I was recently talking to a fellow speaker about marketing. She was complaining (whining, really) because she had to put together a new marketing campaign for her services, and she wasn’t enjoying the process. She said she didn’t want to do any marketing. I asked her what she did want, and she said:

“I just want people to hire me.”

Well, don’t we all? There are a lot of kids out there who want a pony, and that’s probably not going to happen either.

But her comment got me thinking. It seems to me that in the area of achievement, there are two kinds of people:

There are worker bees…and there are wannabes.

One of them gets results. See if you can guess which one:

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I recently read a New York Times Magazine article that says that in the late 19th century there was a theory about how human beings improve in their activities. The theory said that a person “could improve at mental and physical activities until he hit a wall, which he cannot by any education or exertion overpass.” In other words, there’s a point for each of us where we can’t improve anymore.

Turns out that’s not altogether true. Current research, as the article points out, shows that our level of improvement “often has much less to do with our innate limits than with what we consider an acceptable level of performance.” To put it another way, we work at something until we get to “good enough.” And this is where the average people simply stop.

Let me tell you what the above average people do.

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There’s a guy at my gym whom I call Burl. Not because he’s burly, like you’d expect a gym regular to be, but because he looks like Burl Ives. (For you younger readers, Burl Ives was a rotund, congenial-looking man, whom you may know as the voice of Frosty the Snowman. He was not known for his rock-hard abs.) Burl is there every morning, sitting on an exercise bike, watching TV. Not actually exercising, mind you. I’ve never seen him so much as pedal his bike. He just sits there, watching TV.

Burl Ives: He didn't pedal

Now, here’s the thing. I’ll bet you that every morning, he tells his friends and family that he’s “going to the gym.” Which is technically true, but not really legitimate.

Kind of like when the rest of us tell our friends and family that we’re “going to work.”

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Are you preparing for success, or, to paraphrase Shakespeare, waiting for success to be thrust upon you?

My first job in television was basically that of a glorified secretary (and by “glorified” I mean “unglorified”). My primary function was to answer viewer mail. At around 2:00pm on my first day, while I was answering the 50th inane request for the Chicken Kiev recipe that some local chef had made on our morning show the previous day, I recall thinking what a perfect use this was of my brand new Bachelor’s degree. Still, I was hoping for more. So when quitting time rolled around, rather than go home, I found my way to the engineering department and asked them if they had a manual for the video editing machines. They gave me one, and I spent the next eight hours teaching myself how to edit. I did this for the next four days; then, the following week, I did the same thing with the video cameras. And then, I waited for someone to get sick.

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How committed are you to the quality of your work?

If you go to the British Museum (and you really should, you know), you will see the Elgin Marbles. These are a collection of ancient Greek marble sculptures that used to grace the Parthenon. (And by the way, contrary to popular belief, the “g” in “Elgin” is pronounced like the “g” in “goat,” not “gin.” Mmmm, gin.) These are magnificent statues, but what’s really amazing is what you see when you walk behind them. The backs of the statues, you see, are nearly as detailed as the fronts.

“So what,” you say, in that irritating tone that I’ve asked you not to use. “What’s the big deal about that?” The big deal is this:

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I’m getting a little sick and tired of people moaning about the bad times.

“I don’t have enough money.”

“I’ll never be able to retire.”

“Nobody will give me a job.”

Now don’t get me wrong–I’m not saying these aren’t serious issues. These are challenging times, and I truly feel for those who are struggling to get by. What I am saying, though, is that moaning about it may not be the most effective response. Read More…

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