Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude
toward it, for that determines our success or failure.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author,
The Power of Positive Thinking

In 1973 I sold 1,425 cars and trucks, setting a world record that still stands.

Besides having good health, having a positive attitude is the other important rule for getting your day off on the right foot. It’s gonna be a rough one without it. A positive attitude is the logical partner of good health. When you’ve got them both going for you, you’ve got an unbeatable combination in your corner. But if your head’s not screwed on right before your day gets started, good health isn’t going to be enough to get the job done. You need to be mentally sharp, focused, and in a positive frame of mind. As that great jazz composer, Duke Ellington, used to say, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” If you want to swing with the winners, you’ve got to know how they play the game—what makes them successful. If you look at the real success stories in any business, you’ll notice that, in almost all cases, they look the part—fit, neat, and wearing a confident (not arrogant) smile. Just being in good health isn’t enough. You need the whole package. So let’s meet Rule #2: Have a positive attitude.

Motivation and Attitude—the Difference

I remember when I first got into the business of selling, it seemed as though all I ever heard was that you couldn’t be successful without first being motivated. Everything was about motivation, motivation, motivation. It was as though motivation were based only on what someone would give you in exchange for your accomplishing something. I disagreed with that idea then, and I disagree with it now. That view of motivation is incomplete at best and ignores what really drives someone to achieve goals and exceed expectations. I always felt there was something else needed that was far more important and fundamental to actually becoming successful. While we are all basically motivated by a need or want for something, how successful we are in attaining it is driven by something very special. And that’s the key—WHAT DRIVES YOU. Before I tell you what that special something is, let me give you a little bit of background first.

In a perfect world, we’d all work for companies that had phenomenal compensation plans with fantastic, high-quality, competitively priced products or services all the time; success would pretty much be guaranteed to all of us. Most of us have been burned too many times or are smart enough to know that companies like that don’t exist in the real world. They either aren’t that way to begin with or can’t maintain that level of perfection without being forced to change from time to time in order to remain competitive. And if they don’t, then the unthinkable can happen—they either declare bankruptcy or go out of business altogether. Who would have thought we’d see this happen to blue chip companies like Lehman Brothers on Wall Street or the mighty General Motors in Detroit. But it did. When changes happen for the worse in the corporate world, that’s when the cutbacks begin, and we all know who’s affected first: the employees.

Lesson number one: you can’t always control what goes on around you. If you’re relying only on what someone else can give you to motivate you, you’re basically putting your future in someone else’s hands. That’s the kiss of death. I don’t like that plan at all. I want my future in my hands.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with working for a large company and enjoying the benefits that come with that. Just make sure you are motivated to succeed by what YOU are doing for yourself rather than only by what someone else is doing for you. Nobody can guarantee where you’ll wind up in this life, not even General Motors. Your best shot is YOU.

When I was selling cars and trucks, there were many times when I didn’t have the greatest compensation plan in the world. There were also times when the new products weren’t the greatest either. Sometimes the market conditions were lousy. But that never stopped me. Ever since I became the world’s number-one salesperson, I was always challenging myself to improve. I had no one else to beat. First I would try to top my previous week’s record, then the previous month’s, then the previous year’s. I never stopped trying to get better and better. For the rest of my sales career, I remained the number-one salesperson in the world; that’s 12 consecutive years! No matter what was thrown at me, I believed I was unstoppable, and I was.

Try selling cars and trucks during the oil embargo of 1973–74. I did. The last thing on earth you’d want to be selling when there’s a gas shortage is a car or truck. Right? Salespeople were dropping like flies. They said it couldn’t be done! Get this. I had my best year in 1973 when I sold 1,425 cars and set a world record that was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records! The following year was really rough when we saw rationing at the pumps.

Not only did the oil embargo almost paralyze showroom traffic, but we also experienced attempts to unionize all auto salespeople in the Detroit area. The dealers in metro Detroit got together and made a deal with the salespeople: stay away from the union and we’ll give you Saturdays off by closing all our stores that day. “What? Are they nuts or something?” I used to ask myself.

