Contemplating the importance of heart, many readers may be reminded of scenes from a number of great films or stories in which the importance of heart is the greatest lesson learned. From the dawn of history, people have been moved by stories of courage that depict the indomitable nature of the human spirit. All high-performing individuals, first and foremost, seem to possess that indomitable spirit.

It is our observation that high-performing individuals, by and large, are just great people, period. In many ways they symbolize the optimism, strength, self-reliance, and hope that are always the hallmark traits of admirable people.

In addition, high-performing individuals only have one competitor—themselves. They’re never competing against colleagues, or anyone else. There is a bar inside their heads that’s constantly moving up, and they will always be slightly dissatisfied by yesterday’s achievements. The only thing that really matters to them is their next big victory, which has to be bigger than the last, if it’s going to count at all.

All great managers know this, because when they are describing the kind of people they are looking for, they always get around to telling you that they are looking for a person who’s still hungry, who still has that drive and passion, and who still wants to prove himself or herself all over again.

Another important trait is a positive outlook, or optimism. Optimism may well be the umbrella trait, or “alpha trait,” that supports and enables the other nine fundamental traits of performance we have listed. Looking for signs of optimism (which is strongly related to resilience) is such an important part of the interview process and the makeup of high-performing individuals, that we will spend a few moments talking about it.

People often ask if there is a “master trait” for predicting excellence in high achievers. Some have said that the search for the greatest single trait of excellence is as futile as the search for the Holy Grail. Actually, it may not be that elusive—if you examine all of the leading research on the personality traits or character traits of the highest-grossing salespeople (who serve as an excellent research population for studying high performers in general). Studying the traits of top-grossing salespeople as they have been investigated throughout the past 40 years or so, I believe you will find that one trait is common to all: balanced optimism.

All other predictable traits appearing in great salespeople are dependent on the resilient energy and commitment that optimism provides. Great salespeople (those who make the most money) are able to weather the brutal discouragements that come in the sales life, perhaps because their brains are wired differently. Drawing on brain-wave research, we can say (in layman’s terms) that people with a high degree of “positive affect” or “optimism” have more electricity flowing through the areas of the brain that control approach-related or “proactive” style behavior. Partly because of this excess energy in specific areas of the frontal brain, these relentlessly proactive optimists may be predisposed to viewing most events in a positive light, even in situations in which other people may see only tragedy or defeat.

Optimism alone does not a high achiever make. Many high achievers (especially those in business) also have a cautionary, analytical side that combines good judgment with that optimism, and this combination of aggression and optimism, along with good judgment or solid analytical reasoning, is actually rare.

During the interview process, make sure to ask the candidate about risks he or she has taken, what the decision-making process for taking those risks was, and what the results were. Optimists take risks, but not ill-informed risks.

Although it has been said many times by many people, positive outlook, or optimism, may be one of the traits that underlies every other trait, including the 10 fundamental ones we cite as principles.

Norman Vincent Peale, for example, made a legendary career out of promoting and describing one utter truth: that the mere act of simply trying to think positive thoughts, even in negative situations, sets into motion a domino effect of success-patterned behavior. In other words, people who think positively are more inclined to take chances, follow up, and be persistent, which are other core traits of character-based success.

A host of other writers, from Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People) to Anthony Robbins (Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement), and virtually every other self-help guru known to man, has preached the proposition that if you choose to think positive thoughts, even in the face of setbacks, almost every other goal in your life will naturally and eventually fall into place.

So many examples of this truth abound that we can almost cite optimism and persistence as natural laws—make the conscious and deliberate decision to remain optimistic in spite of setbacks, and then persist, and you will eventually become successful. (Of course, we are speaking of balanced, rational optimism, as discussed earlier. People who are balanced optimists are level-headed and do not gamble foolishly. That is, there is a big difference between taking a risk on a musical career—if you honestly believe in your talent and have enough resources to responsibly pursue your dream—and throwing away your child’s college fund on the slot machines in Vegas. The first is an example of balanced optimism, the second is an example of either foolishness or an addiction.)

In many ways, the psychological effects described in such theories as Neural Linguistic Programming are in fact common sense, in a way—the way you choose to speak to yourself does seem to have a profound effect on your abilities. If you tell yourself that you are a failure, for example, just because you have not succeeded in one stage of your endeavors, you are not likely to approach the all-important tasks of follow-up and persistence with joyful, optimistic energy—and at that point, you become a self-fulfilling prophecy, a victim of your negative self-speak.

