Larry Winget is that kind of person, and I was spell-bound as I listened to him speak at the GKIC SuperConference in April. What made him unique was his ability to incorporate humor into serious subjects. The truth goes down easier when you can laugh along the way.
The titles of his best-selling books tell you all you need to know about his unique approach:
Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life
You’re Broke Because You Want to Be
It’s Called Work for a Reason!
People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It!
Your Kids Are Your Own FaultLarry likes to reduce important truths to their simplest form.
He found 500 books on “the secrets of customer service.” His summary: BE NICE.
For the 600 books on “the secrets of selling,” he boils it down to: “ASK. If they say no, ask again. If they say no again, ask somebody else. Don’t be stupid.”
And he really got my attention when he talked about taking personal responsibility and raising children to be successful adults.
Not many speakers would be willing to state this to an audience, for fear of offending someone: “If your 30 year-old still lives in his bedroom at your house, you’re a failure as a parent.”
If you agree that the ultimate purpose of parenting is to produce independent, responsible adults (which I do), then he’s absolutely right.
He also poked holes at ideas often proclaimed as truth by motivational speakers. Here are my two favorites.
Myth: You can have it all.
Reality: You cannot have it all. You have to choose. You HAVE to say no to some things.
We’re told we can GET rich or GET skinny or GET successful. But you have to give up some other things in order to GET the results you want.
Larry outlined a simple 3-step plan that requires only 3 sheets of paper. Invest the time to give thoughtful answers (99% of people won’t do this), and you’ll see exactly what changes you need to make.
1. Where you ARE in every area of your life now – e.g., financial, relationships, health, business, personal life
2. Where you WANT TO BE in all these areas
3. What you’ve got to give up to get from where you are to where you want to be
Myth: As long as you’ve got a good, positive attitude, you’ll have a good life.
Reality: No, a positive attitude “doesn’t keep crap from happening” to you.
And then he stated my favorite line of the day:
“We need the ability to DEAL with all the crap that happens.”
Why did this resonate so deeply with me?
Because this one truth summarizes the work we’ve been doing in our company for the past 20 years. We know that people need to have inner strengths already established, so they can draw on these when faced with the challenges they’ll encounter. That’s why the tagline for our ProStar Coach system is “Strong for Work, Strong for Life.”
If you haven’t invested time in developing personal strengths like perseverance, composure, responsibility, flexibility, self-discipline, focus and courage, you can’t instantly turn them on when you find yourself in a situation where you need to use them. They are patterns of behavior that you develop over time.
So if you’re one of the 1% who actually takes time to complete the 3-step plan above, be sure to list the personal strengths you’ll need to develop in order to handle all the “crap” that you’ll face on your journey.
