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The very first time I learned what would become QUALITIES OF SUCCESS, my mind was blown! When I first learned them, they were packaged for Martial Arts as “Qualities of a Black Belt”, and it seemed like every possible aspect of my life was covered. I asked my instructor at the time, and he confirmed that without possessing each quality, I would never be a Black Belt. I might eventually wear a black belt, but there was a subtle distinction that I didn’t miss out on. Almost all of the traits resonated with me, and they made sense to varying degrees, but I questioned the placement of COURTESY at the time. After all, we all knew stories of Black Belts that were anything but courteous.

When I decided to write about the Qualities of Success, I briefly considered omitting courtesy from the list. Once again, there is no shortage of stories that talk about successful people who are clearly not courteous. Some names that come to mind: DONALD TRUMP, LEONA HELMSLEY, MORTON DOWNEY JR. , and a few others. So, if you can be a success while not being courteous, does courtesy still belong on the list? My answer is resoundingly YES!

Much like the whole black belt vs. Black Belt concept, just having money is not necessarily enough to qualify someone as a success. The people on that list absolutely have money. No question that they have monetary wealth, but are any of them really successes? I think not in some ways. Each of them had multiple marriages, each of them faced professional failure, and they probably have all alienated many friends and loved ones over the years. So to recap: money, yes—success, eh?

So when you are at work, why do you need to be courteous? Simply because most people spend at least one-third of their lives at work! Being courteous is one of those things that have a habit of coming back to you, only magnified. Doing the simple things, things like saying “Good Morning” or opening the door for someone, or even holding the elevator for someone who just isn’t as fast as you are, will go a long way.

The payoff may not be obvious right away. You might go years without noticing anything happening, but you also may be looked at by your boss as someone who cares about the place you work enough to be trusted with more responsibility and (hopefully) more money. You may hold the door for someone who will be able to offer you a better job for more money. I don’t think you should be looking for either of those circumstances; I think that courtesy done in the hopes of being rewarded somehow isn’t really courtesy. That usually becomes sucking up, and nobody likes a suck-up!

Okay, I really thought that this was going to be a really hard post for me, because I feel that this is a really hard concept for me to meet up to. I sometimes feel that it is antithetical, not only to my own nature, but to SUCCESS in general.

Those who know me know that HUMILITY is not my strongest subject. I know what I am capable of (in most cases), and what is beyond my skills or knowledge to perform. I take PRIDE in being able to do a good job, and in becoming the best at whatever job I am doing. Sound good so far?

My wife, on the other hand, is way more valuable to her company than I am. She is every bit as good as I am at what I do, she probably cares a lot more about everything that I do, and she is way better looking (let’s face it: that counts for something!), but she is also way more humble about her abilities than I am. Sometimes I think that she is just better at acting or playing it off that way, but the truth is, she really is that humble, and it makes her a much stronger asset than I am. Where it might hurt her is in dealing with people who are clearly not as good at their job as she is. Most of these people are management types, and some of them are really good at what they do, but there are a few…, let’s just say that the only reason she isn’t a big-time CEO somewhere is because she isn’t willing to put up with all the headaches that come with the job. The problem is, because she is so humble, people mistake that humility for weakness, and because she isn’t willing to deal with the headaches, she lets them go right ahead.

My dad used to tell a story of when he used to work in a hospital. The nursing staff of a particular floor had a party, and made a mess. One of the head nurses yelled at a housekeeper to clean up the mess. The housekeeper asked why she should clean when she didn’t make the mess. The nurse told her that if she had done the work and went to school, she would have been a nurse, so she had to do what the nurse said. A doctor was there, heard the exchange, and told the housekeeper not to clean, and called the nurse to account. He told the nurse that if SHE had been willing to do the work and go to school, she would have been a doctor and wouldn’t have to clean up after the party.

