Work hard at your job, and you can make a living.

Work hard on yourself, and you can make a fortune. Jim Rohn

Chapter 6

Have Some Respect

Rule #16 – Have Some Respect for Yourself

It would seem that there are many things to learn when you are learning about The Prosperous Life.

First, you would want to get born from above. No matter how much money you make or how high you climb in the corporate world or politics, if all you have to look forward to is 70 years and a hole in the ground; that is not much of a prosperous life.

If you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and if you believe that God raised him from the dead, then you truly already have a prosperous eternal life to look forward to.

While we are awaiting the return of our lord, there are many aspects to The Prosperous Life to learn about. This one aspect starts with a story.

I walked into a warehouse the other day that I am in occasionally and observed the people walking around and through. There were people from the office, dressed very nicely, passing through checking on orders, men who apparently had decided that the warehouse was their life’s work, and another man that was the warehouse manager.

The warehouse manager was dressed nicely as well, clean shaven, nice work pants, shirt tucked in and smiling as he hurried about. The other people who probably were going to be warehousemen for the rest of their lives dressed less thoughtfully. Their pants needed washing. Their shirts were not tucked in. Some needed to shave.

It was easy to tell which ones were heading up. The next stop would be counter sales and then outside sales which would all pay better than working in the warehouse.

A few years ago, I was with a man that was doing bathtub repairs for a living. He got a speck of paint on his jeans and it irritated him. He said, “Today was the last day for these jeans as they are threadbare, and I got paint on them. Darn!” He took pride in keeping his clothes clean from paint until they were worn out. It was like a self-imposed challenge to keep his clothes spotless.

On the other hand, I have seen many painters that are covered in paint wearing clothes that look like they have not been washed in a month. They wear those paint covered clothes like a badge of honor. “I am a painter!!” constantly wiping their paint covered hands on their pants.

How much work would it be to keep a towel on your belt to wipe your hands on and keep your clothes clean?

I have a paint store that I have bought supplies from for years. I have seen the owner many times in the back mixing paint with never a spot on his clothes. His wife buys his shirts from garage sales cheap, and when he gets paint on one, it goes in the trash. He is always neat. He cares about his appearance, and he will probably take care to get your order right.

In the work I do, I am constantly knocking on people’s doors during the daytime. Many times the husband is at work and when that young woman with two young ones in tow looks out the peep hole, what do you think she would be more comfortable seeing? Someone dressed neatly, and clean shaven or someone with grease and paint on their pants, holes in their shirt, and a three day old beard on their face?

A three day beard on Friday night may be cool, but it is not cool when knocking on a young woman’s door, whose husband is gone, on Monday morning. It looks scraggily!

This is not just my thinking.  Some of the companies that I work for call the people after we have fixed the issue in their customer’s home. They ask the client:

• Were they on time?
• Were they dressed nicely?
• Were they clean shaven?
• Were you comfortable with them in your home?”

The reason is because I may be the only person associated with that company that the client has ever seen, and the company wants to be represented well.

How you dress says a lot about you. If you don’t pay much attention to how you dress, maybe you are not going to:

• Pay much attention to your job,
• Or to your speech,
• Or to the important details of your companies clients,
• Or their orders.

Sometimes people will try you out on a job or two to see what you are like —  how do you dress, do you show up on time, are you easy to work with, etc.  If they like what they see, you could step into a mega account.  You just never know where the next job will lead.  This is why establishing good work ethics, principles and habits will pay off in the long run.

One painting company I was on a forum with on the internet said this: “When our guys come to work, they are expected to wear clean clothes and if they have not shaved, I tell them that there are razors and shaving cream in the restroom. They either shave or they go home.”

I have read about painters that run large shops, and sometimes they include paperhanging as part of their services.  One paint company owner said he had two good paperhangers.  One was a young guy that did absolutely superb work and an old man whose work was good but certainly not the quality of the younger man.  Now the young man was a sloppy dresser, kind of slovenly in appearance.  The older man dressed in traditional painter/paperhanger clothes — slacks, dress shoes, white shirt and tie.  When the painter came to work dressed like this, they would put on some overalls AFTER they had met the people of the home for the day and the owners had gone to work.  When the clients would call back to the shop to request more paper to be hung guess which paperhanger had the most requests?  The old man!! I have heard of this happening in several cases.  Sloppy personal habits make people uneasy.  The workers seem less trustworthy.  Sloppy appearance and work habits are irritating to some people and others are not quite sure they want to leave the person home alone or with their children.

How you dress, personal hygiene, etc. says a lot about how you think about your job and yourself and your ability. This may not be true for every person, but it is what goes through the minds of the people that have the ability to promote you or hire you.

You could learn to observe how the people above you in the company dress and copy their style. (Unless they are slobs!) You will move up faster. (It should go without saying, but sometimes needs to be said anyway, take a bath and use some deodorant!)

Some people seem to think that once they are hired for a job, it is theirs for life and how they conduct themselves and how they dress is irrelevant. Your boss may never tell you what he thinks about how you take care of yourself, but, if you don’t pay attention to your outward appearance, don’t be surprised if you are passed up for promotions. Have some respect for yourself.

Everywhere we go we represent our Father and the company that sent us. This is simply another piece of The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches….  

(The Living Bible)