Change Your Attitude for Success

with guest David Neagle #MakingBank S5E6

Have you ever found yourself stuck at a certain stage in your career? Yes, advancement takes times, but have you ever found yourself in the same position with little growth? Maybe you feel it’s because of the company, or some other employee who keeps taking the roles you should get. You’re a good worker, so what gives?  

In a recent episode of the Making Bank podcast, guest David Neagle advocates for having the right attitude. Neagle, founder of the multimillion-dollar company Life Is Now, has spent the last twenty years helping people reach that new income bracket—just by shifting their mindset. He first adopted this successful attitude in his twenties, tripling his income in just 30 days alone.  All he had to do was change three things about his thinking process. Keep reading to discover what those three things are.  

By his twenties, David Neagle had dropped out of high school and was supporting his wife and family by driving a forklift. He worked overtime, made very little, and was absolutely miserable. After being sucked through a dam, Neagle found himself in an even worse situation. This time, however, he had a sense of urgency to change. One stressful night, Neagle examined the company for which he worked and thought: “If this guy could start a company out of his garage, I could do something like that too. What’s the difference between him and me based on where he came from?” 

So, he adjusted his attitude. He grew into leadership positions, is a successful entrepreneur and has never looked back.  So, what did he change?  

Love What You Do and Do What You Love 

The first point that Neagle brings up is that in order to succeed, you must love what you do. This is obviously easier said than done. While driving a forklift 6 days a week, Neagle felt absolutely drained and defeated. On the night he thought about the CEO of the company for which he worked, his first realization was that “[the CEO] must have loved what he did. I hated what I did.” He would “every day just bitch and moan” at work, about work. Now, he couldn’t force himself to love driving a forklift, but he did “start acting like I love what I do.”  

In other words, fake it till you make it. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book and it actually works.  

Another side to this concept is to do what you love. This is a saying we’ve all heard before, and it might even prompt you to roll your eyes. It’s not the most realistic statement—what if you can’t get a job in the area you love?  

Here’s the thing: most hobbies can be monetized in some way, you may just need to think creativity. For Neagle, this came years later, when he was financially stable and ready to start his own company. He self-reflected once again and noticed that he “was already helping people become successful, [he] just wasn’t charging for it.” That was when he made the decision to monetize his passion and start Life Is Now, which has since become a multimillion-dollar global company.  

If you start showing up with a more positive attitude, you will be able to draw on some of that extra energy that your complaints were draining you of and utilize it elsewhere. By this, Neagle means that once you clear your mind of negative thoughts, it will be easier to think and do the things you need to do to be successful. 

Be the Best Every Day  

Once you have altered that first aspect to your mindset, you can start expending your energy on working even harder. When Neagle was miserable—and made it obvious—his work ethic suffered, as he couldn’t motivate himself to improve on his job.  

That’s the catch: if you aren’t doing what you love, or trying to love what you do, it’s very likely you won’t excel as much in that position. How could you? Even if you feel you must stay, your brain is subconsciously trying to get you out of that role. Your subconscious mind is not only discouraging you from success but convincing you that you don’t even want to succeed in the first place.  

Even if you are working hard to begin with, once you lift the weight of pessimism, you will be able to see small areas in which to excel. These small, seemingly innocuous tasks end up making a big difference. From the small to the large, Neagle started giving 100% to every endeavor; he decided “to do everything to the very best of my ability.”  

At work, people started to notice, and Neagle started to receive promotions. After all, a bad attitude is just as obvious as a good one, and people will respond accordingly.  

Respect Others  

Once your attitude starts improving, so will your relationship with other people. The last thing that Neagle changed in that one month, is his respect towards his colleagues. One day, Neagle observed the CEO walking through the factory, and he “would never walk past an employee without stopping and saying hello, asking how their family was.” Neagle felt impressed by this, as he had always heard that successful people were “evil in some way.” Yet suddenly, this man shattered that convention and sparked Neagle to “treat everybody with total respect just for who they are.”  

These three attitude adjustments may seem innocuous, but they make a large impact. The best part of shifting your mindset to a more positive and respectful one is that anyone can do it and do it for free. As Neagle says, “When I did those three things, my whole world flipped upside down almost instantly.” He tripled his income in 30 days and he “never went backwards.” He kept getting promotions, [his] pay increased and eventually it led [him] to starting [his] own company.