Herman: John L. Herman Jr., Author

Attitude is Important

Flying back from California last week a lady sat next to me with a typical story. She had worked for many years in a manufacturing environment for Carter’s, the baby clothing people. With products second to none, and the fact that as she said, “People just keep having babies” she felt quite secure in her career.

Then Carter’s closed the factory. No one saw it coming.

All around her at the plant her co-workers were in shock. How could this happen? Why would a profitable company close a factory where their highly regarded products were produced? This had to be a mistake. For many workers the shock left them paralyzed. They didn’t know what to do.

Whether you are religious or not, there is a concept I believe in that this woman also subscribed to…you never get more than you can handle. At her core belief system she knew she was a good worker at Carter’s and she could be a good worker somewhere else. And so, while many got stuck in the rut when life pitched them this curve ball, she simply took the curve and went on with her life. From the manufacturing line work she switched her job to a new airline getting started in the baggage department. She was flying to a training session to show other employees how to use the new equipment being installed in other facilities by the airlines.

Successful people bounce back because of attitude. If something fails…you take what you learned and move to something new even if it is entirely different from what you just did.

As an over-achiever I finished college in three and a half years in the hopes of starting my business career earlier than my classmates. One week after I finished classes, I was drafted by the United States Army. Never saw that curveball coming. Rather than be cannon fodder in Viet Nam I walked into an Air National Guard base and asked if they had any openings. They did, for a pilot. Up to that moment I had never been in an airplane. But my attitude said being a pilot in the Guard, in America, was better than being a grunt dodging live ammo in a war.

Attitude is oh so important.

• Posted: 15 November 2007
• Comments: 0
• Category: Running a business

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