THE "POLITICS" OF GETTING WHAT YOU WANT

At President BO's Town Meeting in Fort Myers, Florida on February 10, 2009, a young man, Julio Osegueda, stood up and with great giddiness and passion asked the President what he was going to do to help people who have worked for a company as long as he has to get better pay and benefits.

You can see the video of his question and President BO's answer in my previous post below.

I find the young man's impassioned "question" disturbing. He is obviously of the generation that believes that he should be given what he wants.

Motivational sales speaker, Zig Ziglar, makes this statement in his presentation: "You can get anything you want out of life if you help enough other people get what they want out of life."

That is a very powerful thought, if you understand what it means.

See, nobody is guaranteed happiness in this country.

Nobody owes anybody anything in this country, except to those who have earned something.

Let me give you the secrets of getting what you want.

First, and this is the most difficult to both understand and accomplish, give up self.

I have met very few people who have really given up self-interests in favor of learning to give to others.

For years we were taught that we must first look out for numero uno...number one...self.

The result of that is a form of ambition that prevents us from helping others get what they want out of life, and therefore we fail at getting what we want out of life.

The Bible says, in Philippians 2:3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

That is not true because it is in the Bible, it is in the Bible because it is true.

When we give up self and elevate others to an exalted position in our minds, we put ourselves in a position to give them what they want out of life, and thus gain for ourselves what we want out
of life.

For instance, let's say you are a salesman in an appliance store and are paid a commission of your sales.

If a couple comes in looking for a refrigerator, you can assume that a refrigerator is one of the things they want out of life.

Now if you sell them a refrigerator, you will receive a commission and will be able to get more of what you want out of life.

The second thing you need to do to get what you want is to get a good education.

I don't necessarily mean a college degree, but find out how to learn all you can about whatever job or career you want to be in.

A good education also means to learn the English language.

Yes, that can be tough.

English is the one of the most confusing languages in existence. Consider the letters "ough."

Through, though, tough, thought all use "ough" but are pronounced differently.

Consider Barack Obama.

His grammar, when giving a prepared speech, is absolutely impeccable!

The proper use of the English language, like it or not, will get you closer to your goal of getting what you want out of life than its improper use.

The next thing you need to do to get what you want out of life is to develop great work habits.

Nothing will get you further than dependability.

Show up for work...every day...no excuses...ever...unless you really ill with a contagious disease or unless you are dead.

If you don't want to go to work, go anyway. That will build your confidence and your self-esteem.

When you get to work, work hard!

This is not about whether your boss or company deserves your hard work. This is about your work habits and integrity.

If you are out of work, make finding work your work.

Spend eight full hours every day looking for work, just as you would spend eight hours every day at work.

We are never guaranteed happiness, but we are given the opportunity to pursue happiness, and trust me, your integrity, dependability, hard work and success at what you work at will do more to build your self-esteem and give you happiness than all of the praises from your mom, or your teacher or the best psychologist money can buy.

Next: be honest.

I mean painfully, diligently truthful.

Politicians believe something is true because they say it is true.

"Truth" is what actually happened.

If you lie to me once, then you will have to give me a list of things about which I can trust you and things about which I cannot trust you.

Otherwise, I won't know and I'll have to take everything you tell me with a grain of salt.

If you lie to me, your chances of getting ahead in my company decrease in direct proportion to the lack of trust I have in your word.

Finally (there are more...but this will be my final one for today, anyway), maintain a positive attitude of gratitude toward yourself, your situation, your boss, those employees around you and the customers you serve.

Julio (and dear reader), if you will do these things, you will succeed at getting all you want out of life, because you will have helped enough other people get what they want out of life.

You won't need President BO to give you anything.

GO FOR IT!