Transcripts

Thomas A. Schweich, author of the book Staying Power...

If you're very goal-oriented and you fail to reach one of those goals, it can be very demoralizing and lead to a feeling of failure, or giving up. Whereas, if you keep your goals a little more flexible, then you aren't as disappointed and also you have more opportunities.

Thomas interviewed these seventy highly successful people and found that fear of failure played a large part in their success.

A very common denominator of top people in the executive world, the military world, and entertainment say that they are as motivated by the fear of failure as they are by the desire of success. It is okay to be fearful - the key thing is you cannot let your fear paralyze you. You have to let it sharpen you, make you more precise in your activity.

And Thomas found that when successful people get angry, they use that anger as a tactic...

which means that you decide when you're unhappy, you figure out how you're going to express it, and you try to achieve a specific result. Janet Reno, for example, told me that when she gets mad... if somebody has not done what she's said... she calls them in one person at a time (anybody she's mad at) she lowers her voice almost to a whisper and she lets them know she's unhappy and unnerves them by her quiet, calm demeanor when she's mad, rather then flying off the handle. That's a very careful and tactical use of anger.

For transcripts visit our website somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.