Author Harvey Mackay Discusses His Book :We Got Fired::

NBC ID: ART6Q1WHJG | Production Unit: Today Show | Media Type: Aired Show | Media ID: NY-TDY-20041011-0001 | Air Date(s): 10/11/2004 | Event Date(s): 10/11/2004

Transcript

Event Date(s): 10/11/2004 | Event Location(s): Today New York Studio | Description: Holt is joined in the Today New York Studio by "We Got Fired!" author Harvey Mackay. In interview Mackay says "Good morning, Lester. Nice to be here. At the Russian Tea Room. Well, the moral of the story is, again, you have to be prepared for the firing. You have to plan for the firing. Then when it comes, now you can live well the rest of your life. You have to know the stats and what's going on in the country. Surely. And you hear the stats first, which is very important. It's a national funeral going on in our country, four million people lost their jobs in 1999 to 2001. Every college graduating senior will have 10 to 12 different job changes in his or her career. And three to five years from now, Lester, they're predicting that every college graduatingsenior will have three to five different career changes. No. Sure. Well, I'm from Minnesota, our governor, fired from the World Wrestling Federation, 1990. Fired as a radio disk jockey, St. Paul, Minneapolis. And what did he learn? He learned that you can't guarantee life, that security is on a day to day basis. No guarantees in life. He also learned that the day you get hired, you better be prepared to be fired. Well, age 12, that's right, she played in a sanctioned tournament, did not know the rules, as you said. Her mother stayed up the night before, she was sewing a white dress, actually a white pair of shorts for her. Gets to the sanctioned tournament, and they won't let her play, but then they decided to let her play. They took the sanctioned team picture, but, because she didn't have a tennis skirt, she didn't have a tennis dress, they decided that she could not be in the picture, and then she told me that's when she decided she would change women's sports, she would change women's tennis, and she would change society. Fired all four times, every job he ever had. And the moral there is find something you love to do, as he told me, and you'll never have to work a day in your life. He was in the wrong job, all of those four and five firings, plus, he said, to paraphrase him, if you want to triple your success ratio, you have to triple your failure rate. Correct. 19--1981. Well, I think they can, possibly. 1981, fired from Solomon Brothers, that's correct. Said Goldman Sachs will--will hire me, and of course they didn't. So he went out and formed--I say this, Lester, that if you give 100,000 people $10 million in 1981, I don't think there would be too many people that would create a world class company. I mean, one of the finest in the history of American business, and creating thousands of jobs. So that's a little bit of an inspiration what he did with the $10 million. Surely. Well, first of all, I've never met a successful person that hasn't had to overcome either a little or lot of adversity in his or her life. Number two, don't take it personally, don't be bitter. Number three, you can't saw sawdust. Sure. You cannot cry over spilled milk, get on with your life, it's already happened. This was a common denominator among all the people. Find the real reason why you were fired, not the given reason, so that you can learn something from that firing. Sure. No, sir. Not at all. All salesmen that are rejected, you're not getting the order, your price is too high. That's not necessarily the real reason. You want to learn from that experience. You're not a failure if you get fired, you're a failure if you fail to learn from that experience. Well, don't burn bridges, OK, unless you're a darn good swimmer. Small world out there. It can happen to anyone. But they will land on their feet. Thank you. Yes, when I was a teen-ager. Sure." "We Got Fired!" is seen on set. STILL: Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. STILL: Then professional tennis player Billie Jean King. STILL: Actor Robert Redford. STILL: Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. GFX: If You Get Fired GFX: Graphic plug of today.msnbc.com

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NBC News Archives
Editorial #:
1275128249
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NBC News Archives Offline
Transmission date:
11 October, 2004
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ART6Q1WHJG