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fore. In fact, I am going to attack most of what you have heard and
read and learned.
Some will not like my approach here, but as you have probably
figured out by now . . . I do not care.
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Slaughtering the Sacred Self-Help Cows 43
And some will think I am not telling the truth because it is so
contrary to what we have been bombarded with for so long, but that
does not make it untrue. It just makes it unconventional, which, in
my opinion, makes it refreshing and worth looking at.
All great truth begins as blasphemy.
George Bernard Shaw
Attitude and Motivation
Let me begin with two things I am absolutely positive of: attitude is
not everything and motivation does not work.
What? How can you say that? You lie! You are a bad man! I buy
books by motivational speakers all the time! I go to hear motivational
speakers whenever I get a chance. I listen to motivational tapes and
am the biggest and best customer of Nightingale-Conant and Career-
Track. So what do you mean attitude isn t everything and motivation
doesn t work?
Well, let me prove it to you. If you are the kind of person you say
you are, listening to motivational speakers and reading motivational
self-help books, then answer these questions: How is your life? Are
you rich, happy, healthy, and successful? No? Well there you go, that
stuff doesn t really work, does it? (By the way, if you really are rich,
happy, healthy, and successful, then congratulations. But I promise
you motivation is not what got you there.)
Don t you just hate that? You are caught. Don t feel bad. I used to
be just like you. I have read literally thousands of motivational, self-
help books. I have also listened to at least that many motivational,
self-help tapes. I have been to lots of meetings and heard the high-
powered, high-priced motivational gurus (some of whom are now my
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44 Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life
good friends) say all those things about feeling good about yourself
and how you have to be positive every waking moment. I have lis-
tened to them tell the masses to just have a good attitude and any-
thing will be possible. I would sit on the edge of my seat and eat it up
until I would nearly swoon with the idea that if only I had the right at-
titude, my life would be okay.
Listen, I have had a good, positive attitude all my life and I have
had more crap happen to me than you can imagine! I had a great atti-
tude and went bankrupt. I had a great attitude the whole time I had
problems in my business, my marriage, with my money, and my
health. That wonderful, positive attitude of mine did not keep one
thing from happening to me.
So regardless of what any of the books, tapes, and speakers say,
attitude is not everything. I know that is a lot to swallow since it
flies in the face of what everyone else says and everything you have
ever heard. Like you, I have seen books out there telling you atti-
tude is everything. You can find coasters and T-shirts and even buy
a cute little rock to use as a paperweight that says, Attitude is
Everything. You can even get little coins to carry in your pocket to
remind you of the same sentiment. You can buy posters to line your
walls. It makes the suckers feel better and lines the pockets of the
manufacturers. And it is still a lie because attitude is not every-
thing!
ATTITUDE IS IMPORTANT
Attitude is important; I will give you that. But it will not keep any-
thing from happening to you. It will help you deal with what hap-
pens to you, but it will not keep anything from happening to you. So
while it is important, it certainly is not everything. Attitude is only
one thing.
What people sometimes think is if they get their attitude right
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Slaughtering the Sacred Self-Help Cows 45
then they will have no problems, they will have nothing bad happen
to them, and they will not even have to work simply because their
attitude is so good.
Attitude alone will not change things. Effort changes things.
Thoughts change things. Words change things. Again, remember
this: It is what you think about, talk about, and do something about
that comes about. That is what changes things: the combination of
those three things. It is not what you have a positive attitude about!
It takes more than being positive, because you can be positively
lazy. You can be positively wrong. You can be positively stupid.
HAVE A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE SOMETIMES
Sometimes I have a crappy attitude. I mean it is totally negative. How
about you?
You will not often hear a self-help guy admit to having a bad atti-
tude. But I am not your typical self-help guy. I gladly admit I am very
negative sometimes. I have days where I am anything but positive. I
need days like that. You need those days, too.
Now Larry, that doesn t make any sense. Why would I need to be
negative? Why would you need a negative attitude?
Being negative serves me well. I think it will serve you well,
too. Some days you need to get ticked off at yourself mad at the
way things are going and mad at yourself for being the kind of per-
son you are. Mad at the way you are raising your kids mad at the
way you are behaving with your spouse mad at the way you are
running your business. Anger and a bad attitude are sometimes
great motivators. Sometimes you have to get upset in order to
change things.
In order to make positive changes in your life, you first have to get
negative about your life.
It is not about being positive or negative; it is about what works
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46 Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life
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