How the hell were we gonna sell someone a car when the door was slammed shut? I wanted no part of that crazy idea, but that’s exactly what happened. My best selling day, Saturday, when it was convenient for many of my prospects and customers to come in and see me, was tossed out into the trash heap of “great” decisions in January 1974, and for the rest of my sales career. Fifty-two of my best selling days in a year—gone just like that. The capital of the auto industry, Detroit, was the only place you couldn’t buy a car on Saturday in the entire country! How pathetic is that? So that shut down Joe Girard’s sales express in a hurry. Right?

WRONG! I just pressed down on the “accelerator” a little bit harder and fired up my attitude machine with the same gasoline my mother filled me with as a kid!

1. I made additional calls to offset the slow market.

2. I followed up on my contacts with more vigor.

3. I stepped up my direct mail with additional mailings.

4. I expanded my contacts with local banks to try and get better credit terms.

Nobody was going to get off “Girard’s hook” without a fight!

The result: while others were barely surviving, I had my second-best year ever in 1974 with sales of 1,376 units—only 49 short of my all-time record the previous year! NO GASOLINE and NO SATURDAYS? Girard says, “NO PROBLEM!” How about that for in-your-face audacity!

Even though I barely missed breaking my own world record, I still think I am most proud of what I accomplished that year, mainly because of the rotten conditions I was faced with. I did something that others said couldn’t be done. I decided to ignore the mobs of losers out there and choose the path of conquest! I could have panicked too and given up like all the others. But then what? Now what happens? I don’t have anything. Do I throw in the towel? Not in my world, pal. I’ve got mouths to feed at home. People are counting on me. We’re talking about my family here! I don’t need someone to “motivate” me. I’m already motivated! I have to count on ME to get over the top! But how? What do I reach for now?

I believe that something more basic than just being motivated by a want or need is required to succeed. What I’m looking for is that thing that drives motivation to insure you successfully achieve your goal or objective at the end of the day. I’m after the weapon I need to get me there! That weapon is simply ATTITUDE. Yes, attitude. And that’s what drives Joe Girard.

I focused on having a positive attitude. I figured I could control that. I decide whether or not to let circumstances dictate how I behave or react to something. I control the actions of my mind, not someone else who’s already been beaten into the ground. If you throw an oil embargo in my way, I’ll mop your face in it. You’ll be steamrolled in my tracks! I thrived on those situations!

It’s not just how I look at things. It’s the right way to look at things. It’s the positive way to look at things. I never put my emphasis on motivation. In my world, that comes automatically. I know what my needs and wants are. Just wanting something isn’t enough. You need the weapon to get it. With me, it’s all about attitude. This is where motivation really begins—from within. It is what drives us to satisfy our needs and wants successfully. Inside each of us, there is a voice that creates the urge and desire to succeed, to push, to exert ourselves to go on, even in the face of adversity, until we achieve our goals. A positive attitude always listens to that voice. It is the voice that “introduces you to yourself.” And that is critical, because without realizing who you really are, happiness cannot come to you. A positive attitude is like a lighthouse in a storm. It shows you the way. When that beacon of light shines on you, you’re automatically motivated. A positive attitude is what actually moves you toward your goal. Even if you don’t accomplish everything you set out to do on a given day, you know you’re going to give it your best shot.

Don’t make this idea any more complicated than it needs to be. Remember what we talked about earlier. Ignoring the basics is the most common cause of failure. Having a positive attitude is at the top of that list of basics.

The Power of Positive People

Never leave your home for work without taking a positive attitude with you each and every day. Arriving with a bad attitude is the surest way to ruin all the hard work you put into your preparation. It’ll be an uphill battle all day. Your biggest enemy will be YOU because you brought the “wrong” person to work with you. I knew that if I decided ahead of time to have a positive attitude, that would automatically motivate me to reach my goal before I even got to work. I was determined to turn obstacles into opportunities. My mindset was focused on winning. That approach has always been a key part of my daily preparation from the moment I get up in the morning.

