A Passion for the Positive Attitude is Everything

- by Charles S. Lauer, Publisher Modern Healthcare

People ask me all the time how to attain success. My answer isn’t complicated, and you’ve probably heard it before. But, I believe the most important ingredient for success is attitude. Some people believe that attitude is something you are born with but nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone can have a good and positive attitude if they truly want to succeed but it takes discipline and it takes work. Those that develop a good attitude about their personal and professional life usually have success because others are attracted to them. I don’t know about you but I have always been drawn to people who are full of life, laugh easily and always look for the positive side of things. I don’t want to be around people who are negative and cynical. Unfortunately, there are a number of individuals who behave that way, but they aren’t going anywhere. In today’s competitive world a positive attitude not only attracts others but it’s what differentiates the winners from the losers.

Recently many of us watched the Super Bowl game on TV. It was played between two excellent football teams, but the New England team prevailed and there was a reason for that. The coach of the New England team, Bill Belichick, has always stressed team play. He doesn’t believe in so-called star performers and individualists who place their needs and wants ahead of the team. This is a philosophy that he has stressed over and over in his coaching career. He must be on to something because this is the third year the New England team has won the Super Bowl. Now to be a team player a person has to have the right attitude. The willingness to subordinate your ego and fit in with the rest of your colleagues so that you can contribute to the goals and aspirations of your colleagues and company. It isn’t easy because we all have egos and we all have unique aspirations. But, it all comes down to working with each other to attain a goal. I know many athletes who have all the talent in the world. In their own right, they are stars with all kinds of god-given skills but they aren’t team players. They put themselves and their egos before their friends and colleagues and that very often can be the reason many companies or any organization never really enjoy true, long
lasting success.

Now some of you might ask why being a team player has anything to do with attitude, but I believe it’s fairly obvious. Being willing to be an enthusiastic member of team requires discipline and a willingness to give of yourself to a cause or goal. That can be a tricky business, of course, but if you’ll look around you will understand what I’m trying to say. Maybe a good example of attitude would be what happened in 1980 at the winter Olympic games. The U.S. Ice Hockey Team won the Gold Medal when no one expected them to. The big game, of course, was the Russian victory. The Russian team was composed of some of the greatest hockey players in the world. They were pros and the kids who made up the U.S. Olympic team were a bunch of young college players. A few days before the Russian team had beaten the U.S. team in an exhibition match by the score of 10 to 2. Some said the score could have been even greater and the U.S. team was outplayed. But Herb Brooks the coach of the U.S. Olympic Team noticed something at that game which convinced him that the Russian team could be beaten. He noticed that the Russian Players lacked enthusiasm and passion and almost acted like a bunch of robots. They were simply going through the motions and, even though they had great talent, going through the motions is no way to win anything especially a hockey game. Herb Brooks had a knack for using subtle psychological ploys with his players and because of what he saw with the almost casual attitude of the Russian team he made it clear to his players they could beat the Russians because “your time has come and you belong here”. He kept repeating this phrase over and over so that when the game commenced the college kids really believed their time had come and actually beat the Russian team 4 to 3 with the world watching. It was one of the great moments in American sports. They still had to beat Finland to win the gold medal which they did. At that time the American psyche was low. American Hostages were being held in Iran, there had been a severe recession and Richard Nixon had resigned from the Presidency over the Watergate scandal. The American Hockey Team victory reinvigorated the American psyche and, of course, the rest as they say is history. Sports Illustrated would designate the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team victory in 1980 as the most significant sports story of the twentieth century.

So with the right attitude anything is possible, and the US Olympic Team victory proved that. Look around you and see the evidence. People who have overcome insurmountable odds and prevailed. People who believe in the American dream, who believe anything is possible because it can be done. Sure there are bumps in the road, sure there are people who will try to cut you down to their size so that you don’t succeed. That’s the loser’s credo, “Make others feel bad about themselves and bring them down”. The winner’s credo says, “Never , never give up and don’t let others take your dreams away”. So the next time you feel that you’ve somehow failed think about what it takes to be a winner and think about those college kids that dreamed a dream and made it come true.

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