A Burning Desire

During one's youth, it is often true that many of the things we do are influenced a great deal by our parents. So it was when I announced in my early twenties, a desire to work in the Big Apple. It seemed so glamorous and exciting, and as a person who always thought of himself as an aggressive self starter, it seemed the perfect place for me to prove to myself that I was perfectly suited to the big city life.

Although I had a perfectly good job, it was the desire of my father to help me accomplish in less than a decade, all the things that had taken him much longer. He arranged for me to be interviewed by a senior officer in Hartford Insurance Company, which had an office in Downtown Manhattan. The job I thought was my future was as a Branch manager, in charge of a group of salespeople in the Philadelphia area. The person in charge of that office was doing a large amount of business with my dad and so came the necessity to give me the royal treatment. As a strapping five feet six inches tall, 110 pound college graduate, I put on my best suit and took the train to New York. The man I met was in his late thirties or early forties, dressed impeccably, with an office high into the sky. His view was something that I had never seen, as was his demeanor. After a battery of Psychological tests, followed by the grand tour, I was taken to lunch in a private club where no-one was permitted to use money to pay the bill. Everything was signed for as part of the Company's charge account.

The End of the Day.

After lunch we returned to the office for me to meet more senior and junior officers to discuss the possibilities of a management position at The Hartford. At approximately four o'clock that afternoon I was taken again to the office of my host who asked me to sit while he took a couple of calls, since he had spent so much time with me, he was behind in his work. The first call was from his mother in Indiana, which he was quick to point out and they were discussing a future visit and the general health of the family members. He then turned away from me to look out his window at the great towers rising from the granite of Manhattan Island. This was done to show me who the boss was, even before I was going to be hired.

When he turned back to me he started our last conversation by telling me he found me perfectly unsuited for the job opening that was available. Two things then happened that burned their way into my memory that I will never forget. He said that my main problem, as shown by my test results, was that rather than anything else, I wanted my name up in lights. That his opinion was clearly formed to determine that if at the end of every day, I would find my name up in lights on a marquee of a theater which lights would extol my virtues and say what a great job I did that day, then I would be satisfied, and I would be a successful person. I search my mind to find out what was wrong with that just as his phone rang and his receptionist told him he had to take the call from one of his managers that was on the phone. He excused himself and once again turned his back to me as he spoke to his employee. Most of the conversation I cannot recall, but the one thing I do remember has always been one of the most basic building blocks of my business career. The Manager told his salesman, "Remember, your job is to do one thing, and that is that every day of your life you need to sell ONE idea, and that if you sell one idea, you will have made money, even if you don't get paid that day.

One, Just One!

These small, seemingly incidental conversations of my life now have become more important to me than ever before. Any motivational trainer will tell you that it is difficult at best to try to quickly change all the habits you have. I agree wholeheartedly with that concept. Change is incremental, almost imperceptivity slow. When we change, we need to take many small steps toward a more positive sales approach to life and the job of loan officer. Therefore, I request that you consider carefully and often, the idea of change. The road to completely change the way you act today so as to become a more positive and effective person, is to do good things for the people in your life every day. Further another small step is to approach every day with the intention of selling at least one idea that day. If you are successful more than once, excellent; but the minimum is one. If you can sell one person an idea every day of your life, you will be one of the most successful people in the world.

By the way, he was absolutely right. It is my burning desire to help people accomplish their goals. If as a byproduct, someone wants to thank me publicly, and that gives me the opportunity to help even more people be better at their chosen profession, then so be it.

Do it! Don't Just Think About It!!

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