A post on Twitter by the great speaker and author, Billy Cox, quoted former General Electric Chairman and CEO, Jack Welch as saying:

“Nothing of any importance has ever been accomplished by a pessimist.”

To me, this rings true. After all, by their very nature, they tend not to accomplish but rather stay personally stationary and even stifle the creativity of others.

Of course, that’s not necessarily always bad. There are certainly times that pessimists have kept optimists from advancing ideas that would have failed…or at least causing the optimist to slow down long enough to reconsider and improve certain actions. Or, just be a welcome sounding board.

It’s well-known that Roy Disney very effectively served in this capacity to his brother, Walt. And, on a much smaller level, I used to personally run some of my potentially hair-brained ideas past a very wise pessimist I knew. If he thought it was a good idea, then I pretty much knew it was! LOL

So, sure; pessimists have their place in providing “that other side” and keeping the overly-optimistic creatives from doing counter-productive things.

But, let’s take Mr. Welch’s above statement and put it in question form:

Is anything of importance ever actually accomplished or “created” by a pessimist?

Personally, I can’t think of any examples. Not one.

Can you? Please share your examples of such (if any) and your thoughts. I’m optimistic… that this could be an interesting discussion.

My friend, Joe Calloway, acclaimed business speaker and author of several books, including the newly-released, Be The Best At What Matters Most, is not one who puts a high-price on being imaginative, innovative and unique…simply for the sake of being imaginative, innovative and unique.

Early in his book, he writes:

“Your goal should be to be so good at the basics that you are cutting edge…Note that I’m not talking about just being good. I’m talking about being *so* good at the basics that you are extraordinary. I’m talking about not just being competitive but actually *winning* on the basics. Here’s the reality: If you win on the basics, you win it all.”  

The above reminded me of the Superbowl Champion, Green Bay Packers of the 1960′s. Coached by the Legendary Vince Lombardi, they had a play called the Power Sweep. It was a very elementary play, about as fundamental and “easy to read” as a play could be. Yet, despite knowing the play was coming, the opposing defenses were powerless to stop it.

I used to love watching replays of it because it was simply the basic fundamentals of blocking and teamwork so excellently performed…it was, well, “cutting edge.”

As Joe says (paraphrased): people constantly talk about doing things “outside the box” when, in reality, the game (or, the business) is won “inside the box.”

Whether a power sweep or providing excellence to your customers on an ongoing, consistent basis, how do you win your games…inside the box? I’d love to know.

{Note from Bob: Joe’s book is magnificent. I harvested nuggets of gold to apply to my own business right from the beginning and all the way through to the end. HIGHLY recommend!}

My great friend and fellow coffee-lover, Melissa Stewart, founder of She Owns It, a company based on “Celebrating, Supporting & Connecting Women Entrepreneurs” recently tweeted,

“Your mind is a multimillion-dollar property.
Screen your tenants VERY carefully!”

How true that is!

Imagine owning a rental property and not screening your prospective tenants before allowing them to move in. I mean, wouldn’t you do a credit and background check, and perhaps even ask for references? Sure, because to make the decision to let someone impact your valuable property should not be made without as much thought and consideration as humanly possible!

How much more important is it then to make sure that, before you allow people (and their thoughts, opinions, belief systems, etc.) into your brain — your MOST valuable property — you do the same?

And, if it looks as though they could in any way damage that property, gently encourage them to look elsewhere.

No vacancies here. This is your mind we’re talking about.

Melissa, you up for another coffee tweet? I like your style!

Of course, awesome readers…may I ask, how do you do at protecting your most valuable property? And, what are the best ways you’ve found to do that?

“Compliance will never take you,
where commitment can go.”
~ Dondi Scumaci

As posted previously, I love that saying (what I call, a “Dondi-ism”) by my great friend and mentor, Dondi Scumaci.

It reminds me that, as leaders and influencers, we always need to ask ourselves where our focus is and who it is on.

As Dale Carnegie taught us in his classic, How to Win Friends And Influence People, “Ultimately, people do things for THEIR reasons; not our reasons.”

So, in terms of the goal we are leading people to, is our focus on ourselves, or on them?…In other words, how does our goal align with THEIR goals; THEIR wants, THEIR needs, THEIR desires? And, with THEIR values?

When we question ourselves like this – intelligently, and with a genuine, authentic desire to build them – we’ve come a long way toward earning the commitment that Dondi wrote about.

Just my thoughts. What about yours?

What a joy to present recently in Del Mar, California at the Think and Grow Rich Summit 2013. Hosted by speaker/author, Tony Rubleski in conjunction with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, it was three days jam-packed with terrific speakers, authors, thought and business leaders. While I could only stay for part of it, every speaker I saw rocked the house and, from what I heard, the rest of them did the same.

The focus of the event was on how the principles from the classic by Napoleon Hill touched so many lives and every speaker included that as part of their presentation.

While I spoke on The Five Laws from John David Mann’s and my book, The Go-Giver, it was very easy to cite numerous instances where its message was greatly influenced by Think And Grow Rich. And, as I re-read it just prior to the conference I happened upon a paragraph that has always been one of my favorites.

It’s step number five in Dr. Hill’s Self-Confidence Formula within his chapter on Faith (the book was published in 1937):

“I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me because I will believe in them, and in myself.”

If you go through the above paragraph and make a study of it, you’ll see that it calls for you to focus on being of service (value) to others. It calls for you to focus on that, and on them. It calls for you to genuinely and continually place their interests first. And, in every aspect of such, you receive in-kind.

There is such immense brilliance in that paragraph, isn’t there?

What did you receive from that paragraph that I might have missed? And, how do you do in terms of applying Dr. Hill’s wisdom in this regard?