10 Steps to Become the Greatest Salesperson In the World – Part 3

“I will persist until I succeed.” - from The Scroll Marked III, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

This principle has become my personal mantra over the course of the last few years. I remember a former employer whose favorite phrase was “Persistence overcomes resistance”, and that phrase has stuck with me through some pretty challenging times.

It’s a fact: the last few years haven’t been easy on anyone. The reason I created Motivation 101 and started this blog was that I kept hearing people around me talking like they were ready to just give up and run for cover; I knew that was the wrong response, and I felt compelled to jump in and do something about it. So I recorded an audio program in a friend’s garage. He produced it, and I started making CDs in my home office and handing them out to anyone who was willing to listen.

The feedback was encouraging: most of the people I talked to were discouraged, but not quite ready to roll over just yet. We would talk about their challenges and how the principles of positive thinking and persistence were the only things getting them by. Some of them had lost jobs, homes, credit scores and personal dignity. It had all taken a toll on their self-image, but they hadn’t given up. They wanted to keep going, and we were able to offer each other mutual encouragement.

The one thing I learned from these folks is expressed nicely in the words of the Scroll Marked III: “Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.”

No, one step at a time is not too difficult. When crossing a great desert, it’s best to focus on only one thing: your next step. So long as you can put one foot in front of the other, even if it’s a weak and wobbly step, you survive. It’s only when you give up and stop moving forward that you doom yourself.

Success comes down to one thing: how many times you’re willing to hear “No,” or “Sorry, not today,” or “You’re not what we’re looking for,” or “You’re just not good enough,” and still come back to ask again. My friends at Go For No! call it your No Quotient, and I agree when they say that your NQ is far more important than your IQ; after all, we all know a few broke geniuses, people with high IQs and low net worths. The reverse is true as well, and we do well to pay attention to that lesson.

We talk a lot about “raising your tolerance for rejection” and “failing your way to success”, but there’s more involved than just blindly, relentlessly pushing forward. Sometimes life gives you feedback you need to pay attention to. In addition to persisting, you should also be willing to adapt and learn as you go. The ability to grow as well as persist is an unstoppable combination.

Mandino compares persistence to the series of single, weak axe-blows that fell the mighty oak, the tiny rain drops that wash away the mountain. No single blow or rain drop could do the job on its own; only their repetitive persistence will get it done.

Are you willing to take the persistence challenge?  If so, remember that there’s only one rule in this game: “So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles of success; if I persist long enough I will win.”