Nov 13 2007 6:22AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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At the Avid Leadership Conference in Phoenix last week, football hall-of-famer Mike Ditka (and hero to all of us who love Da Bears) delivered some well received advice to the home builders in the audience. In these tough times, he said to remember that no one has been able to achieve success without ACE: attitude, character, and enthusiasm.

For motivational speakers, acronyms are the stock in trade, but the audience received Ditka’s advice with appreciation. In fact, for the rest of the conference, other speakers and audience members referred to it.

Truth told? This is pretty simple stuff. I mean, really? Attitude, character, and enthusiasm? Of course you need that stuff to succeed. But the strength behind Ditka’s message was in the truth told by his example. Ditka, you know, both believes this and lives it.

The other strength came in the struggles the audience is facing in its daily business life. When we are faced with a daily struggle to save our businesses, getting a strong reminder of the simple things we can control will go a long way to keep us on the forward path.

Golf swing gone bad? Go back to basics. Business gone down? Go back to basics. And they have to be basics you can control. Our attitudes, our character, and our enthusiasm are all within out control.