This might surprise you, but as much as I like to work, one of my favorite things to do is sleep. In fact, I like sleeping so much that I have often told audiences that in another life, I must have been a bear. I love to sleep. I love sleeping so much that when that alarm bell rang in the morning and I had to get ready for work, I used to get out of bed, get in front of the mirror, and tell myself, “Someone is going to pay for this today.” That’s all it took to put the fire in my belly to get going. The adverse effect of being awakened from the joy of sleep had now been transformed into a positive tool for success. In a word—attitude.

A positive attitude is most important when you’re faced with things you just can’t control. And let me tell you, there were many obstacles in the auto business when I was selling.

Domestic manufacturers were constantly plagued with poor-quality issues.

Recalls in the millions were commonplace every year in the auto industry.

I witnessed the rise of Japanese manufacturers like Toyota and Honda as they invaded our markets.

Frustrated and angry customers began to defect in droves to these imports.

Unfortunately, if you let them take over, these obstacles can become real problems. They can have a serious impact on the morale where you work as well as a direct effect on how well YOU perform. This is not an environment that lends itself to a positive attitude for the average salesperson. Is yours a positive environment or a negative one? Are you surrounded by people who feel good about their careers, or are you swimming in a pool of losers?

There’s no doubt that many of the conditions in the workplace are impacted by the products or services your company provides. If they’re no good and people aren’t buying, then a negative atmosphere is bound to creep into the workplace. But if you have no control over the product, what can you do?

Here’s What Joe Girard Recommends

This is the time to kick your positive attitude into high gear. If you don’t, you’ll sink into the quicksand with all the others. This is a real moment of truth that many potential success stories drown in. They feel they have to join the ranks of complainers and whiners. They just can’t say no to peer pressure. If you’re in that group, the reality is you’re not saying “no” to anything at all. You’re really saying, “Oh yes! Sign me up! I want to be a lifetime member of the Losers Club. Please, please let me in!” Is that what you want? Then just sink to the bottom with all the others. Our time together will be brief.

I must tell you that most of the people I worked with didn’t look at attitude the same way I did. Everything was an obstacle. It seemed as though they could only see what was wrong with life. All they ever did was complain and waste time doing it. I remember a guy who came into work one morning “mad at the world” because his wife and kids just couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to spend time with them after having a rough day at the office. He obviously didn’t see what they were seeing. It was people like that that I competed against—advantage Joe Girard!

I wanted to get as far away from complainers and crybabies as I possibly could. I didn’t want to get infected with their disease and be brought down to their level. It’s easy to fall into that trap, especially if you’re having a bad day too.

If you’re in retail selling and bad weather has an impact on foot traffic, then treat the day as an opportunity to double up on your phone contacts or send out a dozen more direct mail introductions. Make use of the time. It’s a gift! Grab it with both hands. Don’t be like everyone else who sees only rain on a cloudy day.

Stay clear of negative people. They’re losers. Only spend time with positive people who can give you a boost up the mountain, not drag you down into the pits where the losers live. I know I wasn’t the most popular guy in my dealership. I was just the most successful. You decide who you want to be.

By the way, the idea of having a positive attitude is important in your home too. You have the opportunity to shape the way others see you. Whether it’s your spouse or your kids, they all see you as a model to follow. When I got home after work, I always made time for family before anything else, even when I was tired after a long day. I spent time with the kids and my wife. It wasn’t always as much as I wanted, but it was always good quality time, and thankfully, they knew that.

What kind of example are you setting? What happens to the atmosphere in your home the minute you walk through the front door? Make it a positive one that can help build a healthy and loving atmosphere for your family so that they will respond with the same positive pride in having you as a special part of their lives. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to enjoy that kind of experience in my home growing up. That’s probably why I am so aware of its importance and what it can do to a family both positively and negatively. The good news here is that YOUR ATTITUDE PLAYS THE KEY ROLE IN MAKING THAT DECISION. You control that every step of the way.