When at work, it is important to maintain humility, especially when dealing with bosses. Bosses usually have strong egos and thin skin, and because they are the boss and you aren’t, you need to learn how to maneuver around these people while keeping your job in tact. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of NEVER GIVE ANONYMOUSLY, but there are ways to do a thing, and there are proper times and places to do these things. In every company that I’ve worked for, there was usually some sort of meeting where the boss would ask what I had accomplished since the previous meeting. I made sure to list off what I had accomplished, but I also made sure to give credit to anybody else who had helped me succeed. This was sometimes more important to my contribution. If someone helped me, no matter how much, I would always give them the majority of the credit and praise for the accomplishment.

Remember when I said that I also know what is beyond my knowledge and skill? This is another important part of humility. I know next to nothing about the processing of mortgage loans. I’ve had a couple of training classes, and I might be able to survive with the help of a strong mentor, but on my own—useless. I know that. I also know many very good mortgage loan officers that I would trust with my reputation, so I will gladly tell clients to see this specific person or that one.

When dealing with finances, you also need to keep in mind that you may not be the best at every investment vehicle. Maybe you understand one better than another, or maybe you just like one better than others. Either way, stay honest, especially with yourself.

Also, if you are doing well, don’t make the mistake of bragging about it to the point that you are annoying other people. In addition to losing out on friends and loved ones, everything that goes up must come down, and KARMA has a way of calling at the most inopportune times.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

How many times do you think you’ve heard that in your life? I stopped counting somewhere around a bazillion. I used to think that was a great phrase, and I endeavored to hold myself up to that standard. I really wanted to be successful, and since that phrase had the word “succeed” in it, it had to be good, right?

PERSEVERANCE is, in my opinion, highly misinterpreted. The document that is linked to above has some great information about perseverance, but it also has some that is counter-productive to becoming successful. I included it for the good information, obviously.

We all know that you have to wait for good things to happen, but that’s just half the story: You really have to work hard for things to happen in the way you want them to, and the waiting really only comes about after you have exhausted your supply of hard work. You also have to know when and if you need to abandon something in order to be successful.

Let’s think about school. I know that your goal is simply to complete the required amount of time so that you can do other things. We all know that. But if all you do is show up, do you really believe that you will succeed in your quest to get out of school? You know that you need to wok hard, show up on time, pay attention, do well on tests, and not be a trouble maker. Perseverance comes in somewhere around October of each year, when school has just recently started, and you are already bored with it. The time when you would give almost anything to be anywhere else. It is in these times that you have to persevere, that you have to focus even harder on the goal, and the prize you get for achieving that goal.

In saving, you really have to work hard to avoid those stupid, little temptations that creep up and make you want to spend money on something that you don’t need, and probably don’t even really want. You also need to keep on the look-out for better ways to save money, better places to put your money, and better methods of making more compound interest. Believe me, I know how easy it is to make a quick deposit into my checking account and pat myself on the back because I’m saving money. Sometimes, I’m too busy to really think about it, others I have other, more important things on my mind to think about it, but if all I do is sit back and make those checking deposits, I’m screwing myself in the long-run.

Sure, I need to keep some money in a checking account, so that I can use it as needed, but attached to the very same ATM card is a savings account that earns interest (although, admittedly not much), that I could just as easily make a deposit to. I also know that opening up a higher yield CD (Certificate of Deposit) is only a phone call away during the day. If I really wanted to put the money in my checking, I still have access to a bill-pay system on-line, where I could transfer the money in my checking to another institution where I could make even more interest. There is no shortage of choices.

If saving is really important to me (which it emphatically IS), I need to persevere past all of the distractions; past the “I don’t have enough time”, past the “I have other things going on that are more important”, past even the “It’s been a while since I’ve been to a casino”. I need to persevere to save the money in a smart way, so that I can have all the “stuff” that I want at a later time.

At work, there will be times when things just aren’t working out in your favor. You may get fired for whatever reason. Whatever the case, you can’t just sit down and cry about it (note: The first time you get fired, it is perfectly acceptable to sit down and cry for a few days. This is the first time you’ve ever been fired for screwing up, and you’re still a little upset. Trust me when I say that it gets easier with time and experience), you really do have to brush off, get back to working, and get back to work. Just remember that stuff happens all the time that you have no control over. I’ve long believed that if you can’t control something, you shouldn’t worry about it either. Once you get that habit down, life gets considerably less stressful.

