WisDumb: "Your Attitude Not Your Aptitude Determines Your Altitude" (Or Does It?)

Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. Zig Ziglar. Hey, I'm Brad Costanzo, and welcome to another episode of Wednesday Wisdom. And that's W I S D U M V. If this is your first Wednesday Wisdom, let me explain what we're doing here. I am personally going after a lot of the various success quotes and platitudes, which is a trite statement that doesn't really convey the truth and is oftentimes lacking. And I am poking holes in it. I am playing devil's advocate. And the sayings I'm going after, I'm not saying they're stupid. I'm not saying they're dumb. They are actually half wise, half dumb. More importantly, it's not the whole story. And social media is so inundated with people, myself included, sometimes sharing quotes and wisdom and thoughts and success platitudes, that I thought it would be helpful to help shift your thinking on some of this stuff and open it up and at least make you think deeper. So let's go back to this very famous quote by Zig Ziglar. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. So what Zig is saying here is that, hey, man, it's just your attitude. It's not your skill set. Your aptitude is your ability to perform will determine your altitude. Now, I am a firm believer that attitude is probably more important in the very beginning than aptitude in most cases. And it is very important that if you can find somebody who's got a winning attitude and has got a kind of a go get them, I will be open. I will learn. I will figure it out. That is one of the hardest things to learn, and it is one of the most valuable things that an employer can have. In fact, there was an amazing book I read about the founding of Southwest Airlines. I think it was called Nuts. You'll have to look it up. Maybe I'll put a link in the show. Note. And it was. It was really great. But Southwest Airlines has this entire philosophy in hr, which is hire for attitude and train for, I guess, aptitude or train for the skill sets. Because they figure if we can find the right person, we can train them to do what we want. However, this statement is woefully incomplete because your attitude, not your aptitude, may determine your ability to get your foot in the door and figure it out. But you can't just go through life with, you know, grinning, happy attitude and not with any skill sets because it may get you in the door, but it sure as hell isn't going to keep you in the door. So here's my challenge to you, and don't take it lightly, which is think about these two areas of your life, these two buckets. I don't care if you have to pull out a piece of paper and write this down, but look at your attitude and list out the things you believe with your attitude you're doing right? And then be brutally honest and list out the things that your attitude could use an adjustment and optimization. And think about it, like, are you sometimes being, you know, a little bit lazy? Right? That's an attitude thing. Are you not doing some stuff that you should be doing? Are you taking the shortcut? Are you complaining? Are you ever finding yourself in a victim mentality, thinking, well, if somebody only gave me this, it'd be fine, fine. Or are you taking on this attitude that just give me something, I am going to be resourceful. I will figure it out as I go. I will, you know, kind of that put me in coach, I'm ready to play attitude. And a lot of times we show up like this, but a lot of times we'll show up like this only occasionally. I am absolutely guilty of this as well. But if you show up ready to give your all and ready to figure it out no matter what, especially when people are counting on you, that's really one of the most valuable things that you can do. Not only like, yes, as an employee, obviously as an entrepreneur, more than obviously as a business partner. And as a, like, if you're a consultant, if you have clients, that's what people want. They want somebody who's super resourceful and is gonna go figure it out. In fact, I'm gonna put a link to a previous POD or an article that I did, and I think it was called Letter to. Oh, shoot, I can't remember the guy's name. Letter to Garcia. If you've never read Letter to Garcia, I am going to put a show note link here. Be sure to read. It is fantastic. I absolutely love it. But then also look at your aptitude. Okay, so challenge one. Look at your attitude. Where does it need adjustment? Where is it? Great. Where does it, you know, honestly need to be optimized? And then number two, look at your aptitude. What are the skill sets you currently are working with? Where could you increase those? Where can you add new aptitudes on there? And how can you help grow both of these areas? Because one of the things you'll find out is as you grow your, Your attitude and aptitude, your. Your confidence your belief in yourself is naturally going to increase because not only are you gonn, you're going to have the attitude to back it up, to know that even if you don't have the skills, you're going to be able to get them and succeed. And then once your beliefs about yourself start to really coalesce and strengthen, your entire identity is going to take on a new role. And at that point there is going to be a cascade of awesome that happens in your life. It works every single time. I talk about this a lot with my employees, my business partners, my clients, and I even did an episode on this exact topic with Jim Fortin a few months ago. I'll also link to that in the show Notes where we're talking about it's called the logical levels or the neurological levels. Once more, that's just a side note, but my entire point of this thing is that is a great quote, but it's only half wise. It's half dumb. It's actually leaving something very specific out, which is what a lot of the Wednesday Wisdom quotes will do. And I don't want you to go through life and only thinking halfway or not thinking for yourself or just listening to platitudes want you to think for yourself. Okay, that was another episode of Wednesday Wisdom. I hope you've enjoyed it. Send me an email if you did. If you have any other quotes that you want me to play devil's advocate on or that you think are just kind of half baked and we'll go after that, you can send me an email to ask bradakenrabusiness.com and if you're not already a subscriber to the show, please please smash that little subscribe button as well as leave a review on itunes where I read every single one of them and I appreciate every one of them. And I will look forward to sharing the next episizzle with you here on Bacon Wrap Business.