GPS for Success

Skills, Strategies, and Secrets of Superachievers

Barry A. Franklin

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781000579406
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Business Education

Next to food and clothing, achieving personal and professional success is rated at the very top of the hierarchical order of human needs. Everybody wants to be somebody! In this ultimate success book that includes timeless information for generations to come, the author has meticulously chronicled proven skills, strategies and secrets that, if regularly followed, will empower the reader to live the life that they imagine. Just like your car's or phone's GPS, these life navigation skills can get you from where you are to where you want to go in your career. In addition, critically important knowledge and abilities, including job interviewing, must-know people skills, writing, and public speaking, are covered. In this book, the author has scoured the world's literature on these topics and interviewed highly successful people to provide one-stop shopping regarding the most proven and practical recommendations for future career success. He has also peppered the text with personal experiences and motivational/inspirational success stories, as well as testimonials/sage advice/quotes from the world's most successful people --past and present.

The key objectives of this book are to:

• Highlight the foundational factors underlying future career success: love what you do; realize that your behaviors largely determine your luck in life; emphasize that highly successful people take 100% responsibility for their actions and destiny; and that the secret to success involves the selfless serving of others. The rewards return—through a boomerang effect.
• Provide specific examples and inspirational stories highlighting 10 critical behavioral skills for success. These include: look for the good in people and situations; how to activate the law of attraction; establish goals in writing ("if it's not on paper, it's vapor"); take action (#1 success characteristic); know that persistence pays; ask for things you want; enhance your speaking, writing, and interviewing skills; why it's important to work with and learn from people you want to emulate; the essence of superb people skills (e.g., integrity, making others feel important); and to regularly apply the law of sow and reap.
• Detail complementary approaches, tactics, and perspectives that can help you achieve your breakthrough (major) life goals. These include: time management skills and the 80/20 rule; looking for greener pastures; showcasing your talents (visibility ? opportunities); committing to never-ending improvements in performance, service (or products); embracing discipline/focus/sacrifice; routinely exceeding people's expectations; striving for greater rewards; and seeing an ocean of opportunities before you. In aggregate, these yield BIG rewards in life.
• Provide a potpourri of related topics, including unlooked-for opportunities; leadership and bringing out the best in those around you; avoiding overcautiousness; volunteering (raising your hand); reframing future commitments; the power (and magic) of an unexpected thank you note; and the disproportionate dividends and good karma that result from giving back and mentoring others.

Section II
Steps for Success

3 Be an Optimist: Look for the “Good” in People and Situations

DOI: 10.4324/9781003260387-5

Here’s a story to illustrate dueling perceptions: An American shoe company sent two salesmen to the Australian Outback. They wanted to find out whether there was any market for shoes among the Aborigines. They received telegrams from both salesmen. The first said, “No business here. The natives don’t wear shoes. I’m coming home.” But the second telegram proclaimed, “Great opportunity here. The natives don’t wear shoes. If I can convince them of the advantages in wearing shoes, we will have a brand new territory here!” Every day, I see examples of this scenario. Two different people are confronted by the exact same scenario, and one has a positive response to it—and to the other, it is a disaster!

Navigating the “Ups” and “Downs” of Life. Instead of feeling that bad news or negative events that occur in your life are invariably the end of the world, recognize that the most highly successful, positive people view these temporary setbacks as opportunities in disguise. Indeed, W. Clement Stone, a self-made millionaire who mentored countless others in the fundamental principles of success, believed that every person he met or circumstance he encountered was meant to better or enrich him. Essentially, he looked for the “opportunity” in everything and everyone that life threw at him. Similarly, Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, emphasized that we need to change the way we think when we encounter a daunting problem. Rather than ask, “Why me?” why not ask, “What can I learn from this challenging experience?”

Consider the person who loses his/her job due to a company downsizing. Two responses are possible. One person might embrace the common “woe is me” mentality, immersing himself in self-doubt, low self-esteem, and a downward spiral. Unfortunately, this response often leads to paralysis and extended unemployment. Essentially, a double whammy! In contrast, another could view the job loss as a blessing in disguise—ultimately yielding a future professional opportunity with higher pay, greater fulfillment, and better benefits. Perhaps Napoleon Hill summed it up best: “Every negative event contains in it the seed (e.g., opportunity) of an equal or greater benefit.”

In summary, whenever temporary setbacks occur, I’ve gotten into the habit of looking for that “seed” and finding the potential upside, rather than dwelling on the perceived downside. I then think about the exciting new opportunity on a daily basis and rigorously pursue it with the expectation of a favorable outcome. By responding to the temporary setback in this manner, which I refer to as FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real), we can oftentimes transition bad news or negative events to favorable outcomes. Simply stated, look for the lemonade in lemons. The sooner that you can adopt this mentality or approach, the sooner and more often you’ll embrace the mindset of W. Clement Stone, that is, life is a series of “Ups” and “Camouflaged Opportunities.” When the latter occur, you simply have to find the seed or opportunity that the event provides and transition it to an “Up.”

The strange irony that I’ve found is that these transitional “Ups,” that is, following a temporary setback, are oftentimes more meaningful and of far greater benefit to me than are the pedestrian daily goals that I routinely set and achieve. Accordingly, when I encounter a temporary life setback, I invariably now say to myself: “Wow, life-changing good fortune and a breakthrough goal opportunity are heading my way.”

Happiness + Optimism = Future Success

Psychologist Shawn Achor at Harvard found that rather than success leading to happiness, the reverse is true: Happiness leads to success. Similarly, Professor Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania reports that individuals who score high on optimism/happiness scales are among the most successful people in virtually every field. Why? People who believe that good things invariably happen to them exhibit behaviors that make others more receptive to them.

