Nine Survival Tips From a New Champion

Scott Stallings, a professional golfer, recently won his first PGA tournament.
He writes a blog from “Chief Executive Golfer” with such titles as "The Obstacle Between You and Success? Excuses."
It’s funny the excuses that we come up with to not do the things necessary to get better at our jobs, Scott says.
That also applies to getting a job. What excuses do you tell yourself? I'm too old. I don't have the skills. There's too much competition.
Watching Stallings win in a three-man playoff recently, you know the adrenaline was pumping.
Scott says maybe it was his new workout regimen that contributed to his victory at the Greenbrier Classic.
Scott says, "What a wild day. It definitely didn’t start out right. For the first nine holes, I was having trouble just finding the fairways. At every hole my caddie kept telling me I could do it — I had a shot at winning the tournament."
"I had more control on the back nine — I was just grinding it out. But then on No. 17, I had a bad swing, hit a tree and drove it into the water. If I was going to make it into the play-off I needed a birdie on No. 18.
"And that was exactly what I did. I sunk a five-footer, signed my scorecard, and literally sprinted back to the tee to do the whole thing over again. (My trainer would have been proud.)"
He moved up from 88th to 26th in the rankings.
"I’m more excited about that than the money. (But obviously the money is a huge bonus — I earned $1.08 million for finishing first.), Stallings said.
Despite his many obstacles, he never gave up. And neither should you.

Read Scott's nine survial tips that can apply to both golf and the business world.

We Shouldn't Live Without This Trait

By Suzy Kridner
Career Specialist

There is one character trait that will make all of us successful.
Whether you are a boss, an employee or a job seeker, this trait will serve you well.
And it's one trait we should be teaching our children.
You can be as honest, fair and reliable as the day is long, but if nobody else sees you as trustworthy, it won’t help you.

In her Smartblog on Leadership, Heidi Grant Halvorson says when your boss doesn’t trust you, you don’t get key assignments, promotions or the latitude to do things your way and take risks. When your employees don’t trust you, you don’t get their best effort or all of the information you need from them to make good decisions.

If you want other people to believe that you are trustworthy, you should be aware that you might be seriously undermining that belief if you appear to lack self-control, Halvorson says. Research shows that people won’t trust you when you seem to have a willpower problem. If you think about it, this makes a lot of intuitive sense. We trust people because we know that when things get hard, or when it might be tempting for them to put their own interests first, they’ll resist temptation and do what’s right. How trustworthy are you?

Read more here about the one trait everyone needs to succeed.