Target Practice

It's been a big week. Something of a turning point.

Prior to Monday I still had zero sales. I don't want to make excuses for the relatively slow get go to my career as a professional solution slanger (sic)...

Despite the work ethic of a chinese child laborer, addicted to cocaine; I couldn't close deals. Our first project was particularly challenging, for a number of extremely extenuating reasons. Heading "directly to the deep-end without passing go" made me very uncomfortable. I also believe it made me worker harder and learn more than I otherwise would have. For fear of looking as capable as a severely premature baby, strapped to the "most serious incubator of all times".

Literally, 9 weeks and thousands of phone calls later, all of that changed. And it happened more rapidly than I imagined possible. It was the last week of the month. A naturally urgent month in the business of sales as yet to be reached monthly targets loom. I had a few decisions floating out with people who were in places to make the decision -or pull the trigger as people on the floor tend to say. I was reassured my pitches had gone well, but sitting and waiting I was not hopeful. You learn to lower your hopes pretty quick after a few weeks of only hearing "No!"

But this time I had kept trying. In the words of our boy F. Scott Fitzgerald "...the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...."

Then, in one week I hit my targets and doubled the sales of my team members.

I hope this is sustainable.

I've had this semi-developed notion about short term sacrifice in the name of long term gain. That's obviously the case here. I sucked it up each day and tried my best, the depressing lack of results and intense nature of the job made things all the more difficult to endure. While I had this ill-formed Jenga tower of thoughts on the idea of doing the hard stuff now, it never occurred to me that I might be going through such a situation myself.

How obtuse. Extreme thanks to those who listened to me bitch and bemoan in those first uncertain days. As well to my team members who offered endless motivation and constantly critiqued with the most constructive of criticisms.

My desire to earn has been made insatiable by the smell of uncapped earnings.

Let's hope I can keep it up. By hope I mean I now have much reason to do everything in my power to keep it up.

In the names of Saturday morning. What a great routine! Other than it's a creepy prelude to axe murder.

More to come on my thoughts on morning routines in the future. As inspired by @sbdot

OH YEAH: I came home the other day and Sarp was watching the Discovery channel and I understood what they were saying. The month of August has brought some much welcome diversity to the CNN/BBC duet that I was previously restricted to. I like the news but after 45 minutes you just start hearing the same things again.

Off to return some videotapes.