The last part of perseverance is knowing when to give up. Blind, stupid perseverance to a failing proposition is not good for you. Sometimes you have to stick with a loser in order to gain something else, but in general, once you realize that you won’t be successful at something, cut your losses and move on to the next thing. Trust me when I say that you will be doing yourself a favor.

***WARNING!!!***:

This post will contain some strong themes and language that you may not want your child to read without your supervision. Although I will do my best to refrain, I will point to a couple of links that I have no control over the content of.

Today, I’m sickened on a couple of levels, because of problems with the law.  I normally stay away from politics here because this blog is about young people and finance and not my political beliefs, but these stories fit.

• ROCKY DELGADILLO has released Jack Mc Clellan, dropping charges of violating a restraining order.  I’m sorry, but I always believed that our politicians were supposed to work for their constituents, not the criminals.  This guy needs to be fired, tarred and feathered, or whatever it takes to get a city attorney that will work to protect our children over a disgusting time-bomb like Mc Clellan.
  • This is not the first thing that Rocky has done that deserves termination (or firing, I’m flexible), but it really should be the last.  In the interest of good taste, I’m not going to put links to all the stupid things.  If you are interested, check out Google.
• LINDSAY LOHAN had the most serious of charges dropped by the LA County Attorney’s office.  This girl needs help, but she also needs a sense of ACCOUNTABILITY, that going to real, grown-up prison will teach her much better than hugging and patting of backs.

I’m keeping this short, because for me to go longer would strain my ability to restrain myself from calling these people for what they are.

I’m sorry for the hi-jacking of this site, but these stories are too important to have not been mentioned.

When you were younger (or perhaps still), your parents had a set of rules for you, and if you didn’t comply, you were punished. For some, this punishment was in the form of “Time Out”, others had privileges or “stuff” taken away, and still others got spanked or other physical punishment (let’s face it: You got the beat-down).

Despite the form, all of these punishments were designed to teach DISCIPLINE. They were trying to prepare you for the future where they weren’t going to be around to smack you upside your head for screwing around.

Continuing the series of QUALITIES OF SUCCESS, today we will be talking about DISCIPLINE, and how important it is for you to have if you want to be successful.

In the savings arena, it is just common sense that you need to have discipline, and that you are able to discipline yourself when it comes to spending money you don’t strictly need to. For example, if, for some reason, your company doesn’t offer direct deposit, you are going to have to make a trip to a branch (or ATM) of your financial institution in order to deposit your check. Most people, in an effort to reduce the amount of trips to the financial institution will take out some money for the next week or two. I’m guilty of this myself sometimes, but I kind of guesstimate how much I will need, and hope I’m right. Of course, if I’m off, there’s always the ATM, right?

Wrong.

That’s where discipline really comes in: Technically, there is an abundance of ATM access for me, but I’m disciplined enough not to abuse an ATM (as it stands, there is an ATM standing no further than 5 feet away from me) whenever I want. Part of that discipline is because I want to save money to buy nice things. The other part is this nagging voice in the back of my head that tells me I can’t spend money (sometimes, she’s not in the back of my head, but on the phone, standing beside me, wherever you can generally find wives).

When at work, discipline can be the deciding factor between a screw-up and a good employee. Your boss shouldn’t have to sit on your lap, watching you do your job. When they hired you, they hired you with the expectations that you would be able to do the job necessary without their interference. Of course they want you to come to them when you come up to something that you don’t know how to do (especially if it’s something completely new to you, that they have never covered before), and of course they want to be able to oversee what you are doing on a random basis, just to make sure you are performing up to the promise you showed when they hired you.

At some point in your job, you will be alone in your job assignment. You have choices there. You can either do what you were hired to do, and impress the heck out of your boss, or you can screw around, talk on the phone, go on MySpace, or something else that isn’t what you should be doing. Most of the time, you will probably get away with it. In fact, I am willing to say that you will almost always get away with it. But that really isn’t the point. The point is, that you need to be able to discipline yourself, to focus intently, on the goal that you have set for yourself: Success.

