There are volumes of sales books that reference the famous story of how Edison failed more than 9,000 times before cracking the code to invent the light bulb! The lesson is obviously to stick with it and no matter how many no’s we get there is surely to be a yes just around the corner.
There are two other little known lessons that we can pull from Mr. Edison!
One is all about the attitude. For most of us in sales; repeated, unrelenting rejection weighs on our soul in 50 lb increments slowing us down and in many cases dragging us down to a slow and painful halt! With each failed attempt, Thomas Edison grew more excited and rumor has it that he might have been moon walking and slapping his co workers on the ass as he started rounding that 9,000th” no go” . Alright, I made up the moon walking and ass slapping, but the dude was excited! He was excited because he knew that with each attempt he was ruling out the wrong way of attacking the light bulb and thus narrowing his search for the right way to do it!
Talk about a dose of perspective! Most of us would have been inconsolable after the 20th “screw you”!
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”
Thomas Edison
Today’s Reflection (Part 1) Change your perspective from “Why me?” “It sucks out there” and all that other garbage to “There’s a code and I simply haven’t cracked it!”
The second lesson has to do with journaling. Thomas Edison documented each one of those attempts so he could take the most important thing from it . . . THE LESSON!
How are you doing in that department? Are you documenting and taking your lesson?
For 15 years now I have been keeping a journal. I don’t write that hokey “Dear Diary” stuff at least not to the extent I would acknowledge in a blog. I try to mark my path on my journey to figure all this stuff out. When I do something I feel is on point; I jot it down. When I do something I feel was disastrous I write it down. I believe that in life we are thrown off balance many times. I want you to picture the vision of losing your balance. When you lose your balance, you reach for something. In sales we are reaching for our words, the right comeback etc. In that moment, we are either going to say something brilliant or we are going to have a Forrest Gump moment. Either way, the most important part, is that we take the lesson and document it! Worked for Edison, right?
Today’s Reflection (Part Dos) Go out and buy a journal! You are NOT, under any circumstances to buy a sh***y spiral book. Go get a leather bound or one that looks worthy of your thoughts. The late Jim Rohn once said (and I am paraphrasing) that you buy a nice journal to encourage you to put something in there worth reading.
I guess at the end of the day, this hokey stuff works otherwise we would be reading this by candlelight!
Who knows better than Mr. Edison!
Oh, and before I forget . . . Don’t you dare give up . . . you are closer than you think! Seriously dude!
One disclaimer: Engaging in ass slapping may induce unwanted HR meetings!
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