January 15, 7:30 am
Taking control of your own situation
I popped open my newsreader this morning and saw the following headlines:
“New jobless claims rise more than expected”
“Sales for all of 2009 plunge by record amount”
“Record year for foreclosures”
It’s enough to be discouraging, but only if you’re looking solely at the news and not at the opportunities.
The truth is that each of us make choices about what we do each day, and opportunities present themselves all the time. The choice to act (or not act) is ours.
If you think the current situation is a roadblock on the path to success, consider this: Each of the following businesses was started during a recession:
Burger King
Microsoft
Hewlett Packard
CNN
IHOP
I remember people all around me mocking the CNN concept when it was announced, saying it was going to be boring and nobody would watch. Hmmm. The world is well-populated with nay-sayers.
Each of the successful companies listed above (and thousands more) was started and staffed by people who believed they could succeed, even when times were tough.
According to a 2009 survey, 55 percent of US workers are unhappy with their jobs. It’s even worse if you’re young; with 64 percent of the 25-and-under crowd saying they’re unhappy.
My question is “what are you going to do about it?” You can focus on the negative headlines, or you can focus on that cool idea you’ve been bandying about. The choice is up to you.
Filed in Work, Business, Motivation, Workplace, Corporate Culture
You are very much correct in your assessment, Dan. Success can be found when all there seems to be is failure all around. However, I think the reason why most people are unwilling to change their situation is because they see all this failure around them and they too don’t want to fail. Would you agree?
Those who allow the fear of failure to keep them from trying will not fail. However, neither will they succeed.
…
Justin — yes, that’s a pretty popular excuse! And it’s really sad that fear freezes so many people.
Exciting and New — GREAT QUOTE!
Most employees are dissatisfied with their jobs because they are continually being dissempowered. Most of the businesses you list as being started during recessions are major disempowerers of their own employees using secret shopper programs where the employees are not allowed to know when they are shopped and have no recourse or natural freedom to defend themselves.
A great deal of hate anger and dissempowerment is created by programs like these. Wouldn’t it be much better to work with and for your employees?
Russ,
If you could point me in the direction of an article or two (or better yet, some kind of survey) that backs up your points about the disempowerment attitude at these companies, I’d be glad to consider them.
Truth is that EVERY major corporation has managers and leaders who’ve never learned their proper role and responsibilities — and are therefore disempowering.
As for secret shopper programs, I’m actually a big fan of them. But the KEY for management is to do as you suggest and work WITH the employees to correct any perceived shortcomings. If management misuses their tools, then yes, the results you describe are (sadly) very likely to occur.
No matter what company we’re talking about, it all boils down to HOW managers perform their key responsibilities.