“The man who says it can’t be done will likely be interrupted by somebody doing it.” — Unknown
“Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford
Attitude is everything. How we think and what we believe is our own personal reality. If we believe it is impossible, it is. On the other hand, if we believe that we can accomplish anything, we will very likely succeed or at least we will get a lot closer than we would if we didn’t even try. Our beliefs have power, ingenuity and genius contained within them.
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will.” — Mohandas Gandhi
I was about 12 years old, and I was having a fight with my younger brother, Jay. Our fights were pretty close to a daily occurrence, so being older, bigger and stronger, I was pretty adept at neutralizing my smaller tormentor. As usual, I had Jay pinned, sitting on his chest with my legs on his arms. “Do you give up?” He said yes, so I let him up. Then he did something unusual. He attacked me again. I wrestled him down to the ground. “Do you give up?” “Yes,” so I let him up again. Again, I was attacked. On and on this went until I knew that either I had to run and get away from Jay or I was going to really hurt him and then I was going to be really hurt. On that day I learned a valuable lesson: You can’t beat a man who will not quit. Jay still doesn’t know what it means to quit.
My personal motto is: “I will persist until I succeed.” I recognize that I may not be good enough, strong enough or smart enough to succeed today. I know that sometimes circumstances beyond my control will interfere in my plans and no effort on my part will change that reality. But if I remain committed and continue to work, I know that I will eventually succeed. The sad reality of life is that most of us beat ourselves by not trying our best, not persevering through trial and difficulty and not remaining committed to ultimate success. To me, trying my best, giving everything that I have to give toward achieving my goal is success in itself. At the end of the day, I know that if I gave my best, leaving nothing in reserve, then win or lose I can feel good about myself.
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Sir Winston Churchill
No one likes to be around a pessimist, a complainer, a victim. No one likes to be around someone who always sees the problems and can never quite get to the solution. We as a company want to exemplify an attitude of optimism, capable confidence and a belief that we can get the job done. We always try to demonstrate a positive can-do attitude.
A positive can-do attitude doesn’t mean bluster or bragging. It means understanding the task and the challenge and moving forward with a commitment to doing what it takes to succeed. Can we know every problem that we will encounter? Can we always know with certainty that we will succeed? No. But we can know that we will give our best to meet whatever challenges we face and we will persist utilizing every resource at our disposal.
The way that we approach problems or challenges speaks volumes to our customers.
Customers fear the unknown and fear that they won’t be prepared. They are relying on us to quiet their fears and to solve their problems. When we address issues, questions and challenges with a can-do attitude, their fear turns toward confidence.
We need to tell them the actions that we are going to take and let them know that we are committed to meeting their needs. Let them know that we have the people, system and ability to do the job. Let them know that we will be personally responsible for insuring that our company gets the job done. When customers see that and see us as people who can get the job done, they’ll want to be part of that team.
Scott Morey is president of Morey Corp. During his 36-year tenure, the company has experienced marked growth and an expansion of service and product offerings. Morey has played a key role in developing and implementing the company’s best-in-class program management and quality systems. He serves on the board of directors for Morey Corp. and 10G (a joint venture with Caterpillar). He is also a member The Young Presidents’ Organization.
