Stand Proud and Get Over It

Keith Harrell, author of Attitude is Everything: 10 Life-Changing Steps to Turning Attitude into Action, says that he had three great lessons about having a positive attitude in his life.

"Lesson one came on my first day of kindergarten," he says. "The teacher asked all the kids to stand up and say their names. When my turn came, I couldn't say my name. I stuttered. All the kids laughed, and I ran home; to this day, it's the fastest I've ever run in my life.

"My mother was standing on our porch, and I ran straight into her arms. 'I know just how you feel,' she said. 'I just got off the phone with Miss Peterson, and I was coming to get you, because I'm so proud of you.'

'"You're proud of me?'

"'Yes,' said my mother. 'I'm proud because you tried. In life there are going to be challenges, and this was our first challenge. We have to stay positive. We're going to work hard. Because one day my little baby is going to stand tall and he's going to say his name as loud and as strong as all the other boys and girls.'"

"The second lesson came at the end of my school career. I was an All-American State Champion high school basketball player. I played in college, started all four years, and was captain for three. I fully expected to be drafted by an NBA team. I never got the call. I was devastated; I had expected that I would at least get a shot at the big time. At one point I even thought about giving up on life.

"Then my grandmother sat me down and said, 'Get over it. Get your eyes down the road and get another game. You've got to be positive. This setback is nothing but a setup.'"

"So I looked at the skills I had learned from basketball—teamwork, competition, discipline, and goal-setting. I took these skills into job interviews and got a great job with IBM. Fourteen years later, the marketing director called a meeting and announced that IBM, which had never laid off anyone in its 65-year history, had to lay off 40,000 people. 'And,' he said, 'out of the 650 people in this room today, I'm sad to say that 80 percent of you will be gone in 3 months.'"

"I saw fear and defeat take over that room. I raised my hand. The marketing director, puzzled, called on me and said, 'Do you have a question?'"

"'Yes,' I said. 'Once these 80 percent are gone, can I get a bigger office, one with a window view?' The whole room burst out laughing, and everyone began to realize that, even though we still had to go through this downsizing, we had a choice about how we would respond to it."

"Who would have thought that a kindergartner who couldn't even say his own name would one day have his own business, speaking to corporations all over the world about how to handle change, overcome adversity, and harness the power of attitude? Attitude is a choice that we make; it is the control center for your life. Knowing that, I can say that even though I'm not playing with the NBA, I'm playing with the best of my natural born abilities, and I'm slam dunking every day."

Keith Harrell learned his lessons the hard way—but isn't that how most lessons are learned? Something amazing happens when, no matter how bad the situation, we can control how we view it and get through it with a positive attitude. And, as shown by his example at IBM, a good attitude and a sense of humor not only make a difference in your own life, they help others get through adverse situations as well.

Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got to not forget to laugh.

—Katharine Hepburn,
actress