People Responses are Telling. If I were interviewing you for a position at Beaumont Hospital, and you were currently working at Acme Hospital but looking for a job at our major medical center, I’d probably ask you, “How do you like working for Acme?” And, your answer is, “Well, Acme’s okay. They don’t have this, and they don’t have that. Some of their administrators are downright poor. In addition, their employee training programs and benefits, including paid personal and vacation time off, leave something to be desired.” I can tell you right now, the interview is over. I don’t want you. I’ve learned the hard way that if you hire negative people like these, the past is prologue to the future. The right answer is:

Acme has been fabulous for my career, but you’re doing some things at Beaumont in health and wellness that are very exciting, that I’d love to be involved in. Working at Beaumont would give me an extraordinary opportunity to grow professionally, learning new skills and having access to state-of-the art equipment and a nationally recognized medical staff. That’s why I’m here.

When interviewing, focus on the positives, and avoid discounting or bad mouthing your university or past/current employers (see Chapter 9—Interviewing section).

Whenever I interview somebody, I show them a piece of paper with a phrase that’s printed in bold type and ask, “How do you read that?” I’m hoping they answer, “Opportunity is now here.” I’m less likely to hire the person who responds, “Opportunity is no where.”

Hidden Opportunities. People look at the same situations or circumstances every day but have different interpretations. Some are negative. Some are positive. I try to hang around the positive people. And I would contend that that is more often the choice of superachievers. Highly successful people are invariably asking, “Okay, how can we benefit from this situation? How do we make this perceived setback ultimately advantageous or positive for our business or our organization?”

For example, I’ve had numerous experiences over the years learning that a good or great staff member will be leaving the department to pursue other (perceived as superior) opportunities (see section entitled “Looking for Greener Pastures?” [Chapter 13]) or an advanced degree. Among those remaining, some will invariably flock together, proclaiming what I refer to as the “Chicken Little phenomenon”—that is, “the sky is falling” and the department will never be the same (i.e., as good). “With so and so leaving, we’ll be going down the toilet,” commented one long-term staff member. Another added, “Oh my, the ship is sinking—perhaps there’s time to get off the ship while lifeboats are still available?”

If I’ve learned anything from previous experiences like these, and via several of my skilled administrative mentors, nothing could be further from the truth! These situations, they’d contend, represent tremendous opportunities for a manager or director to improve their department by finding an even better person to take that person’s place. Someone who is highly trained, with professional and interpersonal skills and abilities that go beyond the person you are losing, and one who exemplifies organizational wizardry, stellar communication/computer expertise, a passion for what they do, and the ability to work with people (#1). That person is out there—you simply have to find them.

In summary, you can work miracles by having faith in others. Expect the best from people and situations and be grateful for what you have. Being grateful leads us to attract and create more things to be grateful for. Learn to appreciate yourself and your accomplishments. Don’t put off being happy, waiting for something great to happen. Accept and appreciate yourself and your life right now. Stop complaining about the negatives (or perceived negatives), and start talking about the positives. In other words, routinely start looking for “the good” in people you meet or work with and situations that you encounter. Remember that every negative happening in your life contains within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. It’s up to you to find it. Embrace this mentality—and you’ll lay the foundation for future success.

The “opportunity” that Covid-19 presented: I’ve been interested in writing a book on this particular topic for many years now. In fact, bits and pieces of this book had been written over the past decade. My file cabinets at home were stuffed with note cards, newspaper and magazine articles, and handwritten notes on behavioral skills and inspirational stories of highly successful people in all walks of life. Yet, I never seemed to have the time to complete it?! The spark that drove me to finally complete a first draft of this book may, in itself, be revealing. Without question, one of the behavior skills of highly successful people is that they “look for the good in people and situations.” In this case, it was the horrific, worldwide Covid-19 public health crisis that unexpectedly gave me the opportunity to refocus on this unfinished goal.

Since June 2019, I’ve been working half-time (20 hours per week) after nearly 35 years of full-time employment at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. During this period, I made consistent progress on the book, dedicating time to it on my days off and during weekends. But in mid-March, 2020, the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic hit. Our outpatient, exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program was temporarily closed, and our Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, mandated a “stay at home” for a minimum of 2 months—particularly meaningful for at-risk older persons like me. The media constantly repeated the message: “Stay home, stay safe.” As things turned out, our cardiac rehabilitation program was closed for nearly 3 months, and I was officially “laid off” for 2 months! Initially, I watched the television in horror over the mounting deaths accruing throughout the United States and worldwide, and marveled at our doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and administrators who were dealing with the influx of gravely ill Covid-19 patients, not to mention the nationwide shortages in protective medical equipment, face masks, and lifesaving ventilators.

What else would I do? I could watch the continued negative television coverage of the health crisis and initially plummeting economy/stock market, become the ultimate couch potato, reading 8‒10 hours per day, transition from being mildly overweight to becoming obese by overeating during this highly stressful period, and/or fret about the social isolation and continued home confinement, conference cancellations, closed restaurants, inability to visit my barber, losing my breadwinner status (i.e., no work, no pay), and unsettling disruption of normal life. Or, I could diligently look for concealed or camouflaged opportunities—was there any “good” in this horrible situation? It was up to me to find it—it was my challenge. To yield the greatest results, I dec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword (Mark Sanborn)
• A Favorite Story
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• SECTION I A Roadmap for Success
• SECTION II Steps for Success
• SECTION III Additional Strategies and Tactics for Success
• SECTION IV Appendices
• Index