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For about as long as I can remember, I’ve been taking one course or another about different subjects every several months. I take courses in just about every topic you can imagine and love taking these courses. Typically, the courses I take are three or four-day affairs, and executives from one company or another are always flown in for these events by their companies to attend. I’m at one of these things today that’s about to start within the next couple of hours. Incredibly, for the next several days, I’m going to be listening to Tony Robbins, of self-improvement fame, speak about how to run a business.
In my years of attending these seminars, however, I’ve noticed a particular pattern that I’m sure also plays itself out at various companies around the United States and the world. It’s a dangerous pattern and one you would be wise to do everything within your power to avoid.
A couple of years ago, I took a Karass Negotiation Seminar. These are the seminars that are promoted inside in-flight magazines and so forth. After more than a decade of seeing ads in in-flight magazines, I decided one day that this was something I needed to go to. I signed up, and one Monday morning, found myself sitting in the Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica, California, with around 30 other people also learning about negotiation.
I remember during the seminar I’d been seated next to a particular woman who did not seem to be enjoying the seminar very much. She was someone in her late 50’s I would guess, and was angry that her company had sent her to this seminar. In fact, she told me she hated seminars and also disliked her company quite a bit. She told me that regardless of the subject matter, most of these seminars were “all the same” and not to to be enjoyed, but tolerated with agony.
Every few minutes she would make one remark or another about:
For about the first couple of hours of the seminar, I thought the woman was quite funny. However, after some time, I started to get annoyed. While I thought the seminar itself was actually pretty decent, I started to look at the seminar in the sort of negative light she was. I started to see the seminar as not being that good and started thinking along the same lines she was about the material. I started paying attention more to what was wrong with the seminar than what was right. I started to feel as if this was a bad seminar. At the end of the first day of the seminar, I went home and felt as if perhaps I’d made a giant mistake attending the event. I woke up on the second day of the seminar and wasn’t even sure I was going to go.
On the second day of the seminar, I sat with someone else, and the seminar ended up being one of the most useful days of attending a seminar I’d ever experienced. I learned a great deal and came away feeling very good about the seminar and the material. In fact, I closed a multimillion dollar deal a couple of weeks later and really attribute my ability to do this to having attended the seminar. The seminar was really no different the second day than it had been the first. It was just the woman I was sitting next to that was different.
I realized after this incident that the quality of the seminar had been directly related to the person I was sitting next to. In fact, the seminar quality had more to do with this than anything else out there.
In just about every organization, there are numerous “veterans” who have been with the company or organization for a long length of time, but who nevertheless manage to earn a decent living and stay employed with the company year after year. These people can make a decent living with the company despite a bad attitude and numerous accumulated bad habits. Many of these people are incredibly unhappy and, privately, nothing they have to say about where they work and their jobs is all that positive.
Several years ago in our company, we had an older employee who was under the habit of taking younger employees under their wing. It was no secret that this older employee had some negative opinions about the company and how it was run, and had negative opinions about companies in general. However, the largest issues with this particular employee was such a source of concern, was what would happen to the employees this older employee had contact with.
Generally, the younger employee would be extremely enthusiastic about their job and the people they were working with. They would do assignments on time and do them well. They would be constantly improving at the work they did. They would also be someone who was on the way up. They may have received very rapid raises after having joined the company.
At some point, the older employer would ingratiate themselves with the younger employee, and things would begin to change. For example, the younger employees would gradually begin appearing less enthusiastic and excited about their work. The young employees would also start appearing late for work, missing deadlines, and so forth. Pretty soon, in a short length of time, the young employees would either quit or lose their jobs. When this happens a few times, it’s not something you think about; however, when it happens several times, it’s something you start to notice. It should be no secret that there are people out there who can be cancerous and really impact how you do in your job. In fact, these cancers are something that can do tremendous harm and ultimately change the course of your career.
In virtually every organization, there are people who:
Regardless of the organization, there are always people wherever you are going to work that are going to be similar to these types of people. You need to stay away from people like this. These people have negative energy, and this energy will always rub off on you. When it rubs off, the results are never good. You will find yourself getting the same results they are and will be unhappy with your job and the people you are working with. You will carry this line of thought with you throughout your career, and it will never do you any good.
What is the alternative? The alternative is to seek out the people who are succeeding and already doing great things in their careers. These are the people who know something others don’t and who will always succeed in any sort of organization they join. These people can also be found in every organization and can assist you in reaching your goals of constantly improving.