Focus on YOU

I hope you get the picture now about why a positive attitude is so important and how motivation will flow naturally from it. If you still don’t get it or are stuck on the false security of being motivated only by what you can get someone else to give you in this world, then you’ve led a sheltered and uninspired life. Failure will come hard for you. In fact, rebounding might be practically impossible.

Focus first on YOU, then on what someone says they will give you. That will determine whether or not you can accomplish something. You have to make yourself right for the task by first getting into the proper frame of mind—a positive frame of mind. Unless you’re doing something improper or illegal to gain an advantage (in other words, cheating), without a positive mindset, you will almost certainly fail.

Here’s the good news: being positive and confident that you’re going to fulfill the needs of every person you come in contact with generates enthusiasm—and it’s contagious! I can recall on several occasions receiving cards and phone calls from buyers who thanked me not just for the new car or truck they bought (I should have been thanking them, and I did!) but also for the experience that lifted their spirits when they were in the dealership.

One of my customers was a teacher who once told me that after our time together, she approached her class with renewed enthusiasm going into work the next day, and she could sense the positive feedback from the students. I made a carpet layer feel just as important as a doctor. After he bought his new truck from me, his attitude was so positive on his next job that the customer gave him two new referrals.

I went out of my way to make every prospect feel like a million bucks. When they sat down in my office, I wanted them to tell me all about the things that were important to them—their jobs or careers, their hobbies, and, most of all, their families. If you follow this advice, you will actually see the positive vibes begin to form in the person sitting across from you. You’ll begin to see it in their smile and how relaxed and happy they seem. Here’s the lesson: the moment is all about them.

The people you come in contact with feed off your enthusiasm. Turn them into “millionaires” without spending a dime! Your positive attitude is giving them a great gift, and that reward is priceless. As I said earlier, success also means becoming a better person.

As hard as it may be to believe, many people remain stubborn disbelievers about putting the power of a positive attitude first. They continue to rely on the shortsighted charity of someone else as their sole source of motivation to satisfy their needs and wants. Of course, they too finally join the ranks of other nameless victims who failed to look out for themselves. Worst of all, by not adopting a real positive attitude about the direction of their lives, they never realize the full potential of what they could have accomplished. They exist purely and totally on the uncertainties of someone else. That’s what motivates them. That’s what motivates a lot of people.

I remember two salespeople in particular we had in the dealership who had all the talent and potential in the world. Jack and Bob were both younger than most of the other sales reps. They were filled with energy and seemed to have a lot on the ball. You could see two bright careers emerging on the horizon as long as they kept focused. Surprisingly, they both turned out to be losers.

Jack thought he could set the world on fire in a few weeks. Predictably, his initial progress was slow (like all people starting out). He became impatient and developed a serious attitude problem. He began to blame management for his lack of success: they weren’t doing enough for him, he didn’t like the training materials, he felt the products weren’t as good as the competition. He wasn’t willing to put in the necessary time to hone his skills. He thought he could do it all on pure instincts. In his mind, everything was wrong with everything around him except him. He was wrong.

Bob, on the other hand, seemed to spend his time and energy on all the wrong things. He appeared to be easily distracted. When I would walk by the water cooler on my way to the service area to check on a customer, I often saw him hanging around there with some of the other salespeople wasting time. He also seemed more interested in the ladies that worked in the dealership than he was in trying to get new customers in to sell them a new car or truck. He thought he could “charm” his way to success. Both of these guys had their attitudes and priorities screwed up. They were both essentially waiting for success to come by and tap them on the shoulder. Bad choice. They were both tapped on the shoulder all right—fired for lack of productivity. Too bad. Two potentially bright lights snuffed out because of bad choices they made. The root cause—attitude. Is that you?

