As I started reading the note from Andrea Waltz & Richard Fenton in Go for NO! The Sequel
“one thing that we believe will continue as a grounding principle of success is a willingness to fail.”
struck me.
They wrote the original Go for NO! 25 years ago, which is about as long as I’ve had a piece of steel on my desk imprinted with: what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
As I began to read, I was pondering if they mean the same thing – at least to me.
The story picks up 25 years later, the book is another sales parable. I’m not going to ruin the story for you and believe me, it’s a good one.
It’s still short – still readable in less time than you think – and still as relevant as the original.
With lessons peppered in:
| – Sales is sleezy | only if you’re sleezy about it | ||
| – I’m bothering people | I’m uncovering if they need what I do | ||
| – I need to fix myself | work to fix the moment (moments add up to life) | ||
| – What if, what if, what if | worry is useless – start doing |
“Selling isn’t about convincing people who don’t want what you have to say yes…. Selling is about eliminating non-buyers as fast as possible, so you can move on and find people who already want what you’ve got. Great salespeople spend more time qualifying than they do pitching.”
The question we all need to ask ourselves (to paraphrase a line from The Sequel) is:
What if we stop thinking of ourselves as someone who couldn’t and started thinking of ourselves as someone who could?
What kind of future would we have then?
As I finished the book, I have to say that the steel imprinted quote on my desk and the one from Andrea and Richard’s note at the beginning of the book are different lessons.
Mine makes you think about what is possible without allowing fear to influence your choice.
Andrea and Richard’s is about not considering failure to be a bad thing, rather it’s a stepping stone to achieve your goals.
personal MindSHIFT started,
Lynn
ps to Andrea – I too want to be someone who’s not afraid to do hard things.