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26 May 2010

Gitomer and the power of positive thinking

Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales GreatnessI've been reading Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling over the past few days.  It came highly recommended from my uncle, who has just started his own leadership consulting company.

I'm still early in the book, but one of the principles that has really hit home was the concept of staying positive and avoiding people who will 'poison' you.  We all know the ones - the ones for whom life is never good enough, things are always terrible, they're disenfranchised, tired, angry and always pointing blame at someone else.

Here's the scary part: I think I've been that person over the past few years.

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a mentor and close friend, and I shared what I'd been thinking with him.  Yet we weren't even a few minutes into the conversation and we had already started to complain about a few challenging situations.  Before we knew it, we were on the slip-and-slide of doom.

I stopped him at one point and said, "So, tell me - what's been good lately?"

It's a question I'm going to be asking myself every day, and I challenge you to do the same.