The Learning Process

Robert Trent Jones was, without question, one of the greatest players of golf ever to play the game. Robert "Bobby" Jones is the only golfer to win the Grand Slam. The Grand Slam is when a golfer wins all major championships in the same year. Jones accomplished this unmatched feat in 1930.

Jones was quoted as saying; " I never learned anything from winning a golf tournament." How incredible is that. The only person in the history of professional golf to win all major championships in the same year stated that winning taught him nothing!

What he meant of course, is that losing is a teachable and defining moment. The pain of failure is a great motivator, to the right person. Whenever we do not accomplish that which we set out to do, we may consider ourselves to be failures. Instead of taking the position that you have irrevocably failed, consider yourself as the student and that the painful experience has taught you that you will need to do things either, better or differently, or both, in order to achieve your objective. Don't consider it a complete loss, consider it an opportunity to grow in your abilities as you adapt and improve.

Learning is indeed a process and that process is going to be as productive or as unproductive as you make it. Failures are great teachers. 

Get up and Get Going

Many times you have likely found yourself contemplating as to whether or not you can accomplish a certain task or achieve a level of success that has heretofore alluded you. This is a very common reality that occurs when we take too much time contemplating and not enough time doing.

Often all we need to do is get up and get going. The first step is the most important step you will ever take because unless you take the first step, logically, you will never get to the second step. In my endeavors, I have often found myself in the situation of not doing because I am thinking about what I need to do. When what I really need to do is get going, because the more I think about something, the bigger the task becomes and grows, in my mind, into something so big that I begin to wonder if I can or should make the effort. Self doubt enters the process and that can be deadly.

The fact of the matter is, that if we really knew, before we started, the full extent of the considerable effort and time that was ultimately going to be required, we might opt to not engage at all. Some of the greatest accomplishments you will make during your career are going to require you to move in different directions after you get started and be willing to modify what you believe to be successful. You are going to learn what to do and as important, what not to do. But none of this happens unless you get going. You must get moving and once you do, you will be so busy headed in the direction of success that you will not have time to think about whether you can, you will be consumed with, you will! Get up and get going!

Own The Issue

It is your job, your reputation and your personal brand to protect so, "own the issue."

Building relationships is grounded in trust. Trusting you means you are going to look out for your client's best interest. You represent your client. Your clients do and should expect you to address, sooner rather than later, any issues they are facing with your products or services. If there is an issue with quality, delivery, performance, billing, accounts payable or anything that is a part of your product or service, it is not your client's issue it is YOUR ISSUE.

Roger Staubach, the hall of fame quarterback for The Dallas Cowboys, launched a commercial real estate business after his professional football career and turned the industry on its head, when he introduced his business model which was simply; representing the tenant and not the landlord. He and his associates entered every negotiation with the tenant's best interest in mind. They did not represent landlords! The business model was a huge hit because the tenants knew they could trust his company. He owned the issues as far as the tenants were concerned.

You are responsible for taking care of your client. To the client you are. "the business" so don't pass the blame on to the department back at the office that is responsible for the function that is not meeting client expectations. Your client's have enough to deal with without wondering if issues with your company are going to get resolved fairly and quickly. Your clients are doing business with you, not your company and they expect you to take care of them. People do business with people, so make sure that after you gain their trust, you jealously guard that trust by OWNING THE ISSUE.

See What You Cannot See

Most high achievers are self indulgent. They think they are special and they intentionally behave in a manner that eliminates any doubt about their high self image. Good for them. A high dose of self esteem is required.

Most high achievers not only think a lot of themselves but they also have an attribute that separates them from their contemporaries. And this attribute is one of the most important qualities they have. They believe in the unseen! They believe in something bigger than themselves. This makes them vulnerable in the eyes of most people but it is this quality that separates them from everybody else and serves to make them special. In this respect, they really are different.

Whatever you are endeavoring to do, you must accept the reality that your actions, everyday, will have a compounding effect on the outcome. Even though you probably cannot see the results immediately, believe in the unseen by doing something productive on a day to day basis that will contribute to accomplishing your goals by moving the process forward, independent of the measure of achievement made. Rome really was not built in a day and you MUST believe that your actions, however insignificant they may seem at the time, are serving to building a momentum that is getting stronger and stronger. You cannot see the wind but you can feel the effects. Believe in what you cannot see and understand that dynamically the things that are required to assist you in your quest are lining up, in perfect order, and your success is not a matter of if but a matter of when and how much. Stay the course and believe.

Repetition

There were six wooden dining room chairs and all were lacking a cosmetic finish. These chairs were purchased without a finish so they could be customized with a unique finish. I had established a plan and a preliminary process. Each chair had to be sanded smooth, then stained with one shade, allowed to dry, then stained with another shade, then sealed with a clear lacquer. After the second or third chair, I had learned the parts of the process that were going to be more challenging. Sanding and staining between the slats that made up the back of the chairs was especially difficult and time consuming, therefore that is what I did first. Once I progressed to the sixth and final chair, I had the process down and was able to complete the last chair in less than half of the time it took to complete the first. The repetition had been a great teacher.

And thus it is in our business life of selling. Sales is a repetitive business in terms of acquiring and growing clients. This does not suggest that the same solution is the answer for every individual prospect or client, but the steps necessary to obtain new clients and grow business from existing clients, look very similar to the steps you have learned by "doing." Do the same things over and over and get better at mastering those critical-similar-steps, then increase the pace at which you take the steps and watch your business grow. Do the hard things first and then stay committed to the process that you learned by doing. Then, do it over and over and over and over again. The repetition is a great teacher and the key to increased production.

The chairs turned out beautiful!

Into the Wind

Airplanes take off into the wind and birds use the force of the wind, as they are heading into it, to
remain in flight with reduced effort. The wind acts as a lifting force for airplanes even though there is a substantial resistance moving forward. Every airplane consumes the greatest amount of fuel-per-foot-advanced during takeoff. It is the first advance, in getting off the ground from a stationary position, that requires the greatest amount of thrust from the airplane engines and effort from the birds resulting in the greatest demand for fuel! Once aloft, the issue is maintaining forward momentum and staying on course, but neither of those objectives are issues until the plane and the birds are off the ground.

What a great lesson this is. When we are embarking on either a large project or our daily plan, it is getting up and getting going that requires the greatest amount of emotional and focused commitment. You are going to be heading into the winds of the challenge on a regular basis and what will play a large part in your ultimate success, is your unwavering determination to get going no matter how strong the forces of resistance are. The very best thing you can do is to get going no matter what. Once you do, you will find that the task will become much easier to manage and you can see the end result more clearly the higher in altitude you climb.

Everybody is in Sales

Everyone in the organization is in sales. While most of the job descriptions in all companies do not specifically state that a required function of a job is to sell, the underlying reality is that if people don't sell they, nor the organization will not progress. Everyday we are in situations that require us to persuade others, either by actions or by words, to do something that will help. Everyone is constantly "selling" themselves or their desires or their ideas regardless of their position. This is accomplished either by example when they perform their duties well or by influencing others by their statements. One of the very important people that do much of the heavy-lifting setting the stage for indirect selling, is the individual that answers the telephone or greets people when they come in the office. An employee on an assembly line is selling the quality of the product when they make sure their work is of the highest quality.

Successful salespeople by definition are those determined individuals that proactively interact with clients and prospects in an effort to sell their products or services. But they are only going to be successful in this vital function, if everyone in the entire company understands, that without a team selling culture, the committed-sale is lost before the sales person walks in the door. Everybody is in sales!