Why act as if everything is okay if that attitude is as successful as your bad one?
My dad came from a small, unremarkable town in central California in the Gold Country. When he got out of the Navy he took a couple of classes at a college and than stopped. And that was the extent of his education.
He had a lot of different jobs but he chose to be a surveyor. A surveyor does not make big money and our family was never financially secure but my entire life my dad kept us living in nice houses in nice neighborhoods in nice cities. We never went hungry, we always had decent clothes, and we always had nice cars. My friends families all had more money than us but we did OK.
My dad ended up working for the State of California as a surveyor for twenty years, eventually he became lead man for his own 6 man crew. Being a surveyor is not easy work, it requires lots of intelligence. One little mistake could cost the State of California thousands and thousands of dollars. My dad taught himself trigonometry on the job. Anyway I am taking an unbelievably long time to make the point I wanted to make
My dad always told me, “90% of life is attitude. On a job, your attitude can make or break you and mean the difference between success and failure”. And that carries on to everyday life. He had a hundred other words of wisdom to tell me over the years but that always stuck with me.
I go into every job I’ve ever had with the intent of doing the best job I can do. I rarely complain about anything and I do what I’m asked with enthusiasm. I keep the attitude that I am lucky I can work at all. And I try to be positive. And the end result is that since 1983, even with paranoid schizophrenia, I have worked almost steadily. I have had about 25 different jobs,
I have not always succeeded, at some jobs I’m one of the top workers at other jobs I’ve been the worst and I have been fired a dozen and a half times. But sometimes right after getting fired, I will get a new job and sometimes I will stay there for two or three years. But yeah, my dad was right about many things in life and his advice about attitude has served me well for thirty years. I’m sorry if my post sounds like overkill and probably only one or two people will even read this but that’s OK. If even one person is helped , it’s well worth it.