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In reality, you can’t acquire a positive mental attitude simply by standing in front
of a mirror and reciting self-energizing slogans, force-feeding your mind with
positive thoughts, or heartily shaking people’s hands (while grinning from ear to
ear) and loudly exclaiming, “Great!” when asked how things are going for you.
This kind of synthetic positive mental attitude cannot bring about success.
By contrast, a real positive mental attitude can play a major role in one’s
success, but such an attitude is a result of being prepared.
In other words, a true positive mental attitude is possible only through one’s
having the ammunition to back it up. You develop a positive mental attitude by
being good at what you do, by being prepared, by understanding the realities of
what it takes to succeed, and by having the self-discipline to base your actions
on those realities.
Hence, the success cycle is self-perpetual: The more prepared a person is, the
more confident he becomes, which translates into a natural positive mental
attitude, which in turn increases his chances of success. You can set all the
goals you want, but I can guarantee that you won’t achieve them if you’re
unprepared. A positive mental attitude requires preparation, and the two of them
work in concert to help you achieve your goals.
But even after I concluded that a positive mental attitude was not a quality one
could synthesize, I still found myself venturing into the Businessworld Jungle
(specifically, at that point in time, the real estate brokerage area of the Jungle),
sincerely believing that, because of my preparation, I would succeed in closing
every deal, only to end up having my head handed to me on a platter because of
realities over which I had little or no control.
As I struck out on one sale after another, it became clear to me that it was just a
matter of time until my self-esteem—and my self-confidence along with it—was
shattered. The result was confusion and doubt.
The reason it’s okay if a deal falls through is because day-today “failure” is an
integral part of long-term success. So, part and parcel to a true positive mental
attitude is the mental toughness to move quickly on to the next deal.
This realistic approach to life simply takes into account circumstances beyond
one’s control, and PMA one-trick ponies seem totally incapable of grasping this
obvious fact of life. If you still have a pulse rate and are over 21 years of age,
surely personal experience has demonstrated to you that no matter how well
prepared you are, most situations in life don’t work out as planned.
In real estate, for example, a deal can blow up over any one of a seemingly
infinite number of unforeseen obstacles—e.g., unwanted third-party opinions,
ulterior motives on the part of the buyer or seller, or even a change in the health
or marital status of one of the parties.
Consequently, I ultimately concluded that the only way to guard against having
my self-confidence and belief shattered was to acknowledge the reality that, like
it or not, most deals do not close. I reasoned that the only way I could sustain a
true positive mental attitude was to come to grips with this reality and make
certain that I was always mentally prepared to move on to the next deal.
Did it work? Spectacularly. My income skyrocketed during the first year that I
implemented the essence of this theory, but it’s important to point out that the
deals I closed during that year represented only a small fraction of the total
number of deals I worked on. In essence, I simply accessed the power of the law
of averages. Also, it’s noteworthy that I worked just as hard, and in many
instances harder, on the scores of deals that didn’t close as I did on the ones
that were successful. Given these realities, there is no question in my mind that
without my firm belief in the Theory of Sustenance of a Positive Attitude through
the Assumption of a Negative Result, I would not have had the confidence and
persistence to press on after seeing one sale after another go up in smoke.
I guess you might say that it was a paradox of sorts in that I prepared myself for
long-term success by bracing myself for short-term failure. I again emphasize
that this philosophy works only if you are prepared to succeed. It does not work
if you simply use it as an excuse to fail in a situation where it may have been
possible to succeed had you tried harder and/or been more persistent.
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Capítulo 1. Rompiendo los mitos.
Por el contrario, una actitud mental positiva real puede jugar un papel
importante en el éxito de uno, pero esa actitud es el resultado de estar
preparado. De poco sirve tener una actitud hermosa, si se carece de las
herramientas para concretarla.
En otras palabras, una verdadera actitud mental positiva es posible solo a través
de tener la munición para respaldarla. Desarrollas una actitud mental positiva
siendo bueno en lo que haces, estando preparado, entendiendo las realidades de
lo que se necesita para tener éxito y teniendo la autodisciplina para basar tus
acciones en esas realidades.
Por lo tanto, el ciclo de éxito es auto perpetuo: cuanto más preparada está una
persona, más seguro se vuelve, lo que se traduce en una actitud mental positiva
natural, que a su vez aumenta sus posibilidades de éxito. Usted puede establecer
todos los objetivos que desee, pero puedo garantizar que no los alcanzará si no
está preparado. Una actitud mental positiva requiere preparación, y los dos
trabajan en concierto para ayudarlo a lograr sus objetivos.
Pero incluso después de concluir que una actitud mental positiva no era una
cualidad que uno pudiera sintetizar, todavía me encontraba incursionando en la
jungla de los negocios (específicamente, en ese momento, el área de corretaje de
bienes raíces de la jungla), creyendo sinceramente que, debido a mi preparación,
tendría éxito en cerrar cada trato, solo para terminar teniendo mi cabeza
entregada en bandeja debido a realidades sobre las cuales tenía poco o ningún
control.
A medida que ponía en venta una tras otra negociación, me quedó claro que era
solo cuestión de tiempo hasta que mi autoestima y mi confianza en sí misma se
desvanecieron. El resultado fue confusión y duda.
La razón por la que está bien si se llega a un acuerdo es porque el "fracaso" del
día a día es una parte integral del éxito a largo plazo. Entonces, partir de una
verdadera actitud mental positiva es la fortaleza mental para pasar rápidamente
al siguiente trato.
En bienes raíces, por ejemplo, un acuerdo puede explotar sobre una cantidad
aparentemente infinita de obstáculos imprevistos, por ejemplo, opiniones de
terceros no deseados, motivos ocultos por parte del comprador o vendedor, o
incluso un cambio en el estado de salud, o estado civil de una de las partes
interesadas.
Supongo que podría decirse que fue una especie de paradoja, ya que me preparé
para el éxito a largo plazo preparándome para el fracaso a corto plazo. Si
aparecía un fracaso, no era determinante para que me derrumbara.
Una vez más, enfatizo que esta filosofía solo funciona si estás preparado para
tener éxito. No funciona si simplemente lo usa como una excusa para fallar en
una situación en la que pudo haber sido posible si lo hubiera intentado con
mayor empeño o hubiera sido más persistente, más incisivo, más insistente.
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