Doing some training last week. Bright, energetic young woman determined to change her life. All was proceeding fine until we got to the stage that she needed to spread her wings, find a prospect and do the call and I would be the silent supporter in the background. She’ d listened to me many times, asked the questions, we’d roll played the different type of calls with others. She was ready but, she said “no”.
A bit of digging and I found out she had done that with a mentoring program that was promoted as a safe place for people. She believed them. Stepped right up to the plate, made a call to a prospect with a whole team listening and in her words “They laughed at me.” The critique afterwards had not been uplifting or encouraging or supportive of her first, albeit clumsy venture into talking to prospects. Stopped her dead. She was never going to have anyone listen to her speaking to a prospect again. Period. That same program taught her never, never to talk to her family and friends. Whoa ! That sounded like a really good idea. Yes sir ! Open up a business and make sure you never tell the people closest to you what you’re doing. Asked her if she had opened a restaurant would she be as closed or would she be inviting everyone she knew to come down? “Oh but that is different.” Really? How ??
She turned to the internet. It was safe. There was a distance between her and the prospect. She could write, become this valuable writer that everyone would look up to, they would read her words of wisdom then line up to join her and that she concluded was the safe way to build her business.
Was it working? “No, but ….surely it would, eventually. Everyone else is successful at it. “ Oh, really.
A number of things ran through my mind as she finished speaking. It was her business, she could built it anyway she chose to. She says she wanted to be successful but she wasn’t prepared to do whatever it took to get her there. That she had a handy excuse there. I mean how many people would be crushed by others she had been told she could trust? It was as good an excuse as many others. What resource could I send her to so she could further her personal development? What could I say to her that would drive home the point that she was being stopped by something that had occurred in the past by people who really didn’t care about her success. Or, that she was being stopped by a perception that her family and friends wouldn’t support her.
Jim Rohn says “You have to work harder on yourself than you do on your business.” Guess that’s where I’ll send her. Back to her personal development. I can’t help her if she’s allowing someone or something else control her future.
Makes you wonder what’s stopping you? Is it something as minor as another person’s opinion? It may be time to take a good hard look at yourself. What’s stopping you? Whatever it is needs to be eliminated.
Back to the personal development – daily. Make it a priority but only if you want to be successful that is.
To your success,
Joyce Penner