Early in my legal career, I had an office next to a guy who absolutely hated practicing law. My first job inside a law firm was with a really great group of people and the law firm did very important work. However, I had an office next to a guy who had been practicing law at the firm around 10 years and really disliked it. He had to commute over 90 minutes to work each day because his wife refused to move. Because the commute was so long, he frequently slept in the back of his car in the parking lot. Because he was never home, he also suspected that his wife might be cheating on him.
In addition to his long commute, he had shown up to work his first day as an attorney at a large law firm during a recession and been laid off ten years before. He worked at a series of small, un-prestigious firms for years before finally getting a job in the law firm he was currently in. In his first job, he worked in an insurance defense firm that gave him over 500 cases to handle, as the only attorney, his first day of work. For several years, he worked nearly seven days a week and slept less than 8 hours a night because he was spending all of his time at work.
He trusted no one and never kept anything other than a small picture of his wife on his desk, that was small enough to fit in the pocket of his jeans. Over the years, he had seen so many people fired from various law firms for seemingly no reason that he was like a war victim with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“You literally never know when you are going to lose your job inside a law firm. It just comes out of nowhere, and it can happen instantly,” he told me.
Because he was so afraid of getting fired, he decided that he needed to have other productive ways to earn a living. He soon discovered Ebay and created a business literally out of his office selling comic books, pinball tables, and other collectibles he liked to buy and sell. His secretary became a partner in crime and would assist him in coordinating deliveries of pinball table parts and accessories and other “game parts” and then getting these on Ebay.
One day, I was sitting in his office and he told me about how he had been sitting home on a Sunday afternoon enjoying a beer and then had gotten a call that he needed to take an overnight flight to Florida for a meeting. He flew all night, and then spent several hours in a meeting. Exhausted after the meeting, he went back to his hotel room to sleep for a couple of hours. Apparently, after this meeting, a partner in the law firm had tried to call him on his cell phone and had been unable to reach him for an hour. He had received a serious lecture about the necessity of “attorneys always needing to be available.”
Notwithstanding, I looked at this guy and his example and decided to myself that this lifestyle was nonsensical and not something I wanted. However, I’m almost 100% confident that had I not shared this attorney’s view of the world and latched onto someone who was a true superstar in the law firm, and very enthusiastic about the work and the job, I would perhaps still be an attorney today. Within six months of becoming friends with this attorney, I ended up deciding that I no longer wanted to work in this law firm and quit.
I love what I do, but cannot help but realize that I might have been still practicing law today if I had made sure I only associated with the people in the law firm who loved what they did. Your success and happiness with your employer will come down to seeking out those who love what they do. You should learn to see your job and the world around you from the bright side and not the dark side.
THE LESSON
Avoid people with a negative worldview, and who are unenthusiastic about their jobs. Their negative energy will rub off on you if you allow it, and you will find yourself experiencing the same negative results and unhappiness as them. Seek out people who are succeeding and doing great things in their careers, and who love what they do. Learn to view your job and surroundings from the light rather than the dark side.
Read More About Why Your Attitude is Just as Important as the Quality of Your Work:
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is the Founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter himself. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in a search and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company LawCrossing has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive that gets results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities that its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
Filed Under : Featured, Staying Positive
Tagged: bright side of career, positive attitude at work, self improvement, work enthusiasm
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In this article Harrison explains how you can ensure success in your career by externalizing your opponents. Your job is like a game; if you work hard, play by the rules of the company and are seen as part of the team you will be viewed as a valuable player for the company. The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. Never speak negatively of your team members. Instead, concentrate on the external opponents. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work towards a common goal. In order for you and your company to succeed it is important to have an external opponent. Harrison advises people to consistently work hard and not participate in the politics. This is a sure way to score big in your career.
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Companies necessarily seek to employ positive, forward-minded people. A firm’s success depends on their employees, and they seek people who will enhance them rather than merely contribute to the bottom line. People with positive natures, who contribute to a healthy social environment, prove essential to the growth and success of their employers.
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In this article Harrison discusses the importance of ‘energy’ over technical skills. When people are hiring you they are purchasing your “energy” more than they are purchasing your technical skills. They are interested in your ability to influence the world around you through your energy. When you are marketing yourself and seeking a job, or working in a job, there are essentially two things you are marketing. You are marketing your technical skills, but more importantly you are marketing an intangible sort of energy. The most successful people have mastered the art of projecting positive energy. The better your energy, the more employable you will be and the farther you will go.
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Resourcefulness can make you better at everything you do, and separates the truly extraordinary people from the general herd. Do everything within your power to be resourceful in your job search, life, and career to give yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goals, and learn how to employ the resources currently at your disposal for maximum impact.
