Attitude is everything

By: Jeff Keller

• Part 1: Success begins in the mind

  Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.

  1. Your attitude is your window to the world

     Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

     1. Criticsm is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes them strive to justify themselves. It is dangerous, because it wounds a person's precious pride, hurts their sense of importance, and arouses resentment
     2. Don't complain about the snow on your neighbour's roof, said Confucious," when your doorstep is unclean"
     3. When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity
     4. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. But it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.
     5. A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men
     6. Instead of condemning people, let's try to understand them. Let's try to figure out why they do what they do. That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness. "To know all is to forgive all"
  2. The big secret of dealing with people (Give honest and sincere appreciation)
     1. There is only one way under high heaven to get anybody to do anything And that is making the other person want to do it. There is no other way
     2. It is said that the deepest urge in human nature is "the desire to be important"
     3. Some of the things most people want include:
        • Health and the preservation of life.
        • Food
        • Sleep
        • Money and the things money will buy
        • Life in the hereafter
        • The well being of our children
        • A feeling of importance
     4. The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
     5. When people lose their importance, they go in insanity, because they find a feeling of importance there that they were unable to achieve in the world of reality.
     6. If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane about it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity.
     7. When people don't like a thing, they bawl out their subordinates; if they do like it, they say nothing.
     8. In our generation people could have committed a crime if they let their families or employees go for six days without food; but they will let them go for six days, and six weeks, and sometimes sixty years without giving them the hearty appreciation that they crave almost as much as they crave food.
     9. Of course flattery works with discerning people. It is shallow, selfish and insincere. It ought to fail and it usually does. True, some people are so hungry, so thirsty, for appreciation that they will swallow anything, just as a starving man will eat grass and fishworms.
     10. Flattery is dangerous. But what's the difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.

     I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again

  3. He who can do this has the whole world with him
• Part 2
  1. Do this and you will be welcome anywhere
  2. A simple way to make a first good impression
  3. If you don't? Do this, you are headed for trouble
  4. An easy way to become a good conversationalis
  5. How to interest people
  6. How to make people like you instantly
• Part 3
  1. You can't win an argument
  2. A sure way of making enemies and how to avoid it
  3. If you are wrong admit it
  4. A drop of honey
  5. The secret of socrates
  6. The safety valve in handeling complaints
  7. How to get cooperation
  8. A formula that will work wonders for you
  9. What everybody wants
  10. An appeal that everybody likes
  11. The movies do it...why don't you do it?
  12. When nothing else works, try this
• Part 4
  1. If you must find fault, this is the way to begin
  2. How to criticize and not be hated for it
  3. Talk about your own mistakes first
  4. No one likes to take orders
  5. Let the other person save face
  6. How to spur people on to success
  7. Give a dog a good name
  8. Make the fault seem easy to correct
  9. Making people glad to do what you want