Does Your Company Leverage Stress to Scare or Succeed?
Oct 20, 2024
My grandparents told me numerous stories about how hard making a living was during the Great Depression. Listening to them, I always felt a certain sense of financial uncertainty like “Whew! Glad I didn’t grow up back then because I would have had nothing.”
As I researched high-achievers who started businesses during the Great Depression for my best-seller, Work Positive in a Negative World: Team Edition, a different picture emerged. Turns out everyone struggled, but some actually created companies that still thrive today. Despite the loss of massive amounts of wealth virtually overnight, there were people who leveraged the stress that scared everyone into success.
According to my grandparents’ Great Depression stories, I would have thought that no one could afford a book, much less have time to read. They were scratching in the dirt to grow food. However, a young man left his family’s Missouri farm for New York City. He bartered public speaking classes for a room at the YMCA. Then the banks ran out of money and the classes were empty. This young man took advantage of the downtime to swim against the economic riptides, write a book, and find a similarly brave publisher. The two of them created a book that became the #2 best-seller of their day.
The book continues to sell well today. That one book became a series of similar books. That series became a training program. As of September 2024, the training company's annual revenue is $750 million. It’s a major player in professional training and is comparable to other companies in the industry like Tony Robbins. It offers professional development courses in 35 languages and 80 countries.
Now who would have believed that such a startup could leverage the stress of the Great Depression, and not only survive the scariness but thrive and succeed?
Evidently the author did. How? He refused to succumb to the tsunami of negativity resident in the Great Depression. He focused on how he could be a part of the solution, not just another doomsdayer.
In fact, he became quite popular for this quote: Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.
Sure, today’s economy coughs up hairballs. Of course, stock markets resemble playground kids on pogo sticks. Yes, your friends are standing in line to define your company culture with tropes like, “Every election year business slows down.”
Business today is stressful.
But who will you listen to?
Them?
Or, the guy who leveraged the stress of an economic downturn away from scared to success?
That guy was Dale Carnegie. The book was How to Win Friends and Influence People. The Dale Carnegie Training Company succeeds over 100 years later.
You can, too. Create a positive work culture that grows people and profits that leverages stress to success.
What’s your question about how to create a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here
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