By Daniel Bobinski
History books are full of astute and insightful quotes. It’s one thing to agree with them. It’s something more to incorporate their truth into our lives. What I like about many quotes is that they reflect universal principles of success, and who in their right mind doesn’t want more of that?
Many inspirational quotes include great imagery and symbolism. For example, the axiom about turtles advancing only when they stick their neck out has more symbolism than just emphasizing a need for risk.
In the story of the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise is depicted as a slow-moving creature that succeeds using the principle of steadiness. I know several people who were told they would not succeed in business because they were not assertive or aggressive when it came to business. But these people operated using the turtle’s symbolism: by sticking out their necks to take calculated risks and moving steadily forward. As a result, they achieved their goals and their businesses are well-established.
The turtle quote and its themes can be compared to many similar sayings, such as “no risk, no reward,” or “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” or “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Many inspirational quotes revolve around the need for risk and just getting started, but over the years I’ve come up with my own set of truisms to help people succeed. Some of my clients have latched onto these and spread them throughout their companies, such as the organization that printed them up as posters and hung them in their company break room. Feel free to do the same. Here are a few of my favorites:
Slower up front equals faster down the road.
This is a most helpful phrase for Type A personalities to memorize. Those who are driven hard to succeed often see the shortest distance between two points as being a straight line, but that is not necessarily the case. When dealing with “slower moving people” (about 65 percent of the population), faster-moving people benefit greatly by knowing when to slow down and work with people in ways that create harmony, not pressure. They’re frequently surprised to find that it’s true – the end result of moving slower up front is often faster results!
One Type A production manager took this to heart when interacting with his easy-going scheduling person. Over the years, he pushed her so hard that she eventually became passive-aggressive. When he decide to use the “slower up front” approach, things smoothed out in relatively short order, and she started providing him his requests without “finding” reasons to delay them.
You’ll go where you’re focused.
If you’ve taken a good driving course you’ve learned that your vehicle tends to go in the direction you’re looking. The same principle applies in just about every aspect of life: You will move in the direction of your focus. If you’re looking only at the trouble spots, you’re likely to stumble. But if you’re focusing on the path of actions that lead to success, you’re likely to achieve success.
Acknowledgement does not equal agreement.
Good communication skills include being able to acknowledge someone else’s point of view, even if you don’t agree. (There are several talk radio hosts I won’t listen to because they fail miserably at this). Unfortunately, many people hold the mistaken belief that acknowledging someone’s point of view is the same as agreeing. Not true! Here’s an extreme example to make my point: You may fervently believe the moon is made out of blue cheese. A wise person with good communication skills is capable of acknowledging your belief without agreeing with you.
An inability to do this is a tremendous obstacle to success. I recall a company bringing me in to facilitate a conflict resolution workshop. During the exercises, one employee flatly refused to acknowledge perspectives with which he disagreed. Even when I emphasized that he didn’t have to agree, the objective was just to restate someone’s position, he flatly refused. I later learned that he didn’t last long with that company.
Only make new mistakes.
This saying goes hand-in-hand with a quote solidly attributed to Theodore Roosevelt; “The man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” I should note that half-a-dozen other people made similar statements in the 70 years prior to Roosevelt making his statement, but the idea is the same. Anyone who’s getting anything done in life is making mistakes.
Unfortunately, some people keep making the same mistakes over and over. The underlying message in “only make new mistakes” is the need to learn from mistakes. Think about it. Any parent who does nothing but scold children for making mistakes is, in fact, making a huge parenting mistake. Good parents help their children learn from mistakes, or those children will likely become too afraid to “stick their necks out” and achieve success.
In the same way, good managers should use workplace mistakes as opportunities for learning. As the story goes, one of IBM’s big failures was the IBM PC Jr. It was called the “Edsel of computers” due to its poor design. Despite the tremendous expense of development and promotion, the product was quickly discontinued after being released and the manager overseeing the project expected to be fired. He went to his own manager and asked if he should clean out his desk. Instead of firing him, the senior manager replied, “We just spent several million dollars training you. Why would we want to fire you?”
By the way, the principle of learning from mistakes can also be tied to another of my favorite sayings, “Good judgment comes from experience; Experience comes from bad judgment.”
In closing, let me emphasize that the sayings that permeate your mind are the ones that will influence your life. With the idea that you will go where you’re focused, may I suggest you choose your thoughts carefully. After all, it was Henry Ford who (rightfully) said,
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
Daniel Bobinski, M.Ed. teaches teams and individuals how to use Emotional Intelligence, and his videos and blogs on that topic appear regularly at www.eqfactor.net. He’s also a best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. Reach him at daniel@eqfactor.net or 208-375-7606.
