How I Discovered Personal Development (Part 2 of 3)

This article is continued from part 1.

Even before I met her brother, Curtis, I just knew that I would be hired, and this would be what I would do for the rest of my life. After all, I had a premonition…a vision…I saw into the future. I discovered my destiny.

The next day, I went down for an interview. It was no interview at all. It was he and his business partner standing in the door way of their office just shootin’ the bull with me. After a few minutes, he said, “I like you. If you want the job it’s yours.” I said yes and was hired on the spot. I started the next day.

The company was High Achievers Network. (That office later closed down, but they are still running strong in Arizona and Southern California.) In essence what they did was sold “season passes” to seminars that were about every 8 weeks or so in Dallas. People like Les Brown, Jack Canfield and others would come into town every so often and anyone who had a season pass, could come down and attend the seminar. Now looking back, I realize what a great idea it was. But at the time, it was just a job.

My job was inside sales. I sat in a tiny cubicle, cold calling car dealerships and any other company with hard core sales people that needed motivating. I HATED MY JOB! I was miserable. I was so scared to pick up the phone. And worse yet, Curtis, the President, and Jeff, the VP were no more than 15 feet away from me all day. The office was tiny. I could hear every word they said, and vice versa.

I don’t know that I ever made a sale. I don’t recall. I may have repressed all of those memories. But one day I had a bright idea about how I could motivate myself to get some sales. There was only one other inside sales person in the office. A lady who sat right behind me in her little box. She was great on the phones. Fearless. But I wanted to go head to head with her. So I walked over to the Presidents desk and told him about my brilliant idea.

“Curtis, I got an idea. You know I’m not doing so well on the phones, but I gotta a good idea to help me out, and, it may help her out to” (pointing to the other inside sales person). How about I go to the office supply store and pick up two bells. You know those bells you see on the counter of cheap hotels, that you ring for service?” (He was looking at me like I was a total moron at this point.)

“Um hmm,” he said.

“Yeah, well, I’ll go get two of those bells,” I explained, “One for me and one for her, and every time we make a sale, we can ring the bell. It will be real motivating and exciting.” (LOL!!!)

I sat there like a puppy dog begging for a treat. He sat there completely emotionless. I wanted to drop dead. Finally he says, “Well if you feel like will help you, do it. I don’t care. Feel free to go get your little bells during your lunch.” And with a smirk, he walked back to his desk.

As corny as I felt, I was still pretty excited about my bell idea. So, after lunch I placed the bells in their new homes; one on my desk. And one on hers.

That was perhaps one of the worst blunders of my life. RING! RING! RING! One of the bells rang all day long. Hers! I never got to ring my bell. Sometimes I would play with it, and see how far I could push down that little thing on top, without it ringing. All day long I kept hearing two things… her stupid bell, that I paid for, and me telling myself, I suck! I’m so stupid! And that horror that I created, lasted for days, with me never ringing my bell (at least from making a sale. I did ring it after we closed a couple of times, just to see what it felt like, but never for the purpose it was purchased).

Every day felt like a year. I wasn’t making the company any money. I was a drain on their bottom line. I was just waiting to get the ax.

One day, Curtis, the President, came over to my desk and said, “Hey Chris, you gotta minute?”

“Yeah,” came my reply.

“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested.

Ok, here we go! Man I suck! I’m getting fired. I can’t believe this. I’ve never been fired before.

When we got outside the building he stopped, turned around and said, “Chris, I want to start training you for outside sales.” I was stunned. I expected him to fire me, not give me a raise and a different position. I couldn’t help myself. I laughed out loud! “Outside sales!?” I blurted, “I can’t sell anything on the inside! What makes you think I could sell anything outside?”  Then came the reply and the act of kindness that would indeed lead me to my destiny and introduce me to my purpose.

“Chris, you have everything that you need to succeed in life. You’re a good looking guy. You have great people skills, and your easy to work with. Your know what your problem is, though?” He asked. “This,” he said, pointing to my head. “You got software issues. Your hardware is great. But you need to reprogram your head.” Then he handed me something. “These are audio tapes from some of our past seminars. I want you to take them home with you. Listen to them in your car, and see if that doesn’t help you.”

Inside this little cassette holder were some of the greatest speeches they had ever had. But there were two tapes in that box that literally change my life forever.

Be sure to come back tomorrow to read part 3.

Regards,





C.S. Hughes
Chief Visionary Officer
Personal Development for Free
http://www.PD4Free.com
Success, one click at a time™