A few years ago, I was teaching a post-college level leadership course. As part of the course, participants were to introduce themselves and describe what they were doing with their lives.
One student, who appeared confident, sat in the front row. But when it came his turn to introduce himself, he replied weakly. “My life is a mess,” he said. “A hot mess.”
The rest of the students applauded. Mess was an apt description for many of them as well.
If we believe the world is a mess, what are we going to do about it?
Larry Winget certainly has an opinion. He is known as “The Pit Bull of Personal Development” and is regarded internationally for his creative insights into how people think. Winget has written six New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling books.
If you believe the world is a mess, you already have a lot in common with Winget. The approach he suggests is to turn around the parts of your life that need it. Winget is straightforward in his language and very strong opinions. He doesn’t hold back.
He identifies the singular virus infecting the four most influential aspects in our lives — education, business, government and the people around us — as a lack of core values.
“When core values are clear, priorities become easy to set,” Winget says. “When priorities are established, decision-making becomes easier.”
With a clearer understanding of core values it becomes easier to look at your behavior as well as that of your employees.
You hear this often: “What the hell is wrong with people?” Winget gives us an extensive list — nearly two pages long.
What’s wrong with people is that they make lousy decisions, Winget suggests. Our decisions create our reality. We make a decision that puts a reaction in place. To illustrate, he includes examples of common mistakes that create easy to identify outcomes. Among these are:
• If you choose to spend more money than you have, you may end up broke.
• If you are a chain smoker, you may end up dead.
• If you choose to treat your spouse badly, you’ll soon end up divorced.
• If you choose to treat your customers rudely, your business will fail.
While these may be daily mistakes, we often struggle to find positive answers based on core values. Meanwhile, most employers and managers spend the bulk of their time trying to improve their best employees.
Core values can always be spotted, Winget believes. “Your core values become the lenses through which you see the world,” he says. When you become clearer about your core values, you recognize the core values of others.”
Too often, people have lowered their standards, Winget says. We tolerate poor work habits, lousy service and poor performance from companies as well as our company’s work. “What you tolerate, you endorse; and what you put up with you condone,” Winget writes.
Winget’s No. 1 Rule for Life and Business is simple: Do what you said you would do,
when you said you would do it, the way you said you would do it.
“We all have crap we have to deal with,” Winget says. “Your success lies somewhere between what you will do and what you aren’t willing to do.”
Be realistic — you can’t change the world easily, Winget says. But you can change your world. You can implement your own core values and run your business according to the values you have developed. You can work by encouraging them to focus on those values. You can weave core values into everything that you do.
Do that, Winget says, and more and more people will change. “Then maybe, with enough time,” Winget believes, “the world will actually change.”