If you’re waiting for someone to make the world just right for you so you can succeed, you’re on the road to nowhere. Before you go down that path, remember this: No one ever got any recognition for climbing up half a mountain. Either aim for the top beginning with a positive attitude, or get the hell out of the way and let someone else through who does have his or her sights set on conquest.

The most famous mountain climber who ever lived was Edmund Hillary. Although his conquest of Mount Everest came nearly 60 years ago, the message of his story is as relevant today as it was back then.

Edmund Hillary didn’t say, “This mountain is too high. It’s too cold up here. These rocks are too uncooperative. There’s no trail to follow. My equipment doesn’t feel right. It’s all the manufacturer’s fault. Mount Everest can’t be conquered.” He probably did have moments of doubt because he was human. But he never let them take control. He was always in charge. He knew what he was up against.

This was going to be the most dangerous and greatest challenge of his life. Everyone else had failed before him. He knew it was going to be tough. But he also BELIEVED he was the man for the job. Hillary had more guts and determination than just about anyone you’d ever want to meet. There were no large crowds cheering him on with encouragement. He looked inside the jaws of adversity and clawed his way to the top, step by step, in remote isolation with his small team as he struggled in silence to over 29,000 feet in unimaginable conditions. But he never lost sight of his goal.

On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Mount Everest. That’s courage. That’s inspiration. That’s having a positive attitude. That’s probably about as close to perfection as you can get for human endurance.

A Positive Attitude—the Weapon of Winners

Life is not perfect by any means. If it were, there’d be no challenge to it. We all have our moments of personal joy and tragedy. Whether it’s family, money, or job-related issues, we all have our problems, big and small. One thing I never did was share my personal problems with others at the office. I think some people made this a hobby.

Not me. Two reasons: first, it was none of their business, and second, the office was a place to work, not waste time gossiping. Keep your problems to yourself. We all have them. It’s part of life. Nobody wants to hear about your problems. When it came to the workplace, I was all business. You should be too. Don’t let anything distract your positive outlook. Unfortunately, I knew of a few people in the dealership who were easily distracted from what they should have been focused on. One case in particular comes to mind.

Although I always hit the bricks running from the moment I got to work, I was always willing to take a moment to offer advice to other salespeople if they were sincere about asking for help. Since most of them resented me because of my success, it didn’t happen that often. On one occasion, a salesman asked me what he could do to close more sales. Ernie actually sounded almost desperate. He had a habit of bringing up all the negative things that were happening to him, whether it was on the job, his finances, or something in his personal life. He was always focused on the dark side of everything. I could see he had a very negative attitude about things before his day at work even started. It was almost as though if something could go wrong, he was going to make sure it did. All he did was dwell on why he couldn’t accomplish something. He was making no progress and was also chewing up valuable time when he could have been developing more leads and closing more sales. I finally told him, “Ernie, you have a problem, and it’s YOU. Everything will fall into place, but first you’ve got to change your attitude and focus on the task at hand. You’re here to work, so leave all that other stuff at home. The people you come in contact with can SEE exactly who you are, and they won’t like it.” He thanked me for the advice, but pretty soon he found himself slipping right back into the rut again, telling the whole world about his personal problems. Some habits are hard to break.

The most important reason for having a positive attitude is not to get you through smooth sailing, when everything seems to be falling in place for you. Nobody needs any coaching on how to enjoy things. We’re all experts at that. It’s to get you through the tough times; the stormy seas, when you really need to hunker down; the times when attitude can make the difference, especially when difficult decisions have to be made. Make no mistake about it—even the most inspired person has good days and bad days at work and home.

