Don't Worry; College Will Prepare You For Success...Not!
Don't Worry; College Will Prepare You For Success...Not!
When I was going to Snider High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana they said, "Take these courses and you'll be ready to handle anything college throws your way." They didn't tell me the whole truth. When I went to Indiana University's prestigious Kelly School of Business they said, "Take these courses and you'll be able to become a business success. You'll be ready for the real world." They sort of lied to me. This became painfully clear to me during the third week on my very first job after college when my boss asked me to hand in my territory sales plan with all relevant business goals highlighted, strategic steps to achieve them laid out, and a detailed travel itinerary planned out for effective time management. I froze because I didn't have clue how to put that together.
The courses that I really needed were positive attitude, goal setting, responsibility, leadership, communication, time management and decision making, but very few of these are ever offered. Why? Because nobody has ever turned up the heat to hold academia fully accountable for offering the educational programs we need for real-world business, leadership, or life success. Don't get me wrong-I'm NOT suggesting that college is worthless or should be skipped, but that in its current condition, it's inadequate.
If you're in the business world, there's a set of fundamental skills that must be mastered if you're going to succeed. They give us the basics necessary to succeed in any business role. Asking you to lead, sell, or serve without these skills is like asking you to do trigonometry without knowing how to add or subtract. It's never going to happen!
The courses listed below are the ones that will prepare you for real-world success in sales, customer service, management, or leadership.
1. How to Develop and Maintain a Positive Mental Attitude. We become what we think about. There's magic in creating a positive attitude. It's the secret ingredient to success. Successfully starting a business, growing a business, or sustaining quality performance mandates a positive attitude.
2. How to Set and Exceed Goals. Everybody has learned they should set goals-very few have learned the most effective process how. Goals are the roadmap to success. Setting and exceeding goals dramatically increases the chances for business or personal success.
3. How to Assume 100% Responsibility for Results. Learning the mindset and behavior necessary to hold yourself accountable for what happens to you, and the success of your company seems to have eluded most businesspeople. Most seem to think everyone else is at fault except them...get real...think again! We need 100% responsibility for our results and our progress to be successful.
4. How to Be an Effective Communicator. Mastering communication is crucial for anyone destined for greatness. Listening to truly understand. Communicating to be fully understood. Listening is one of the weakest personal development skills of most businesspeople. The other is effective verbal and written communication skills. Customers need clear, concise information and are very frustrated when they don't get it.
5. How to Be an Effective Decision-Maker. Developing one's decision-making muscle is necessary for business leadership and results. Why and how decisions are made and mastering the steps of effective decision-making, including how to take risks, is fundamental for achieving success at any level. This course is the cornerstone of self-leadership.
This is a sampling of the curriculum I recommend. School systems will probably continue to be misdirected and not fully prepare us for success, so we must see to our own education. Finding the resources to do this is really no more difficult then visiting your local Barnes & Noble bookstore, stopping by the library, or logging on to Amazon.com to locate one the many excellent books or audio programs available. There are also a number of top-drawer seminars and courses that can be identified by surfing the Internet. One of my first mentors, business philosopher Jim Rohn, said it best, "Your formal education will earn you a living, but your ongoing self education will earn you a fortune!"
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