Heart, Attitude and a Big Splash of Enthusiasm is Alive and Well in Indy.

Heart, Attitude and Enthusiasm are alive and well in Indiana at least with Indianapolis residents Art Bouvier and Jhaqueil Reagan. In a story by Melissa Knowles titled, Stranger’s Generosity Changes Teen’s Life and Employment Status for the Yahoo News Blog “Trending Now,” 18 year old Jhaqueil was walking to a job interview when he encountered Art Bouvier spreading rock salt outside of his restaurant after an ice storm and asked how far it was to 10th and Sherman. Bouvier told him it was at least 6 or 7 miles and recommended Reagan take a bus due to the distance and severe weather. Reagan thanked him and continued on his way.

Later while driving to get coffee with his wife, Bouvier encounters Reagan again, still walking. Bouvier pulled over to offer him a ride. In the car, Reagan explained he was on his way to an interview at a thrift store and had no money for bus fare. He told Bouvier and his wife that his mother passed away a couple of years ago and he was taking care of his two younger siblings. Reagan dropped out of high school, but was able to get his GED, he explained to the Bouviers.

Bouvier was so impressed, that he told Reagan he would offer him a job at double the salary even if the young man was offered the thrift store job. Jhaqueil Reagan accepted and recently started his new job at Papa Roux, the restaurant Bouvier owns.

In Don’t Seek Success – Be Happi, I break down the principle of Heart into three parts; the Moral Heart is defined has having the courage to do the right thing regardless of the risk of opposition, disapproval of others, social embarrassment, or exclusion. The Mental Heart is having the courage to engage in something with passion, determination, discipline, and stamina. The Emotional Heart is having the courage to love without which we cannot be kind, true, forgiving, generous, and emphatic.

Art Bouvier shows us what it means to have a Moral and Emotional Heart. He picked Jhaqueil up, gave him a ride and then after hearing his story, offered the young man a job because it was the right thing to do. Bouvier’s Emotional Heart kicked in with kindness, generosity and empathy.

How many would have taken the time to pick a strange boy up and offer him a ride? Let alone give him a job on the spot at double whatever the other establishment was going to pay?

There was another reason Bouvier offered the young man the job. He loved Jhaqueil Reagan’s Mental Heart! Without question, young Jhaqueil Reagan shows all of us a thing or two about a Mental Heart.

The Mental Heart is defined by passion, determination, discipline and stamina, and Reagan has all of those traits in spades. He loved his siblings and was passionate about taking care of them. He was determined to find a job to support the family, perhaps trying to keep them out of Foster Care. He showed incredible determination and stamina in trying to walk over 7 miles to take an interview for a job. Bouvier was impressed to say the least.

In addition to his amazing Mental Heart, Jhaqueil has an awesome Attitude, the fourth core principle in the Don’t Seek Success – Be Happi Model.

Given his circumstances, Jhaqueil could have easily fallen into anger and bitterness. Instead, he chose to act positively regardless of the horrible situation he was dealt at such a young age.

Let also not forget, Jhaqueil Reagan’s Enthusiasm. He says, “My heart’s just racing right now. I’m just too excited, just excited to start.”

Jhaqueil Reagan will no doubt be very successful in life. Perhaps someday he will even buy Art Bouvier’s restaurant. One thing is certain, add a little belief, passion, purpose and imagination to Jhaqueil’s heart, attitude, and enthusiasm and the sky is the limit.

As for Art Bouvier, he used his Heart to make a very good choice in the hiring of Jhaqueil Reagan.

Be Great!

MB

“Don’t Focus on Success, That Will Really Do You Wrong," Says 18 Year Old Photographer Olivia Bee..

The other day, I ran across an article and video interview by The Weekly Flickr, profiling 18 year old Professional Photographer, Olivia Bee.  

Wise beyond her years, Ms. Bee is living the Don’t SeekSuccess – Be Happi Model to the fullest.

While in middle school at age 11, Olivia could not get into a video production class and her school counselor placed her in a photography class instead.  “It was kind of like the best mistake that could have been made by my school counselor, because I just, like, fell in love with this art,” she says.

Olivia’s passion for photography did not come overnight, however, it took some time for her to warm up to the idea.

