10 Steps to Become the Greatest Salesperson In the World – Part 7

“I will laugh at the world.” - from The Scroll Marked VII, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Is there any ailment in the world that a good laugh won’t cure? I don’t think so. I mean, the jury’s still out on whether Norman Cousins actually healed himself by watching Marx Brothers movies, but I’ll tell you one thing for certain: he sure felt better!

And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? I know that when things are going great and I’m happy, I can be sick as a dog and it doesn’t phase me. I to recover a lot faster from any illnesses, if I get them at all. On the other hand, whenever I’m feeling down or depressed, the slightest cold can put me down for days.

Once again, we find that it’s all a matter of our perception of our situation and our chosen reaction to it. We can choose to be in a depressing slump or we can do something about it: laugh! Have you ever been in a situation where things were so bad, so depressing, that you didn’t know if you could endure any more, then caught a case of the giggles? How did it make you feel? At first it’s a little disturbing and you question whether you’ve lost your mind, then you start to feel a little better. The giggle turns into a hearty belly laugh and, before you know it, you’re wondering what you were so worried about!

It’s been said that tragedy plus time equals comedy, so why not shortcut the system? If you can see that you’re probably going to look back on a bad situation and laugh, why wait? Why not “laugh at the world” now? Mandino teaches four magical words that make this easy to do: this too shall pass. If you can always remember that, no matter what’s happening for you right now it will eventually pass, you can survive almost anything.

And remember: it’s not just your own circumstances that are improved by laughter. Laughter, like any emotion, is contagious to those around you, including your customers. Remember the famous Ella Wheeler poem that starts, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow it’s mirth, but has trouble enough of its own.” Your positive mental attitude will rub off on your customers; they won’t be able to help it! And happy customers are far more likely to buy than gloomy ones.

What if you don’t feel like laughing, though? Mandino provides a source of constant inspiration for laughter:

“And most of all, I will laugh at myself for man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. Never will I fall into this trap of the mind. For though I be nature’s greatest miracle, am I not still a mere grain tossed about by the winds of time? Do I truly know whence I came or whither I am bound? Will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence? Why should I permit the petty happenings of today to disturb me? What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant in the river of centuries?”

Let’s face it: we humans are a funny bunch. We’re the only ones on the planet with the ability to laugh at ourselves. Why waste this great gift and mope around in perpetual gloominess? Instead, choose to laugh at the world and bring a little joy along with you wherever you go.

“I will be happy. I will be successful. I will be the greatest salesman the world has ever known.”