For Travel Agents, 10 Ways To Build The Grit To Succeed

Linda Kaplan Thaler.

When you are among the 175 Best of the Best of the nation’s travel professionals, odds are you already have figured out how to persevere in the face of adversity. Still, though, the crowd at today’s Travel Impressions conference for its top partners seemed to appreciate the advice offered up by keynote speaker Linda Kaplan Thaler, author of Grit to Great: How Perseverance, Passion, and Pluck Take You from Ordinary to Extraordinary.

The chair of ad agency Publicis Kaplan Thaler, who brought us such memorable lines as “I don’t want to grow up; I’m a Toys R Us Kid,” noted that only 2% of geniuses actually go on to highly successful careers. The real key to success in life is grit, not genes, she said—and that’s something anyone can develop.

She offered up the following tips to building the grit that will take your career to the next level:

1. It’s not about preparation, it’s about over-preparation. When you think you are ready, spending another 30 minutes will exponentially improve your performance.

2. Mentally fire yourself up. Be prepared for failure; imagine what you would do if the bottom fell out of your business tomorrow.

3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Change is inevitable. Get over it.

4. Fail forward. The most successful people are those who have failed often but kept coming back with new ideas.

5. Solve small problems. Unravel big problems into small pieces and tackle each one individually. (Did you know that the Rainbow Bridge began with a piece of string flown over Niagara Falls on a boy’s kite?)

6. Move the spotlight off yourself. Make your customer the star of every encounter. You don’t learn anything when you are speaking, so listen instead.

7. Make small talk, especially with people you don’t know. Psychiatrists say it breaks down the barriers and connects people.

8. Bend like bamboo. “In this business and in this world, you’d better be able to adapt.”

9. Fall in love with Plan B. When things go wrong, try a new tack.

10. Retire the word “retirement.” You’re never too old to meet new people and experience new things.