Tasler’s message to the more than 460 diners at the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance annual dinner was a call for everyone to realize the potential of decision making on the path to their most important destinies.

Parks essentially launched the civil rights movement when she was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man.

Tasler began by talking about the difference between what he calls “drivers” and those he calls “passengers.”

“Even if they’re out of work,” he said of the drivers. “They look harder and longer to find a job.”

He went on to talk about three steps those in the audience could take to make themselves more successful.

“The first step,” he said. “Check your pulse.”

Essentially, that means deciding on one main goal and concentrating on it rather than a whole slew of goals.

“It’s okay to have more than one goal,” he said. “Just give it a pecking order, a clear hierarchy.”

He next suggested that people, “consult an anti-you.”

He said asking for advice from others is a big part of that.

“I didn’t get advice because I didn’t ask for it,” he said.

His final step?

“Do it,” he said. “Be a driver. Make a decision then take clear and decisive action.”

He went back to his example of Rosa Parks’ story.

“Passion alone wasn’t getting it done,” he said. “The civil rights movement was splintered into groups. They decided to work on one thing. Destroy segregation, that was their decision pulse.”

Tasler is an internationally acclaimed organizational psychologist and best selling author.