Because the world has so many self-help gurus these days, the discussion of positive thinking as the ultimate key to success often runs the risk of being ignored, or dismissed as psychobabble. However, a series of in-depth studies by such notable psychologists as Dr. Martin Seligman demonstrate that this age-old truth is just as profound today as it was 10,000 years ago.

As we discussed earlier, one of the 10 fundamental character traits of high-performing individuals is positive attitude or optimism. In this book we will provide a thorough explanation of how the traits of optimism and friendliness should be handled as sought-after traits or indicators, given the law. In fairness, as we said, it is not reasonable to suggest that all jobs should require or can require an optimistic attitude or mood. But on a certain level of common sense, one may gather that in certain jobs it helps to be friendly to the customer and have some sense of positive outlook about life.

In the next section we will discuss why it is appropriate to put optimism or positive thinking on the list when considering the attributes of many (although not all) high-performing individuals.

In a compelling couple of books titled Authentic Happiness and Learned Optimism, past president of the American Psychological Association Dr. Martin Seligman makes a joyful argument that psychology should be more focused on nurturing the noble and happy tendencies in people, as opposed to looking for dysfunctions that can be treated.

In addition to being a popular author, Seligman is also a coauthor with Christopher Peterson on the academic master-piece Character Strengths and Virtues (Oxford University Press, American Psychological Association, 2004). This book defies synopsis—it is a brilliant, exhaustively researched, and meticulously annotated and footnoted research compendium of character strengths that have a measurable, scientific quality to them (as opposed to a moral quality), and can be reasonably tied to success in life. The umbrella traits are: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Each trait is broken down into components of sub-traits that bolster the main trait. (For example, the sub traits of transcendence are appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, and spirituality.) It’s easy to see how this phenomenal effort in character research applies to you. Simply go to www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu to take or review the authentic happiness survey. You will get an instant 10-page report on your own signature strengths. We will discuss more of Seligman’s groundbreaking work in subsequent chapters, but for the moment it may suffice to briefly describe one of his most provocative themes.

According to Seligman, one’s level of optimism or pessimism does not have to stay forever the way it is. In Seligman’s model, we can become happier in time if we learn that, to a certain extent, optimism is a choice. That is, we can choose to view the events in our lives with more of a positive slant, should we choose to do so. Granted, learning how to have a more positive outlook on events that may appear to us as mostly negative now doesn’t happen overnight, Seligman explains, but can be done with persistence, dedication, and practice. And by practicing the art of choosing optimism, or a positive outlook, we can gradually learn to be happier. (Here is another fine example, as you may have already noted, of the way our 10 fundamental character traits of high-performing people are interrelated. In this case, the daily practice of using one positive character trait, persistence or dedication, makes it possible to increase optimism. And then the increased optimism creates the energy that enables greater levels of persistence, which further increases optimism, in a spiraling effect. Future research may indeed demonstrate that it is this spiraling effect of certain character traits reinforcing one another through practice that has the most profound effect on separating high achievers from those who reach lower levels of achievement.)

Optimism is an area that has been studied from many different angles. I was involved in some of those studies as a graduate student, where I helped to conduct studies on brain waves and personality at the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Harvard Medical School, while pursuing a master of liberal arts degree in psychology. We found that there is a biological marker for optimism, or “positive affect,” in the amount of electrical current flowing through certain regions of the frontal brain. These biological differences, moreover, have been shown to be present from birth. In other words, some people seem to possess a biological predisposition for optimism, which may mean it may be easier for them to have a positive outlook than it is for others. However, the wild card question is whether traits such as optimism may be malleable, and can be changed in time if an individual makes a courageous effort to change his or her perceptions. Seligman is one of those learned professionals who believes that such core traits can be changed by the personal will to be happier, and I believe that he is probably right, based on the substantial evidence he provides.

Another key component of happiness, which Seligman addresses in Authentic Happiness, is authenticity. By this, Seligman essentially means that it is necessary to follow our own dreams and the inclinations of our hearts—our true, authentic desires—as opposed to leading the lives we think we ought to lead, whether we are trying to please our parents, appease a spouse, or keep up with the Joneses. Living someone else’s dreams leads to misery, Seligman suggests, but living our own dreams leads to joy.

If we accept the idea, as Seligman suggests, that optimism is to a certain extent a choice, then it is also within reason to propose that optimism gives high-performing people the green light, so to speak, to take risks, hope for the best, and practice the art of faith.

