James d. Gwartney

ELEMENT 4.2
Cultivate skills and attitudes (including entrepreneurship) that increase productivity and
make your services more valuable to others.

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If you want to be successful, you need to cultivate, develop, and strengthen the first set
of attributes. They need to become habits—the core values of your life. Equally important, you
need to cast the second set out of your life. Do not let anyone, including friends, convince you
that any of the failure attributes are “cool.” They are the path to trouble, and you do not want
to go down that route.
There is some good news here: You can choose the success attitudes rather than the
failure ones. Moreover, you can do so regardless of your family background, current income,
educational level, or choice of career. Your attitudes will exert a huge impact on your future
financial success. Positive attitudes will help you overcome other disadvantages, such as a poor
education or a financially restricted childhood.
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Of course, if you choose the failure attitudes, you can blame others: your family, your
neighborhood, the schools you attended, or society in general. These factors may influence
your choices, but they do not determine them. Your attitude characteristics are under your
control. If you grew up in a troublesome environment, it may be more difficult to attain and
maintain these attitudes. But a person who overcomes a negative environment is admired and
respected by almost all.
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Some of you may be thinking, “My attitudes are my own business. No one is going to
tell me what to do or change my behavior.” Suppose a business owner we’ll call Misha has this
perspective. Misha ignores the wishes of consumers and instead provides what he or she thinks
consumers should value. Misha is free to make this choice. By doing so, however, Misha will

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pay a price in the form of lower sales, possibly even leading to losses and business failure.
Similarly, potential employees are free to “do their own thing.” They can ignore how their
attitudes and behavior affect productivity and employability. But, like the business that ignores
the desires of consumers, people who ignore how their attitudes and behavior influence their
productivity will pay a price in the form of poor opportunities and low earnings. None of us is
an island unto ourselves. If we want others to provide us with income, we need to cooperate
and make our services valuable to them.