When I first entered the workforce, it didn’t take me long to discover that the most successful people in the corporation were different from the others. They were self-motivated, goal-oriented, positive, enthusiastic, and hard-working. They made an effort to get along with everyone and were open, friendly, and encouraging. The rest of the staff seemed half alive in comparison. They did enough work to keep their jobs, but little more. They demonstrated enthusiasm and initiative sometimes, but appeared unable to sustain these qualities for any length of time.
At a company function, I gathered up enough courage to ask one of the sales managers, Mr. Wilshin, how he managed to remain positive and motivated all the time. He was happy to tell me. “Every morning, I look into my bathroom mirror and say to myself, ‘Boy, I’m enthusiastic!’” He pumped his hands vigorously in the air to demonstrate exactly what he did. “I do that three times, each time louder and more enthusiastically than the time before. That keeps me motivated and enthusiastic all day long. It makes me lucky, too.”
I’ve thought about Mr. Wilshin a great deal over the years, and followed his career with great interest. He worked in increasingly senior positions in several countries, and finished his career as president of a large multinational company. I experimented myself and found his method of motivation works well. I’d love to know how many of the other ideas in this section he also used, consciously or unconsciously. Mr. Wilshin definitely took action for luck, and it paid off. This section contains fifty-nine ways in which you can take action to create good luck. They’ve worked for me, and I know they will work for you, too.