Let me explain what I mean by this.

If you look at the work other researchers have done on the traits of high-performing individuals, and you analyze those traits, it becomes apparent that much of what you see amounts to constant preparation and practice—what one might call practicing for success. In other words, high-performing individuals, according to the research of others who have studied them, seem to have a laundry list of things they do during the day, which they practice, in much the same way a musician practices scales. And what they get from all of this practice is a sense of accomplishment—even if they hit a sour note every once and a while. Low-performing individuals, to extend the example, would hit a sour note while practicing scales and say, “That sounded horrible. I have no talen. I might as well give up.” The high-performing individual will say, “Sure, it sounded horrible, but that’s because I haven’t practiced enough. So let’s go over those scales one more time.”

A popular parable from history often cited as a school-book example of character and persistence is the story of Abraham Lincoln, who failed at many businesses and jobs before he became a successful politician and later president of the United States. When you look at people such Abraham Lincoln, who personify persistence and resilience, you actually see people who do not view failures as failures—in their minds they are merely practicing for success, and no matter how many sour notes they hit, or how much they are criticized by others, they will keep on practicing until they get it right.

One well-regarded scholar on the traits of high-performing individuals is Charles Garfield, who published a book entitled Peak Performers (Harper Paperbacks, 1986). In that book, Garfield spelled out what he found through his own research to be the key traits of high-performing individuals. Using some of his main findings as points of inspiration, I have written a list of practice points that high-performing individuals give to themselves, as a job and matter of choice. The key word in the sentences following is the word will. High performers are largely successful because they will themselves to be successful. Here are some of the points high-performing individuals practice during the day.

The key takeaway from this list, for managers, is that successful or high-performing individuals usually have a record of practicing such principles on a daily basis, and can explain, with clear examples, how they have gone about practicing the art of success.

For example, if you are interviewing a person you think might be a high achiever, you can ask him or her this: “They say that all successful people make it a daily habit to practice some aspect of their success. Can you explain to me what you were practicing yesterday, as it relates to your goals, in as much detail as you can?” High achievers will be able to talk for an hour on that question. Low achievers, by contrast, won’t have very much to say.

Reviewing the thorough analyses of the traits of high-performing individuals in the works of Garfield and others, and comparing their discoveries to the findings of researchers such as Seligman, it seems reasonable to suggest that the daily practice of reaching for goals courageously, optimistically, and with faith is almost a sure-fire recipe for happiness, if a person is involved in a career that matters to him or her on a heart level. (In subsequent chapters we will give detailed information to show how people can align themselves with careers that are most suitable to their internal values or passions, as well as their individual personalities. As we will show, achieving a mind/heart balance in one’s career is also critical if one is to sustain optimism for the long haul.)

Confucius beat many others to the punch on the point of optimism, or faith, as it applies to life and work, stating: “If people have no faith, I don’t know what they [are] good for. Can a vehicle travel without a link to a source of power?”

Put another way, optimism, or faith—a deliberated, chosen belief that things will work out for the best if one wills them to—is like the gasoline in the engine of high-performing individuals. It is the fuel that makes everything else run.

Following is an example of the way a positive attitude affects the career of high performers. Some people tell me this is a story about optimism. Others tell me it is a story about persistence. I think it may be a story about both. I will let you decide.

I think everyone has had a friend or acquaintance similar to the person I will write about here. I will call her Ariel. Now, I know that people such as my friend Ariel come in all shapes and sizes and ages, but they all have one thing in common: a depth of character and a will to succeed that makes it virtually impossible for them to ever give up once they set their minds on a goal.

When we were younger, Ariel reminded me a lot of that guy Rudy in the movie about the short, poor kid from the steel town who wanted to play football for Notre Dame. She had the same kind of personality. Only she had a different dream— she wanted to dance at one of the nation’s top schools for the performing arts. After pursuing her dreams as a dancer from early childhood, she tried out for the dance department at this prestigious school, and was turned down. But this was a decision that Ariel simply could not accept. After all, she’d been dreaming about going to this famous school every year since she was 5. After she was rejected, she went back to the head of the auditioning committee and requested another audition. They politely told her that she would only be disappointed, and they wanted to spare her any further pain. Ariel said they owed her another audition after all she had been through, and that if she didn’t pass this one, she would walk away and never bother them again. The auditioning committee assured Ariel that her chances were beyond negligible—in fact, they said, she stood no chance of being admitted now. So, they said, they would have to regretfully decline her request for another audition. The next day Ariel came back and asked them if they could possibly change their mind about that decision, stating that she really, really, really would leave them alone if they gave her just one more chance.

