Its not the smile stupid...

The main thing is to maintain the main thing as the main thing. The main thing is not personality. The main thing is character. When we look around and see rabid mushrooming of personality development schools who profess to teach you how to dress up well, smile and shake hands to make you super successful in life we know that there is something wrong with the picture. Personality development though important is useless unless we focus on character. Shakespeare’s quotation from Hamlet, “ One may smile and smile and be a villain,” some how seems relevant. It is not what you do on the surface but what you are deep inside, that matters. What are your values and your principles will determine whether you will be a good person or a villain. Only a good person will make a good manager. Not only that, a good person will make a good spouse, a good parent, a good friend and a good son or daughter.

So your endeavour has to be to improve yourself on a daily basis. You can live by Emile Coue’s affirmation, “every day in every way I am trying to become better and better." Becoming better is an inside job. It is not the smile as much as it is the soul. You are not just working on the effect of power dressing on the interviewer you are working on the impact your character will have on the organisation and anyone who comes in contact with you. No body cares whether you know the capital cities of all the countries or their currencies and can even rattle off the exchange-rates if you are dishonest and lack integrity. That doesn't mean you don’t work on your general knowledge. What good is it if you have a very firm handshake and fantastic communication skills but you don’t think twice about cheating and are a habitual liar. Employers won’t touch such a person with a barge pole. Businessmen know you can’t do a good deal with a bad person.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is to focus on your character. The main thing is to follow the golden rule. The golden rule implies that people will treat you the way you treat them. You treat people well they will treat you well. You respect them they will respect you. You give them love they return the compliment. You care for them they will care for you. People do not care how much you know till they know how much you care. Companies are no different.