The other day I saw a quote from Sam Parker…
“Work in a way that has people continually thinking of ways to keep you, rather than reasons to keep you.”
Sam is the founder of Give More Media and a very smart guy. I particularly like this quote because it echoes my reasons for being a career mentor. I tell my clients that they need to work in a manner that will get them to the top of the promotion list and keep them off of the layoff list.
To get to the top of the promotion list, or to get people thinking about ways to keep you, you have to care. Tweet 100 in Success Tweets says, “Care about what you do. If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer. Care a lot and you’ll become an outstanding performer.”
I care about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve. I care a lot. That’s why I wrote Success Tweets and I give it away for free. That’s why I am wrote a series of blog posts explaining each of the 141 tweets in more detail. I cared so much about this project that I committed to writing 700 or 800 words every day for 28 weeks. I cared so much that I turned these blog posts into a book called Success Tweets Explained. I do the things I do because I care a lot about helping you achieve the kind of career success you deserve. And I know that this caring will pay off in me becoming an outstanding career coach – somebody who gives really great career advice.
When you care you do your very best. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books. There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me. It’s in Chapter 11 and is spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film. He’s speaking to Scout, his daughter…
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
It takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there. You do your best. And doing your best can be a scary thing. When you care, when you consciously do your best and fail, it is heartbreaking. But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.
I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard. I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could. I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook if I didn’t get accepted by saying, “I could have written a better application, but I just didn’t spend the time I should have.”
When I put my application in the mailbox – we still did quaint things like that back in the old days – I was proud of what I had written. I knew it was the very best I could do. I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough. After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools. Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?
I cared about the quality of my application, so I did the very best I could. The story in this case has a happy ending. I was accepted and got my degree. Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.
The common sense career mentor point here is simple. Successful people are proud of what they do. They care. They follow the career advice in Success Tweet 100. “Care about what you do. If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer. If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.” Does your work show that you care? Or does it reflect an “it’s good enough” attitude? Take it from me, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable, make sure that how much you care shows through in every single piece of work you do. Give people reasons to keep you and promote you.
Your career mentor,
Bud
PS: You can download a free copy of Success Tweets and Success Tweets Explained at www.SuccessTweets.com. When you do, I’ll give you a free membership in my career site and begin sending you daily motivational quotes.
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