No. 10 October 2012

Researchers at the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine questioned 243 people age 100 or older. They found that centenarians tend to share certain personality traits (in addition to other factors, like genetics).

In general, these long-lived people are: “outgoing; positive-minded about other people; full of laughter, open with their emotions; conscientious and disciplined; and unlikely to obsess about anxieties or guilt.  The scientists point out that these characteristics don't necessarily represent a cause and effect relationship.”

They did notice, however, that in many cases the personality traits they observed weren't necessarily lifelong tendencies, but behaviors their subjects learned as they grew older.

Focusing on the good and not worrying about the negatives may have a very positive impact on your overall life expectancy.

Every problem does have a solution.  And sometimes those solutions turn out to be quite creative as the following story indicates:

A woman had traveled about six miles in a taxi when she discovered that she had left her wallet at home.  Realizing that she had a problem, she knew that she had to take some kind of action. So about a block short of her destination she leaned forward and told the driver:  "Stop at this hardware store. I need to buy a flashlight so I can look for the hundred dollar bill that I dropped back here."   When she came out of the hardware store, the taxi was gone.  And her “problem” was solved!

I recently returned from traveling overseas recently for a little more than three weeks with my wife.  Near the end of the trip, our small group was traveling through Estonia, ready to cross over into Russia to visit St. Petersburg for a few days.

Unlike the open and free border crossings between EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the crossing into Russia was met by gates and fences and a large passport control building.  We sat on our bus waiting for something to happen for about 20 minutes.  We were then instructed by the Russian border agents to remove our primary luggage from under the bus and take it into the building.  Each of us showed our passports to the single agent sitting in his passport control office.  Besides having to have a current passport, the agent was also checking to see if we each had our Russian Visa’s (the only visa needed on the entire trip.) 

Now comes the interesting part. The young lady who was our guide and translator for the entire three weeks was last in line. Once she was processed, the young Russian passport control agent asked her an enlightening question:  “Why are American’s always smiling when they have nothing to smile about?”  She responded that American’s are always happy, enjoy life, and they smile a lot naturally.

We discovered that Russians in particular, and Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians young and old alike only smile when they have something to smile about.  Throughout the trip, we realized how much the three Baltic countries and the Russian people suffered under Czarist Russia control, German control during WWII, and Soviet Union control after WWII.  Smiling was a hard thing to do for decades as hundreds of thousands of citizens were killed by the Germans and later the KGB or deported to Siberia. 

Say a prayer tonight for the souls of these brave people killed in the Baltic countries and Russia since 1919, and for the relatively peaceful lives we have lived in this great country we call the United States of America.  We are so lucky to be living here untouched by many of the cruel realities of the world.

Curtis Carlson, founder of the Carlson Companies, spent his life building great businesses. When asked what personal qualities contributed to the building of his successful empire, Curt responded, "I think my success is the result of my ability to see and to imagine how things could be.  I'm not distracted by how things are."  Don’t let “how things are today” keep you from improving and growing your business for success tomorrow.

Having a goal and the vision of what it will take to reach it are important attributes for any business owner or manager.  Share the goal and the vision with your team.  You want them to buy into the dream and to be as excited as you are about being successful and reaching your business goals.  The power of a group of people all focused on reaching the same goal is amazing.  I truly believe anything becomes possible.  Try it and see for yourself.