Ask anybody who has worked with me...

At some point in time I say that I have kids at home and at work.

The only difference is, I can't fire the ones at home.

I saw an article, it was actually a series of articles/posts, on the NY Times about the secret to having happy employees and more on happy employees.

It started out simply enough about the secret to a good and happy work force or business.

Fire all the unhappy employees!

Now, I admit this is over simplifying it but the articles do generate some good discussions and raise some obvious but often over looked points.

First and foremost.

A good attitude and work ethic trumps technical skill and knowledge.

If someone has the aptitude for the skills of the job, the second part of my statement can always be taught.

Attitude can be learned but one has to honestly want it first.

Second.

It only takes one bad apple to ruin the bunch. Now I admit, the bad apple could be the manager. Not every manager is as good as me... ;-)

The point to this is that a bad employee can spread discontent throughout the team or even organization and certainly affect customers.

Third.

You can't fire customers either. Though I have seen instances where a business has refused to do business with a vendor or a certain customer because of their lack of integrity and ethics.

Which sort of brings me back to the first point and the title of a famous book.

"Do want you love and the money will follow".

Yeah, Yeah, I know that there are those of you out there who say money is important and necessary and that the implied philosophy of that book title, the posts in the NY Times and even my post is idealistic and naive. But I would argue that integrity and honesty to yourself and others is more important and, to the point of this post, translates into everything you do.

There was another book, "Making an life, Making a living", which sites a study of 1500 graduate students. The study basically categorized the graduates into two groups. Group A was basically follow the money. Group B was basically follow your dreams. Upon graduation 83% were in Group A. 20 years later there were 101 millionaires in the study. Only 1 was from Group A.

Now, I am not saying that if you follow your dreams you will be a multimillionaire. But you will have honest passion for what you do. This will translate into, hopefully, a honesty and integrity on your part which will positively affect the way you interact with others. And, more importantly, others will see this and want to either work with you, for you or do business with you and your organization.

So, yes, fire the unhappy employees and hopefully they will find what is truly important to them and a group of people they fit in well with where everyone can be successful.

And follow your dreams.

Well, that's it for now.

As always....

Be Good. Do Well. Have Fun.