An Earnest Attitude, the Best Approach to Life
To make an earnest living is the norm for everyone in this society
Work is an integral part of life. It provides a reliable source of income that enables one the ability to pursue dreams. But work in itself cannot guarantee success; you also need to have a positive attitude toward life and every aspect of it.
Lesson from a movie star
When Jackie Chan was casting for the movie “Chinese Zodiac”, he went through many auditions before ending up with a new actor. At that time, when the action and casting directors were selecting the cast, they left a camera running to record the process, but the actors didn’t know that. Many of them were filmed with displeasure when they were told to “do it again” and even showed annoyance when told, “it wasn’t good enough”. These details were all seen by Jackie Chan. No matter how good they were, they didn’t fit well in Jackie’s eyes. Until a newcomer, Zhang Lanxin, appeared in front of the camera. She was different from others. After shooting an action, she would take the initiative and politely say: “I'm sorry, teacher, I am ready to do it again.”
After Jackie Chan saw this, he turned to the producer and said, it will be her. The producer didn't understand and reminded Jackie there were better candidates than her. But Jackie Chan said firmly: “I want this person because I like her work attitude.”
A personal experience
Sometimes we don’t have to look too far to experience the importance of attitude. I once had a staff I wanted to groom. In the performance review, I offered her a managerial post with probation. If she can prove her worth during that period, she will most certainly get the promotion. But what she said puzzled me deeply. “Pay me the manager’s salary first, and then I will see if it is worth my time.” Naturally, she wasn’t selected as many others were willing to do more than her for a chance at the job.
Some people feel they shouldn’t put in any more effort than the salary they are paid, so much so that they treat work as a pastime. They came to work simply to kill time without aspiring to do more.
They end up being monks who take their meditation sessions as afternoon naps and won’t bother understanding the purpose of meditation, let alone trying to achieve a deep soulful connection. Instead of meditation, they nap their life away, never achieving excellence in whatever they do.
Have the attitude to take things seriously, in every aspect, in every task, and it will drive you to improve your job. If you have the right attitude, you will generate a positive experience that will create a self-reinforcing effect to improve your overall ability.
The value of a person is directly proportional to his attitude.
Charles Schwab is the founder of Bethlehem Steel, one of the largest steel companies in the United States. Schwab first entered the steel industry as an unskilled labourer in Andrew Carnegie's steelworks, starting as a stake driver. One day, Carnegie saw Schwab squatting in a corner reading a book, so he stepped forward and asked curiously, “Why are you learning this?” In response, Schwab said, “I want to raise my value more than the salary I make to get more development opportunities.”
With such an attitude, Schwab was promoted often, including to the positions of general superintendent of Homestead Works in 1887 and general superintendent of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in 1890. In 1897, at only 35 years of age, he became president of the Carnegie Steel Company and later the first president of the United States Steel Corporation (USSC).
Many people have two pursuits in their lives. One is to be rich, and the other is to be valuable. Those who are rich are not necessarily valuable, but those who are valuable will definitely be rich. Wealth comes uninvited when one is valuable.
The key to determining a person's wealth often lies in his mindset
The poor complained to the Buddha about the injustice of fate: “I work non-stop every day, but I am still poor, but the rich don't have to work every day, yet they have endless money.”
The Buddha asked: “What do you think is fair?” The poor man said: “Make the rich man poor like me, and do the same work every day.” The Buddha then made the rich man poor and gave each of them a mountain of coal. The poor, as before, quickly dug up a load of coal, exchanged it for money, and spent it. The rich man bought some steamed buns with the money he got and hired two people to dig coal for him with the rest of the money.
In this way, the rich suffered at the beginning to hire a few more workers. A month later, the poor man only dug a small part of the coal mountain, and the money he earned was barely enough to make ends meet. But the rich had accumulated his earnings to hire even more workers to help him dig up mountains of coal, and soon the rich became rich again.
Many times, your poverty is not because you don't work hard but because you don't have the rich man’s mindset and attitude.
The key to success is through giving
In 2015, Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments from Seattle, made an astonishing decision: he voluntarily gave up his million-dollar annual salary to raise the minimum annual wage of employees to $70,000. As soon as the news came out, there was a sensation in all walks of life about his lunacy. The news media even ridiculed him as “the lunatic”. However, seven years later, in August 2022, instead of closing down under the impact of the pandemic, the company's revenue soared, and they even raised their minimum wage further to $80,000 per year.
The most beautiful thing in life is that when you are willing to help others, you will end up helping yourself. After you give, blessings will naturally come back to you. It may not be immediate. but it will eventually. In fact, the source of happiness lies in “giving”. To get help from others, you must first help others.
Takeaways
If you only put your self-interests before everything else, you will not go far in life. True practice is reflected in your everyday attitude. Cultivate an earnest attitude toward your life and develop an earnest mindset in managing your days. Only by working hard to create a better self can you grow and gain satisfaction in life.
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These are hard truths some people have a hard time facing. It's not always black and white, either. The same person who once embraced and lived these truths can also swing the other way and encounter seemingly insurmountable defeat. That is the true test. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve seen this phenomenon play out many times in my life. Those with bad work attitudes never lasted long. It might be due to compensation complaints, gripes regarding customers who either had a lot of questions or were unable to understand what was told them or the unfortunate ability to bring problems from home into the workplace but it didn’t matter in the end.
They were bad for office morale in addition to being unable to see the better side of things.