As the world rang in 2013, many analysts and commentators feel that it’s time to pull out the crystal ball and try to determine what’s in store in the coming 12 months. As the OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria explains, there’s still a lot of work to do.
The world economy is far from being out of the woods. The US ”˜debt ceiling debate’, if it materializes, could tip an already weak economy into recession, while failure to solve the euro area crisis could lead to a major financial shock and global downturn. Governments must act decisively, using all the tools at their disposal to turn confidence around and boost growth and jobs.
In today’s Skills 360 lesson we’re going to build on last weeks ideas and look at how you can implement at positive attitude at work.
In our last episode we talked about positive thinking. Today it’s all about maintaining a positive attitude toward others because it will help them feel good. And if you can do that, customers will want to do business with you, colleagues will want to work with you, and bosses will want to see you do well.
Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast for today’s lesson on keeping a positive outlook.
It’s the start of a new year. And when you look ahead at 2013, what do you see? Do you see great things for yourself, for your business, or for your career? Or do you see doom and gloom, trouble in the workplace, and a global economic mess? Well, I hope you focus on all the positives, even if the negatives exist. And what I want to do is to help you focus on these good things, because positive thinking can help us get where we want to go.
80% of new businesses fail within the first five years. Those don’t seem like very good odds, do they? But new businesses continue to be born every day. And every one of them is started with a dream of success. Yes, the possibility of success motivates us, inspires us, and keeps us going to work every morning. Or is it the fear of failure that does this? Do we keep trying because if we don’t, we might fall on our face and disappoint everyone around us? Either way, success and failure are two sides of the same coin.
At work and in business, we almost have an obsession with success and failure. Just think of your conversations about colleagues past and present. What is it you talk about? Well, you might talk about their health and their families. But you probably spend more time talking about whether they’ve made a million bucks yet.
Fortunately, English has lots of great expressions for talking about this common topic. We looked at a few in our last episode, and today we’ll learn lots more.
In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Sam and Dylan, two former colleagues who have been talking about their own successes and failures. Today we’ll hear Sam and Dylan discussing the fortunes of someone they both know named Cameron Smith.
Listening Questions
1. What did Cameron do when his photo-sharing app was successful?
2. What happened as a result of Cameron’s lack of management skills?
3. What did Cameron’s investors decide to do?
In this Business English Pod lesson, we’ll look at business English idioms related to success and failure.
Every business has its ups and downs. And so does every person. In other words, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail. Another common way of saying this in English is “You win some and you lose some.” Nobody wins all the time, even the great success stories that we read or hear about.
Think of a successful entrepreneur. Now, do you think that person achieved great success on their first try? In 99% of cases, the answer is no. Every successful businessperson learned through failure. Now have a look at your favorite business news site. You’ll see that almost every story can be put into either the category of success or failure. Businesses either grow or shrink but they don’t remain the same.
It’s clear that success and failure are important and common topics. And to talk about them, there are lots of great English idioms.
In this lesson, we’ll hear a conversation between Sam and Dylan, two former colleagues. They have just run into each other and are catching up on their recent experiences. In their conversation, you will notice many idioms related to success and failure.
Listening Questions
1. How is Sam’s work going?
2. How does Dylan feel about his recent investments?
3. What happened to the wireless company that Dylan was involved in?
