As I look back at the start of my career, I regret not having someone to look towards for guidance. At that time, I was left to fend for myself without a mentor. With training and practice, I did learn with time, through mistakes and successes as my career progressed. Many people told me that I was a born “salesman.” To this, I replied, “No, I was born a baby, we are all born as babies. When you are a baby, you are naked and have no skills.”
I learned and practiced skills to be a salesman.
This belief has never left me throughout my career and as such, I felt compelled that if I believed this so strongly, I could and should play a role in teaching and helping others in selling. I should give back, share what I have learned over time, and contribute to the success of the next generation, for the people and for the industry.
During my career, while I trained the teams that worked with me, I was regularly invited to speak about selling in public. It started with universities, then conferences, and finally corporations. These speaking engagements became an avenue for me to share my experiences. It did not take long for me to realize that I enjoyed the presentations as much and perhaps even more than the participants in the audience. It fulfilled my desire to share and promoted me in public as someone who cared and was willing and able to help others.
Throughout my career, I developed an overwhelmingly strong passion in being able to share and guide others.
This passion grew immensely with time. The results and feedback were good, and the invitations increased consistently to my tremendous delight. I often pondered if my career would have progressed even faster if I had a chance to listen and learn more from someone in my earlier days…………
The more I spoke, the more devoted I became in this quest to share. Passion can move mountains and this passion was growing from strength to strength for me.
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