She says, “I was really frustrated with it,” she says. “But then, slowly I became less and less frustrated and more determined to make really nice photos.”

Lesson: Keep an open mind, you never know when a new life changing passion could be discovered.

Olivia started posting her images to Flickr.  “I just really liked to show the world what I was seeing,” Olivia says. Than something amazing happened to this young talented Photographer.  Athletic Shoe Company Converse noticed her photos on Flickr and contacted her about working on a photo shoot for them. Olivia was a freshman in High School and only 15 years old!

Watch Olivia Bee's interview;

She says, “I was a freshman in high school when Converse approached me. Their ad agency kept sending me Flickr messages, and I just kept ignoring it, (Thinking the messages were spam) and so finally, Converse emailed me directly and was like ‘Hey, this is Converse, we wanna shoot with you’ and I was like ‘Whoa, I know about Converse.”

“I was so scared, but by the end of the day, I was like, ‘You can do this for a living?!  Sign me up!” said Olivia.

Since that initial shoot with Converse, Olivia has worked for Adidas, The New York Times, Le Monde, Levi's, Subaru, and many other high profile clients.

Olivia’s advice to others;

“Don’t focus on success, that will really do you wrong. Success in terms of money and fame — that won’t mean anything. You should focus on success in terms of what you love and what makes you happy.”

To paraphrase, Dr. Victor Frankel, in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, first published over 50 years ago, says don’t aim at success because you will often miss the mark. Olivia Bee at 18 years of age seems to have grasped this concept well.

In order to be successful, to find meaning and joy in your life, follow your passion, derive your purpose, and strive for excellence. In other words, “Be Happi.” Aspire to follow the core principles of Belief, Enthusiasm, Heart, Attitude, Passion, Purpose and Imagination and success will find you!

It does not matter how old you are, what challenges you face, or what your past has been. Find your passion and you will accomplish amazing things.

Tomorrow I will profile somebody who has found their profitable passion in spite of a severe disability. Stay tuned.

Be Great!

MB

Lindsey Vonn Has Heart and Attitude!

The 28-year-old Olympic medalist and World Cup Skiing Champion, Lindsey Vonn severely injured her knee after a horrific crash during a World Cup race in Austria. Vonn is determined that she will be ready to compete in the Winter Olympics in February of 2104.

The Doctor who is overseeing her recovery ahead the 2013 Winter Olympic Games said, “But I can't emphasize enough how upbeat she's been through all of this. She's very goal-oriented. She's got her sights set on these next two years.”

As for Vonn herself, she tweeted, “Success! Surgery went very well yesterday and I'm recovering at home in vail with my family. I want to sincerely thank everyone for their well wishes these last few days. It's going to be a long and hard road back but I will be back!! Xoxo”

Vonn is demonstrating the third and fourth principles of the Don’t Seek Success – Be Happi model in spades, Heart and Attitude.

In Don’t Seek Success – Be Happi I talk about the mental heart.

A mental heart means you have the courage to engage in challenges and overcome obstacles with passion, determination, dedication, and stamina.

Passion simply means that you do what you do out of love.

Determination is a single minded focus in achieving a goal.

Determination is the anchor to which all other qualities are tied.

Stamina is the physical and moral strength to resist or withstand hardship and stress. Stamina is synonymous with endurance, enduring energy, strength, resilience, staying power, toughness, grit, vigor, and tenacity.

Vonn also is showing us what a wonderful attitude can do. Confucius observed, ―Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.‖Vonn could easily have a woe is me attitude less only a year away from the Olympics and facing a long and painful road of recovery and returning to world class form.  Instead of bitterness and anger, her state of mind is, I can do it, “I will be back!!”

All of can learn and thing or two about Heart and Attitude from Lindsey Vonn. Best Wishes to Lindsey for a speedy recovery and good luck to her next year in the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Be Great!

MB

Does Self Belief Help Breed Success? The Real World Says Yes!

A recent article for the BBC News, entitled “Does confidence really breed success?” reports on a study conducted by Psychologist Jean Twenge which suggests, “…a 30% tilt towards narcissistic attitudes in US students since 1979.”

Narcissism is defined in the article as “Excessive self-love or vanity; self-admiration, self-centredness.”

