Learning the Unexpected From the Unexpected

Unconventional Work Habits, Business Ethics, and Career Building – Part 2

Two Guys: One common and the other Uncommon
I need to tell you about two guys who ended up working for the same company performing the same position-business analyst.  One was a red-headed guy who graduated from Mississippi State University.  Yes, the ones with those cow-bells. The other was a black guy who graduated from The University of Alabama-emphasis on the “The”.  These two guys worked together around 15 years ago.  The red-headed guy was excelling in his field of information systems while the other struggled. That struggling professional was me. Having never struggled at anything in my life, this was a depressing time.  I just didn’t get; I had no clue as to what I was suppose to do.  I did everything I was told to do and I thought that was the job.  During my 1st coaching session, the team-lead gave me what I thought was the the worst evaluation ever.  I was devastated and it was just a coaching session.  He told me how I was under-performing.  In my mind I thought what more can I do?

My first disappointing evaluation led me to value people in a new way.
What I was missing was the ability to take the initiative and go beyond what I was told to do.  So, the next day and weeks afterwards, I went on a quest and invented one of my 1st techniques in how to succeed.  How to become uncommon.  That brings me to this point.  Normal people take what others say about them as their final assessment. They become what someone else says they are.  As for me, I changed that next day.  I decided to not be like anyone else.  I decided to let those around me, mentor me without them knowing it.  So knowing that this red-headed guy was excelling, I decided to watch and observe him to see what he was doing that I wasn’t.  He was certainly different-uncommon.

Unfortunately, you too will be faced with similar disappointments.  What will you do?

Today, I coach others in how to be successful in their job using this principle.  Find those who are performing better than you and become their friend.  Take them to lunch.  Let what they have rub off on you.

To Become More, You must ask questions
Next, I started asking this guy questions.  I remember one in particular and it was this, what’s your secret?  He replied, “I look for the good in everyone I meet and ignore the negative.”  This statement has transformed my life and I still use it to this day.

Let me tell you what that statement meant to me.
(1) It showed me how to value everyone
(2) It allowed me to find traits in others that I could apply to my life

So, I no longer looked at the person next to me as if they needed me, but rather I needed them.  For what?  So that I could become better.  So that I could be no-longer-common.

The No-Longer-Common value everyone.
Every person ever created was given a unique gift, talent, or skill.  To them it may not seem like much, but to the person who needs that skill, it means their growth.  I learned how to pick out the good in everyone I meet.

Take What’s Common and Become Uncommon
Normal behavior focuses on the what-you-don’t-like about a person.  So to be uncommon, you must teach yourself how to focus on what is good about another person.  In doing so, you get to take the best of that person and sharpen your skills with theirs.

I’ve used this principle so many times and have numerous accounts of its success.  I want to give you a chance to use it to become greater.  Starting now, forget about all the things you don’t like about someone and focus, no matter how hard, on something good about that person.  The 1st objection to overcome, is whether or not you find good in a person. To find the good, you may have to look really hard and don’t stop looking. The goal is to look beyond “common” – the bad and see the good – what uncommon people see.