Mompreneur Tip: Nothing is Random and Criticism Gets You Nowhere
This morning I went to the gym (which in and of itself is a random act) and brought my new favorite book How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. As I sat down to do some sit ups, a man asked me why I was reading this book.
Not needing an excuse to avoid doing crunches, I sat up, smiled and said, “because I am an entrepreneur and a mom and any effective leadership techniques I can get my hands on are as good as gold.” Well, that was all that this guy needed to forego his workout and get involved in a random conversation.
This simple question spawned an hour-long chat about business, finances, leadership, randomness and what to do now to prepare for making a big chunk of cash in the future. I now have a new group of books to add to my reading list and the world grew smaller yet again when this guy dropped the name of a company that belonged to a woman I incubated with at Ladies Who Launch.
Random conversation, random place to get into this conversation and even more random that this guy knew my friend who I hadn’t spoken to in a while. So, when I got back to my desk it was time to shoot off an email to said long lost friend and send a random hello.
Back to the book that I am reading and why it is my new favorite book… How to Win Friends & Influence People was written in 1936 by Dale Carnegie. This book has been mentioned in hundreds of business books and articles over the past seventy plus years. I am sure you have heard the title, right? But have you ever picked this book up and read the little gem? If not, add it to your bucket list. This thing is packed full of great advice for MOMPRENEURS!
And every single lesson is just as poignant today as it was seventy years ago! Lesson #1: Don’t criticize, condemn or complain. Wow, those are some pretty interesting words from a man in the 1930’s and the beauty is that they really aren’t anything that we don’t already know. The reason that they inspired me to write a post about them is because of the reasoning behind them.
People do not do what we want them to do when we criticize them because we put them on the defense. Mass murderers, dirty politicians and naughty kids all have a justification in their minds for committing their crimes. This is human nature and it will not change.
So, if you want to motivate (or manipulate, depending on how you look at it) people to do what you want, you have to think strategically! The key is making them WANT to do the thing that you want them to do. This can be applied to our kids, our team, our friends and family and even the random stranger who keeps you from doing your crunches. Criticizing, complaining and condemning anything will have a negative reflection on us. There is no way around it.
The moral of this post is… if we want to accomplish great things, we must accept, embrace and creatively encourage those around us. In turn, we will go farther faster, with more enjoyment and with a greater level of support.
I know… kind of a random message for a Monday morning, but a pretty powerful one to kick off the week!
Next book… Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
