As I wrote in my book, Sheer Determination it became clear to me that our society often places too much emphasis on talent to determine whether a person succeeds in life and career. I’ve employed many people who had a “natural talent” for cutting and designing hair. I looked for talented stylists because I believed they would help my business provide high quality hair design services to our customers.

Wrong!  In the end, many of them were a disappointment and often left the salon after only a few months. In contrast, I have trained stylists who started out with only a minimal amount of creative flair for hair design, but had a passion for what they were doing, stuck it out for the long term, and won our clients’ hearts. What was the one thing this latter group of stylists had in common? The answer is they approached life with a positive attitude.

I’d love to show you this video interview of Justin Born. Justin now lives in New York. He is someone that succeeded in Studio 904’s Apprenticeship Program because he had a great attitude and practiced the Kaizen principle, Lifelong learning in small incremental steps and he is still going strong!