Success Is All Down To One Thing

The auditorium for the annual sales convention was full to the rafters. Two thousand sales professionals had gathered to honour the company's best performers in sales. In particular, there was one man who everybody wanted to hear. The guys name was Ted Newheart, but company wide he was known as 'Golden Bollocks'. The man earned half a million dollars a year in commission with no basic to fall back on should he one day underperform.

Amongst the attentive audience were many under performers who were hopeful of learning Ted's secret. Was his success because he was drop dead handsome? No, even though he was. Was he perhaps well connected with the movers and shakers on the board of directors? Again no, even though he was.

Maybe it was his well endowed sexy chic of a wife, or perhaps he was a professional assassin who scared people into doing business with him. Yet again, no on both counts. Some people privately speculated that he was some latter day Dr Faustus who had done a deal with the devil himself. And yet others countered that he was a modern day Dorian Grey or Jekyll and Hyde with an attic full of scabby skeletons.

Eventually Ted took to the podium. He looked splendid with his Mediterranean suntan, wearing a beautiful Italian cut suit that just seemed to flow off his well proportioned limbs, as he effortlessly strode across the stage. He looked every inch the super successful salesman that he was.

Ted took one step closer to the lectern and waved to some friends in the front row as he smiled that self confidant smile of success that all winners have. He took a sip of mineral water and cleared his throat.Then, as he lowered the glass of water, he began to speak with such a soft lilt to his voice that he mesmerised the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, My name's Ted, though I know many of you refer to me as 'Mister Golden Bollocks'. That's ok, I'm cool with that. I'm here to tell you how I earned that sobriquet, and it all comes down to one thing.

By now you all know that last year I earned half a million bucks in commission and I am sure many of you are asking "How did he do that?" Well, in just a minute or so you will all know exactly how I did it, and hopefully each and everyone of you can go on to replicate my success with this great company.

I could tell you about how important is the aspirational positioning of the product, the company and indeed yourself, with the end user, our target audience, our clients. Or I could regale you with my five best, most effective closing techniques. I also believe in the essential quality of being able to engage and relate to our clients, both longstanding, prospective and new. And, for anybody interested to know about all of that stuff, I'd be more than happy to chat with you later during the break.

However, what I want to do right here and now is tell you about the one singular quality which has formed the basis of my success.That quality is......"

Ted paused to keep his listeners engaged. As for the audience, you could hear a pin drop. Ted deftly picked up his glass of water and took a long, slow sip or two.

Almost everybody in the auditorium inclined forward, all the better to hear about this one singular quality, even though Ted's voice resounded around the whole auditorium. Ted put the glass of water back down on the lectern.

"........hard work." Ted said.

"But that's not all, to succeed you have to get smart AND work hard. That's it, plain and simple. And you must never ever give up working hard. In the end you too will became known as 'Golden Bollocks'. Thank you for your attention now go and move those mountains ladies and gentlemen. Shake those trees. with all of your strength and energy and never take your eyes off the ball. Thank you and good afternoon." And with that Ted ambled off the stage to rapturous applause.

Now this story, somewhat poorly embellished, was told to me by one of my closest friends many decades ago. What I described did actually happen. And yes, the guy was called 'Golden Bollocks' by all who knew him.

So why did I tell you this story? Well to impart a little of my learning from a fifty plus year career with many successes. However, what inspired me to tell you this story was that yesterday, after a year learning the ropes and working my butt off I got an email notification from my employer that they were paying me a 500 dollar bonus to reward all my hard work. I have to tell you it was a surprise to say the least. Indeed, at first I wasn't sure if it was all a mistake, which in no short time would be duly corrected. Turns out it's all true.

Champion Golfer Arnold Parlmer once said how people used to say how lucky he was. His stock reply was that the harder he worked the luckier he got. Somebody once said, don't work harder, work smarter. I firmly believe that you have to work smart AND hard. If you do that, success will surely come your way.