Business Coach : Don’t Be Afraid To Sweat
-I want to read this quote to you. Because if you’re watching this, I don’t want you to get this idea that well, just because I take action, it’s going to be easy. So here we go. Thomas Edison once famously wrote, “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” A business coach would agree.
TIM REDMOND: Sweat, sweat, sweat.
-Now Steve Jobs comes back and says, hey, do you know just because you’re having some perspiration, don’t be afraid. Don’t put it off. He actually delivered a commencement address to Stanford University. Think about this.
He did not graduate from college yet he was asked to deliver the commencement address for people who are graduating from college. At Stanford, no less. This is not a slouch school here. This is a little excerpt from his commencement address. He says, “Remembering that you’re going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
I would just encourage you, as business coach Tim said, go ahead and just maintain motion. Get going. Start moving. You will run into things. You cannot steer a parked bus. And we’re going to move now into step 13. And Tim, for these final steps here, we’re going into the lightning round format here. Because in the Thrive system here, in the platform, we have super-detailed training on these topics. But we’re going to, on a high level, make sure we all know these steps we have to take to get from here to there.
So step 13 is embracing sales. David Rubenstein, one of the most powerful private equity investors on the planet, he says, “If you cannot persuade people to do things, you simply will not be a success because you are not on an island unto yourself. Everything in life is about persuading people to do what you want them to do.” Now if you’re thinking, well, that doesn’t apply to me. I’m not convinced. I’m going to give you another one.
Wayne Huizenga– back when Blockbuster was a big deal– he was the Blockbuster guy. That was his company. He’s a billionaire– a self-made billionaire– who started his first business with a single garbage truck in 1968. He’s taken six companies public.
TIM REDMOND: This was Waste Management.
CLAY CLARK: And this is what he says, he says “The key to my success has been my ability to sell other people on my dreams.” So again, if you’re thinking, well, maybe that’s just two people. That’s just two people. According to Pat McGovern, the chairman and founder of the International Data Corp and a man who has a $5 billion net worth, he says, “If my job would have been to sell someone something they didn’t need, then I would have not been very good at it.” So he’s saying that he wouldn’t just sell anything. He always sells something he’s passionate about.
But Tim, every entrepreneur that I’ve ever met who has a business that just will not grow or has an idea that won’t get off the ground, they won’t do sales. Or they won’t hire someone to do sales. How important is it that we get sold out to the idea that we’re going to have to sell.
-If you don’t sell, you won’t have any sales. If you don’t have any sales, you won’t have any money. And I predict your business not being successful. A business coach would agree. So think of it like this, though. We think sales is this manipulative process that some guy comes from some used car lot I don’t know why a used car lot comes out. My father-in law sold used cars.
-Nothing wrong with that.
-Nothing wrong with that.
-We drive used cars. Our cars that we drive have been used.
[CAR REPAIR SOUNDS]
-We think immediately of some used car salesman that’s going to lie to us. But when you look at the root word for selling, it literally means to serve. You are going to serve people with the greatness that you’re bringing in the world. And really the sales process, most people are bad decision-makers or their sloppy decision-makers. We don’t take time to think through things.
And so selling is very simply helping people in a very respectful way– helping people through a decision-making process. They’re not good at doing it. You’re going to help them through a decision-making process.