فصل 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ATTITUDE

A GREAT ATTITUDE IS WORTH MORE THAN A GREAT PRODUCT

People will pay more for an agreeable, positive, and enjoyable experience than they will for a great product. Who doesn’t want to feel good? Who doesn’t want to be acknowledged for being right? Who doesn’t want to be smiled at and agreed with? Show me a person that doesn’t want to feel good and I’ll show you someone that you don’t want to bother selling! People want to feel good. People are moved by positive and confident people, more than by great products. There will always be a market for products that make people feel good, but a person who can make someone feel good can sell almost anything! The individual who combines a great attitude with a great product becomes unstoppable!

A positive attitude is a thousand times more important than the product itself. Just observe how people on this planet spend their money. A person will spend a small amount of his income on the necessities of life and blow his entire paycheck on entertainment. Why? Because he wants to feel good! Why does Jay Leno make more money than all of the schoolteachers in Los Angeles combined? Because he makes people laugh and feel good.

It’s easy for a buyer to say no to a product or a company, but it’s extremely difficult to say no to a positive experience with another human being. When something makes you feel good, you want more of it, whether it makes sense or not. This is why people do things that aren’t good for them, because for a moment or two, it made them feel good. People will spend money on things that make them feel good before they’ll spend money on things they need. This explains the poverty and debt levels we see today.

Once I saw a beautiful jacket on display in a shop window and was so intrigued by it that I went inside to have a closer look. I asked the clerk the price, which she told me as she helped me slip the jacket on. Admiring my reflection in the mirror, I protested that the price was insane and added that I didn’t even need the thing! With a warm, understanding, and beautiful smile, she said, “No one buys a jacket like this because they need it. They buy it because it’s beautiful and it makes them feel good.” Melting in the truth of her statement, I asked her, “Do you take AMEX?” With all the chaos and bad news that the media disseminate daily, it’s refreshing to meet a solution-oriented, positive person. You know the kind of person I’m talking about. The kind of person who’s always smiling as he says, “Yes, sir, I’ll get it done for you. I’d be happy to do that!” I want to be taken care of by positive people. I don’t want to just be sold. I want people around me who are positive, helpful, smiling, and motivated. That’s what all people want.

I have a personal assistant named Jen. When I hired her, she had no experience with the type of businesses I own and had never worked in the kind of environment we have. I didn’t hire Jen because of her abilities and experience, but because of her positive attitude. Jen is an upbeat “can-do,” get-it-done-with-a-smile-on-her-face kind of a person. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t make mistakes; she does. But because of her attitude, the mistakes are acceptable. I never get mad at her no matter what she does because she’s so service-oriented, so positive, so “Yes, sir, I’d be happy to do that for you.” Is Jen selling? Absolutely! Every day, whether she knows it or not.

Never let anyone convince you that people won’t pay more for a great attitude and great service. The ability to be positive at all times, whether you’re winning or losing, is the one thing that will ensure you’re a winner in the end. Attitude is senior to it all! I love positive people and find them irresistible. When you are positive, people will find you irresistible.

TREAT ‘EM LIKE MILLIONAIRES

My wife and I often go to a place called The Grove for dinner and a movie. We valet-park the car there, and this bleached-blond, spiky-haired guy always greets us, opens the car door, and smiles like he’s glad to see us. “Good to see you again, boss,” he says. “Leave it with me. I’ll see you in a couple of hours and your car will be right up front.” He gets a $20 tip from me every time, even though I could have parked the car myself for $2. The other valet guy who works there greets us like we’re a nuisance, doesn’t smile, appears to hate his job, and parks the car in the same spot that the spiky-haired guy does. Due to his poor attitude, I give him $5, and that’s only because he parked my car for me. I’m sure he then goes home and tells his girlfriend how cheap all the people are who valet their big cars and that his spiky-haired partner is just luckier than he is.

It ain’t the luck of the spiky-haired guy, I assure you, and it is definitely not that I’m a poor tipper. It’s the attitude that makes the difference. The reality is, people with good attitudes are luckier than people with bad attitudes. There is no treasure greater than a great attitude and no way to get real treasures without having a great attitude!

A customer wanted to buy a truck from me one time, and like many car buyers, he didn’t want the dealership to make any money off the deal. He thought it was fair that he pay only invoice for the truck. None of this makes any sense, of course, because if the company sells its products for invoice then it won’t be able to stay in business to service the customer.

But because I know that attitude is more important than the product or the price and because I trusted that the customer would pay for my positive, can-do attitude, I told him, “No problem, whatever you want, it’s yours, my friend. I just appreciate having the opportunity to do business with you.” He was shocked at my response and the smile I had on my face because I hadn’t let him get under my skin. I spent the next hour or so with him, showing him the truck, getting to know him, laughing with him, and being a positive influence on him. I treated that customer as if he were about to give me $1 million. I put aside the fact that he didn’t want to pay above invoice for the product and pushed everything in the direction of a great attitude.

At the close, I showed him the documented invoice price on the truck, with state taxes of $4,000, and added another $2,000 for me to take care of him for the next four years. He looked at me and said, “I know I can buy this down the street without paying the extra $2,000.” With a smile, I responded, “You’re probably right, but you won’t get me down the street.” He laughed and said, “I don’t know why I’m doing this, but let’s do it,” and he wrote the check.

Remember that a product can be shopped, but a great attitude cannot. A price can be beat, but a great attitude is priceless. There’s nothing more valuable to anyone than a positive person.

People will always act according to your attitude. If it’s negative, expect a negative response. When it’s positive, you can expect a positive response. If I scream and threaten another person, you can expect him to flee or fight. Neither response is good for a salesperson. But if I’m positive and agreeable, I can expect the buyer’s response to be the same if I’m contagious enough! When you have the ability to change people’s attitudes in a positive way and make them feel better than they did before meeting you, you’ll no longer need to rely on your product being superior!

How you act toward others will be how they’ll act toward you. Your attitude precedes everything that happens to you in life. If you think about car wrecks, you’ll have car wrecks. If you hang around with negative people, you’ll start to get negative. Hang around people with problems and you’ll attract problems.

A PRODUCT OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT

My mom told me as a kid, “You are the people you hang around with.” While I resisted her wisdom at that time, I know now that it’s true. Today I would take that great statement even further and say, “You are a product of all that you surround yourself with!” That includes the TV you watch, the newspapers you read, the friends you have, the movies you go to, your hobbies, your interests, your family, and everything else that you are involved with.

Every winter season the newspeople spend hours each day convincing you and your family that the flu season is coming, that you’re susceptible, and that millions of people will get the flu. They used to call them epidemics, and now they call them pandemics. Do I think that people actually get the flu because it’s promoted with such dedication? Absolutely! The media get everyone thinking about the flu, worrying about the flu, talking about the flu, and people will start to think they’re getting the flu until finally they do get it!

When the media start promoting recessions and tough times, people everywhere tighten up, and this perpetuates exactly what was promoted. Entire economies can be frozen by what is promoted on television and in newspapers! The attitudes of entire nations of people can be shifted from positive to negative in order to influence the actions of many so that just a few benefit. The newspapers and television have been used for years to influence the attitudes and actions of the many. If the actions of millions of people can be altered by the news, certainly your attitude can influence one other person for the good or the bad.

Even the “medical profession” agrees that most mental and physical diseases are actually psychosomatic (of the mind). This has been proved with placebo pills that in many cases result in as much healing as those who took the real medicine. Even though the placebos are nothing but sugar pills, people believe they will help them, and so they do.

I believe that the single most valuable asset I have in my life is my ability to stay positive when everyone else is losing their minds. When everyone around me is freaking out and worrying and singing the blues, I choose to stay positive. By staying positive, you become the obvious leader, and people will follow your lead. If that position in life is desirable to you, then you need to do everything possible to protect your attitude from things that bring you down. You’ll also need to take a preventive step and guard yourself against other people who may have the agenda of affecting you negatively.

It is not enough just to be positive; you have to actually protect yourself against those who are being negative. Watch out for friends, family, work associates, and others around you who have an agenda of negatively affecting those around them. Attitudes, like diseases, are contagious. Your enemies are not your problem when it comes to attitude; the problem is the people closest to you. Would you let your best friend leave his garbage in your house? Of course not! But that’s exactly what he’s doing when he comes over and starts telling you bad news, gossip, and all his troubles. You’re allowing him to leave his mental trash in your environment, and you become infected.

TIPS FOR HAVING A GREAT ATTITUDE

If you aren’t getting paid the way you want to and you know what you’re doing, I assure you that your attitude is part of your problem! If you want a bigger paycheck, get a bigger attitude. The questions to ask are, how do you change it?; how do you stay positive?; and what can you do to ensure that you’re smiling, happy, and loving life?

Here are some helpful suggestions that I’ve used in my life when I wanted to make sure I had a beaming, positive attitude.

Avoid newspapers, television, and radio.

Stay away from “can’t do” people, people who have trouble in life, and people who don’t do well. You can try to help people, but don’t hang around with them and be affected negatively. This includes family and friends.

Get everyone in your life on the same page with where you’re going and what you want in your life, as well as what’s expected of them in order for you to get there!

Avoid drugs and alcohol because of the negative influence they have on your mind. They make you lethargic, slow, and unsure! Prescription drugs affect the mind as badly as the street drugs do, and some are proving to be even more dangerous. Just look at the side effects and warning labels. Control your attitude by being aware and alert, not by being drugged and numbed.

Avoid hospitals and doctors if at all possible. Go see them when you absolutely have to, but that’s it. I’ve seen too many people get worse after they spend time with doctors and hospitals. Hospitals appear to be “sick factories” rather than places that heal people. Just watch people as they leave.

Treat negative talk like garbage. Put up a sign in your home and your office that reads, NO-NEGATIVE-TALK ZONE. Don’t allow people to talk negatively around you. You don’t need it. Treat it like garbage and don’t allow anyone to leave their garbage in your environment.

Start the negativity diet today. Commit to no negative thoughts, ideas, or talk for the next twenty-four hours. This will be a start to you really getting control of your thoughts and actions, and it will help you build discipline to control how you think and act. Thoughts come before actions, and your actions then determine your life. Once you get control of how you think, you will then get control of your actions. The negativity diet works like this: No negative thoughts, talk, or actions for a full twenty-four hours or you restart the clock. While this may seem like a very simple challenge, I have never met anyone who made it through the first twenty-four hours without having to restart the clock, and I know thousands of people who failed the challenge only ten minutes after starting.

This is going to give you a game to play whereby you are competing with yourself to start controlling how you think, act, and live life! People have become unaware of just how negative they are, and then they wonder why they get negative results in life! Control your thoughts, and you will control your actions. This simple game will first make you aware. Once aware, a person can start making changes. Be gently honest with yourself while playing this game. When you fail, become aware of the negative thought or action, write it down, and restart the clock. Keep doing this until you are able to make it for twenty-four hours. Then see how many days you can go. The goal is to create awareness and discipline in what you choose to think and do in your life!

If you want to know how to permanently get rid of negativity, call my office and my staff will introduce you to the only guaranteed, surefire way to rid yourself of all your negative computations, ideas, and reactive responses and become the positive, forward-looking, solution-oriented person that you are supposed to be. The reality is, if you didn’t have any negativity going on in the first place, you wouldn’t need the negativity diet. Call 800-368-5771, and my office will turn you on to the most exciting adventure of your life.

Nothing in your life will pay you more rewards than your ability to have and maintain a great attitude. Nothing will prove more valuable in life than a positive outlook. People will remember you not for how much money you made or for your success, but for how you handled life and how you made others feel. Your attitude and your ability to have a positive influence on the attitudes of others will affect not only your sales, but every area of your life: Your marriage, your kids, your health, your wealth, your luck—everything. You name it, and a great attitude will affect it!