"It is your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude."
--- Zig Ziglar
Have you ever noticed that meeting someone with a great attitude can change your disposition? You know those people. The type of people who can make you feel alive and fired up for whatever the topic of the conversation might be. They just naturally have a personality that draws you in and makes everyone around them come alive.
But, that attitude isn't always something they are born with. Many people work at setting their attitude on the right course before walking out the door in the morning. By the time they get to work, they are already oozing with a positive outlook and ready to conquer the day.
"The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do."
--- Thomas Edison
While it does require energy to change a negative attitude to one that enables a person to create, perform, and produce at a higher level, the task becomes easier when the process develops into a habit. As you know, doing anything continually for about 21 days becomes a habit. Unfortunately, the same is true for the bad habits we've become so attached to.
"When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals."
--- Epictetus
With the scores of positive attitude books that came out beginning in the 1940s, you would think that we would have more enthusiastic folks working in our industry. If all the hype about PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) was digested by just a small portion of the US workforce leading up to 2006, less businesses would have filed for bankruptcy or gone belly-up.
One of the reasons that PMA didn't take is because it was seen as something "to do" rather than someone "to be". It was seen as an outside tool rather than an internal change process.
"The ill effects of thought come about when we forget that thought is a function of our consciousness…an ability that we as human beings have. We are the producers of our own thinking."
--- Richard Carlson
It is so easy to show up at work with a chip on the shoulder. So much negative news on television, so much negative teaching in schools, and we are surrounded by negative thinking people. And, of course, the mounting pressures just from everyday life add up to smother any positive thinking fires that might be starting up.
The good news is that we have the power to change and we have to change in order to make our business a success. The next time you give a vendor your business, or go to a restaurant, or even pay tolls on your way to work, observe the attitude of the people you are paying to serve you. Once you make a conscious effort to survey every business you deal with, you will notice that those with people who possess a good attitude are the businesses profiting. They are the success stories.
"We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."
---Vince Lombardi
The simple change in attitude will make a positive impact on your company's bottom line. Begin this month making an effort to improve your attitude and then help those on your team to do the same. There are tools available to help. The small booklet, Bits and Pieces (Google it), or similar booklets or newsletters for your staff are available and help to encourage and remind everyone about the importance of a good attitude in business.
"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."
--- Mark Twain
Color Management Basics, Part 1
By Ray Weiss
We all know the challenges of poor or no color management. Inaccurate color, heavy ink consumption, inconsistent color and printing artifacts are just a few of the challenges you may face.
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A sign outside a furniture store in northern Virginia:
"ANTIQUE Tables Made Here Daily"
At an Assembly of God church in Waupun, WI:
"Sign Broken: Message Inside"
Seen at a junkyard in North Carolina:
"Drive Reckless. It Helps Business!"
We need those funny signs you have seen in your travels, come on, we know they are out there.
Send them to us at: info@signindustry.com.