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Recently, my wife and I entertained several couples at a dinner party in our home. We have known these people for nearly 25 years, and they are among our closest friends. The dinner conversation ranged across a variety of topics and gravitated toward some of the more serious events of the day. Jack, a friend who is a retired sales manager, said something sort of under his breath to his wife, Carolyn, who burst out laughing. I asked her what he said and she replied, 'You don't want to hear it, but, you know, Jack makes everything fun!' 'After all, that's what life's all about,' Jack added. We all agreed. Jack does make everything fun. He's a real wit who always has a smile on his face and he makes people laugh. Two instances came immediately to mind, which I recited to everyone's amusement. - About twenty years ago, just after I had started playing golf, I played with Jack on vacation in Florida. Late in the round he asked me how I was doing and I told him I was pretty tired. He said, 'No wonder. Anybody who hits the ball as many times as you do has a right to be tired!' - After the rehearsal dinner at our son, Mike's, wedding in San Antonio several years ago, we were all down along the River Walk when I introduced Jack to my sister, Milinda. He said, 'She sure is pretty,' to which I answered, 'Yep. She got the good looks in the family, but I got the brains.' Jack studied me for a few seconds, then said, 'If you got all the brains, there must be some really dumb people in your family.' Jack enjoyed a highly successful career in sales and sales management. One of the main reasons for his success was his ability to insure that the people who reported to him enjoyed their work. A number of years ago, I did a motivation research study during a joint venture with the Duffy-Vinet Institute outside of Philadelphia, as part of a multiyear training contract we had with one of the world's major oil companies. The subjects were salespeople who also maintain ongoing relationships with their customers. The question was this, 'Why do you work where you do, and what turns you on about working there?' After surveying more that 500 people, these were their answers in their own words, in order of importance: 1. Enjoy the work 2. Friendly atmosphere 3. Supervisor appreciates me 4. Pay plan These results were in line with the landmark study at Northern Virginia's George Mason University, which consistently ranks 'interesting work' (their terminology, not the participants') as number one. It has been very clear to me for a long, long time that the single most important motivator is a person's enjoyment of their work. I received a disturbing email today from someone who was in one of my Fear-Free Prospecting Call Reluctance® seminars last Fall. He said, 'I've lost confidence in the product and our ability to support it. On one level, I feel bad for the customers that I sell to and on another level I feel that I am not being honest with myself or them. It is very difficult to motivate myself to set appointments and go on calls. Needless to say, I'm behind plan.' Unlike my friend, Jack, who makes everything fun, this salesperson is not only not having fun, he is miserable in his job, and his performance clearly reflects his feelings. 'Work life is actually personal life in a different setting.' - Eric Eberwein Dear Reader, life is short. If you are not having fun and enjoying what you do, let me encourage you to pause right now, take stock of your situation, talk it over with the important people in your life, including your management if you feel you can do that, and create a path forward that gives you joy and a sense of fulfillment in your life and in your work. After he learned he had cancer, my son Mark put it this way: 'We're all living on borrowed time. Most people live dying. They die a little bit every day. I'm going to die living. Every day, I will learn something new, help someone else, and make somebody laugh.' - Mark Robert Stewart (1966-1997)
COPYRIGHT 2004-2006 by Michael M. Stewart.
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