Once you have put yourself into the habit of disciplining yourself in one situation, you will see that it becomes easier to adapt to other situations, and that you are adding a lot of prestige to your reputation and name. While this may not sound as important today, as you advance in the workforce, you will eventually learn this fact: More important than your education, more important than your experience, even more important than anything else you will do, your reputation will either build or destroy your career.

Just a short one today!

A little while back, I talked about how I got CRAPPY SERVICE at a retail establishment, and how it really pissed me off. I was buying i-Pods for my wife and myself.

Flash forward to THIS WEEKEND, where my wife wanted to be able to listen to her i-Pod while she was driving. As far as I know, there is only two ways to do this, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through either way.

So we go into a retail store (the same one as before), and a very helpful young lady came up and was instantly asking if we needed any help. I told her what I wanted to do, in the LEAST TECHNICAL terms I could think of, and she told me that it couldn’t be done.

I was okay with that, and was willing to talk about one of the other options that I didn’t really want to explore. That’s when this sales person won hearts and minds. She asked if we had a cassette player still in our car. Actually, we did!

She suggested that we buy a cassette adapter, and save about $100.00. There were some trade-offs, but nothing we couldn’t deal with. We got the adapter, and it works really well!

The moral here, this girl thought about a solution to a problem, and made a fan out of my wife and I. She could have totally stuck to her answer of, “nope”, and we probably would have bought a new car stereo. We really wouldn’t have minded, but because of her ingenuity, she will definitely get our business in the future.

This weekend was a total departure from everything that I hear from PF’ers and “experts” out there every day, and you know what? I’m glad it was!

My wife and I live pretty regimented lives. Mostly, this is just the way things work out, and we enjoy the routine. Without going through my ENTIRE routine, our Sundays look a lot like this:

-Wake up late
-Go to the Gym for a couple of hours (maybe an hour and a half, but you get the idea)
-Come home
-I do some school work, she cooks dinner from some cooking magazine she subscribes to.
-We watch TV till bed time
-Bed.

My wife has been wanting to go to the beach at night for some time now. We used to do this more often when we were young and didn’t have the same work and school responsibilities as we do now. We’d just go down PCH (all roads lead to PCH), find a “Main St.” which will usually lead to a pier, and walk around. Sometimes we would eat, others, we would just get coffee, and others, we would just hang out and have a good time.

Yesterday, I decided that I didn’t want to go through the routine, that I had just had it. I told my wife that we were going to not go to the gym, but were going to do some cardio in the form of a walk around an outlet center close to the house. We’d get some lunch, and then come home and go back to our routine. I didn’t do it so much to get out of going to the gym (although that was a bonus…,), but because my wife and I do all the right things all the time, and I was tired of it. I remembered how we used to be much more spontaneous, and I wanted to recapture that just for the day.

We had a good LUNCH (by the way, try their parmesan bleu fries!), and came home. When we got home, she took a nap while I did some school work for a couple of hours, and then we went out to the beach. We like the beach at night, because there are a lot of fun things to do, and it looks really cool out there at night.

After walking around for a little while, we were a little hungry so we had a little BREAKFAST FOR DINNER and came home.

So, just to summarize my Sunday, we:

-Skipped going to the gym
-Didn’t do our chores
-Spent $60.00 on food for two meals (okay, four, but I thought it would be poor taste to make her sit and watch while I ate)
-Ate a bunch of food that is NOT part of a healthy, balanced DIET

So, why is this okay? Well, like any diet, your goals have to be realistic, and include some cheat factor, or they will just fail. Personal Finance has to be the same. When I hear people who are just miserable because they are trying to save up for some far-away goal, and don’t loosen up a little bit to enjoy something a little closer to the present, I cringe a little. Look, I’m all about saving, and sacrificing for things you want in the future, but as long as it is a rarity, and not the norm, you also need to give yourself little rewards to remind you of what you are saving for. Not doing this is a sure bet that you will either not make your goals, or that you won’t enjoy the achievement because you will be bitter about what you gave up.

A couple of days ago, I talked about DIGNITY, and how you need to make sure you don’t try to take anybody else’s away. On the other side of the coin, is SELF-RESPECT, or your own perception of your self and the value you have.

