A friend and colleague gave me a book she said “I had to read!” The book is titled It’s Called Work for a Reason. If I didn’t know my colleague so well I would think she was trying to send me a message (so RG are you?). After reading more about the author, she may be trying to tell me something. You see, the author, Larry Winget and I have a lot in common, most notably we tend to, “let our mouths overload our butts,” as my high school football coach called it. In this book Winget tells it like it is. Not only do Winget and I both shave our heads, we obviously don’t mind sticking our costly boots in our mouth!
I’ve just started reading this book and I can’t put it down. Winget’s fluff cutting antics inspire me. Right off the bat he strikes a cord with me when he fires, “The bottom-line answer to every problem in business is this: People aren’t working!!” Preach on brother.
I’m a worker. I’ve always been a worker. My father instilled this mentality in me. I don’t know very many people that work any harder than my father and his brothers. They grew-up in a day and age on a small West Texas farm when you worked to make a living. You milked the cows before school and you drove the tractor until dark (while getting an education in-between). I know my life was far from difficult like theirs, but one thing my dad did expect was hard work. From nine to five he worked at a bank. So we primarily worked on the farm and ranch on the weekends and any time the bank was closed (Labor Day had an entirely different meaning in my family). In the summer we either got a job or we worked on the farm. Vacations pretty much amounted to a long weekend trip to Dallas to watch the Ranger’s play and a day at Six Flags.
I guess this is why Winget’s book really hits home with me. I love to read and I’ve read multiple leadership books, all of which have been somewhat helpful but they also contain hundreds of ideas (or fads) on how to be successful. It’s kind of like the diet craze. Each time a new book comes out containing a fad diet, millions buy it. Everyone is looking for the quick fix whether it relates to work or health. The last thing we want to hear is that we have to work for success.
The nice thing about hard work is that you don’t have to be the smartest man on the block, you don’t have to be the most educated, and you don’t have to be the most experienced. You can cover miles and miles of “resume red flags” with good old solid nine to five labor. Just don’t get discouraged by the occasional floater that rises to the top via other means. After all, even turds float! (look for my book on this leadership phenomenon in the future).
I can’t wait to read more of this book. I hope you don’t mind me sharing with you some of Winget’s rantings, and a few of mine. If nothing else I’m sure you’ve grown to expect it from me! Sorry again for the lapse in blogs. Hope to at least have one a week in the future. Work before blog, right?!! Aspire to new heights.
I’ve just started reading this book and I can’t put it down. Winget’s fluff cutting antics inspire me. Right off the bat he strikes a cord with me when he fires, “The bottom-line answer to every problem in business is this: People aren’t working!!” Preach on brother.
I’m a worker. I’ve always been a worker. My father instilled this mentality in me. I don’t know very many people that work any harder than my father and his brothers. They grew-up in a day and age on a small West Texas farm when you worked to make a living. You milked the cows before school and you drove the tractor until dark (while getting an education in-between). I know my life was far from difficult like theirs, but one thing my dad did expect was hard work. From nine to five he worked at a bank. So we primarily worked on the farm and ranch on the weekends and any time the bank was closed (Labor Day had an entirely different meaning in my family). In the summer we either got a job or we worked on the farm. Vacations pretty much amounted to a long weekend trip to Dallas to watch the Ranger’s play and a day at Six Flags.
I guess this is why Winget’s book really hits home with me. I love to read and I’ve read multiple leadership books, all of which have been somewhat helpful but they also contain hundreds of ideas (or fads) on how to be successful. It’s kind of like the diet craze. Each time a new book comes out containing a fad diet, millions buy it. Everyone is looking for the quick fix whether it relates to work or health. The last thing we want to hear is that we have to work for success.
The nice thing about hard work is that you don’t have to be the smartest man on the block, you don’t have to be the most educated, and you don’t have to be the most experienced. You can cover miles and miles of “resume red flags” with good old solid nine to five labor. Just don’t get discouraged by the occasional floater that rises to the top via other means. After all, even turds float! (look for my book on this leadership phenomenon in the future).
I can’t wait to read more of this book. I hope you don’t mind me sharing with you some of Winget’s rantings, and a few of mine. If nothing else I’m sure you’ve grown to expect it from me! Sorry again for the lapse in blogs. Hope to at least have one a week in the future. Work before blog, right?!! Aspire to new heights.
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