While my son was growing up, he often would come up to me and say, “Dad, I have a problem” and my answer back would automatically be, “son, there are no problems, only solutions.” I thought it was prophetic but like any other child he ignored my wisdom and got right to telling me what his problem was.
I liked the line so much that I caught myself using it at work both with co-workers and customers alike. I have always liked the challenge of problem solving anything, whether it is a design problem or it was consulting a customer on business practices, so it seemed to fit what I do. When so called problems arise for me, I often find myself saying that to myself to remind me that I really have no problems compared to many other people in the world.
Many years back a customer of mine would send out text messages to a group of us every morning with the heading ‘Thought of the Day’. At first I smirked and quickly moved on with my busy day. Then every once in awhile, he got too busy and didn’t send them everyday. Then they would sometimes come and then they stopped all together. I realized then without really knowing it that every morning I looked forward to them and since they had stopped, I actually missed them.
When I asked him why he stopped he said it just got to be too much, so I took up the torch and soon found out he was right. It took more time than I thought, so after awhile I settled in to sending out it weekly as a “Thought of the Week”. I send it out to everyone at our company and to the guys that originally sent them to me. I know a lot of people either don’t even look at them, or do and delete them right away. They don’t get what I get out of it and that’s ok, because as one of my favorite TOTW [thoughts of the week] from Zig Ziglar says, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
I would like to share with you some of my favorite ones. The subject matters range from productivity to patriotism to just basic motivation depending on my mood or the season. Some quotes are from famous people and some are from just people I know that say something worth noting.
- “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “You can’t Google experience.” Randy Coleman (friend of mine.)
- “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.”
- George Bernard Shaw
- “To be successful you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart”….Thomas J Watson
- “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” – Samuel Johnson
- “No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.” Seneca
- “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer
- “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.” -Zig Ziglar
I hope you enjoyed some of this small sampling of TOTW that I picked for you, and even if you didn’t, I enjoyed looking back on some of my favorites.
About the author: Joe Twardzik is the Director of Landscape Systems, Wolf Creek Company, in charge of educating all staff on long term sales strategies and proper business practices, enabling staff to get the most out of themselves and grow within the company.
