Monday, February 9, 2009

Keys to Success: Teflon

This is the sixth in my ten part Keys of Success series. A new key will be featured every Monday.

Teflon – to the novice cook, it’s a godsend. No matter how badly you burn the rice, it will come off with ease – no scouring or scrubbing, no endless soaking in the sink.

When he was in office, President Clinton was often referred to as Teflon. Although he was tainted by scandal since his first run for office, nothing seemed to stick. The same could be said of Mafia legend, John Gotti, The Teflon Don. Charges and allegations appeared to just slide off of him. Well, since he died in prison, obviously it caught up with him, but for a long time, he was like legal butter.

In life, we can learn a lot from our Teflon role models (and no, I’m not talking about learning how to run a criminal enterprise or receive ‘services’ in the Oval Office). When it comes to criticism, negativity and hostility, gossip and the like, it helps if we can learn to let it slide off and not to take it so personally.

Learning how to take criticism is a critical part of success. Learning from your mistakes and seeing where you can do things differently – better or more efficiently – is a good thing. If there is a lesson to be learned, we can learn it and move on without the extras of hurt feelings, misunderstandings and wounded pride. In fact, in the road to success, those extras become indulgent, time-wasting detours.

Success demands confidence. When you are sure of what you want and where you are going, you can meet criticism and hostility with class, style and … yes, a smile. Be gracious as you the let the negatives slide right off of you.

1 comment:

Diva's Thoughts said...

I like this post. Very well said.