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I have professionally fallen in love with a few businesses and businesspeople in my time. I'm not talking about the romantic, touchy feely, lovey dovey kind of love, but more of an overarching admiration and respect for the totality of another business person or business.

You know the person or business I am talking about; the business or person representing a business who loves what they do, cares about their clients or customers and is extremely passionate in their belief in their products and their belief in you.

Have you professionally fallen in love with anyone?

Here are signs that you are professionally in love

1. You wouldn't think about buying or working with anyone else.
2. You go out of your way to talk to others about how great they are.
3. You actually believe your life has been changed because of your experience.

Sounds a lot like romantic love, doesn't it?

Get people to fall professionally in love with you and your business, and you will never be short of customers, business, or momentum.

I remember the fun I had working at a gas station growing up and the people who would come in and treat me as if I didn't have a brain. Apparently, to many of the customers, it wasn't logical that a college kid with a high IQ could possibly want to work behind the counter of a gas station on weekends to pay for college.

I learned a lot about Human Resources and motivation in my time at the gas station. It was funny to see the interactions between people who were getting their car worked on and the mechanics and service manager. It was also rewarding to be able to manage kids my age in terms of writing their schedule and training them.

Next time you are in a gas station, convenience store, or other "service" establishment, engage the person working there in a conversation; you'd be pleasantly surprised with what you may find out about them in the discussion.

Likewise, if you work in a position at one of these establishments, look beyond the stereotypes of the role and find ways to make the work interesting, as well as opportunities to engage your customers in friendly dialogue (in fact, many of the people I talked to in my time at the gas station are clients or friends today, some 20 years later!)

I've heard from colleagues and I have experience it myself; there is a lack of apologies for mistakes because people are ashamed to admit they are wrong.

Have you ever had an employee or coworker just walk off the job because they have neglected responsibility? Have you had an employee make a mistake or let you down and rather than say they are sorry, they have quit or completely fallen off the face of the earth in shame?

I've had this happen to me a few times in my career, as have my colleagues. What employees need to learn is that is ok to make mistakes, and that an apology and an act of contrition can be much more forgiving then one might think. Personally, I find it far worse for someone to just disappear off an assignment then to say "I screwed up".

For those of you early in your career who want to be taken seriously, be willing to make mistakes and apologize for them. Also, be willing to tell people AHEAD of time when you know an upcoming event or situation may possibly affect your work; your employer will be more forgiving then you believe.

Earlier this year, I wrote about Attitude, Attendance, and GPA and why most employers and schools that matter don't care.

Today, I expand on this thought by coming up with a new meaning for the GPA acronym.

Genuine
Professional
Attitude

With a Genuine Professional Attitude, you can walk into any door and find work wherever you go. Without it, you will end up endlessly searching for work and the right opportunity.

People who are genuine show it not necessarily with their words, but always with their actions.

People who are professional walk their talk, apologize when necessary and carry themselves with a high level of credibility.

People with the right attitude look for the opportunity in every failure and success.

What is your GPA? Have you paid attention to it lately? Think of this new GPA acronym -Genuine Professional Attitude instead of your Grade Point Average.

It doesn't matter if you have a 3.0 or 4.0 if your attitude sucks, you aren't professional or are insincere!

PS - If grade point average meant anything, it would be a field you'd need to fill in on your LinkedIn profile! (Guess what, it's not!)

I've spoken for years with friends about wanting to invent a concept called You're Welcome Notes. My friends have said although it sounds like a great idea, they wonder where the endless cycle of Thank You and You're Welcome will end.

"Do you have to send a Thank You card for receiving a You're Welcome note?" is one of their questions. My response is always no, that is a little tacky, but writing to your friends and customers is always a good idea if you want to keep a continuing conversation going.

I did a Google search on You're Welcome Notes this morning and all that came up was a Facebook page that someone came up with stating that "You're Welcome Notes are the greatest demonstration of the welcomeness of the other person's previous thankfulness"

I look at You're Welcome Notes as a great opportunity to keep in touch with people after the holidays have ended, or after you've received a Thank You Note.

