“What you are will show in what you do” – Thomas A. Edison
More than a century after Edison’s quote, Nike came up with their brilliant 1988 campaign turning them from a mere contender in the athletic industry to a leader, increasing their share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent to 43 percent. Their message – “Just do it” – clearly struck a chord with consumers.
The simplest advice I can give to anyone, especially a person in a commission-based business like ours, is to stop thinking about all the wonderful, magical things you are going to do, and to get off your ass and do them!
Don’t feel overwhelmed by the insurmountable mountain of brilliance in your brain. Do these things one at a time and you’ll soon find out that when you accomplish one task, many other accomplishments will follow. Success is like a virus: extremely contagious.
Our profession, more so than many others, takes commitment, discipline and self-motivation. Agents generally don’t have anyone continually micro-managing them. The bill collector doesn’t sit next to you during business hours and I’m guessing that neither does the owner of your company nor your sales manager. You may have a mentor, but no matter how motivating that mentor is, it is ultimately up to you to hit the ground running.
I have personally sought advice from many industry leaders (and continually do so). Most of them have been incredibly gracious with it and this advice has planted seeds in my brain that were never there. Those seeds had to germinate and work their way into my DNA to ultimately spark something in me to act. If you should only see the smorgasbord of eclectic garden-variety ideas growing in there now! 😉
I don’t know physcologically what drives us to ultimately get off our asses and “do it”, (and I’m not going back to school anytime soon to study the psychology of fear, desire and ambition or the relative affect chemicals have on the brain to that make our bodies go into action). What I can tell you is that when you do “it”…….. “it” feels GREAT!
So, here is my simple advice:
1. Don’t feel overwhelmed.
2. Pick ONE of your magical ideas that you know will grow your business.
3. Write it on a big piece of paper on your desk, then tape it somewhere you’ll always see it.
4. Get to work on that ONE task and nothing else.
5. Don’t be paralyzed by the fear of the unknown outcome.
6. Get off your ass and do it!
7. When you’re done – pat yourself on the back, and go back to number 1.
If you don’t do this, then none of the magical ideas you will need to build your business will ever materialize.
Don’t be “one of the many” people in our industry who are quick to criticize “the people who do it”. It is clearly much easier to sit on the couch and Monday morning quarterback then to ACT. Any schmuck can do that. And my words to those people are “if you think it’s so easy – go ahead and show me how to do it. If you do it better than me, thanks for the lesson”.
Take a look in the mirror (preferably after a cup of coffee and shower) and be honest with yourself. You will find that the people in this business who you admire and respect are all committed to their businesses and have discipline and self-motivation. And they “just do it”.
It’s interesting that Thomas A. Edison didn’t say,
“What you are will show in HOW you do it”.