Last week, there was tremendous buzz about “The Secret”. Oprah was featuring it on her program and various experts were invited to talk about their own experiences with “The Secret”. Many of them were motivational speakers who shared their own “rags to riches” story as a result of “the secret”.
I was fascinated. “How can I apply ‘the secret’ to my home businesses ventures?” I wondered. Excitedly, I tuned in and frantically took notes (for a little while, anyway).
Here are few things I learned from the much anticipated broadcast.
We attract what we give our attention to.
Here is a simplistic explanation of the first success secret. If you are interviewing for a job and spend time preparing and practicing, you will have a better chance of getting hired. If you don’t give the interview your utmost attention, you won’t. “Hmmm”, I thought, “not exactly rocket science…but I’ll continue watching”.
If you focus on the negative, you will get negative results.
Apparently, according to “The Secret” spokespeople, if you think that your sales presentation will go poorly, it probably will. Again, not groundbreaking advice, but I continued listening for more “secrets”.
Do onto others, as you would have them do unto you.
“Wait a minute”, I thought. I learned that secret in Sunday School. Suddenly someone is making millions by selling us a book that tells us to be kind to people if we want them to be kind to us? It is too bad my bible school teacher didn’t contact Oprah thirty years ago. Apparently, she knew “the secret” before it was such a big secret.
I have had a home-business for the past five years and have met literally hundreds of people who’ve launched their own businesses. Some are successful, some aren’t. It isn’t surprising that those who are successful are doing the things that are supposedly a great big secret.
They are successful, because they give attention to their business. They make success a priority. When they “lead by example” and value their employees and customers, their businesses flourish. Those that focus on the negative, typically fail (usually instantly). Why did there need to be an entire book, DVD and hour-long Oprah program devoted to secrets that most of us already know.
Please accept my apologies for my sarcasm. If “the secret” is accurate, my negativity will surely come back to haunt me ten-fold.
I’d also encourage you to share your own opinion of “The Secret” in the comments section. I tend to be a bit of a “simplistic” thinker, so you won’t hurt my feelings if you feel I’ve missed the boat on this one.
Related Reading:
Living Our Dream Life