Ask any successful person, I mean a REALLY SUCCESSFUL person, and they will say they have a lot of worth or value. They border on (some willingly cross that border) of egotistic, but they have the goods to back it up. Most of them will also tell you that self-respect is one of the most important things you need if you want to be successful. I happen to agree wholeheartedly with this idea.

There is a commercial for a famous ICE CREAM BAR where the announcer asks, “What would you do?”, for one of these bars. The same question can be asked about money.

When people want so badly to be “rich”, or “wealthy”, or “famous”, they sometimes act in ways that they wouldn’t otherwise. We all know about the nuttiness that has become Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and the late, ANNA NICOLE SMITH. These girls all had promising careers at one time in their lives, but call it bad management, poor choices in friends, or lack of self-respect, they lost heavily. Each of these girls, in my opinion suffered from lack of self-respect. In many cases, they took drugs, engaged in sensational behavior, and became jokes. So far, one has even paid for her choices with her life, leaving behind an infant child.

But the rich and famous don’t have a lock on doing stupid things for money. Every day, normal people do stupid things to make a few extra dollars, or to keep jobs that really aren’t worth the trouble. Unfortunately, many of the people who make the biggest mistakes are young people.

I’d love to say that there are no more sleaze bags out there who lord their title of “Management” over some poor, young, girl in an effort to cop a cheap feel, or to get lucky while the wife is out of town. I’d love to say that cougars only operate at night, in clubs, and not in the office. I’d love to, but I bet if I did, I’d get flooded with, and rightfully so, angry messages pointing out how wrong I am. But just because these people exist, doesn’t mean you have to fall for it. You need to have respect for yourself, and you need to be sure to not allow yourself into these types of uncomfortable situations.

But there are other things that you can do that don’t involve you being a victim. Some people think that it’s okay to take shortcuts with service, or to help themselves to small amounts of product. Okay, this is called stealing, but more importantly, if you think that whatever you are taking is so small and insignificant that nobody will ever miss it, why would you waste your time and risk your job and reputation to take it?

In my years of working for banks and credit unions, I’ve been asked about a million times, “How do you stop yourself from just taking some of the money? I mean, who’s going to miss it?” Of course, I’ve never taken any money from my company, but just to put the answer out there: I have never worked at a place that had an amount of money that was worth me giving up my career, my freedom (because I WOULD get caught), and everything that I stand for. Even if there were such a place, the sheer volume of that much money would surely be missed. In short, I have way too much SELF RESPECT.

I don’t really like what Wikipedia has to say about DIGNITY, so no link today (sorry Wiki-guys). They something about intrinsic value that everybody has, but I think you build dignity, and it has more to do with worth than value.

In many years of working for “professional” companies, I have worked with people who have done some pretty shady things. Some of them did so to fit in with a clique, some thought they were making themselves look better by making someone else look bad. Some genuinely thought they were doing the right thing by everybody.

I know a guy who, from a young age, struggled with the language, had to overcome a very thick accent, and stuttered profusely. This guy was as smart as anybody I’ve ever met, but he had a hard time at work. At one point, he was moved away from direct customer contact because of his stuttering. After years of this, he stopped stuttering, took an active interest in what he did for a living, and moved up in every endeavor he set his mind to. My point here is the people who moved him away from public tried to take away his dignity, his self-worth.

I have dealt with people who tried to take away my dignity. I’ve mentioned before, I’m overweight (fat). I’m active, I’m intelligent, and I’m good at what I do, but I’m fat. Most of the time, it has little impact on my daily habits and rituals. It is what it is. For a large chunk of my life, I’ve studied Martial Arts. In fact, before I left my last school, I was regarded as one of the “best of the best” students there. I taught classes, I signed up new members, and I gave as well as I got in any practice. I wasn’t allowed to test for Black Belt because I was too fat for the Owner’s taste. I was told that the best I would do would be the senior student, but I would not be allowed to test until my weight was acceptable. Of course, I took this as a huge insult. There is actually a lot more to the story, but the end result is, I walked away from the school (albeit for other reasons), and essentially stopped talking to someone who had taught me and whom I had known for most of my life.

