Yesterday, on my Friday Starting Different™ webcast I had a 30-min conversation (click on any of the images below to go to the video recording) with my dear friend Bill Wooditch (author of two books including the Wall St Journal bestseller FAIL MORE, and founder of a start-up that he built to $100 Million in sales), and I asked Bill to consider sitting down at a table with our younger selves when we were just starting out in sales and in business…
Bill and I have walked different paths– but we drank from many of the same streams of learning along the way– and we collectively have influenced tens of thousands of sales pros since we started our Journey. (Bill speaks to thousands in his keynotes, and I have personally trained more than 9,000 CEO’s and their Teams since 1997.)
“Let’s sit down at this table with our 21-year-old selves.
The future lies ahead of us, it’s a bright sunny day…
What’s the first thing you’d say to yourself if you had a chance to talk to yourself at 21?
And what tools would you lay on that table… for the stormy days ahead… for the times when you were going to hit real adversity, for the times you were unavoidably going to fail?”
There are specific things Bill and I both agreed that we wish we had known then… that we wish someone had shared with us:
First, we’d hand ourselves a PERMISSION SLIP that read “It’s Okay to Skrew up.” (Failing is the only way to Succeed– as long as you Learn from the Event.)
Then we’d make ourselves sign a NON-COMPETE with “Everyone on the Planet except Yourself.” (Focus on YOU: someone’s always gonna have a Bigger Boat– and someone’s Tiny Boat will have a big hole in it.)
And we would remind ourselves that your parents were correct when they told you: “Always GIVE MORE than you RECEIVE.”
But most importantly, we’d say “Not every day is gonna be Sunny— you’re gonna get slapped by Storms, and when THAT $#it hits you in the face here are four tools to grab hold of to fight back…”
- “Nobody is coming to save you,” which is to say you have the ability to choose your response to this (literally RESPONSIBILITY– as in “nobody is going to do your push-ups for you, kid”);
- “There’s a difference between being BROKE and being BROKEN,” failing is an Event, it is not permanent, what is permanent are your VALUES and your CHARACTER;
- “Find the People who are already successful at doing what you want to do, make yourself useful to them” because SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES if you go look for them, and Mentors need to choose YOU as someone they want to teach; and
- “Everything is a Process,” whether it is turning off anxiety in your brain, closing your first sale, optimizing the performance of an entire organization, delivering a world-class presentation or writing a book, EVERYTHING in life is a Process– focus on the activities that are required for success in the Process you want to Master.
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| Starting Different™ Dean interviews Bill Wooditch |
“Your next level of achievement will be contingent upon your ability to learn the lessons of failure and apply them for growth.”
Bill Wooditch, page 177 FAIL MORE
Bill Wooditch, page 177 FAIL MORE
“Success is not about making a commission, it is about making a difference.” Dean Minuto, THE ONE-PAGE SALES COACH
With your success in mind,
Dino
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Dean Minuto