Do you believe in work, or entitlement?

I just read some interesting articles about the practice of tipping. The theory behind them is that the overall decline in service in the U.S. can be partially blamed on the fact that tips used to be given to reward good service and withheld to punish poor service. Nowadays, tips are considered mandatory, and servers get them regardless of whether they do a good job or not.

As for me, I consider tips to be a way of rewarding good service. Call me old-fashioned, but I am strongly opposed to the entitlement mentality and will not leave a generous tip after receiving poor service. On the other hand, great service causes me to leave huge tips, well in excess of the norm.

This entitlement mentality got me thinking about what I've heard from salespeople. There is definitely a lot more of "They won't give me leads," versus "What can I do to achieve more?" (or, "get" versus "earn.") You see, expecting someone to give you something for free won't get you anywhere. By contrast, being willing to learn how to get leads, then following through with action, will make you a top producer. I also see this from the unfortunate people who return my products for a refund. While my refund rate is well under 1%, it's obvious that those 1% had the bizarre idea that simply buying the book would somehow cause leads to appear on their desks the next morning. Not so. You must follow through with action. If you're old-fashioned, you simply call it work.