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 waiting 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 shirt from garage sales, cheap, and when one 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 holes 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 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.

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 there are razors and shaving cream in the restroom. They either shave or they go home.”

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.

If you were going to promote someone in your business, or hire them to do a job at your home, or if your husband is at work, who would you be more comfortable with? The paint covered painter with a three day old beard, the sloppily dressed warehouseman, or the guy dressed neatly and clean shaven?

You could learn to observe how the people in the company above you 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.

Fear stops us from living a truly prosperous life at times. I have been in contracting for about 40 years, and in that time I have seen many people lose money and go broke because of the fear of asking to get paid.

I was working late one night in a new jewelry store hanging 54 inch vinyl wall coverings and was talking to the carpet layer. He said he was getting paid that night when he was finished. I was amazed. “How did you get that deal?” I asked. He said he told them that was the only way he would do the job.

He got paid when he was done. We got paid three months later from a company five states away. I never forgot that lesson. Boldness is far better and more profitable than fear.

You don’t have to be rude. Just ask. Or in some cases let them know that you need to be paid when the job is complete. We always do this on commercial jobs.

As we conclude the phone conversation about time and pricing, I just tell them we need to get paid the day we are done. They may say they don’t carry checks. We ask if they have a credit card and then ask if that will work for their boss. Also we add $3.50/hundred to do a card because that is what we are charged. Most of the time they agree.

That is so much simpler than trying to collect from a company that is out of state. If you have ever tried that kind of collecting, you will know what I mean. Generally, it takes three months to get money that way. We just don’t do jobs like that anymore.

With smaller, local contractors we usually ask them to meet us and pay when we are done when it is the first time we have worked for them. Usually people understand the situation and do just what you ask. If that goes well, we will bill them in the future.

If they object, then that raises a red flag. They may be ones that you would have a hard time collecting from anyway. Tell them you really need to get paid while you are there because they are a new account.

If you stick to your guns, usually they will do that.

This type of dealing with people about money also has the advantage of showing that:

1. You have some integrity.
2. You are not afraid of losing a job.
3. You respect yourself enough to conduct your business properly.
4. Thus, most people will have more respect for you and treat you better.

I worked with a young man years ago that told me the builder owed him for all the materials and labor for five houses. WOW! I asked him why he would do the next one if he was not getting paid.

Fear was the answer:

1. Afraid the builder would not pay for any of it if he asked for the money.
2. Afraid he would not get the next job if he insisted on getting paid.
3. Afraid of the confrontation.

He eventually went broke and got a job.

Fear… some call it sand in the machinery of life.

Boldness without being rude is one of the well worn paths to The Prosperous Life.

How has being bold helped you in your dealings with people?

Someone once said that we don’t communicate well enough. There may be many reasons for that: the wrong choice of words, being unclear about what we really mean, or because we are trying to imply something we hope you get but we really don’t know want to say.

By rephrasing the words back to the speaker, we can clear up many of our communications. This can be done with your spouse, children, coworkers or even your boss.

Rephrasing is to say back to the person, in your own words, what they said. “What I hear you saying is…..”

Example:

“What’s for dinner?”

“We were going to have chicken, but I forgot to thaw it out, and I have been so busy today I hadn’t even thought about it.”

“So are you wanting to go out for supper?”

“Would you mind?”

Here is another example:  The salesman writes up a repair order on two of his products sitting in a wholesaler’s warehouse. His company sends the repair order to an independent repair contractor. The contractor sees that one unit is a warranty repair and one has been damaged, probably by the wholesaler’s warehousemen. The repairman calls the manufacturer and the manufacturer agrees to pay for the one unit with the defect but refuses to pay for the other damaged one.

During the repair the salesman shows up and says to the repairman.

“You are new at this aren’t you? I would hate to lose an account like this as I only have two. Don’t let little “technicalities” cause us to lose this account. This time I will pay for the non-warranty repair.”

Rephrasing: “So what I hear you saying is that no matter what is wrong with the units, you want me to write up the invoice to the manufacturer to show that these are all warranty repairs. Is that right?”

If he says, “yes”, now you know he wants you to lie. You can:

1. Just end the conversation without confirming that you will do that and next time it happens, mention to the manufacturer what you have been instructed to do by their salesman.
2. Let him know that you will only bill warranty repairs to the manufacturer, and if he wants to pay for all the others, you will call him each time to confirm his continued willingness to pay.

Rephrasing can clear up many situations. It can help straighten out fuzzy thinking, help use the right words, make things clearer and at times keep you out of trouble.

Communicating well is part of The Prosperous Life.

How has this practice been of benefit to you?