MILLIONAIRE SUCCESS HABITS
One day in 11th grade, J.P.’s high school teacher caught him and his friend Michelle goofing off and passing notes in class. He made them stand in front of the class while he proclaimed, “See these two? Don’t hang around them because they’re not going to amount to anything. They’ll absolutely never make it in any business.” J.P. may have not realized it at the time, but moments like that create our life habits—successful ones, yes, but also bad ones that can hold us back from reaching our full potential. J.P. could have said to himself, “I’ll never amount to anything.” In- stead he said, “The hell with that guy. I’ll prove him wrong.” J.P. developed his first success habit on one of his first jobs. He told me, “I’ve worked all my life, starting from nine years old. I had things like paper routes at eleven years old that I continued throughout high school. I even worked for a while at the local dry cleaner sweeping the floors and doing odd jobs for an owner that was so tight with money that he squeaked when he walked! I was working as hard as I possibly could for a mere $1.25 per hour. Then one day after school he called me over and said, ‘Last night I looked behind the cabinets, and there was no dust! Then I picked up a rug, no dust! You clean this place as if I’m watching you every minute!’ I said, ‘You hired me to clean and my job is to do the best I can.’ He was so pleased he gave me a raise to a $1.50 an hour. For him to do that, it was like I won an Academy Award. And to be honest, I learned an important lesson from this period of my life. Successful people, whether they’re work- ing for somebody else or working for themselves, do whatever they do to the best of their ability—as if the boss is watching them every minute of every day. I learned that in everything you do, always do your best.” Some may believe that this makes you a foolish yes-man. I believe that doing your best is one of the success habits you should develop. The benefits are numerous, varied, and signifi- cant. In this instance, his habit helped J.P. complete a mundane task in the present (and complete it well), which led him to get- ting future tasks that he loved.
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