Famous Amos, Optimism and Success

The May 2010 issue of SUCCESS Magazine arrived in my mail box the other day.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I am a big fan of SUCCESS.  Darren Hardy and his crew put out an amazing magazine every month.  I read it from cover to cover as soon as I get it.  This month was no exception.  As a career success coach, I urge you to subscribe to SUCCESS.  I don’t endorse a lot of products, and I have no affiliate relationship with SUCCESS.  It’s just that good.  You’re really missing out if you’re not a subscriber.

As a career success coach, I’m a big believer in the power of optimism.  I often quote The Optimist Creed on this blog.  I think it is great common sense career advice.  If you want a copy of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your office, go to https://budbilanich.com/optimist.

The “Legends” column in this month’s SUCCESS is about Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos cookies.  In a sidebar, Wally Amos lists his 13 Keys to an Optimistic Attitude.  Check them out…

  1. Stop being your own worst enemy.  Be your own best friend.
  2. Don’t put yourself down.  Pull yourself up.
  3. Don’t permit others to define who you are.  You can’t be a failure without your own consent.
  4. Respect yourself.  Place a high value on yourself.
  5. Take stock of who you are and what you’re capable of.  Work on weaknesses and find new strengths every day.
  6. Replace “I can’t” with “I can” and “I will.”
  7. Treat yourself generously, the way you want others to treat you.
  8. Be compassionate. Love yourself, and others will love you.
  9. Remember that you are an individual expression of God.  As a work of God’s art, you are priceless and irreplaceable.
  10. Visualize what you want from life, then work toward it.  See it, then be it.
  11. Allow time to be by yourself, with yourself.  Take time to appreciate yourself.
  12. Enjoy your uniqueness.  Out of all the billions of people since the beginning of time, there has never been and never will be another you.
  13. Realize that you are important to the entire world; what happens to the world begins with you.

No wonder Wally Amos is famous.  He gets it about life and optimism; at least from the perspective of this career success coach

Here’s one last quote from Wally…

“It doesn’t matter how bad things look or what appearances are.  If I can just continue on – one breath at a time – that’s all I have to do.  There’s no tomorrow.  There’s not future or no past because those are just words.  Those aren’t places you can visit.  So, if I can just keep on keeping on with enthusiasm and excitement over what I’m doing, I absolutely believe I will succeed.  And my life demonstrates that.”

In my soon to be released new book, Success Tweet: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice All in 140 Characters or Less, I mention optimism three times…

Tweet 42: Choose optimism.  It builds your confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better yet.

Tweet 43: Optimism is contagious.  Become a powerful, optimistic person.  Surround yourself with positive people.  They will build your confidence.

Tweet 44: Be an optimist.  Believe things will turn out well.  When they don’t, don’t sulk.  Learn what you can; use it next time.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Optimism is the foundation of self confidence.  Wally Amos’ 13 Keys to an Optimistic Attitude provide some great career advice.  Here are some of his words of wisdom that really resonate with me.  “Don’t put yourself down.  Pull yourself up.”  “Respect yourself.  Place a high value on yourself.”  “Visualize what you want from life, then work toward it.  See it; then be it.” “Realize that you are important to the entire world; what happens to the world begins with you.”  I really like this last piece of career advice. It’s all about the Power of 1.   The Power of 1 begins with optimism.  I believe in the Power of 1.  Wally Amos believes in the Power of 1.  What a great world it would be if everyone believed in the Power of 1.

That’s my take on Famous Amos and optimism.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us – leave a comment.   As always, thanks for reading. 

Bud

PS – Don’t forget to get your subscription to SUCCESS Magazine.  Go to www.success.com

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
FREE CAREER SUCCESS BOOKS FOR VISITORSDOWNLOAD

Comments

  1. In ‘Learned Optimism’, by Martin Seligman, he says “The Optimist believe that defeat is not their fault: circumstances, bad luck, or other people bought it about.”

    I am challenged by this. I believe that if we don’t take personal responsibility for the choices that we make (or made), then we lose control over our ability to influence the results that we get in life. It suggests that our results are dependent on luck, other people and circumstances. Whereas I believe in the vast majority of cases we did not make the best decisions, and that is why we got the results that we got. So my first point is to take responsibility for all that I was responsible for. And then see what is left over – that ‘may’ have been out of my control.

    What are your thoughts?
    Appreciate your feedback and connection.

    Cheers,
    Carl
    NLP Life Coach

  2. Thanks for your comment Carl:
    I don’t agree with Mr. Seligman’s ststement. I treat defeat and failure as learning opportunities. I use them to help me move forward. I don’t spend time worrying about the circumstances, luck or people involved. I use defeat and failure to moitvate me to keep on moving forward. To me, this is the essence of optimism. I agree with you that we all need to take personal responsibility for our choices, and the results of those choices. That’s why I choose to learn from the choices I make — good and bad.
    Hope this helps.
    Bud

Speak Your Mind

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.