Wrong, wrong, wrong!
The wake-up call for me came a little more than two years ago as we were just bringing our then new technology Digital Closing Docs with Forever Marketing™ to the title industry. I wondered at the time if our existing sales channels and marketing strategies would bring this groundbreaking technology to the title industry effectively.
I started to revisit the teachings of sales pro Brian Tracy and I soon discovered I was “out of the loop”. The marketplace had many new (and very successful) experts I had never heard of who were teaching the latest in sales and personal excellence (another area I had been ignoring.) I was shocked at the amount of websites, seminars, and content that was now available to anyone. The subject matter ranged from sales and marketing concepts, to website optimization, to personal development, to email marketing and more. Lately mobile technology, blogging and social networking are the hot topics.
It was then I read a statement, more like a philosophy, that changed my outlook:
If you want to be successful, work harder on yourself than you do on your job. –Jim Rohn
I thought “Wow, I am working very, very hard on my job, at least 60 hours a week. What is this telling me?” But the fact was we weren’t getting the initial results I thought we should, so something must be “not right”. I decided I would follow Mr. Rohn’s advice although not without hesitancy. I was afraid to work fewer hours as it might result in a decrease in revenues. But I did it anyway.
From that point forward, I began to read every day (early morning and late at night) books on self-development and sales and marketing excellence. Some were “how to’s” and others took a more psychological approach. Some were written in the 1800’s, 1900’s and some in this century. Did you know there is a book called “How to read a book” (first written in 1940 by Mortimer Adler)? I also bought CD’s for my commute and podcasts and audio books for the times when I wasn’t in the car.
What happened was nothing short of dramatic. The more I read, the more I learned and the more I learned the more effective we became. The company grew and we went from doing business in one state (Florida) to now having customers in well over 20 states in just two years.
Would it have happened anyway? Maybe…but probably not as fast and looking back I wouldn’t want to take the chance. I now know that learning and self-development is a never ending job for as long as I am in business and for the rest of my life.
Great article and I have had a similar experience. Several years ago I refocused from reading sales books and began to focus primarily on self-development and spiritual development education. I commit consistent study time with margin to mediate on what I have learned.
My conclusion is if you work on you and develop healthy habits, relationships and growth in self-awareness and spirituality, the rest of life (including career) seems to begin to fall into place and momentum builds with less effort on my part.
Thanks for the thought provoking articles!
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Thanks for your comments Tom. I must say it is quite easy to tell which people in this world who do work on themselves consistently. It comes out in everything they say and do.
Great article and I have had a similar experience. Several years ago I refocused from reading sales books and began to focus primarily on self-development and spiritual development education. I commit consistent study time with margin to mediate on what I have learned.
My conclusion is if you work on you and develop healthy habits, relationships and growth in self-awareness and spirituality, the rest of life (including career) seems to begin to fall into place and momentum builds with less effort on my part.
Thanks for the thought provoking articles!
!
Thanks for your comments Tom. I must say it is quite easy to tell which people in this world who do work on themselves consistently. It comes out in everything they say and do.