I am zero% surprised you found a place in sales. It often (sometimes justifiably) has a bad rep, but once you get past the garbage about "selling snow cones to Eskimos," success boils down to making personal connections with other people, identifying their needs, and telling a compelling story about how you/your product can help them. You've got the story-telling mastered and I suspect you radiate transparency, which earns trust. That's a winning combination.
I thought it was going to be exactly as you said, especially since I saw people there doing precisely the cornball sales nonsense you mentioned. Turns out I can make a bomb ass living just answering questions, providing details and getting the hell out of the customers way. More than half of what I earn now is from repeat business and referals.
I ain't never put my gun on a citizen in my life and that philosophy hasn't been compromised even once to this very day.
Someone wrote a book called something like "Relationship Sales." The recipe starts with trust. Then, add the right mix of product, service, and price, and you can make a great living just helping others' success. (I am a B2B guy.)
Rapor is before trust, that’s how they teach you and that’s why some salesmen come off as sleazy cause they’re trying to connect on the surface through sports, chicks, schools and other small talk.
Made me think of Emmet Dalton, the youngest member of the Dalton Gang who hit the wall at Coffee, Kansas. He was the only survivor but had 23 bullet holes. Sentenced to life but was pardoned because he was just a kid, married his sweetheart, moved to California, and became wealthy in real estate and consulting western movies.
He was Grand Marshal at the parade commemorating the robberies, and lectured that he had made much more money in his post-prison endeavors than as an outlaw.
You sure know how to tell a story! I couldn't help but notice how God showed up in your life when you needed a job when you first got out of prison, and again when the seasonal job was over. You might think those incidents were coincidences. Ask me sometime and I'll tell you why I know this is how God works...by encouraging the believer with what unbelievers often dismiss as mere coincidence. When you say the voice had been telling you all along what you needed to do, it took you to be desperate and angry enough ...to convince the manager that you were the right person at the right time for the job! That is my friend how God works! I am so glad you now have work that you love to do and I am so glad you did not give in to the temptation for quick easy money in the drug trade.
I never put a name or title to it, yet I frequently talk to the air around me when things like that happen. I know something is in my side, I'm still alive after all, and saying it's all me doesn't math out.
I wanted to. Life's funny that way. When things get hard, everything in hindsight seems so much better and easier. I guess that's the trap of memory. Things seeming perfect when common sense should tell you that it wasn't.
In spiritual terms, you were tempted to. But you overcame that.
Yes. Memory is not reliable and it takes a little discipline to look at it squarely.
It reminds me of an old country song by Highway 101 called "He's Someone Else's Trouble Now." The girl singer is going back and forth on the ex boyfriend, and she sings, "sometimes I miss him, when the nights are long, sometime I miss him but I'm so glad he's gone!" Funny song and realistic depiction of being tempted to go back to something bad.
There is nothing harder to break than a habit. Good job.
Bravo man! I look forward to reading your stories every day. It’s a rolllercoaster better and more real than any concocted bullshit Hollywood or Netflix can produce. Keep it up!
I’m really enjoying your stacks. Though our lives and experiences couldn’t be more different, you are a fantastic storyteller. I find myself wondering who you are, LOL.
Great story as usual! I admire your sheer determination to stay out no matter what it took. Perhaps your love of family was a driving factor?
I knew many who talked long and hard and looked forward to the day they got out . But they didn’t stay out long. One fellow went straight to a car dealership and heaved bricks through plate glass windows so he could get back in to prison the same day!
Another youngster was back in a month. “ Tim” I asked “what brought you back so soon? You promised you would stay out?”
He looked sheepish and replied
“ I ran out of money and saw a Xerox machine!”
For some it was a revolving door out and back 3 and 4 times! Always adding onto the next sentence. It’s great to hear that you had the guts , the will and the fortitude to make it!
Thats always disappointing to see, guys doing life on the instalment plan. I knew I only had one shot and the men inside made it clear that they expected me to stay out and a wife who stuck with me during my bit who deserved the same degree of dedication in return. I had to do it then or never at all.
I guess for some , the life that knew there was safer than the unknown on the street?
I remember one of my guys actually walked out one rainy cold night thru the sally port . He walked a couple miles freezing to death and found a cafe with a phone to call for a return ride back? Doubt that ever happened twice! Lol
Then probably no accident that some of our most wealthy rap music entrepreneurs had been drug dealers in the past. The entrepreneurial skills are the same.
Anyway, I admire your drive, hard work, devotion to your family. Writing style. You really know how to write in an engaging way! I look forward to reading more.
Congrats on the life you’ve created, and thank you for telling your stories. You are a riveting storyteller and I enjoy how your posts explore both the highs and lows of human nature.