Twinge is quoted as saying, “What's really become prevalent over the last two decades is the idea that being highly self-confident - loving yourself, believing in yourself - is the key to success. Now the interesting thing about that belief is it's widely held, it's very deeply held, and it's also untrue.”

Really?

Dr. Twinge elaborates, “You need to believe that you can go out and do something but that's not the same as thinking that you're great," says Twenge. She gives the example of a swimmer attempting to learn a turn – “this person needs to believe that they can acquire that skill, but a belief that they are already a great swimmer does not help.”

The BBC article goes on to say, “Despite a library's worth of self-help books promoting the idea we can achieve anything if we believe we can, there's very little evidence that raising self-esteem produces positive, real-world outcomes.”

Hogwash.

I am not sure how these studies were conducted and what protocols were used, but my guess is they have very little to do with those that have excelled and achieved “real-world” success.

Over 50 years ago, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale declared, “Believe in yourself. Believe in your abilities.” Others in the self-improvement and human potential movement have continued to hammer the point home to this day.

Regardless of Dr. Twinge’s suggestion that a strong belief in oneself is an indicator of narcissism and has little or nothing to do with success, there is a mountain of “real-world” evidence to suggest that Dr. Peale and the other self-improvement experts are correct.

As for Dr. Twinge’s example, I can say from personal experience as a former swimmer, she is wrong. You not only need to believe you can learn the skill of turning, but you need to believe you will be great at executing the turn quickly and flawlessly. You need to believe you will be great at performing those turns and visualize turning over and over again. By doing so, it will help you become a great swimmer. Great of course is a relative term…not everybody will achieve an Olympic gold medal, but when you believe and achieve to the best of your ability, you are indeed ‘great” and it does not make you a narcissist.

 

Indeed, almost every successful entrepreneur, business person, athlete or entertainer will tell you having a strong belief in their abilities and an idea, visualizing achieving goals, was an essential ingredient of their success. Many of them have used their success to give back to their communities and worthy causes, not exactly narcissistic.

Listen to what legendary entertainer Carol Burnett, said is this video. As a young girl she believed she would go to UCLA, but her family could not afford it. Burnet says, “I knew I would go. I visualized being on campus. It was a known fact, I was not wishing.” 

Sure enough Burnett’s dream cam true, a mysterious envelope appeared at her home with a  50 dollar bill in it, enough for the first semester’s tuition. To this day, Burnett does not know who gave her the money.

Now that is belief! 

Note how she visualized being on campus.

Entrepreneur Sara Blakely, the creator of Spanx, says in the video below, “The advice that I tell people who are just starting out or have an idea is to differentiate yourself. You've got to trust your gut, you have to believe in yourself.”

Sara wrote in her journal that she would be a millionaire by the time she was 30, She made it. By 41, Sarah is now the youngest woman to ever appear on Forbes Billionaires List. In another video interview with Forbes, Sara talks about visualization, saying “visualize where you are headed. Take a polaroid of where you are going to be.” Elsewhere, she is on record as saying she bought a watch she could not afford early on in her venture as a signal of where she was headed.

With all due respect to Dr. Twinge and her colleagues, a healthy self-belief, confidence and the ability to visualize accomplishing your objective is essential to success for most people and does not necessarily mean you are unrealistic or a narcissist. I wonder, at age 29, when Sara Blakely first hatched her idea for Spanx, if Dr. Twinge would have labeled her unrealistic and narcissistic? After all she wrote in her journal she would be a millionaire by 30.  

Belief and visualization works and there are hundreds of real-world examples like Carol Burnett and Sara Blakely out there to prove the point.

But is belief enough?

No.

In the same BBC News article, Florida State University self-esteem expert, Roy Baumeister says 'Self-control is much more powerful and well-supported as a cause of personal success…” “An intervention that encourages [students] to feel good about themselves, regardless of work, may remove the reason to work hard.”

Dr. Baumeister has a point, belief in and of itself is not enough. Belief must be combined with discipline, hard work, and perseverance.

Believe, work hard, and as Winston Churchill once said, ‘Never, Nerver, Never, Never Give Up!

Do you have a story where believing in yourself and or a crazy idea has helped you accomplish your mission? Comment and share below.

Be Great!

MB