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The Rules Apply

Guest post by: Jim Stovall

Article Overview: Success and happiness in life come when we begin to understand that the universal rules apply to us. Remember when you were a teenager? You were never going to get old. The concept of being 30 was so foreign to you as to not have meaning. Then, before you know it, you are 30, but you are certain that you'll never be as old as 40, etc. I can remember being a small child and unaware that the law of gravity did, indeed, apply to me. A few bumps and bruises later, the reality became clear.

The Rules Apply

Success and happiness in life come when we begin to understand that the universal rules apply to us.

Remember when you were a teenager? You were never going to get old. The concept of being 30 was so foreign to you as to not have meaning. Then, before you know it, you are 30, but you are certain that you'll never be as old as 40, etc. I can remember being a small child and unaware that the law of gravity did, indeed, apply to me. A few bumps and bruises later, the reality became clear.

Recently, the correction in the stock market taught a lot of naïve investors that the rules apply to them. For several years, the market was so strong that many new investors had never seen a down market. If you had asked them, they would have assured you that, in theory, the market can go down; but the way they borrowed and invested on margin, their actions told you that they weren't convinced that the rules apply to them.

Many people have difficulty seeing rules with long-term consequences in a daily perspective. They are aware that wearing a seatbelt is important to their safety; however, they say things like, "I'm just going to the store or down the block." Although they know in a lifetime perspective it is critical, it never occurs to them that the rules apply to them today. It's never this cigarette, or this drink, or that bad habit today that is going to create the problem.

When we fail in life, it's rarely because we don't know what to do. More often, we fail because we don't do what we know. Success becomes a habit, and failure can be habit forming as well. We have all heard people who have just experienced failure say, "I knew that was going to happen," or "That always happens to me." At the same time, those who succeed follow the rules of success, and their victories follow one another like clockwork.

Customer service means treating everyone by the Golden Rule-treating them in your place of business as you would like to be treated in theirs. We never know which prospect will turn into the multi-million-dollar relationship. Therefore, you have to treat everyone with a high degree of integrity and professionalism. If we knew when we were going to have the wreck, we would all wear the seatbelt only on that day. Because we don't, we apply universal rules of success to all situations. In this way, we can make every day a safe, productive, and successful experience.

Today's the day!

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Article Tags: customer service, happiness, Jim Stovall, success



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