Raul Linares » Certified Leaders

Biographical Info

Mr. Napoleon Hill invites us to have a “million-dollar personality.” It was what I had to cultivate and use in the year 2000 when I started working for a new company in my country of Bolivia. The people who were hired had never met each other before and we had to form a working relationship from scratch.

During the next two years, the company grew to over five hundred employees and I held a position as the IT Manager who was responsible for maintaining and attending to employees as internal customers in the problems that could arise in their work with the computers they handled. As you can imagine they only called me when they had problems and usually, they had to solve them immediately so they could do their jobs.

First of all, I had to develop a Positive Mental Attitude because I was already facing a person who did not have the patience and the humor to wait for a solution. I had to develop the ability to make him feel that at that moment he was the most important person to me and that his problem would be solved. I listened carefully to what his problems were even though I had other duties to attend to. I had to listen to their expressions of anger and impatience and in some cases endure intolerance.

I remember that I always kept a smile on my face because I knew that the problem would be solved. Sometimes the problem was caused by them, but I kept quiet with respect, discretion and manners in order not to make them feel bad.

He had to make immediate decisions and execute solutions, he didn’t have to show any doubt that he could return to work almost immediately, otherwise, that would cause him stress and his job would not be fulfilled.

Many times I had to Go The Extra Mile and collaborate with them in their work so that they could present it on time or be able to give better customer service. This led me to do work that did not correspond to me, but I did it with great desire and a Pleasing Personality collaborating and giving better service to my co-worker without expecting anything in return.

At the same time I continued to encourage them, I did not stop praising their work which was really difficult and sometimes complicated, I reminded them how important it was for the company.

All of these actions led to the forging of great friendships and a great trust which allowed them to be honest in giving me any criticism, observation, and advice that could improve my work.

During the next two years we worked very hard to move the company forward and on the second anniversary at the company’s party they gave several awards and one of them was titled “TO THE BEST COMPANION, FRIEND AND MOST PLEASANT PERSON IN THE COMPANY.” This award was given to me in a vote in which many people from the company participated.

After two months the company made administrative changes in which they introduced new executives and changed most of the department managers, among them was me. When they gave me my letter of dismissal, I really felt great satisfaction because I had fulfilled my job and had gone The Extra Mile and this allowed me, in an unconscious way, to develop A PLEASING PERSONALITY that helped create many lasting friendships.

After many years, I returned to the company to visit some friends that were left, most of them stopped to greet me and walked towards me to shake my hand as if I were someone famous. I even heard someone comment “Who is this? Is he one of the owners of the company?” that pleased me a lot, since I recognize now that what I had sown was the “seed of an equivalent benefit.” The friendships created there have lasted after all these years and I still have contact with many of them.

I have studied the philosophy of success by Napoleon Hill for the last seven years and this last year I was determined to become certified as an instructor from the Napoleon Hill Foundation. I am very proud to have received my certification in September of 2020.