Are You a Professional?
How to Make Great Decisions
How you ruin your productivity
Are You a Professional?
How you look, talk, write, act and work determines whether you are a professional or an amateur. Society does not emphasize the importance of professionalism, so people tend to believe that amateur work is normal. Many businesses accept less-than-perfect results.

Schools let you graduate with a "C" or "D" average. You can miss 15% of the driving-test answers and still get a driver license. "Just getting by" is an attitude many people accept. But it is the attitude of losers.

"Don't ever do anything as though you were an amateur.

"Anything you do, do it as a Professional to Professional standards.

"If you have the idea about anything you do that you just dabble in it, you will wind up with a dabble life. There'll be no satisfaction in it because there will be no real production you can be proud of.

"Develop the frame of mind that whatever you do, you are doing it as a professional and move up to professional standards in it.

"Never let it be said of you that you lived an amateur life.

"Professionals see situations and they handle what they see. They are not amateur dabblers.

"So learn this as a first lesson about life. The only successful beings in any field, including living itself, are those who have a professional viewpoint and make themselves and ARE professionals" - L. Ron Hubbard

A professional learns every aspect of the job. An amateur skips the learning process whenever possible.

A professional carefully discovers what is needed and wanted. An amateur assumes what others need and want.

A professional looks, speaks and dresses like a professional. An amateur is sloppy in appearance and speech.

A professional keeps his or her work area clean and orderly. An amateur has a messy, confused or dirty work area.

A professional is focused and clear-headed. An amateur is confused and distracted.

A professional does not let mistakes slide by. An amateur ignores or hides mistakes.

A professional jumps into difficult assignments. An amateur tries to get out of difficult work.

A professional completes projects as soon as possible. An amateur is surrounded by unfinished work.

A professional remains level-headed and optimistic. An amateur gets upset and assumes the worst.

A professional handles money and accounts very carefully. An amateur is sloppy with money or accounts.

A professional faces up to other people's upsets and problems. An amateur avoids others' problems.

A professional uses higher emotional tones: Enthusiasm, cheerfulness, interest, contentment. An amateur uses lower emotional tones: anger, hostility, resentment, fear, victim.

A professional is focused and purposeful. An amateur is scattered and confused.

A professional persists until the objective is achieved. An amateur gives up.

A professional produces more than expected. An amateur produces just enough to get by.

A professional produces a high-quality product or service. An amateur produces medium-to-low quality product or service.

A professional earns high pay. An amateur earns low pay and feels it's unfair.

A professional has a promising future. An amateur has an uncertain future.

The first step to making yourself a professional is to decide you ARE a professional.

Are you a professional?
How to Make Great Decisions
To succeed, you need self-confidence. Luckily, self-confidence is easy to obtain.

"SELF-CONFIDENCE is nothing more than belief in one's ability to decide and in one's decisions." - L. Ron Hubbard

Everyone has made bad decisions: choosing friends who stab you in the back, saying the wrong thing to your spouse, spending your money unwisely. Yet to succeed and have self-confidence, you must make decisions.

When you are afraid of decisions, you build up stress, create confusion and make people wait. When you put off making decisions, you miss important opportunities.

The worst way to make decisions is to take a vote. Asking for people's opinions is like saying, "I don't have any self-confidence. Please tell me what to decide."

The first thing you need to decide is that you can make good decisions.

And how do you make good decisions?

"Given information and the purpose, anybody can make a decision." - L. Ron Hubbard

Decision making is like playing cards. If you know the cards each player is holding, you make great decisions and win all the money.

To make good decisions, you simply need enough information.

15 Questions to Answer Before Deciding

You can make all of your own decisions on your own. From starting a business to changing careers, buying a house to choosing a vacation. Any decision is easy to make.

First, list all of your options.

For example, Steve is trying to decide about buying a new car. His choice is not "to buy or not to buy." In this case, he actually has three choices: 1) buy the $60,000 new BMW, 2) buy the $30,000 used Acura, 3) fix up and keep the old Toyota.

As another example, Bob asks Dorothy to marry him. Dorothy looks it over and decides she has four choices: 1) Marry Bob immediately, 2) Marry Bob after a long engagement, 3) Don't marry Bob, but keep dating him, 4) Don't marry Bob and stop dating him.

Once you have listed out your options, find the answers to these 15 questions for each of your options. You will know some of these answers and can find out the others.

Somewhere along the line, your best correct decision will be obvious.

1. What is the goal or purpose of each option?

Steve writes, "1) The purpose of the BMW is to ride in style and luxury while impressing the heck out of my friends. 2) The purpose of the Acura is to have comfortable transportation without big loan payments. 3) The purpose of Toyota is have good reliable transportation at a small cost."