I have a good friend in sales, B2B, he is amazing at it, I am blown away at how he can be a total dick and people will still buy afterwards. He has made a lot of money for himself, lives very nicely, no degree and did physical labor before getting into it, now in his early 50s he can retire if he wants. Some of the most talented sales people out there were definitely not conventional and it got them far, I am glad you found what you are good at.
Persistence, faith, commitment and courage is woven into the fibers of your fabric. That much is clear. It’s an inspiring story and the big take away for me is to work hard and put yourself out there because he who has courage and tenacity will often out qualify the guys with the sexy resumes. Stoked to read more of your work. I feel like you write the same way you verbally tell a story and I always find that to be more enjoyable than polished literary academics.
I've told people on here often is the best way to read any of my stories is to imagine me telling them while standing on a bar top during happy hour or around a bon fire 3 whiskeys deep.
It’s funny you mention it because I imagined you telling stories in the car park smoking cigarettes after standing all night standing on slimey seaweed covered rocks in waders with corker grips, casting lures into the dark abyss. The best story tellers I know are fisherman so that’s just the picture my brain paints. I’m also sober so the thought of listening to someone talk after a few drinks and being in a bar in general makes me want to get in the wind. Either way you got that thing about the way you unfold a story that rings all the same bells.
Wonderful. My father escaped communist Poland and fled to the states in the belly of a coal ship. Once in the states he worked 3 jobs to pay the bills. He then joined the military and rose to lieutenant. He never uttered a peep. His father fought the nazis and the Russians for most of his life. One time he was wounded in the leg and I heard that he walked five miles and never uttered a sound. My son is in the naval academy as I was. The military is a honorable path that can be the true test of a man.
I am zero% surprised you found a place in sales. It often (sometimes justifiably) has a bad rep, but once you get past the garbage about "selling snow cones to Eskimos," success boils down to making personal connections with other people, identifying their needs, and telling a compelling story about how you/your product can help them. You've got the story-telling mastered and I suspect you radiate transparency, which earns trust. That's a winning combination.
I thought it was going to be exactly as you said, especially since I saw people there doing precisely the cornball sales nonsense you mentioned. Turns out I can make a bomb ass living just answering questions, providing details and getting the hell out of the customers way. More than half of what I earn now is from repeat business and referals.
I ain't never put my gun on a citizen in my life and that philosophy hasn't been compromised even once to this very day.
Someone wrote a book called something like "Relationship Sales." The recipe starts with trust. Then, add the right mix of product, service, and price, and you can make a great living just helping others' success. (I am a B2B guy.)
Rapor is before trust, that’s how they teach you and that’s why some salesmen come off as sleazy cause they’re trying to connect on the surface through sports, chicks, schools and other small talk.
100%, I couldn't agree more.
Knocked another one out of the park.
Made me think of Emmet Dalton, the youngest member of the Dalton Gang who hit the wall at Coffee, Kansas. He was the only survivor but had 23 bullet holes. Sentenced to life but was pardoned because he was just a kid, married his sweetheart, moved to California, and became wealthy in real estate and consulting western movies.
He was Grand Marshal at the parade commemorating the robberies, and lectured that he had made much more money in his post-prison endeavors than as an outlaw.
Thank you
I went and looked those guys up on Google. That was a wild bunch.
You sure know how to tell a story! I couldn't help but notice how God showed up in your life when you needed a job when you first got out of prison, and again when the seasonal job was over. You might think those incidents were coincidences. Ask me sometime and I'll tell you why I know this is how God works...by encouraging the believer with what unbelievers often dismiss as mere coincidence. When you say the voice had been telling you all along what you needed to do, it took you to be desperate and angry enough ...to convince the manager that you were the right person at the right time for the job! That is my friend how God works! I am so glad you now have work that you love to do and I am so glad you did not give in to the temptation for quick easy money in the drug trade.
I never put a name or title to it, yet I frequently talk to the air around me when things like that happen. I know something is in my side, I'm still alive after all, and saying it's all me doesn't math out.
Good stuff man. If I ever call you OG it's with deep reverence and not meant as an insult at all. I respect your grind. 🙂
Old school is the only school
You should run a school for soy boys.
"Welcome class to your first day here at Immaslap U."
Sounds a lot like the (old) Marine Corps.
*slap
Wow. Great story. The hits keep coming!
Taking care of a family is hard. You are doing better than I am, despite the little detour into prison!
Glad you found your niche, and didn't draft back into the quick and dirty life.
I wanted to. Life's funny that way. When things get hard, everything in hindsight seems so much better and easier. I guess that's the trap of memory. Things seeming perfect when common sense should tell you that it wasn't.
In spiritual terms, you were tempted to. But you overcame that.