When someone acts in a way to try and take away someone else’s dignity, they ultimately give up their own. By insulting others for things outside their control, the insulter shows that they have little (if any) self worth, or dignity.

Young people are often regarded as being cruel to each other. Kids have a reputation of picking on each other over the awkwardness that everybody ultimately experiences. Some of this reputation is absolutely deserved, and of course, some is hyperbole, but a problem does exist. Whether the problem is due to “the system” which is inadequate in teaching our young people better, or whether the blame falls on parents for perpetuating their own bad upbringing is not important to this discussion. I really don’t care about the past, or blaming the system. I’m more interested in small steps and small solutions.

When you are at work, school, or anywhere else, you need to take care to maintain your dignity. The best way to do this is by helping others to maintain theirs. You see the slow kid in class, don’t make fun of them. You see a co-worker who just doesn’t get it, try to help them. You see the fat kid on the playground, don’t laugh. Remember, when you try to tear others down, ultimately you tear yourself down even further. Besides, especially when you are looking for work, you never know whether the person who is interviewing you is the same person who used to be picked on for stuttering.

Let’s think small here. You are at work, and you see a bunch of electrical cords bundled up on the floor. You see that they all belong to electronics that are high on a shelf.

You get some money for your birthday from your Aunt Ida.

You are walking through the mall, and you see, in front of a store you shop at a lot, and have been thinking of applying for a job at, a bunch of flyers strewn about the floor.

You are at work, and you see someone walk in who looks obviously lost. You are on your way to break, but you didn’t have a whole lot to do on break anyways.

What do you do?

INITIATIVE, or your lack of initiative tells a lot about you. It talks about your character to employers, potential employers, the public, and people you may want to have as friends. Every day, you are faced with choices. At first glance, these choices seem like there is little or no downside either way. But if you think in terms of future actions, each has the potential to differentiate yourself either from the successful, or the failures.

When we talk about wealth-building, we see where many of these choices really come in. Like in the example, where you are given a wind-fall of money. It’s your money, so there is no right or wrong answer for what you should do with it. But if you are young, chances are your basic needs are handled by your parent(s). If that’s true, then anything you spend the money on is a luxury. Is there anything wrong with spending money on a luxury item? Absolutely not. Other PF’ers out there will disagree, but the fact is, money only has value when it is used. Other than that, it’s useless. Not that it has to have a use at all times. Sometimes, it is more beneficial to let it sit while you build it into something with a lot of value. But when you get a wind-fall (like from a benevolent Aunt Ida), you might decide to take the initiative to put that money in an account where it can grow. If you owe anybody any money, you might also take the initiative to take advantage of “found” money to pay back that debt (for free!); the choices are endless.

At work, little choices show up all the time. You might work in a retail store and realize that a shelf needs to be cleaned and re-stocked. It may not be exactly your job, but you will probably score a lot of points if you offer (without being asked first) to take care of the problem. In the first example, at the very least, you might consider making sure that someone can’t get tangled up in the cords, pulling something heavy on their head.

Probably the best way that I can think of to show (and to take) initiative it by asking your supervisor if there are things that you can help with, and by asking to be taught how to do things that you don’t know how to do already. In my experience, managers love the idea that there is someone out there that is willing to take some of the burden of a business of themselves. They may or may not be able to work with you right away, but they will notice your initiative to grow within a company, especially if it is genuine and sustained, and you will eventually have the chance to do just that.

Where initiative goes bad is when you think you are doing a good thing, but really you are just complicating a situation. Think of all those cords. I know your instinct was to untangle them and separate them, but you may find that doing so may disrupt something important. You may unplug the security system, or alarm, which would be a bad thing.

Another time when initiative gets in the way is when you think you are displaying initiative, but in reality, all you are doing is being a pain in the neck to your boss. There are some things that need to be done on schedule, even if there is something else that needs being done. If you are supposed to relieve someone for lunch, and lunches are already backed up, you might ask about taking out the trash, but your priority MUST be to relieve the other employee. Doing otherwise just screws up the routine.

At the end of the day, you need to display initiative if you want to move up in the world. Nobody will dump a great job in your lap if you are a slacker. You have to think about when and where is best to display that initiative, taking care to do less damage than good.