Dorothy examines the purpose of each of her options. She writes, "1) The purpose of marrying Bob immediately is to move on with our lives together. 2) The purpose of a long engagement is to leave plenty of room for me to change my mind. 3) The purpose of not marrying, but continuing to date Bob is to learn more about him without a commitment. 4) The purpose of not seeing Bob any longer is to look for someone else. Well, I can eliminate this last option as I'm sick of looking and really do love Bob."

2. How do the purposes of each option align with your goals?

Steve writes, "My goal is to drive something comfortable I can be proud of, but not consume all of my extra money. The Acura fits that goal best."

Dorothy writes, "I have the goal to get married, so the first two options line up with that goal."

3. What are the statistics for each choice? Each of your options has statistics.

Steve can learn maintenance costs, resale value costs, miles per gallon and so on.

Dorothy can check out Bob's statistics in life. How well does he keep his word? How much money does he make? What happened with his past relationships?

When hiring an employee, his or her statistics in life and at the last job are important.

When deciding on a job, a career, a relationship, a new business or anything, you can find the track records.

4. Finances? Two vital questions: What will each option cost? How much money will each return? The cost is not a barrier if the predicted return is greater than the cost.

5. Sequences? Most people forget to look at the exact steps involved with each solution. For example, you are notified by mail, "Congratulations! You have won either a deluxe AM/FM radio, $500 cash, a 60" TV or a cruise to Alaska!" You decide to go claim your prize. You never read the fine print or ask what steps are involved. After a four-hour Mexico condo timeshare sales pitch, you get a coupon for a cheap radio.

"If I decide to buy the BMW, what happens next?" You might realize you need to wait two months before delivery. You also realize you need to get insurance, pay registration fees, sell your Toyota and so on.

When interviewing job applicants, ask "If I asked you to start on Monday, what would you do?" Some applicants say, "Well, I might not have a car. . ." or "My bird has been sick . . ." A smart job applicant says, "I'll show up five minutes early!"

6. Is this choice legal and ethical? Is it fair to everyone involved? Will you be proud of your choice in the future? Would you have any problem telling a judge or TV reporter about your choice?

7. What is the probability of success? For example, how many BMW or Acura buyers are happy enough to buy a similar car? How long will the Toyota last?

Estimate the odds of success for each choice if you have no concrete data.

Dorothy estimates the odds of a successful marriage to Bob are higher with her second option, if she has a long engagement, than the other two remaining options.

8. Do I have the resources? Resources include people, space, skill, knowledge, money and time. Do you have the necessary means for each choice?

9. What are the end results? If everything went smoothly, how would each choice turn out? What would the results be? How would it change things in a year or two?

10. What do others want me to do and why? As your choice probably affects other people, you want to know what choice they want you to make. More importantly, why they want you to make it.

Make a list of everyone who is affected and what you believe they want.

You are not asking them to help with your decision, you are merely gathering information.

11. What are the potential gains and benefits? List each of these categories for each choice.

12. What are the potential losses and liabilities? Worst-case scenarios and risks. For each risk, look at how you can protect yourself or your group.

For example, David is considering a major expansion of his hair brush company. He looks at the risks and realizes he could end with too many hair brushes in storage. To protect his group, he realizes he needs to expand his marketing and sales before increasing his manufacturing to ensure he won't have a storage problem.

Dorothy evaluates the risks of a marriage and realizes a long engagement has a much lower risk of divorce than a fast marriage.

13. What are all the barriers and difficulties for each choice? What gets in the road of each choice. Lack of money? No one else wants it? Not enough time? Fear?

David sees months of hard work to cause the expansion.

Steve sees no difficulties in buying the BMW or Acura, but lists several problems with repairing his old Toyota.

Dorothy realizes Bob might not like the third option of just dating, but would support a long or short engagement.

14. What would be easy and effortless about each choice? Some choices involve no barriers at all.

15. What do I really want? What am I willing to do? What interests me? Which choice turns me on and makes me happiest? Why do I feel like doing it?

This last question is the deal breaker. Interest and enthusiasm are vital to a decision ending up being the right decision.

An okay decision with lots of interest and enthusiasm is more successful than a brilliant decision with no interest or enthusiasm.

You never regret a correct decision. It stands the test of time. A series of correct decisions will build your certainty and confidence. And once those around you learn you are usually right, they follow your lead without hesitation.
How You Ruin Your Productivity
When the old sales manager of ABC Autos retired, car sales dropped in half. The salespeople were making less money. Pete, the new sales manager, was yelling at the salespeople to do better, but with no improvement. The company owner, Mr. Christopher, was getting desperate.

