harsh reality often causes the individual to cling to his
favorite success book’s assurances that ultimately success will come if he just
toughs it out and adheres to some simple rules.
Like millions of other people, I, too, fell into the trap of believing that my great
reward would ultimately come if I just focused on working hard and displaying a
positive mental attitude.
However, my rewards were not forthcoming until I invested a great deal of time
and mental energy into carefully analyzing my frustrating failures of the past and
developing the courage to allow truth and logic to prevail.
The turning point for me came one day when I was having a discussion with a
financially successful acquaintance of mine (“Vern”) who headed up his own
insurance agency.
Vern had always intrigued me, because outwardly he seemed like the world’s
least likely candidate to become a success at anything, let alone a successful
salesman. He was quiet to the point of being shy, and was very awkward in his
mannerisms. In addition, he gave no outward indication of harboring a positive
mental attitude, and worked fewer hours than anyone I had ever known.
Vern’s success shattered the archetypal image of the “super salesman” I had
held in my mind from the time I was a boy. It helped me to better understand
why so many individuals whom others had characterized as great salesmen often
lacked the results to back up their reputations. I now realize that when a person
is tagged as a “great salesman,” all too often it is the very reason that he is not
successful at his craft. The problem is that the individual with a mega-reputation
as a super salesman poses a threat to a prospect the moment he enters the
room. Over a period of time, I developed a knack for spotting these paper-tiger
salespeople, and came to refer to them fondly as the “all show, no dough”
brigade; i.e., they were more successful in attracting attention than getting
results.
During one of my conversations with Vern, I pointed out that the methods
espoused in many so-called success books did not seem to work in actual
practice, and asked his opinion as to why this was so. His answer was quite
surprising. Vern explained that successful people rarely know the real reasons
for their success, though they themselves almost always believe they know.
With Vern’s intriguing observation in mind, over a period of time I concluded that
there were a number of reasons why successful people, as well as authors of
many self-help books, tend to espouse unworkable solutions. These include,
among others:
1. Success has a tendency to breed self-righteousness, which all too often causes
a person to overemphasize, to the exclusion of other crucial factors, such societal
favorites as positive mental attitude and work ethic.
Page 20.
Página 17.
Un buen pensamiento, sin duda, pero que bordea más el misticismo que la
realidad.
Debido a que me resulta engorroso usar pronombres híbridos como los suyos y
me opongo a degradar el idioma inglés al mezclar sustantivos y pronombres en
singular con pronombres en plural como "ellos", he elegido, por conveniencia
únicamente, usar el masculino género a lo largo de este libro en la mayoría de
los casos donde el neutro no se ha empleado.
Sin embargo, mis recompensas no llegaron hasta que invertí una gran cantidad
de tiempo y energía mental para analizar cuidadosamente mis fracasos
frustrantes del pasado y desarrollar el coraje para permitir que la verdad y la
lógica prevalezcan.
El punto de inflexión para mí llegó un día cuando tuve una conversación con un
conocido mío financieramente exitoso ("llamado Vern") que encabezó su propia
agencia de seguros.
El éxito de Vern hizo añicos la imagen arquetípica del "súper vendedor" que tenía
en mente desde que era un niño. Me ayudó a entender mejor por qué tantas
personas que otros habían caracterizado como grandes vendedores a menudo
carecían de los resultados para respaldar sus reputaciones.
Ahora me doy cuenta de que cuando una persona es etiquetada como un "gran
vendedor", con demasiada frecuencia es la razón por la que no tiene éxito en su
oficio. El problema es que el individuo con una gran reputación como súper
vendedor representa una amenaza para un cliente potencial en el momento en
que ingresa a la sala. Inspira temor, miedo.
Durante una de mis conversaciones con Vern, señalé que los métodos
propugnados en muchos de los llamados libros de éxito de superación personal o
de auto ayuda, no parecían funcionar en la práctica real, y le pedí su opinión
sobre por qué esto era así. Su respuesta fue bastante sorprendente. Vern me
explicó que las personas exitosas raramente conocen las verdaderas razones de
su éxito, aunque ellas mismas casi siempre creen que lo saben.
Cuando expresé mi curiosidad acerca de por qué una persona no sería
consciente de cómo había logrado su propio éxito, dijo que era una cuestión de
estar demasiado cerca de los árboles de su negocio para ver el bosque de su
éxito. Una idea absolutamente fascinante y que nunca he olvidado. Sea, vemos el
bosque, pero no los árboles.
Quiero dejar en claro que, a pesar de todo lo que he dicho hasta ahora, no hay
dudas en mi mente de que tanto una actitud mental positiva como una buena
ética de trabajo son importantes para el éxito de uno.
El problema surge cuando uno se basa únicamente en estas dos virtudes con
exclusión de todos los demás factores. La realidad se compone de una gran
cantidad de factores sociales. Están encadenados y si un eslabón es débil o no se
le pone atención, estamos ante un gravísimo aprieto.
Tener una actitud mental positiva y una buena ética de trabajo son dos rasgos
que a menudo se malinterpretan y creo que es importante analizarlos con más
detalle antes de continuar.
Página 20.