Winners

Selling is like being shipwrecked or lost in the desert. If you fail to do what you must do, you will not survive. My last year as a Marine was spent as a production recruiter in the Bay Area. I failed. I put in some good kids, but I didn't put in enough, and elected not to reenlist when the time rolled around. I wasn't nearly alone. Recruiting Station San Francisco (responsible for substations from Eureka to Palo Alto and both sides of the Bay) had an attrition rate of better than fifty percent among its production recruiters, meaning that half the recruiters assigned would not finish their three year tour. That's not intended as any sort of excuse, it's just the way thing were.

Sure sounds like a dodge, though, doesn't it?

J.B. Doubtless of Fraters Libertas posted a script excerpt from Glengarry Glen Ross, a 1992 film about the real estate game, that really hit home. *WARNING* - the language is pretty rich.

Successful selling doesn't mean taking. It doesn't mean getting over on anyone. It means having the will to succeed in the face of any obstacle. The Marines spent three months and over ten thousand dollars on my sales education and despite my lack of success in SF some of it must have stuck. Last week I helped a friend prospect among the attendees of the Utah League of Cities and Towns convention. Now he's talking with his partners about bringing me in to assist in following up several of the contacts I generated, turning them into prospects, making the presentations and then closing some deals.

I am intrigued. The product is solid and the market is there. The question is do I have it in me to succeed where once I failed. More news as it happens, as always.

The floor in the basement looks GREAT!