One of the most memorable recent examples is actually one of tragedy, courage, and hope in the face of a terrible event. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona survived an assassin’s bullet to her head that left her paralyzed and facing what will probably amount to years of rehabilitation and adjustment. Her survival was nothing short of miraculous. Her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, by her bedside every day for weeks following the tragedy, was faced with the difficult decision of whether to continue his role as commander of NASA’s last shuttle mission to the International Space Station, which coincided with her recovery. In his own words, “I ultimately made the decision that I would return and command … I absolutely think this was the right thing for me to do. I know my wife very well, and she would be very comfortable with the decision that I made.” Mark Kelly’s decision was decisive optimism. Clearly, this story goes beyond just having a positive attitude. It profiles the healing power found in deeply shared love and courage—something this couple knows a lot about.

You will question decisions you made that you believed were carefully thought through. You will have doubts. You can’t control that. It’s called being human. You can, however, control how you respond to those kinds of situations. The key is attitude. That’s where the difference lies between winning and losing.

Living a successful life is about coping with and continuously perfecting how you go about dealing with adversity. If you want to know the best way I know of to go about handling life’s shortcomings, then a positive attitude gets you a frontrow box seat on how to do it. When I felt that things just weren’t going my way some days, I would always rely on my attitude to see me through. I didn’t have to do any searching on what to do. I “programmed” myself to behave this way every morning as part of my preparation until it became second nature to me. I was instinctively positive every day, no matter how the day ended. I knew if I missed my target or goal for that day, I’d make up for it on the next day.

One thing I always did was present a positive and confident image to everyone I came in contact with. I never looked like a troubled person. Never. It was that confident image, above all things, that really made me the success I became. I not only believed I was going to be successful, I convinced customers I already was. They were being sold Joe Girard from the moment our eyes met—and getting the best deal they could find at the same time.

It’s true I had a very successful career, but I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking it came easy. It was actually pretty rough in the beginning. I can remember practically begging a dealer to let me sell cars for him. I had absolutely no experience or knowledge about selling automobiles, no helpful tools, not even a demo car to use for personal transportation—and not much direction or management support either. All I had was a phone book for leads, a desk, and a phone. It can’t get any more basic and depressing than that.

Whenever I asked for help or had a question, I felt I was treated more as a nuisance than as a sales representative. Turnover was always high in the auto business (often over 60 percent a year). Management felt we were a dime a dozen, and they treated us accordingly. Respect for the frontline salesman was at the very bottom of their list. On top of it all, the other salesmen (there were no women selling in our dealership back then) viewed me as a leech—someone who was there to try and steal something from them. I was rarely spoken to, just sneered at. They despised me. I remember one guy, Al, who came up to me one day and said flat out, “What the hell are you here for? Stay the hell away from me and my prospects and customers. You got that?” I took him at his word. From that moment on, I was always careful to keep my personal and prospecting lists with me at all times. I didn’t trust any of them. That’s exactly where I started. Try putting on a positive mindset under those conditions.

Not everyone you see who displays an air of confidence is necessarily a positive-minded person. Some may simply be born rich and so have never really been tested on the battlefield of life. There’s a lot to smile about in their world. There are a few of those types in the neighborhood where I live. They are the exceptions though. Most people are like us—you and me. Nobody gave us anything, or at least not very much. We have to get our piece of the pie on our own. That’s certainly my case and probably yours too if you’re reading this book.

“So how do I get a positive attitude, Joe?” you ask. “I’ve got nothing to be happy about or proud of and certainly nowhere to go. Even my family has doubts about me.” The most difficult thing you will have to do in order to adopt a new positive attitude is to break the shackles of the past that are holding you back. Forget who you were. That’s not where your future is. You don’t have to be where you started from for the rest of your life. You are not bound to follow in the footsteps of all the losers you ever hung around with or abide by all the bad decisions you ever made. If that were the case, I would be sleeping in some dark alley somewhere.

Take control of your fate. Get angry (not at the world, but at yourself) and forge ahead. Once you do that and your anger is vented, make peace with yourself and move forward. Transform yourself into a positive-minded person who will stop at nothing to become a more complete person both on the job and at home.

Don’t confuse this with putting on false airs about who you are. I’m not asking you to put on a mask. I’m asking you to reach deep within yourself to free the person who’s been locked inside all your life—release the REAL YOU!

