...The Most Valuable Lesson I Learned On The Way To "Sin City!"

Special Double Subscriber Update

Part 1: Print Article
The "Most Valuable Lesson" I Learned On The Way to "Sin City"
...How one woman helped me understand the power of attitude to influence the behavior of people you'll never meet!

Part 2: Slide Show
"My Vegas Vacation With Yanik Silver"

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The Most Valuable Lesson
I Learned On The Way to "Sin City"
...How one woman helped me understand the power of attitude to influence the behavior of people you'll never meet!

- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
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Last week I decided to take my wife to Las Vegas for her Birthday.

Because my parents love Vegas so much, I called them up and said “Hey, wanna go to Las Vegas next wee…”

Before I could even finish the sentence my Mom said, “SURE! When do you need us at your house?”

Mom and Dad have always been very good at making fast decisions ;-)

So we loaded up the car at 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and headed for the airport for what promised to be one of the more interesting trips in a long, long time… how interesting you’ll find out in just a minute… :-)

Now I don’t know about you, but in my younger years (my late teens and early 20’s) I NEVER got up at 3:00 in the morning. Why? 

Because I was STILL UP partying from the night before!

But I digress…

Anyway, when we got to the airport, I learned the first of many lessons on this trip.

At 3:30 in the morning, most people are not awake… let alone HAPPY to be awake, even if they are on vacation.

At the ticket counter in front of us, a man was acting in an extremely rude manner to the ticket agent. 

Apparently his reservation got messed up and he was really giving the lady behind the counter a hard time.

Now personally, being Mr. "Friday Night Smackdown," I would have told this guy not only what he could do with his attitude, but also given him step-by-step instructions on how to do it!

But the ticket lady amazed me… the nastier he behaved, the nicer she was in her response. 

It seemed a battle of wills was unfolding before me… good against evil…. Nasty vs. Nice… and this lady absolutely refused to accept defeat!

Then, just as I thought they would call security, the guy “broke” right in front of my eyes.

Suddenly (at the point when I would have smacked him upside the head with his own suitcase) he stopped, hung his head for a minute, and said “I’m sorry. I know it’s not your fault. I’ve been up for 24 hours and I just want to get home.”

The ticket lady brightened even more, helped him get everything straight, and then he moved on. 

But before he left, he actually smiled, thanked her, and apologized again for his earlier behavior.

"I was so shocked you could have picked my jaw up off the floor with a spatula!"

I was almost dumbstruck by the attitude transformation I’d just witnessed.

So what’s the lesson I learned?

It’s actually a two-part lesson and it's all about "attitude":

1. First, we -- not other people -- control our attitude. 
   No matter what someone says or does “TO” us, our attitude is OUR responsibility.

Most people, myself included, would have told that guy to take a LONG walk off a SHORT pier, but the ticket lady didn’t let HIS problem become HER problem… nor did she let his bad attitude affect her good attitude.

2. Second, the person with the stronger attitude wins (or loses as the case may be).

What do I mean by this second part, "The person with the stronger attitude wins?"

Here's the point...

When two people meet, such as this case of the ticket lady and the bonehead guy in front of us, it often turns into a battle of attitudes… and the stronger attitude usually wins. 

In this case, luckily, the “good” attitude won out over the “bad” attitude… but in most cases, unfortunately, the reverse proves true.

More often than not, a bad attitude proves more intense, or stronger, than a good attitude. 

It happens so “naturally” that often we don’t even see it when it happens in the negative (somebody is nasty to you, you’re nasty back, then you just end up feeling nasty and can’t even remember why).

But seeing the positive attitude of the ticket lady not only win out, but actually CONVERT the customer's bad attitude into a positive really hit home with me (in that foggy 3:30 a.m. state of mind) the fact that our attitude is ALWAYS completely within our control... if we choose to exercise control over it!

No matter what happens around us… no matter who treats us badly…. no matter what circumstances life might throw at us… our attitude remains totally within our own control.

I'm sure you’ve heard the saying, 
“Attitudes are contagious,” right?

Let’s look at the "normal" way that attitude would have spread in this same situation if not for the exceptional behavior of the ticket lady.

The way it "normally" works...

Guy walks up to the ticket counter and acts like a nasty jerk to the lady at the counter.

The ticket lady reflects back his nasty attitude and the two of them get into it.

When they finally do separate (like a couple of battling wildcats), they both leave the encounter feeling even nastier than when they started!

But wait, it doesn’t stop there…

The guy goes on his way behaving in a nasty manner to everyone he meets. 

Maybe he is rude to the newspaper man, and the security checkpoint lady, and then the stewardess on the plane.

Each of them in turn “catches” his nasty attitude and spreads it on to others… pretty soon pockets of nastiness open up all around this guy and spread like the flu.

But it doesn’t stop there...

Back at the ticket counter, the ticket lady, because of her encounter with the mean passenger and not consciously controlling her attitude, she quickly develops an underlying attitude of “nasty” about her, too.

She’s probably not openly nasty to the hundreds of people coming through her line all day, in fact, she probably has a bright smile on her face.

But everyone can still sense her bad attitude subconsciously… it’s like an underlying “hum” or vibration that infects their attitude… and to make matters worse, they don’t even know why.

They just walk away from her, or the passenger, or anyone else who got “infected” by them with feelings of dread or negativity and it continues to spread -- just like a cold or other virus.

But luckily, that didn't happen here!

Instead, the ticket lady chose to behave in a way that not only made her feel good, but literally FORCED those who came in contact with her to change over into “feel good” mode. :-)

The lessons for all of us?

1. Take conscious control of your attitude.
      
2. Watch how you pick up and reflect back the attitudes of people you come in contact with... and make sure you don’t get “infected” with a bad attitude.
      
3. Observe how you can actually make other people feel better and smile by projecting such a strong positive attitude toward them that you can override their bad or neutral attitudes.

It’s a well-worn phrase, but it bears repeating... “Your attitude will determine your ‘altitude’ in life!”

Infect someone else with a good attitude!

Speaking of people reflecting back your attitude, listen and watch what happened when Yanik Silver and I “crashed” a wedding in Las Vegas last night (continued in Part 2 below)…

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Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist, speaker, and the author of an amazing program, "5 Steps To Getting Anything You Want," that will teach you how to quickly and easily harness the power of your mind to accomplish virtually any goal you set... FASTER than you ever dreamed possible! 
Click Here ==> www.HowToGetAnythingYouWant.com 
   
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"Discover The Incredible 5-Step Goal Achievement
System That Gives You A Positively Unfair Advantage
In Business... and in Life!"
Click Here ==> www.HowToGetAnythingYouWant.com 
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Part 2: Video
"My Vegas Vacation With Yanik Silver"

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