The most successful people in the world share the common characteristic of sharing, or concentrating on the value that they give back to others rather than on their own growth and profit. Focusing on yourself never leads to long-term success, but leads instead to unhappiness as well as emotional and financial challenges. Your greatest consideration, therefore, should be how you can contribute to others, and how your actions can impact their lives.
The best way to attain your goal is through small, incremental steps on which you can build. Establish a routine, and make sure you are consistently working towards some kind of goal. Start small, and always build upon what you have done before. Most people fail to achieve their goals because they believe everything should happen quickly and at the same time, instead of progressively building upon their past achievements.
Make sure that you are involved in groups that focus on positive things. Your success in life depends on your ability to focus on the outcomes you want, and the focus of the groups with which you associate will in turn shape your own focus. You must endeavor to always choose groups with a positive focus.
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Your ability to help people will determine the extent of your success; the more powerful and effective your help, the greater rewards you will receive. One of the rarest and most profound achievements is to follow through on your goals and create a paradigm-shifting idea. The more revolutionary your work, the more people you will affect and the more memorable of a career you will have.
You will greatly benefit your career by helping and promoting your company’s expansion. A common belief is that expansion is fundamentally positive, and a lack of expansion is fundamentally negative. You must be on the side of expansion rather than contraction in every area of your life. All employers seek people who will help them expand, and the more your ability to contribute to this expansion will provide you increased job security and a greater likelihood of being hired.
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Understanding what you do for a living is very important for your career. You should understand the generality of your specific profession. You and your career are a product. You need to know where and how to market yourself in the best way possible. You need to be relevant and understand the skills you are offering. Being a relevant product is essential for your success. It’s easy to be relevant when you understand what you are doing and what purpose you serve. Being relevant is more than just getting a job. Being relevant also relates to serving the employers with the skills they need. You need to understand your market and what your customers want. This is the way to stay employed, and it is also the means to continual improvement.
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Having a goal or vision will propel you towards greater career success and happiness. Without a purpose, you will find yourself depressed and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Do not subscribe to the unrealistic problem that you should never have problems, but instead regard problems as part of your overall growth strategy.
Don’t ever give up, and make the most of the tools at your disposal. Take chances and invest in your best skills, and persist in the face of unfortunate events. Have faith in your considerable work and capabilities, and use them to create value for others.
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To reach the goals to which you aspire, you must compare yourself with people superior to you for motivation. Most people prefer to look at life the way they wish it to be, rather than as it truly is. Move out of your comfort zones and face reality. Don’t seek out or compare yourself with the average people around you, as doing so will only mire you in mediocrity rather than push you forward.
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A recommendation from a powerful person can make a huge difference in your job search; a reference from an influential person makes a tremendous difference to a prospective employer, and thus can be a major advantage for you. When an important person whom the company trusts recommends you, you instantly qualify for positions that may previously have been unattainable. Make the absolute most of your connections with the powerful people in your life, because doing so can instantaneously change your career and life.
You must plant seeds in the minds of others, so that they will be more likely than otherwise to think of you when a future need arises. In planting seeds, you are making people aware of what you have to offer; you must make sure that you are ever present in the minds of your potential employers. Planting seeds is the most effective way to generate top-of-mind awareness, and ensure that the right people remember you at the appropriate time.
Recent immigrants exemplify the benefits of willpower, passion, and excitement in the way that they work so much harder for their goals than the people who have been here for most or all of their lives. Like most Americans, you need to rekindle the spirit of your immigrant ancestors and become hungry for what you want. The entrepreneurial spirit that brought people to America has often faded over time; adopt the fire and work ethic of new immigrants in order to achieve your goals.
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I agree with the point that surrounding yourself with negative people can affect your perception. However, I think his remarks smack of agism because I have seen the same behavior in young people with poor attitudes. Singling out the older worker,rather than referring to the negative worker, is like jumping on the bandwagon because corporate America is throwing older people out like holiday trash. Furthermore, his final conclusion that he may not have left the legal field were it not for his exposure to the negative coworker, demonstrates a personal lack of responsibility for controlling his own future. Professionally, or personally, making other people “responsible” for our own behavior is a formula for disaster. Had the author concluded that he should have changed his circle of colleagues, as he did in the seminar, then maybe he would have continued a legal career would have shown more insight, and maturity. Instead he sounds like a person still looking to blame others, like abusive people who say I never would have done this to you, if you hadn’t…Sounds like some personal therapy would be beneficial.
What this article portrays is so true…! Over the years working in various law firms, I had identified, and successfully avoided, attorneys like this. This is why I have a happy and prosperous Immigration practice after almost 16 years. Way to go, Harrison!
I have learnt one great trait that I did not have before, thanx once again, You help alot of people.