Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Frank Pacetta, the author of Don't Fire Them, Fire Them Up, is a popular motivational speaker who has given presentations to such companies as Saturn, Fidelity, and Nestlé. A one time district sales manager for Xerox, he boosted his district's earnings from the lowest in the region to number 4 among all of the company's 65 districts. He lives in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

Roger Gittines is based in Washinton, D.C.

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Filled with the kind of contagious energy and upbeat attitude that has made Frank Pacetta one of America's most popular motivational speakers, this unique book is for anyone who wants a difference in the workplace. Whatever the occupation, organization, or industry, here are tried and tested solutions, techniques, rules and tactics that get the job done right. Whether you're a manager fed up with your worker's ho-hum attitude or an individual who can't seem to live up to your potential no matter how hard you try, this book will give you ideas that can put into immediate action -- a no-fail formula for ending the whining and instilling in yourself and your employees a winning spirit.

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Stop Whining--And Start Winning

HarperBusiness

Chapter One

To Hell with Ho-hum

What are you doing?
I know that's not the customary way to begin a book, but play along with me.
I'll start again.
What are you doing?
I'm reading a book.
No, you're not.
I'm not?
It only seems like a book.
What is it then?
A chain saw.
Chain saw? Could've fooled me.

In a moment, we're going to crank this sucker up and rip through thebarriers that make going to work, doing your best, and being your best such a royal pain in the butt.

This chain saw is the perfect tool for all those who believe life is too precious to waste on a job that's boring, frustrating, or pure torture. It's for all those who are fed up with the same old excuses and dumb ideas, fed up with no shows, no guts, and no for an answer. And it's for all of those who are tired of hearing:

Phrases like that make my skin crawl, and should make yours crawl too. That's because we don't have to take it anymore; don't have to listen to it or live it anymore. Are you wondering why? Why we don't have to take what for so long has been standard operating procedure in many companies and organizations, large and small?

Because together we can be a part of a business leadership revolution. Not the usual, "rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic" kind of revolution. But one that's driven by bringing out the best in ourselves and others powered with passion, performance, and process.

The best? You've got it.

I love the smell of sawdust in the morning! There are whole forests of deadwood and deadheads waiting to fall. There's no reason to settle for second-best, second place, and second thoughts. It doesn't matter whether you take orders or give them, your job is to make your job second to none.

I'll show you how to do it.

And if you own or manage a business, supervise a staff of one or one thousand, or are a team leader or team member isn't it time for that enterprise-the one that claims so much of your time and energy-to live up to its promise and keep its promises?

I'll show you how to make that happen.

It's going to be fun too. Businesses of any size in any industry, and the jobs they create, can be lots of fun, hugely rewarding, and personally satisfying.Mine have been. First as a sales manager and then as a district manager for Xerox, I led three $ 100 million a year operations that racked up high profits and performance records year after year and were also warm, friendly, exciting work environments. We had double-digit sales growth and nearly triple-digit customer and employee satisfaction ratings. "I couldn't wait to get to the office in the morning. I was afraid I'd miss some of the action, was the way one former colleague described the atmosphere. "We were family," another said. Many of them are now CEOs, senior managers for top corporations, or owners of their own successful businesses. Along the way, the customers we worked with also prospered and grew from struggling start-ups to regional and national market leaders.

The same was true at Danka America, a $2 billion office products company, where I led a national staff of two thousand sales reps, and at have to take what cutting-edge Internet-based information technology provider that I'm now involved with. The experience was-and continues to be-richly rewarding-and I'm not just talking about the money.

In each case, the whining stopped-and the winning started.

In the pages ahead, I'm going to be exposing a dirty little secret that isn'tdirty at all and should never, ever be a secret. You probably once knew thistruth but were told by the cynics to fahgitaboutit:

A job doesn't have to be dull, empty, or in conflict with our principlesand personal priorities. Businesses large and small can be rewarding and fun places to work from the bottom up to the top down. Do I sound naive? I'm not. There are boatloads of techniques, processes, procedures, and proven ideas that can help you achieve both profound personal and organizational transformations. We can do well, do good, make money, and have a great time! What it takes is high personal expectations and low tolerance for failure, mediocrity, and lame excuses. What it takes is a commitment "not to take it anymore."

Here's another secret. Tolstoy got it wrong. I'm referring to the author of War and Peace and Anna Karennina, who wrote in the latter novel, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." No, at least in business, unhappy families are all the same. They make the same mistakes over and over again.

They don't: