I don’t want to spoil the story by giving away too much, but there is one scene that I thought was brilliant. The priest, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, discusses the topic of gossip during his sermon to the congregation. He describes a woman who has gossiped about another and goes to her priest to confess her sin. He tells her to go to the top of her roof and gut a pillow, then return to him the following day. She does as instructed. Feathers from the pillow fly across the sky.

She returns the following day and reports what she has done. The priest next instructs her to go back and gather all the feathers and restuff the pillow. She tells him that she cannot perform this task as the feathers blew away. She can’t even guess how far they flew or where they went. He tells her that it is exactly the same thing with gossip.

When you talk disparagingly, or spread gossip, you have no idea how far the message will travel, where it will spread. Once you say something it is impossible to take it back. My friend Jackie, an educator and public speaker, has seen the devastating effects of gossip in personal relationships, as well as the workplace. This is what she has to say about the topic:

“Gossip is not only hurtful, it’s destructive. Criticism and gossip stops any work environment from being a positive, joyful, fun, fulfilling experience. We can be having a wonderful time at our jobs, then one negative or critical person walks in and everyone seems to follow the negativity feeding frenzy. It’s like inviting ants to a picnic. Unfortunately, what follows is the whole environment turns negative. We find ourselves agreeing with, and even adding to the gossip and criticism that is being tossed about. From there it spreads and fuels the fire of discord – often beyond repair.”

In addition to ruining people’s reputations, gossip in the workplace is bad for business. It results in loss of jobs, retraining costs and a serious decrease in morale and productivity.

Jackie offered this advice for turning the tide of gossip in the workplace.

“We each have an obligation to stop this vicious cycle of negativity and destruction. When we catch ourselves being critical or wanting to gossip, we need to stop and refuse to allow ourselves to fall into that trap. We may have to work on this for the rest of our lives as the programming is strong and society as a whole tends to be negative. We have to choose not to participate or associate with the people that seem to thrive on the negative side of life. We have to learn to say, “I’m sorry you feel the way you do, but I really can’t let your negative attitude interfere with my joy and happiness.” It may be hard at first, but when you hear gossip, you need to have the courage to stop it, or at the very least, learn to walk away.”

Although gossip may seem titillating, when we listen or participate in gossip and negativity, we allow the verbal negativity to grow and have more power. In order to lead a happier life, we must learn to focus on the positive people, places, and things we enjoy. By doing so, we not only become happier, we are able to defuse, or erase, the negativity in our environments. The old saying, If you can’t say something nice about someone don’t say anything at all, is more true than we realize.

Because we are bombarded with negative messages every day – particularly in the media – spreading bad news is becoming more common place than ever before. Gossip is just another evil way of creating more negativity and unhappiness in the world. One way to curb the practice is to think before speaking, or repeating information. Ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to say going to be hurtful in any way? What is my motivation for saying this? Is what I’m about to say coming from a place of love and respect, or a place anger and cruelty?” By asking ourselves a few questions before we speak, and trying to communicate from a compassionate viewpoint and not a critical one, we can save ourselves, and others, a lot of pain and grief.

Sally Marks
Coauthor of upcoming book, Erase Negativity and Embrace the Magic Within. Check out her blog at Here

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Tags: ethics, person, results, communication, global

“If you have to go through hell to get to where you are going, Don’t Stop!”

Indeed, I guess if I ever wrote my story it would be very similar to that of Ray Kroc and in his memoirs and famous book “Grinding it Out” he tells of his long journey to build the greatest franchise of all times. Along the way you see all his former friends, associates, and partners try to steal what he’d built.

The reality is that there are barriers along the way, tar pits, and other nuisances that have to be dealt with for all entrepreneurs. Sometimes you cannot go around them, sometimes they stand between you and the goal line, often there is another way, but not always. Just always remember; It’s okay to win.

It is not always easy to win when your opponent plays by different rules, uses steroids, or uses associations, regulators and others as a wedge point to hide their lack of integrity. You are right to stay on your game, just ratchet it up a couple of notches; and that friend turned competitor and then traitor, well, he’ll leave the market once he realizes the heat is too hot, they always do.

You see, lazy people cheat the most, and they often choose the path of least resistance, and generally it isn’t the high road, but often they pretend to be on that road, yet nowhere to be found! Then when they find no easy road to take, they go and do something else. This is why the strong survive. Let me ask you something are you weak or strong? (Clue: weakness is not a noble trait).

Lance Winslow – Lance Winslow’s Bio. Lance Winslow is also Founder of the Detail Guys, a cool little Franchise Company; Click Here.

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Tags: business, work, ethics, time, results

The business of contractors, a certified showdown of alpha male personalities, is a proof of this scenario. It follows that it is not for the weak. It needs a focused, determined and highly intellectual individual to pursue his passions but still have the energy left to plan ahead and secure his proverbial place in the sun, leave the competition eating his dust.

If you want to be the victor in this race towards the land of success, here are some essential guidelines to live by.

Expand your knowledge and improve your skills. These two aspects should always go together like Romeo and Juliet, the ball and socket, the tenon and the mortise -pairs that have been made to last a lifetime. Having one without the other is simply unthinkable. Why? There is no use of having knowledge if you can’t put it to actual use. Conversely, your skills will lose its value if you have no idea of the rationale for performing such task. Therefore, it is a must to maintain a balance between the two. Participate in discussions and forums promoting these progressive actions. Learn from the experts if you must. It is not necessary to hire them for one-on-one lessons. Reading their books, if they have any, or studying their previous works, will go a long way in honing your craft.

Clients will be put at ease if they are faced by a contractor who can explain to them, in layman’s terms, the solutions to their problems. If they encounter someone who can’t seem to clarify their doubts or who can’t show them what needs to be done, they will be put off and decide to hire someone else.

Encourage bulk orders, promote discounted products and slash the price of your service quotations. This is not a suicidal mission. It is one way of making your customers happy in order to stay ahead. Clients always get this giddy feeling when they feel like they have saved on expenses. In bulk orders, you can increase sales by selling plenty of products at a lower rate. Although your profit will be lesser as when you vend piece by piece, at least you are still earning decently. The same principle holds true if you lower your mark ups and advertise discounted products and service charges. Clients will come back again and again, knowing that you are not only after their money but also after their well-being in terms of financial health.

You may also put the power of networking to good use. Whether you want to go old school by using word of mouth referral to enhance your image or choose the modern route of using the internet, you will still win because this method has been tried and tested for so many years by salesmen from all sorts of industries. It is a value for money technique that can never be beaten by other systems.

As a summary, the three aforementioned tips to stay ahead of the contractor game are the following: expand your knowledge and improve your skills, keep your customers happy through price reductions and utilize the power of networking. Apply them in your career and be prepared to be crowned as king of the contractor industry.

Looking for quality contractor leads to help expand and grow your business? Then this is the right place. Mr. Johnsen can help you find more cheap contractor leads than you will ever need. Visit his website before your competitors.

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Tags: person, compete, global, ethics, results