This Issue: You Can Better Your Best Day at Any Time

No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life.

--Samuel Goldwyn

If you see each day as an important day for your future and a special day just because you have it, you will be amazed at how productive and energetic you can be. It’s the best way to be at your best at all times. Have you ever said to yourself, “What a great day!” and felt a renewed drive to make things happen? Say it to yourself right now, and feel the enthusiasm that positive thinking generates.

That’s the first step, and it helps if you’re already doing something you love doing. You won’t have to work as hard at gaining momentum or generating enthusiasm. No matter what the job is, you can always do more and do better. That’s how I avoid complacency.

For example, after I had finished Trump Tower and it became a great success, I knew I was just starting. I kept moving forward and built Trump World Tower at the United Nations Plaza, which was a sensational success, both critically and personally. Don’t be satisfied with your best--do more!

Maybe I thrive on challenges, but the best challenges are the ones you give to yourself. I don’t need to impress anyone at this point, but I do need to satisfy my own goals and ideals. When I was asked to host Saturday Night Live, I really didn’t need more exposure, but it presented a new challenge. I knew I wasn’t a seasoned comedy pro, but why should I decline an opportunity for some fun and a new experience? Just this week I announced a deal in Dubai where I will be building a 50-story, tulip-shaped hotel on a man-made island. Dubai is one of the world’s fastest growing cities, so why not?

Don’t ever think you’ve done it all already or that you’ve done your best. That’s just a short cut to undermining your own potential. Unless you’ve already kicked the bucket, there’s still a lot more you can do. We’ve all been around know-it-alls who, like the cynics, know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Avoid that trap by realizing your own potential and the intrinsic value of things, including your own efforts to make the day a great one for yourself.

I’m a cautious optimist. Believe me, it’s a good way to be. I zap negativity while remaining aware that negatives exist. I just refuse to dwell on them. Acknowledge the negatives, move on, and rest on a positive plane of thought. When I had some financial troubles in the 1990s, I resolved to remain positive about my circumstances. I knew they would change for the better. They certainly have, but I had to be tough in adversity. I can honestly say that things are better now than my best day back then. I bettered my best.

Do more, be more, give more. Best of all, better your best every day. Give yourself a chance to do your best, and everyone will benefit. Know that today is full of possibility and opportunities to prove yourself are there for you. Be the best!

After he graduated from college, Aylwin B. Lewis took a job as manager of eight Jack in the Box restaurants in the Houston area. He was not too happy with the job. Then one day a customer approached Lewis and asked if he was the boss of the place. Lewis said he was the person in charge. The customer gave him a sour look and asked, “Is this the best you can do?”

Lewis could have gotten defensive. Instead, he looked around and agreed that the place really could have looked better. He took “Is this the best you can do?” and applied it to his job and to himself. Today he is the president and chief executive of Sears Holdings Corporation. If you find his story interesting, read his article, “Speak Less, Listen More” in The New York Times, October 2, 2005.

Opportunities for improvement are everywhere. Sometimes you can improve the world around you. Sometimes you can improve yourself. But either way, things that aren’t working too well always spell opportunity for you if you think big enough. The next time you are standing in a mile-long line at a bank or feeling frustrated when a restaurant provides appalling service, don’t get angry. Get smart instead. Analyze what is taking place right in front of you, and you will discover personal opportunities.

Consider Venus McNabb, founder of Geeks On Time. (http://www.geeksontime.com) One day in 1999 when she was 22, she had to take a broken office computer out for repairs. She spent all day on the project. First she dragged the computer onto a city bus and took it to a service company. Next she waited hours for the computer to be repaired. Then she hauled it back to her office, plugged it in - and it didn’t work. That’s when “I can do a lot better than this” inspiration hit and she started a company called Geeks On Time, one of the first companies that send technicians to repair computers on-site.

McNabb started small, focusing on residential computer-users. Then she expanded to servicing business systems. Now, at age 28, she heads a company with more than 700 technicians in all 50 states and her sales revenues are doubling annually. She started by noticing what other companies were doing badly and then decided that she could do it better.

Then there is Diane Hessen, founder of a market research company called Communispace (http://www.communispace.com). When Hessen became frustrated over the slow pace of market research in assembling focus groups to evaluate products, she created a better way to conduct market research using the Internet. She started Communispace, which maintains an ever-present cyberspace community of consumers who answer market-research questions immediately. The result is supercharged market research that takes hours, not months. Plus, she undersells the competition by a wide margin. Like Geeks On Time, Communispace is doubling its revenues annually. It started simply because Hessen once said, “This is terrible and I can do a lot better.”

Of course, it is one thing to notice where other people are messing up and another thing to look at yourself and see areas where you can do a lot better. One of the most effective ways is to complete the following sentence:

I could __________________ (fill in your immediate life goal) if only I could _____________________ (fill in the thing that is holding you back).

The words you entered in the second blank describe the roadblock that is stopping you from reaching your goal. Take a look at that obstacle. Maybe you need to pay back some credit card debt before you can get a mortgage to buy your first investment building. Maybe you need to learn how to write a business plan before you can get a loan to start a new business. Maybe you need to part ways with a partner who is dragging you down.

Is something like that really making you put your dream on hold? If so, can’t you do better than that? Of course you can, and the time to start is today.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

--Leonardo da Vinci

Most people believe in setting goals, but few people see a goal as an end unto itself. No matter what you do, there are always different or better ways to reach your goals, or to set new ones. The challenge is to find what you're good at, while always pushing to realize your full potential.

Successful people have an insatiable desire to improve upon what they already have. They aren't malcontents, but they don't fear positive discontentment. The danger in being too content is that you can become complacent, living off the satisfaction of past accomplishments rather than pursuing new goals. People who are driven by positive discontentment take pride in their accomplishments, but perpetually seek to achieve more. Accomplishments are not necessarily an indicator of future success. Your past is not your potential. You can better your best and upgrade every area of your life.

Successful businesses are in constant motion--flexible and innovative. Their employees from management down share that same restless desire to improve--to better their best.

The better you get, the more you'll realize how much better you can be. The novice can't conceive of the work that goes into mastery. People who have achieved great things look at the past with a sense of awe at how much they didn't know when they were just starting out. At the height of his fame, Michelangelo said, "Still I am learning."

Perfection is an impossibility. Perfection implies something divine--which does not exist in the temporal, material realm. "Better your best” is a mindset, grounded in the here and now. It indicates a willingness to risk failure for the possibility of achieving more. The past does not have to determine the future. Repeated failure need not crush hope, and hope is not the same as blind optimism. Hope represents possibility, but possibility can only become reality if you constantly seek new challenges. What's the secret to continuous success? Never be content. Never stop moving forward.