Having a caring mindset has nothing to do with your level of education. Having a caring mindset has nothing to do with how much money you have or where you were born. Having a caring mindset does have everything to do with being resourceful and resilient.
When I wrote my first book in many ways I was up against it. Here is what I mean.
I knew there was a need for a book, a need that had gone unfulfilled until that point.
Long story short, when I wrote my first book, QS-9000 Pioneers, the automotive industry had just started to embrace a standard that required automotive manufacturers along with their suppliers to meet certain quality standards. There was very little guidance about how to do that, but it demanded advice. I decided to provide that advice and went to work with a colleague who co-authored the book with me because I was young and fairly new in the industry.
I faced a lot of resistance from my managers. They could not understand why I would want to write a book that could potentially help our competitors. These same people kept insisting I was writing the book during business hours when in fact I worked on it at night and on my days off. As I say I was up against it, here is what made it work.
I had resolve. I did not care that other people were seemingly jealous about what I and my co-author were trying to accomplish. We both pushed ahead, secured a publisher, and finished the book.
When I completed the book, I was able to secure the endorsement of every single living quality guru at that time. I knew their approval would dispel any pushback we were getting because these were the best of the best. They provided the book’s seal of approval.
QS-9000 Pioneers then went on to become an automotive industry classic because my co-author and I had resolve. We were able to publish our book, have it endorsed by who’s who and make a positive impact on the automotive industry. It did not matter we were not high-powered executives at that point in our careers. It mattered that we had resolve. The next time someone tells you you can’t do something, be resilient. Ignore the naysayers and push forward.
We all have resolve. We just need to use it.
One of the world’s pre-eminent experts on quality and process improvements, Subir Chowdhury is the #1 international bestselling author on SIX SIGMA philosophy. Hailed by The New York Times as a “leading Quality expert,” and by Business Week as “the Quality Prophet”, he is the author of 15 books. His latest book THE DIFFERENCE: When Good Enough Isn’t Enough (Crown Business, 2017) made it to the USA Today Bestseller list as well as National Bestseller in India. In 2017, India’s prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur established the ‘Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability’ – the first of its kind in Asia. He is the Chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group and helped his clients save billions of dollars.