“If you gave me one more opportunity to audition, and I fail, I promise I will go away and leave you alone,” Ariel told them. “All I ask is that you give me just one more chance.”

Realizing that Ariel would not go away until they met her request, the school agreed to give Ariel one more chance to be rejected. They agreed to let her come back in three weeks. At the end of that three weeks Ariel had lost another 10 pounds. She worked out in silence 15 hours a day preparing for her victory. On the day of the audition, she was all by herself on the same stage where she had been rejected last time. A small group of judges sat in three chairs watching her. When the last audition was over, and the final verdict was announced, she sobbed. Only a minority of people on earth would know what that kind of crying felt like. They had finally let her in, citing “heart.” They said she had a lot of heart. She slept in late the next day, and then got up in the afternoon to start practicing again, and danced hard for the rest of her life. She is now a well-known choreographer.

As I have studied people such as Ariel in my career, I have found that most of them possess certain strengths and levels of insight, in addition to the fundamental core traits we have outlined in our fundamentals list:

Earlier in this book we discussed how the candidate can help you conduct a more effective interview by providing a written self-assessment. In order to keep the interview fluid and relaxed, however, you will want to have a few more simple questions you can ask as follow-ups to the more demanding process of investigating the candidate’s accomplishments. Here are a few examples of the types of questions you might ask in order to get at the candidate’s character strengths and authenticity.

Question: When you look back at everything you have been able to accomplish in your entire life, what is the one event, the one moment in your career, in which you have felt the most pride in who you are as a person, as a leader, and as a good example to other people? Explain this in as much detail as you can.

Question: What is the most difficult challenge you have ever had to overcome, something that may have made other people give up? How hard did you have to try, and what kept you going? What were you fighting for?

Question: Have you ever experienced what it feels like to be someone’s hero, or someone that another person looked up to? What kind of example of responsibility did you set in doing so?

Question: What part of your character do you care about most deeply and passionately from a professional perspective? What part of your professional identity will you fight the hardest to uphold, defend, and preserve? Explain in detail how you have defended it in the past.

Question: Pick something you are extremely passionate about inside of work and tell me what interests you about it. Make me understand why you care about it. Tell me what it is that makes you remain committed to this cause or value.

Question: What is the most interesting and uplifting thing you have learned this week about the potential goodness of people, as you have studied the way human beings act around you in the best of circumstances?

Question: Tell us about the best recent example of how you have had to become more flexible or tolerant with someone in the workplace in order to deal with a difficult person or situation. Tell us what you learned about the other person’s challenges as you negotiated this difficult situation.

Question: What has given you the greatest sense of pride and fulfillment in your career? Explain in detail, and tell us of the last time you experienced this level of pride and fulfillment.

Question: What is the best book that you have read lately in an area related to your career? Explain in detail what you liked about the book, and what you learned.

Question: Explain in detail exactly what you would do the first two weeks on the job here, knowing what you currently know about the job as we have described it to you.

These are only a few examples of the kind of character-based questions you might ask to help uncover the core traits of your candidates, following the principles described in this book. For an extensive list of other excellent questions you might ask in a character-based interview, I highly recommend Ask the Right Questions, Hire the Best People by Ron Fry (Career Press, 2006).

To conclude this chapter neatly, let us restate one of its central themes: For high-performing individuals, optimism, or a positive outlook, is, to a large extent, a choice. Although some traits of positive thinking may exhibit themselves early, sustained optimism throughout a lifetime involves a practiced level of faith exercised on a daily basis—in choosing to believe that things will work out for the best as long as one maintains a positive outlook, and works persistently, even in the face of setbacks.

Ariel chose optimism when she could have chosen defeat. And her choice changed not only her life, but also the lives of hundreds of people she has mentored since that time, and thousands of human beings who have since been uplifted by her art.

In addition to optimism and persistence, job alignment drives and determines success. People do not tend to be optimistic if they are not in jobs that are somehow related to their passions and values. So, as we probe deeper into the hiring process, we are seeking to help the candidate make sure the job matches his or her motivations as closely as possible. Part of this process involves helping the candidate to carefully think about his or her professional values, and how those values are linked with his or her professional motivations. This is what we will discuss in the next chapter.