Success Newsletters

Archives:

Booking Information:


For more information on Charles books and products, please contact Julie@cmarcus.com for more information.

Success Newsletters

Vol 12, Number 5 May 2012

In this Edition

1.   A Lesson in Values

2. Monthly Inspirational Quote

3. Recommended Reading

A Lesson in Values

Those of you who have read my book or heard me speak will know the importance of Vidal Sassoon and his company in my young life when I was starting off my career in hairdressing. The lessons, values and work ethic I learned are all part of who I am today. Sadly the great man passed away recently, and I will miss him. My heart is aching, but his legacy will never be forgotten and will live on and on. RIP Vidal.

To provide some context, and share some lessons…

In 1973 I went to work as a trainee hairdresser for the world famous Vidal Sassoon Company. I was just starting out in the business and I was responsible for washing the hair, sweeping the floor, making the coffee…all the good jobs.

One day the world famous Vidal Sassoon, himself, came to visit the salon. We were all so excited. Can you imagine? Here was a person who was a celebrity, in the media all over the world and he was also our CEO.

Astonishingly, when he came into the salon to meet the team, he did not go first to introduce himself to the senior stylists or to management but, to our amazement, he came way to the back of the salon to talk to us first, the rookies who washed the hair, who swept the floor.

Vidal Sassoon taught me a valuable lesson that day. He showed me what values and leadership were all about. He showed that no matter what you do in an organization, everybody is equally important. He demonstrated that everybody should be treated with the same respect and common courtesy, no matter what their title or position is. He made all of us feel so special and important that day as he introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Vidal Sassoon, its great to have you on our team, thank you for your valuable contribution.” We felt sowanted and appreciated. He demonstrated for me what integrity truly is. He never forgot where he came from, where he had started out in the business on his rise to meteoric fame.

I will never forget the time Vidal came to speak to me personally in the salon. In those days I stuttered quite badly. He came up to me and asked me my name. I could not get the worlds out and was struggling to even say anything. It disturbed a lot of people in the salon that day, but not Vidal Sassoon. Instead of dismissing me and walking on, he looked me right in the eye, smiled, held my
hand and so no one else could hear he said “I’ve got all the time in the world young man” I will never forget those words, they meant the world to me.

Sassoon’s taught me what I believe we are all looking for in our own lives whether on a personal or professional level. I translate this into five simple values:

Respect:
Respect is about treating people as equals, showing that they matter and that you value what they contribute to your life. Getting respect is a natural consequence, of giving respect. Show people you really care about them and they will care about you.

Loyalty:
I cannot stress the value of loyalty enough in a world where sometimes people are fickle and superficial. Show loyalty to the people in your life. Stand by them through thick and thin, in the bad times as well as the good.

Courtesy:
Treat others’ as you would like to be treated, politely, kindly and with consideration. You can never be too courteous to people. Always be gracious and make people feel special and important.

Humility:
Reputation is what people believe about you, what they say about you. Humility is keeping yourself grounded despite the curves the world throws you, the success you may achieve
and how people perceive and speak about you.

Excellence:
 Excellence is not about position, it is about action. Even if your role is to wash hair, your goal is to be the best hair washer there ever was. Strive for excellence in everything you do.

Vidal Sassoon lived by the values I just described. He cared about his people, and you know what? His people really cared about him. He treated all his employees with kindness and consideration. He was not only a person of tremendous success, but more importantly, he was a person of tremendous
significance.
Your values may not be all of these five, but what is important is to recognize what your values are and then stand by those values and live by them no matter what.

______________________________________________________________________
Monthly Inspirational Quote

“Yesterday I was clever and I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise. I am changing myself.”

Rumi
__________________________________________________________________________
Recommended Reading

The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence

By Tom Peters

Tom Peters is one very smart guy. He writes good book and knows what he is talking about. This book will provide internal wisdom for everyone, from the freelancer, to the business owner, small or large and so on. He knows what excellence is all about. Lots of wisdom here.

Date Added: May 31, 2012 | Comments (0) | Filed under: Newsletters



No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.