When I was young, if I screwed up on something, or misbehaved in some way, I took my punishment and moved on. When I started working, it was much the same. I never really took it personally, and I never thought any deeper than the immediate action.

Later on in life, when I reached the age where I could do anything I wanted, with no cares about anyone or anything else, I did so with great zeal.

When I first became a leader (manager) of people, that changed for the professional side of me. When I got married, that changed for everything else. I became responsible for others, and I felt a sense of ACCOUNTABILITY for those that I was over (at work), and for the family I was starting at home. Accountability is not an easy QUALITY OF SUCCESS to define. That it is an important quality, there is no debate. But how do young people quantify this to fit in with their lives?

When at work, when you make a mistake, you aren’t just making a mistake, you are affecting the perception of the company to the customers, to the public, and to your management. Mistakes happen. Everybody gets it, but there is a difference between the guy who says, “Oh well, nothing could have been done about that”, and the guy who shows that any mistake on his part really affects him.

People seem to think, especially at the beginning of their career path that their actions don’t REALLY matter. They feel that they can get away with a lot more in the beginning than they will later on. While there is some truth to the second part of that, the first part is patently incorrect. Let’s think about the fry-cook at MacDougals (I know, but I don’t want them mad at me for using their name without permission). Once that person puts on the uniform and name badge of the company, they become an ambassador for the company. When the public sees that person, they see the company. Now, if this fry-cook picks his nose, do you really want to order fries? Me neither.

When I used to train tellers at banks and credit unions, (tellers are widely considered the bottom of the Totem-pole, mainly because they are young and the position is usually transient) one of the first things I wanted to make sure they understood was that most customers (members) wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the teller and the CEO of the company. They were the face that the customer saw first, last, and in many cases, only. Because of this, the teller is accountable to the CEO to make sure that they are giving the information that the CEO wants to have given. On the other side, the teller is accountable to the customer as a steward for the customers’ money, and as a representative of the customers’ concerns to management.

It’s all a little confusing, but to simplify, let’s look at it like this: At work, you want to handle yourself in such a way that you exemplify the standards of your company. If you don’t like you company enough to exemplify their standards: leave. When you mistake, own up to it. Everybody makes mistakes, but how you handle that mistake makes the difference between whether you will be a success or not.

YESTERDAY, I was talking about patience as it pertains to work. I guess I should have titled yesterday’s post “Patience of Job”, but I didn’t want people to mistake this site as a religious site. Today, we are talking about patience and QUALITIES OF SUCCESS on the savings end of personal finance.

I don’t know of any credible finance “experts” who will argue realistically that one can get rich quick. Those that do are doing a disservice to any who are listening. The popular way to get rich quick lately has been in real estate. Up until a couple of years ago, people thought that they could buy a house cheap, do some minor, cosmetic repairs, and sell the house for a large profit because as everybody knows, real estate never loses value. Except, now it is losing value. Or rather, real estate is going back to actual values.

Prior to the real estate fad, people would trade stocks online. “Day-traders” would make money (hopefully) by buying low and selling at a (usually slightly) higher price in a short period of time. Of course, that didn’t work either.

There have been numerous fads that would come with great fanfare, only to be destroyed because there was never any stability to begin with. One listening to the news would assume that there were no rich people left after each of these fads went out of style. Of course, we know that’s not the case, so how do they do it?

Every rich person I know shares a similar story: They all started out with nothing, worked hard at very menial jobs for no money, saved every penny they could, invested wisely FOR THE LONG TERM, and lived fugally until such a time as they could afford to enjoy their accumulated worth.

I emphasized the long term, because that is the real key to being wealthy. You need to work hard, of course, but you need to let time work for you as well. I’m not going to go into a specific plan of action here, because there are a lot of variables that I just don’t want to have to cover to give investment or savings advice, but there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

1. If it seems to good to be true, it is.

2. If it seems to easy, it won’t work.

3. If you don’t have to do any work to “earn” it, it’s bogus.

4. If you would be ashamed to tell your family about it, it’s probably not a good idea for you to do it.

With patience, no matter the dollar amount, you can grow wealth enough to live comfortably.

