Secret to Success as I see it…

Earlier this week, someone asked me to write about “the secret to success”. To be honest, this suggestion took me by surprise; how would I condense the meaning of success into a blog entry? Well, here’s my attempt based on my own personal experiences, which I’m sure won’t be the same for everyone (but I’d love to hear your thoughts):

• To Love: From my days as a “Coffee Boy” in an office to working at McDonald’s as a “Crew Chief” to being a professional in-house recruiter, I’ve always loved what I do. Loving the job brings passion, which will translate to confidence. Simply put, if there’s no love or if the love is lost, then it’s time to move on.
• To Learn: Learning from past experiences will certainly help with achieving success. Let’s face it, there’s someone out there that has gone through similar experiences before; so it’s important to seek out how they have dealt with it. It must be remembered that Communication = Discussion = Learning = Success (or failure, depending on the final approach).  
• To Listen: Someone (and I’m sorry for forgetting who it was… maybe it was a quote I read somewhere) once told me that “Great News is Good News; Good News is No News; No News is Bad News.” Listening to feedback is hard; however, it’s the cornerstone of success. Constructive criticism is hard to accept, but knowing where it comes from will definitely help with reducing the impact. The way I see it, if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t tell me how to improve myself.
• To Lead: Not being afraid to share or put forward ideas, or disagreeing politely in a private setting. How often have we seen decisions being made that we don't agree with? But more importantly, how often have we stepped up to diplomatically voice our objections and provide solutions? A leader always consults with others and at the end offers a solution to a problem, otherwise, there’s no problem. And that’s what I think differentiates a leader from a follower.

Thank you for reading,

Armin

PS. what could I have possibly learned from McDonald’s you ask? The 3-C’s: Cleanliness, Co-operation, and Coordination.