HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK
Back in the days of Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale, and Dale Carnegie, there was a special wisdom, and a common element in their dynamic formulas for success. They always seemed to focus on people and relationships as being the make or break factor for having a successful career, business, and life. Not only how we see people, but how we treat people, and serve people, on our journey to achievement.
Zig Ziglar famously said, “You can have everything you want in life, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Earl Nightingale gave a powerful 30-day challenge focused on “treating everyone you come in contact with as the most important person in the world.” Lastly, who could forget the life-changing book by Dale Carnegie, “How To Win Friends and Influence People.”
These great thinkers all knew that the foundational piece to any true success is built upon a genuine respect and appreciation for PEOPLE.
Successful people think about people. They place a high value on how they treat people in their everyday encounters. This important, and often overlooked basic, is what led me to create my monthly video series on How To Be More People Focused in 2021. Now is the perfect time to rise higher in how we serve others, and a great opportunity to refocus on how we connect with people. Today, I share a true story, and the amazing results of what can happen, when we care about and take the time to notice people.
WHAT IS TRUE SUCCESS?
My son had a challenging and highly competitive job at the end of high school. He was the youngest salesman at a car dealership, and he learned some important life lessons in some rather unexpected ways. Even more, he discovered just how much PEOPLE have everything to do with a successful career and life.
I was so proud to see my son not only work hard in learning the massive product knowledge that was required, but in developing strong people skills. Most of all, I admired his dedication to always be honest in a highly charged environment.
He worked a lot of long hours and always had some interesting, funny, and pretty crazy stories to share with me. But he also told me how often the other salesmen would “size up” the people coming in by how they “looked.” They would judge how they were dressed, what car they pulled up in, and what they assumed might be their financial class. Based on that, they decided whether they were even WORTH their time and effort.
Fortunately, my son was able to see beyond those appearances to see people as people, and to see opportunity. Opportunity to help and to be of service. He gladly took every seemingly lower-class person that the other seasoned salesmen scoffed at or rejected. In fact, they gladly turned these potential buyers over to “The KID.” They thought he could waste HIS time and maybe it would teach him a good lesson in how successful selling REALLY worked.
TRUE SUCCESS IS HELPING OTHERS
But, my son’s willingness to see people as people and to move in a true spirit of service won him buyer after buyer after buyer. He even sold TWO cars to some people, on the same day! Even more, he set the important example of not judging anybody by how they look. In fact, “The KID” went on to achieve top salesman awards in his time there! Seems HE taught those seasoned salesmen a thing or two about SUCCESSFUL selling!
HOW TO ACHIEVE TRUE SUCCESS
We all define success differently, but it has been proven time and again that it is not arriving at the destination of having lots of money, status, or prestige that is the true measurement of success. It is WHO you served along the way, and HOW you actually got there, that becomes your TRUE success. Most importantly, it is the lives YOU were able to have some part in changing for the better. A heart for PEOPLE, and a heart for SERVICE, really does lead to TRUE success!
I hope this inspires new ideas for you to use in your own journey to success. Drop a comment below and join the conversation!
Check out this March video in the series – The Power in a NAME
Melissa Holy
Melissa Holy, a former CEO in the staffing industry, has been dedicated to the success of individuals in their careers and businesses. Now, as the founder of GRIT Business & Success Training, and the author of Living the GRIT Life Blog, she provides strategies, insight, and motivation to continue her passion of helping people build success personally and professionally. Visit MELISSAHOLY.COM to find out more about staying strong INSIDE, to live powerfully OUTSIDE.