Mr. Christopher sat down with the sales manager and said, "Pete, you've got to quit yelling at the salespeople. Our old sales manager never yelled. Why don't you give it a try."

Pete said, "Where I come from, if you don't yell, you don't get sales. Fire me if you want, but I'm gonna yell."

Mr. Christopher said, "Okay, I don't care what you do, just get the sales numbers back up this week."

So Pete held a sales meeting and yelled like he had never yelled before. "IF YOU DON'T MAKE AT LEAST ONE SALE THIS WEEK, YOU'RE FIRED!"

The sales staff ran out and started calling people.

A few minutes later, a couple walked in to browse. Four salespeople charged at them. The first one actually ran to beat the others and said, "HI THERE! How can I help you! Let me show you around!"

The couple jumped back, mumbled "No thanks" and headed for the door. Another salesperson was blocking the doorway. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

The couple fought their way out the door and the salespeople went back to their telephones. Mr. Christopher, who was watching, shook his head.

Emotional Reactions

When things don't go your way, how do you react?

Some people get more emotional, more reactive. They get frustrated, sad, angry or worse. They react without thinking.

Unfortunately, this can make a short-term improvement. This is why bosses will threaten, scream and pound. They don't realize forced productivity is like slavery and will always backfire. Long-term improvements require another approach.

When a work environment is tense and emotional, pay also drops. Good people look for other jobs. No one is happy.

In 1971, L. Ron Hubbard wrote: "THE PRIMARY BARRIER TO PRODUCTION IS HUMAN EMOTION AND REACTION."

Careers, jobs and businesses fail when emotional reactions take over.

Mr. Christopher Hires a New Manager

Sales at ABC Autos went from bad to worse. Mr. Christopher fired sales manager Pete and took over sales management.

First, he held a sales meeting with gourmet pizza. They celebrated Pete's departure.

Next, he went over the facts, procedures and routines for selling cars. He reviewed the methods used by the old sales manager.

The emotional outbursts and reactive behavior were gone.

By the end of the week, sales increased and continued to increase each week.

Sixty Types of Emotions and Reactions That Hurt Your Productivity

Reaching your goals and succeeding as never before means you need high-level performance. You must be capable of high-volume work. The road to success does not include emotional reactions.

Remove, control or ignore the following types of emotions and reactions to improve your personal power and performance. They are wrecking your forward progress.

Whining, snippy comments, avoidance, the silent treatment, revenge, disrespect, acting up, resentment, moaning, sulking, death wishes, blaming, fear, mocking someone, hate, getting upset, yelling, lump-in-throat sadness, emotional pain, complaining, being grouchy, mood swings, hostility, false sincerely, making someone wrong, political games, jealousy, preaching, overwhelming someone, anxiety, sarcasm, despair, harassment, pretending to be hurt, disagreeing without thinking, giving sympathy, demanding sympathy, getting even, antagonism, terror, being critical, belligerence, exasperation, acting stupid, regret, pity, gossiping, feeling useless, apathy, anger, lying, hopelessness, being stressed out, crying, confusion, sighing, being glum, hysteria, being a victim and cutting off open communication.

Five Examples

1. Office Politics

Office games waste time and slow down career success. "Jim took credit for my project so I'm going to crash his computer. " "Sue didn't invite me to lunch so I'll tell the boss she is lazy." "If I can make Wallace look bad, he'll get fired and I'll get that corner office."

2. Marriages

Couples become miserable when their negative emotions and reactions pop up. "He became so cold and heartless, I didn't want him to touch me." "She didn't notice all the work I did on the yard so I decided to spend more time drinking with my friends." "We haven't really talked for two years."

3. Children

Parents and children may give each other more emotion and reaction than anyone else.

"Clean up your room or I'm locking you in it." "He yells at me every time I talk about my boyfriend, so I'll just sleep with him."

This does not lead to better, more productive lives.

4. Management

Executives are praised or demoted to a large degree by how well they handle their emotions and reactions.

For example, employees lose confidence when the boss says, "I didn't like how you looked at me this morning" or "I'm really depressed right now."

Employee performance suffers when bosses say, "You're such a stupid idiot!" or "Once again you have ruined my day."

5. Self

When you decide to have negative emotions or reactions, you hurt yourself the most. "I'm too upset to work any longer today." "I'll hide a few of his files to get even with him." "If I look really depressed, she'll feel sorry for me and give me a raise."

To succeed, you must shake off the emotional reactions, get focused and get working.

Be a professional. Do something productive and meaningful. Have greater success.
Copyright © 2003 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.