Here's a situation where you can see how valuable a You're Welcome Note could be in a business situation...

You sell a product or service to someone and offer them a great experience. They send you a Thank You note thanking you for the great service rendered, and expressing gratitude for all that you did for them. A few days or a short time after, follow up that note with a short letter (or You're Welcome note) checking in with them on their experience, and thanking them for their appreciation of your work.

As children, those who celebrate Christmas are told to be nice and good and to write to Santa with what they want for Christmas. As adults, I think we could all take our parents' advice and do the same thing when it comes to asking for what we want from our boss, co-workers, friends, or colleagues.

Here is a "letter to Santa" I put out last week on my Facebook page as kind of a joke but half-serious as I want to meet someone this holidays season:

Love, Robert

To the point, direct, and a little silly, this email netted many responses and people coming out of the woodwork to assist me in my quest. Perhaps by Christmas "Santa" will bring me what I want!

Think about something you've wanted for work, yourself, or your business. Find a funny way to get it out there, or be direct and ask for what you want. It may work wonders!

What defines a professional loser? Someone who

Lets
Others'
Success
Engender
Resentment

You've seen people like this; they see someone get promoted, hit a sales target, win an award, and all they seem to get out of it is rage and resentment towards the achievement. Rather than look at their own shortcomings, need to improve, or appreciate the achievement of another, they take the short road and belittle the achievement or the person.

If you don't win an award, get the promotion, or get a job and someone else you know does, look at it as an opportunity to reset your clock, your goals, and your desires. Make it an opportunity to look inside and see what you need to do next, and why in fact you didn't get what you felt you deserved.

After a recent shopping experience where I felt like I was treated like a criminal for going in for a price adjustment, I have almost completely abandoned traditional shopping entirely. I've grown tired of the lack of care of the management, the ambivalence and/or ignorance of the staff, and the general lack of care for the customer by many traditional retailers.

Why am I so jaded? It could be because I worked in retail management and my standards are higher than those I encounter today. Maybe it is also an HR issue that can possibly save retail in its traditional form.

The next time a customer walks in your door and no one greets them from your team, someone needs to pay on your staff. I don't care how busy you are, but when a customer or potential customer walks in and no one meets them within the first 30-60 seconds (sometimes less), you've lost that customer.

The next time a customer walks in for a price adjustment on an item that went on sale, don't treat them like a criminal because you are having a bad day at the office.

For now, until someone convinces me otherwise, I'm taking my business online and to the retail businesses that are friendly consistently.

A family owned business has a policy of not speaking about the competition. Many companies I have worked with have a policy of respecting partners and competition. When it comes to doing business, I prefer doing business with those who speak fondly of their competition or say nothing at all.

A big turnoff in business is when you hear someone or some company badmouthing their competition. To me, whether it is a potential business partner, client, or vendor, the minute I hear something said about how poorly someone else does something, I turn off my listening head and decide that its time to consider someone else for the work.

Do you have a policy in place about your competition and how you speak about them? If not, it is probably time to put one in place.

In baseball, the term "clubhouse cancer" is used to describe a player, coach or member of the team who seems to destroy the team chemistry from within. For the Boston Red Sox this year, a "mole" reported to the media that players were drinking during games, that Terry Francona was facing addictions and marital troubles, and assorted other players had basically lost respect for the team.

In your social life and in your business relationships, upon reflection you may find that there is a need for social life chemotherapy or business relationship chemotherapy. In these cases, the only way to cure these ills is to address the relationship or address the person; sometimes that means removing people from your life or fixing the relationship flaws to keep the relationship strong.

Recently, I did a small bit of social life chemotherapy by eliminating some people and situations from my life that were causing me too much angst and not enough benefit. I challenge you this week to look at the changes you need to make; very often, they are subtracting situations and people from your life versus adding anything that is missing.