I must warn you, making this transformation will undoubtedly be the most difficult thing you must do. That’s why I’m talking about this right off the bat in this second of My 13 Rules. It’s far more natural to continue being who and what you have always been. It’s also much easier. No real effort involved. Most people never do make the switch. It requires more effort than their desire to succeed can tolerate. This is the main reason why there are more people who either fail or live ordinary lives than succeed in this world. They’re just not moved to do anything about it. They might as well be trapped by the devil. Only a person who has walked in those shoes can author this kind of advice truthfully and with credibility. You’re reading the words of one who has been there. I escaped from this trap! YOU CAN TOO! YOU MUST DO THIS! The rest of this book will not benefit you without this crucial commitment.

I know this sounds so simple, yet so few people seem to be able to do it. When people experience failure day after day, eventually one of two things is certain to happen to them. They’re either coming closer to succeeding or coming closer to switching to try something else (in other words, failing). They won’t stay where they are. Where are you headed?

A Positive Attitude “Under Fire”

I’m sure, like me, you had your heroes growing up, people you looked up to and admired as you matured. People about whom you said, “I want to be just like him or her.”

I was always impressed with two heavyweight champion prizefighters, Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis, but for different reasons. Even though their peak years were decades ago, I’m telling you about these two in particular because their differing styles were important influences on me personally and demonstrate an important point you should understand.

Ali was great. If you asked him, he would say, “I am the greatest.” He had everything. He could hit. He could dance the “Ali shuffle” and put his opponents down almost at will. He also liked to tease his opponents and make fun of them by telling them how “pretty” his face was. His poetry would “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” as he predicted his opponent would “go down in three.” To many, his swagger seemed so smug and arrogant that almost everyone, the press and public alike, wanted to see him hit the mat from a swift uppercut.

The reality is, Muhammad Ali’s goal wasn’t to taunt anyone. He was smart. What he was really doing was psyching himself up to such a high positive attitude level that he believed there was no possible way he could lose a fight. He was so psyched up that once he stepped into the ring, his mind and body became one as the adrenaline flow in him obeyed his every command. Nobody ever reached that level of motivation in the ring. That’s really why he was so successful as a world heavyweight champion. His attitude about himself was so positive that he was unstoppable.

Joe Louis, on the other hand, was the most courageous boxer I ever saw. He was a far more modest man and fought at a time when prize money was a lot smaller. He was also a smart fighter. What I like most of all about the “Brown Bomber” from Detroit, as he was known, was his spirit and determination to get up off the mat and continue the fight. He demonstrated this several times in his career on his way to many come-from-behind victories. He is my hero. He is the guy you should use as a model when things appear to be at their worst for you. Think of Joe Louis lying face down on the mat, groggy and in pain, bleeding from the nose and eyes, listening to the referee count down the numbers to his defeat. Relief is a moment away. I can box again another day. Not for Joe! He finds the resolve, the desire, the anger, and the will to get up from the mat for more. He not only continues the fight but goes on to knock out his opponent. His will to win and positive attitude brought many of his opponents to their knees as he ripped the glory of conquest from their grasp!

Having a Positive Attitude—the Big Picture

Let’s take a look at the big picture of what we’ve been talking about and why a positive attitude is so important. A positive attitude is the driving force that keeps everything we do in our daily lives on the right track. We begin our day with our needs and wants. These are the important personal and business things we believe we must have for our families and ourselves. We prioritize them according to their importance. My needs list might be different from yours, but both would certainly include things like food, shelter, and clothing, for starters. Our wants might be different too. Yours might include a tropical vacation home, a big flat-screen TV, a luxury car, or a fancy boat. We could also call our needs and wants our goals. How important or desperate we are to reach these goals determines our level of motivation. Anything that is a life-threatening crisis or medical emergency involving any of our loved ones will obviously create the highest level of motivation you can imagine, especially if all of a sudden more money is needed to cope with expenses. I’m using this drastic example on purpose to make the point about what it really takes to get you through life’s toughest challenges—having a positive attitude.

