Category: Reck, Ross; Dr.

Critics vs. Mentors On the road to success we all encounter two groups of people: critics and mentors–and it’s important that we not confuse the two.  Critics are, by far, the largest of the two groups.  They are people who are not all that successful themselves and are jealous of other people’s success.  They love to…

Listening There’s no shortage of people who like to give advice–in fact, many people thrive on it.  It seems like everywhere you turn there is someone who is eager to dispense their rendition of how you should do your job or live your life.  These people try to pass themselves off as experts and often…

First Steps Human beings start out in life with absolutely no fear of failure.  Take learning how to walk, for example.  We repeatedly failed over and over in our initial attempts, but we got back up and tried again with smiles on our faces.  The same thing happened when we learned how to ride a…

The Roughest Road It’s the roughest road that usually leads to the top.  Why?  Because it’s loaded with new challenges and experiences that enable you to learn, grow and expand your comfort zone.  Successful people understand this, which is why they rarely take  the easy way out of any challenging situation.  They know that the…

Learn and Grow A professional golfer once informed me that the biggest reason most golfers’ scores don’t improve much is that they tend to play with other golfers whose skill levels are roughly the same as their own.  As a result, there’s no one to learn from, so there’s no growth or improvement. The same…

Comfort Zone Study after study has shown that highly successful people possess high levels of self-confidence–a rock solid belief in their abilities.  This confidence stems from the fact that they have very large “comfort zones.”  The reason for this is that highly successful people, as they go through life, are constantly trying out new and…

Rage in the Car The last thing you want to do when someone cuts you off in traffic, doesn’t say thank you or doesn’t hold a door open for you, is to take it personally.  Keep in mind that such behavior is not directed at you, it’s directed at the world.  People who behave like…

Being Nice! A number of years ago, a group of researchers studied 16,000 corporate executives.  They found that the “high achievers” in the group tended to be every bit as concerned with people as they were with profits.  The “medium achievers” were concerned only with performance numbers, while the “low achievers” were obsessed with their…

Mr. Reik is right I came across an interesting quote made by a psychologist named Theodore Reik [2] nearly 50 years ago.  It went, “In order to be happy oneself, it is necessary to make at least one other person happy.”  He went on to say, “The secret to human happiness is not in self-seeking,…

Maya Angelou appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show recently and said, “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.”  Maya is right on the money.  If you can negotiate events like this…

Ross Reck writes: Part of our interpersonal success is tied to saying the right thing at the right time.  But an even larger part of that success is tied to our being able to avoid saying the wrong thing at the tempting moment.  There are times when we so want to tell somebody off or…

Make me feel important! Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, said many times, “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important!’”  What Mary Kay meant was that people have a very strong need to have their worth validated on a regular basis.  She…

Competition Competitive behavior–making yourself look good at the expense of those around you–is poor preparation if you expect to move up in an organization.  While stealing another person’s ideas or taking credit for someone else’s accomplishments may seem to move you along more quickly at the lowest levels of an organization, it won’t take you very…

Earning Respect Ross Reck, “Many people go through life thinking they’re entitled to be respected by those around them and then they whine when they don’t receive it.  What these people fail to understand is that respect is not something you’re entitled to, it’s something that must be earned through action.  And the quickest way to…

  The Right Thing Doing the right thing makes you look good and it energizes those around.  Often we are faced with situations where we ask ourselves, “Should I do the right thing or take the easy way out?” I was on a Hertz Rental Car bus not long ago at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. …

Micromanaging One of life’s most difficult lessons is to come to grips with the fact that the tools that have taken you to where you are, are not the tools that are going to take you to the next level.  For example, micromanaging, where you are constantly looking over other people’s shoulders, may work well…

The Golden Rule Treating others the way you want to be treated is often referred to as the Golden Rule.  The reason it’s called the Golden Rule is that it has such a high payoff associated with it.  People absolutely crave to be treated with kindness and respect.  So, when you treat them this way,…

Relationships I’m sure you’ve all heard the old adage, “You can go to the well once too often.”  It means that you can only ask another person for favors so many times before you wear out your welcome.  This is true only if you fail to maintain your relationships.  As long as you maintain your…

Some people are so afraid of making a mistake that they let this fear paralyze them into inaction.  What we have to remember is that life is all about making mistakes–and learning from them!  If you’re not out there making mistakes, you’re not growing.  It’s impossible to be creative, innovative or achieve progress without making…

A Quick Fix for America By Ross Reck, PhD and Harry Paul July, 2015 Coauthors of Instant Turnaround! Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and Working Hard Pundits, politicians and even President Obama are all saying that getting the economy back on track is going to take a long, long time. This is very…

There is only one thing that gets people excited about doing anything; it’s their self-interest–what’s in it for them.  So, if you want to get people excited about going the extra mile for you over and over again, all you have to do is figure out their self-interest and connect it with yours.  This may…

The quickest way of winning over a new person is to send them a clear message that you are for real.  One way of doing this is to promise to do something for them and then exceed their expectations with how you follow through on your promise.  For example, if you promise to get this…

My oldest child is a son named Philip.  If we have spent time together and feel good about each other, and I ask Philip to mow the lawn, chances are he will agree.  On the other hand, if I have been gone for a week and we haven’t seen each other, much less done anything…

Several years ago on Memorial Day weekend, my family and I went to a local dealership to look at new cars.  This started out as one of the most pleasant buying experiences that has ever happened to us.  Instead of trying to sell us a car, the sales person actually let us buy one!  He…