Yes. Memory is not reliable and it takes a little discipline to look at it squarely.
It reminds me of an old country song by Highway 101 called "He's Someone Else's Trouble Now." The girl singer is going back and forth on the ex boyfriend, and she sings, "sometimes I miss him, when the nights are long, sometime I miss him but I'm so glad he's gone!" Funny song and realistic depiction of being tempted to go back to something bad.
There is nothing harder to break than a habit. Good job.
Bravo man! I look forward to reading your stories every day. It’s a rolllercoaster better and more real than any concocted bullshit Hollywood or Netflix can produce. Keep it up!
I’m really enjoying your stacks. Though our lives and experiences couldn’t be more different, you are a fantastic storyteller. I find myself wondering who you are, LOL.
I look forward to reading more.
Awesome.
Sales and stories.
Pretty interesting about how that steel strapping is bundled. Didn't know that.
Great story as usual! I admire your sheer determination to stay out no matter what it took. Perhaps your love of family was a driving factor?
I knew many who talked long and hard and looked forward to the day they got out . But they didn’t stay out long. One fellow went straight to a car dealership and heaved bricks through plate glass windows so he could get back in to prison the same day!
Another youngster was back in a month. “ Tim” I asked “what brought you back so soon? You promised you would stay out?”
He looked sheepish and replied
“ I ran out of money and saw a Xerox machine!”
For some it was a revolving door out and back 3 and 4 times! Always adding onto the next sentence. It’s great to hear that you had the guts , the will and the fortitude to make it!
Thats always disappointing to see, guys doing life on the instalment plan. I knew I only had one shot and the men inside made it clear that they expected me to stay out and a wife who stuck with me during my bit who deserved the same degree of dedication in return. I had to do it then or never at all.
I guess for some , the life that knew there was safer than the unknown on the street?
I remember one of my guys actually walked out one rainy cold night thru the sally port . He walked a couple miles freezing to death and found a cafe with a phone to call for a return ride back? Doubt that ever happened twice! Lol
I debated on sabotaging my release. Seriously considered it I was so scared.
The drive, the focus, the determination, I understand. But where does it come from? If it's not too much to ask . . .
Survival of the fittest if I accepted the compliment and had to guess at an answer.
OK. But did you have any role models/inspiration?
Drug dealers, thieves and murderers. No one in our society knows how to make something from nothing like those in the gutter.
Then probably no accident that some of our most wealthy rap music entrepreneurs had been drug dealers in the past. The entrepreneurial skills are the same.
Anyway, I admire your drive, hard work, devotion to your family. Writing style. You really know how to write in an engaging way! I look forward to reading more.
Congrats on the life you’ve created, and thank you for telling your stories. You are a riveting storyteller and I enjoy how your posts explore both the highs and lows of human nature.
Dude I look forward to your writing. You are an inspiration in more ways than one. Thank you.
:Ain’t one bit of that boy that’s slack.”
This is your rural brother: https://youtu.be/imr-ilrQMzE?si=YblZIQMQX_BxcxSt
That's a good tune
I have a good friend in sales, B2B, he is amazing at it, I am blown away at how he can be a total dick and people will still buy afterwards. He has made a lot of money for himself, lives very nicely, no degree and did physical labor before getting into it, now in his early 50s he can retire if he wants. Some of the most talented sales people out there were definitely not conventional and it got them far, I am glad you found what you are good at.
Persistence, faith, commitment and courage is woven into the fibers of your fabric. That much is clear. It’s an inspiring story and the big take away for me is to work hard and put yourself out there because he who has courage and tenacity will often out qualify the guys with the sexy resumes. Stoked to read more of your work. I feel like you write the same way you verbally tell a story and I always find that to be more enjoyable than polished literary academics.
I've told people on here often is the best way to read any of my stories is to imagine me telling them while standing on a bar top during happy hour or around a bon fire 3 whiskeys deep.
It’s funny you mention it because I imagined you telling stories in the car park smoking cigarettes after standing all night standing on slimey seaweed covered rocks in waders with corker grips, casting lures into the dark abyss. The best story tellers I know are fisherman so that’s just the picture my brain paints. I’m also sober so the thought of listening to someone talk after a few drinks and being in a bar in general makes me want to get in the wind. Either way you got that thing about the way you unfold a story that rings all the same bells.
Spending**
Wonderful. My father escaped communist Poland and fled to the states in the belly of a coal ship. Once in the states he worked 3 jobs to pay the bills. He then joined the military and rose to lieutenant. He never uttered a peep. His father fought the nazis and the Russians for most of his life. One time he was wounded in the leg and I heard that he walked five miles and never uttered a sound. My son is in the naval academy as I was. The military is a honorable path that can be the true test of a man.