There is no better way I know of to cope with life’s roadblocks than with a positive attitude. The worse the situation is, the more you need it. Without it, your strength and ability to endure will suffer greatly. This is especially difficult when others are counting on you to take the lead. I’ve shared several examples in this chapter of the power of a positive attitude in my own life as well as in others’. We’ve also seen what can happen when attitude takes a wrong turn in people who had the raw talent to succeed.

Remember what I said earlier in this chapter. The real test of a positive attitude is when you’re “under fire,” not when things are sailing smoothly (e.g., Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and astronaut Mark Kelly). The best way to attack that is with a positive attitude. It will eventually outlast and conquer anything thrown in its path. You must believe this. You must believe in yourself. If you do, you will be successful.

There were many times I could have just said, “I quit. I’ve had enough,” and just walked away from it all like so many people do. Like the time they cut out Saturday selling days in the metro Detroit area. That was a killer blow. I honestly had some doubts about how I was going to fill that gap. BUT I DID! I hung in there, stayed positive, and put in a little more effort. And it made all the difference in the world. The reward that follows effort will almost always be equal to the amount of effort you put into maintaining a positive attitude along the way. It won’t be long before you’ll figure out that the smarter you work at something, the greater the reward. If you’re just aimlessly “putting in time,” then don’t expect much in return.

Sometimes the reward may be of a different or unexpected nature, especially when the desired outcome or goal may not be reached. For example, a loved one may not survive medical treatment. In this case, as hard as the loss may be, the reward may be a newfound way to cope with tragedy or a deeper appreciation and love for existing relationships. Even in sorrow there are priceless rewards that might otherwise never have been experienced or understood fully without a strong positive attitude at a time of one of life’s most difficult moments. Sadly, I know this experience firsthand only too well.

My first wife, June, at only 46, died too young from complications during brain surgery. Yes, it was a tragic time in my life. I had to dig deep down inside myself to find the resolve for me and my family to go on. I credit my experience weathering and surviving adversity in my life as the main reasons for overcoming this great loss. I was no stranger to being dealt lousy cards from the time I was a kid. I decided that this hollow time in my life would be conquered too. Years later, that void was eventually filled with the arrival into my life of my lovely wife, Kitty.

As I said in the Introduction, My 13 Rules are meant to influence your personal life as well as your professional one.

You may find some of what you have read in this chapter repetitious. It is that way by design. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of a positive attitude. It is what everything hinges on. It determines whether you will go forward with a plan or be stopped dead in your tracks. It will take you beyond the crucial point where success and failure cross paths.

In a way, I wish I were writing a book about my “secrets” to success. I would simply publish my secret formula and charge a fortune for sharing it (and I mean a helluva lot more than the price of this book). Everyone would then say, “Oh yeah, Joe Girard. I’ve heard of him. He’s the guy who invented the ‘secrets to success.’ He’s like the explorer Ponce de Leon, who spent his life searching for the fountain of youth.” Do you see the problem? None of that exists—no fountain of youth and no Joe Girard secrets!

What I’m trying to drill into you over and over in this second of our 13 rules are simple, fundamental basics about the importance of having a positive attitude and why they work. This is exactly how I did it, folks. The only secret or mystery here is knowing whether or not you have what it takes to unlock your desire to be a positive person or not. That answer is not in this book. It’s inside YOU. Only you have the “secret” combination to that answer. The best part about all of this is that you don’t have to go on some mystery hunt searching for a map or something that doesn’t exist. What you need is right here! Right in front of your face—in this book! Read this chapter again! Do what it says to do! How much simpler could it be?

If you go back and reread any chapter in this book, let it be this one, the second of Joe Girard’s 13 Rules: Have a positive attitude. There is nothing more basic you need than that to get you started on your climb to success.