Fearfully Courageous
By Scott Gillespie
“It is said that more people fear public speaking than death. This means that for most of the people at a funeral, they would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy!” ~ Jerry Seinfeld
One of the most crippling forces on businesses owners and sales reps is fear. On the other hand, one of the most powerful forces in business and sales is courage. In fact, they are such polarizing extremes that many a quote has been written about each. As such, I thought I’d take a look at a few to see how they may apply in our business and sales lives.
COURAGE: Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. ~ Ambrose Redmoon
I thought this would be a good one to start with as it provides the foundation for this topic. If you’ve been a reader of this newsletter for a while, you probably know that my favorite quote (paraphrased) is “Life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it.” That describes this courage quote to a tee.
To me, this quote says that in any difficult or challenging situation, (e.g. acquiring a new customer, dealing with a disgruntled customer that is threatening to pull his business, etc.) that despite however courageous you may be, fear is always present. That fear can cause you to sweep the situation under the rug. Ignoring the problem can create a bigger problem and result in losing business. Worse yet, fear driven procrastination can lead to quick, negative word-of-mouth horror stories that can paralyze you worse than your original fear!
The upshot is by choosing to overcome fear and mustering the courage to resolve the situation, you can not only keep your business/customers, but strengthen the relationships you have with them. Many times customer loyalty is born out of successfully handling their difficult situations. That is a great incentive to choose courage!
FEAR: Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them. ~ Brendan Francis
This quote was very interesting to me. Many times the fears we have in business and in sales are actually just that - tissue paper thin! Fear is a weird thing. It is a perception of something unknown that masks the opportunity that lies just on the other side.
Unknowingly, many times all it takes to break through the fear and grab the opportunity is simply the effort it takes to break through a piece of tissue paper. Although fear makes the tissue paper look like a plate of steel, a simple, single step of courage can dissolve the fear that is deceiving, binding and preventing you from reaching your goals.
COURAGE: Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. ~ Raymond Lindquist
I thought this would be an excellent quote to end with here. If fear has the most crippling effect on our business/sales growth and success, maintaining the status quo may just be a close second. Sometimes the comfort of the familiar is the deceptive veil of the fear of change. It is only when we are uncomfortable that we are moved to push through and grow.
Developing the courage that allows us to shed the familiar and embrace change will help us channel that same courage we all need to choose courage and shun fear. So next time you are faced with those difficult or challenging situations - whether at work as the customers call or come in to see you or on the road going to meet with potential future customers - choose and use your courage!
Now Go Get ‘Em!!
By Scott Gillespie
“It is said that more people fear public speaking than death. This means that for most of the people at a funeral, they would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy!” ~ Jerry Seinfeld
One of the most crippling forces on businesses owners and sales reps is fear. On the other hand, one of the most powerful forces in business and sales is courage. In fact, they are such polarizing extremes that many a quote has been written about each. As such, I thought I’d take a look at a few to see how they may apply in our business and sales lives.
COURAGE: Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. ~ Ambrose Redmoon
I thought this would be a good one to start with as it provides the foundation for this topic. If you’ve been a reader of this newsletter for a while, you probably know that my favorite quote (paraphrased) is “Life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it.” That describes this courage quote to a tee.
To me, this quote says that in any difficult or challenging situation, (e.g. acquiring a new customer, dealing with a disgruntled customer that is threatening to pull his business, etc.) that despite however courageous you may be, fear is always present. That fear can cause you to sweep the situation under the rug. Ignoring the problem can create a bigger problem and result in losing business. Worse yet, fear driven procrastination can lead to quick, negative word-of-mouth horror stories that can paralyze you worse than your original fear!
The upshot is by choosing to overcome fear and mustering the courage to resolve the situation, you can not only keep your business/customers, but strengthen the relationships you have with them. Many times customer loyalty is born out of successfully handling their difficult situations. That is a great incentive to choose courage!
FEAR: Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them. ~ Brendan Francis
This quote was very interesting to me. Many times the fears we have in business and in sales are actually just that - tissue paper thin! Fear is a weird thing. It is a perception of something unknown that masks the opportunity that lies just on the other side.
Unknowingly, many times all it takes to break through the fear and grab the opportunity is simply the effort it takes to break through a piece of tissue paper. Although fear makes the tissue paper look like a plate of steel, a simple, single step of courage can dissolve the fear that is deceiving, binding and preventing you from reaching your goals.
COURAGE: Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. ~ Raymond Lindquist
I thought this would be an excellent quote to end with here. If fear has the most crippling effect on our business/sales growth and success, maintaining the status quo may just be a close second. Sometimes the comfort of the familiar is the deceptive veil of the fear of change. It is only when we are uncomfortable that we are moved to push through and grow.
Developing the courage that allows us to shed the familiar and embrace change will help us channel that same courage we all need to choose courage and shun fear. So next time you are faced with those difficult or challenging situations - whether at work as the customers call or come in to see you or on the road going to meet with potential future customers - choose and use your courage!
Now Go Get ‘Em!!
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Issue #62 ~ June 15, 2010 Printer friendly PDF file
