Have you ever felt like giving up?
We tend to believe highly successful people are either born with a silver spoon in their mouth, they got lucky, or were brilliant from the moment of birth. They never had a bad day in their life. And then we wonder, “Why couldn’t we be that lucky?”
Reality is sometimes quite different from what we initially perceive to be true. This is the reason why the better route is to build the relationship first in order to ask additional and deeper questions about the successful person’s path to success. By doing so, not only will the facts reveal themselves, but also, you may learn unique steps and strategies for more rapidly moving along your path for increased accomplishment.
“Mike” is the perfect example of the type of success we see upfront. He worked very hard over the years building his business. Today we see him mixing with the affluent, having put several children through private college, and able to afford anything his heart desires. In fact, he will be selling his business at a fairly young age to contemplate the remainder of his life and what his next steps might be.
Was it always this way for Mike? Absolutely not! Over time, trust built as we got to know one another well. And with great surprise, his deeply guarded secret was revealed. This is the best lesson everyone can learn from to make a difference in his or her own life.
Mike’s secret is, upon graduating from college, he tried two different careers and did miserably at each. Some may even say Mike “failed” at his initial chosen endeavors. Had they been in Mike’s shows, they might possibly have given up to do something menial instead believing they were incapable for anything better. But Mike didn’t see these opportunities that didn’t work out in that light. The difference is Mike was motivated to succeed and used the power of positive thinking.
In his moments of positive thinking, Mike chose to view his poor experiences as finding direction to a better path where he might excel. For him, the experiences were merely an elimination process to recognize and strengthen his top performing skill-set. And pursuing and strengthening his skills is exactly what he did by very gradually building his own highly successful business.
Sometimes we view the saying, bad things happen for a reason, as a feel-good mantra to get over the pain more easily. But in fact, there is truth to that phrase. When we are able to look at circumstance not as failure but as a learning lesson to move on to the next idea or path, we are able to forgive ourselves for unintended error and to freely move on to find the success awaiting us.
In the end, Mike built a solid personal brand with his ability to weed out what was not working for him to recognizing how to build a highly successful company.
Once again, continual learning from poor and good circumstances, from others, and finding what will bring you greater reward, will put you on the wave of he Smooth Sale!
Author:
Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, (800) 704-1499; authored “INSPIRED Business A New View for Building Business and Communities”; “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, and “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews“. Elinor was designated as a “Top 25 Sales Influencer for 2012.”
