Can you succeed with a bad attitude?

Regular readers of this blog may notice a large number of posts in the Attitude and Mental Health and wonder how that fits with career marketing.

Recently, someone searched for this blog with these terms: “can people with bad attitudes be successful?”

It made me smile. They found this post: 5 Reasons to Check your Attitude? But using the Word “Attitude” on my sidebar search engine will yield multiple posts about the topic of attitude:

• Are YOU getting in the way of your career?
• How to keep your cool when everyone else is losing theirs
• Why a good night’s sleep & sunshine can change your attitude
• You can’t sell yourself for the job if you don’t sound like you can do the job.

Why do I write so much about attitude?

Can professionals with a bad attitude be successful?

In a good economy, a bad attitude (if the person is really competent) may be ignored. In a bad economy, business owners and managers tell me this is one of the first things they consider if they have to let someone go. Is their attitude contributing to the overall health of the organization?

I know how hard it is some days to keep smiling.

As a small business owner, things ebb and flow and the challenge of feast and famine impacts your ability to stay smiling or even sound happy. In this world of immediate response through Twitter and Facebook, we share emotions quickly. What once might have stayed in the family or within one office can explode outward rapidly.

Results of a bad attitude

You project those attitudes. As a job seeker or small business owner, you project negativity and you will reap the rewards of less interaction with employers or fewer contacts from prospective clients. Check out what Jim Connolly from Jim’s Marketing Blog says about attitude in his article, “How to achieve the business and lifestyle you want, in 3 steps!:

The great news here, is that YOU control your attitude.  No, it’s not easy to change an attitude, but it’s not that hard either; once you decide you want to get serious about your future.

If you want to sleep better at night, remove money worries, live where you want to live and enjoy the freedom that comes with it, try this basic 3 step process.  It’s what people who already enjoy all those things did:

1. STOP what you are currently doing!
2. Find someone with the answers you need and listen to them.
3. Use what they give you.

You can continue with a bad attitude. Maybe you’ll be lucky and hit someone who really likes to work with or hire people with bad attitudes. But I certainly would not guarantee it. If you need help to be successful in your career, learn more.