PATIENCE is widely credited as being a virtue in many cultures around the world. In keeping with the QUALITIES OF SUCCESS theme, I think patience fits in here well, especially as it pertains to young people.

I know what it is to be the best at a particular job, even though I haven’t been there very long. It happens more and more as I get more experience in a field. For young people, especially those that are willing to put in the work and show the DEDICATION needed to become the best, this can get frustrating and old very quick. When I was young, and trying to move upwards in a company, this was probably the biggest hindrance to my staying with a company for any meaningful period of time.

Here’s the thing: Employers are terrified of the savant that comes in knowing everything. They are faced with an employee who fits into one of a very few categories.

1. The person is a blow-hard, and doesn’t really know a lot of what they are saying. So far, they’ve been lucky, but that will change soon.

2. The person is either a spy or someone from Corporate who has been sent in to see what the manager is doing wrong.

3. The person knows what they do because they do have experience in the field, but they were either fired from their last company, or had other behavioral defects that need to be determined before they can make a judgment.

The fourth choice, the one where you are just really that good, is not even on their radar for a while. This is where patience is so important. If you are that good, eventually your employer will figure it out. They will slowly come to the point where they trust you more and more, giving you more responsibility (and hopefully the pay that goes with it), and less “supervision”. The thing is, it takes time. Because they have to sort through the other three choices, your knowledge will, at first, be suspect. Once you get over those hurdles, then you will become more valuable to the company.

The other side of patience is that you have to be willing to take the time out to learn what needs to be done to be the best. Every employee THINKS they are the best, but without the experience and the training, you probably aren’t. Take the time to learn the ropes. Learn what your teachers and bosses want you to learn; at the schedule they want you to learn it. They may have a schedule that works for them that you aren’t aware of yet. As you prove to them that you are willing to learn, to take the time to do it right, they will begin giving you more and more.

Just be patient, go with the flow. As you become ready for more, the opportunities will present themselves.

This whole saga that I have been going through has brought up a few points that should be discussed. I used to believe (years before I knew this company ever existed), that doing a good job and being a good person were all that mattered. But sometimes, it doesn’t matter how good you were, or how good a job you do, when people look at you, they just don’t like you.

I’m not talking about ugly, I’m talking about what people associate with you. It starts for you now. Everything you do, everything you say, and almost everything you think is being watched. Someone is noticing, and for the most part, nobody cares. What may happen though, is that one person that is watching you right now might be in a position to either hire you or fire you.

In lectures, I’m quick to point out that I am no saint. I’ve done things that I have regretted, as I’m sure everybody does at some point in their life. The actions I’ve made in the past shaped how others perceive me. Once I understood the power of perception, I made a strong effort to do more things that would contribute to a good reputation and diminish any bad reputation I had.

With this current series of events at work, part of what pisses me off the most is that my reputation has been smeared by someone for no reason. It doesn’t even matter what is true and what isn’t anymore, the damage is done. Management looks at me with a measuring look that they didn’t use before. Colleagues do that inquisitive head-tilt that illustrates that I have failed them in some way. Customers who know, look at me as if they are unsure our relationship will be the same, or if I’ll even stick around for them to find out.

For FIFTEEN years, I have worked to build my name so that employers, competitors, and customers would feel confident that they were getting the best. Not to be dramatic, but that took a huge hit last week for, again, no reason. Don’t get me wrong, I know that in the grand-scheme, this isn’t even a blip on the radar of my reputation. It’s not about that. I know that probably 98% of the people who know me or know of me haven’t changed their perception of me over this. But the two percent that is left, that bothers me.

So, for you, what can you do to make sure you build a strong reputation? First, you have to decide what you want your reputation to be. I’m sure that Mike Tyson is okay with a reputation of a crazy S.O.B that will eat you if you fight him. I don’t think that would go over nearly as well for Maya Angelou. Once you have decided your reputation, you need to work towards it. Start today. Don’t think that because you may still be in high school or college that what you do doesn’t count. It most certainly does count. Remember, the people watching you today may be able to hire you or fire you. Or, they may be able to influence the person who does hire you (or fire you). Either way, your success is in their hands.