A friend of mine helps people with “deep interviews” for key positions. He is a master at pulling out insight about a person’s capabilities from a long-view-life interview.

So, I asked him…if a person has developed a rather undesirable trait from the earliest days of childhood, how difficult is it to make a true mid-life, genuinely overcoming correction.

His answer was not encouraging…

I thought of this as I pondered this short quote from Steve Jobs, in the book Becoming Steve Jobs. It rings true, and it is downright
discouraging. It’s a quote from Steve Jobs, spoken to Tim Cook:

“I’ve never found in my whole life that you could convince someone who doesn’t want to work hard to work hard.” 


This is one of those childhood traits issues, isn’t it? You either learn to work hard very young, or you spend a life-time forcing yourself to try to work harder.

This may be the ultimate life and career challenge. Take a true, utterly honest personal look: what undesirable traits have you had for as long as you can remember.

Tackle those, conquer those, and you will have done something worth celebrating!

Contributed by:
Randy Mayeux
Professional Speaker & Writer
Co-founder, First Friday Book Synopsis