Don't hate the player, hate the game

You don't spend 7 years of your life selling hair straighteners in shopping malls without losing your soul along the way.

I mean think about it: you stand there, exposed to the entire world, trying to stop ladies as they walk by and convince them to part with their own money.

For something they already have at least a few of. For something they don't really need. For a brand they've never heard of. From a guy they don't know.

During my first six months, I remember thinking to myself that it would be a miracle if anyone bought even a single product from me.

Yet day after day I sold. And not just one or two. Hundreds of dollars. Sometimes thousands. Per day.

What's the secret?

The secret is that there is no secret.

The secret is that I asked 500-1000 people per day if they wanted to sit for a demo. I did 20-40 demos per day. 3-20 of them bought something.

Sometimes they didn't want to buy for $200. Not even $100.

Sometimes you talk to them for 20 minutes and fight tooth and nail to get $25 out of them.

Would you give a stranger $25 for a bottle of shampoo? I wouldn't.

It's not logical, but it happened every day.

I used to tell new people: if you talk to enough people, you'll eventually find the easy customers.

Easy customers will buy from you even if you're terrible. Easy customers will listen to your pitch even if you don't know it because it's your first day. Easy customers will give you money just because they like you and have money to burn.

Easy customers will buy from you because they coincidentally have been looking for your product and you just randomly happened to approach them at the right time.

All of these things happen literally every day. Not a few days per week. Every day.

If it's so easy, why doesn't everyone do it?

Because they're scared of rejection. They're scared of being told "no." They're scared of pissing someone off who has a bitchy look on their face.

But what's more important to you:

Making money, building your company and selling products?
Or not making people upset?

It doesn't matter what business you're in - the answer has to be the first one.

Anyone can send an email. Anyone can send a DM on Instagram. Anyone can pick up the phone and call.

Go look at the different categories on Craigslist. What are the highest paying jobs? They're in the sales category.

Schools don't teach sales for the same reason they barely teach public speaking. Because it makes people uncomfortable.

But the people who are the most uncomfortable in life are the ones who are the most successful.

Comfort is around us everywhere. It's so common that it's even become a meme.

Netflix. Nutella. Drinking wine by yourself on a Friday night.

Guess what - comfort is not your right

You are not "entitled" to be comfortable.

Comfort is the enemy of success.

I'm not saying not to take a break. Of course.

I spend 2-3 hours at the beach every day. My tan is looking pretty good. But I only go after crossing some shit off my to do list for the day. I use it as a reward to motivate me to work.

I know that if I don't post to all of my IG accounts, write a blog post, respond to emails and manage my clients by 1 PM then my hours of quality sunlight are going to be reduced for that day. And I've been grinding in an artificially-lit indoor mall for almost a year - I'm bingeing on sunshine.

But I'm also bingeing on freelance work. On networking. On cold-emailing new clients.

I'm not some paragon of discipline. I'm as lazy as you are, probably even more. I'd love to just sit around and play Dota all day.

You know why I do all those things?

Cuz I don't fucking want to go back to selling hair straighteners!

It was a great job, don't get me wrong. But 7 years is enough. I can always go back for some guaranteed cash if I get desperate.

But I'm already desperate.

Fear is the most powerful motivator

You won't hear the motivational speakers say that because it's too scary. We like to think we have more control over our lives than for them to be completely dictated by our fears.

But that's not true.

Your life, my life, everyone's life today is 100% a result of what their fears.

Most of you don't work that hard because you're not afraid of anything. And not in the sexy, Beyonce "girl power" fearless sort of way.

It's more of a grazing, domesticated cattle sort of fearless. Your life is just eating grass and sleeping. You've never been chased by the lion. You just eat your grass until you get slaughtered. Or milked.

The greatest champions, the hardest workers, the most obsessed and famous people among us aren't the "fearless" ones.

They're the most scared.

They're scared of living normal, average lives. They're scared of going back to poverty after getting a taste of the good life. [They're scared of losing their reputation[(http://www.petegodfrey.com/marketing/fear-loss-powerful-hope-gain/) as big ballers.

So they hustle hard. Until they get what they want.

God help them when they do.

That's why selling hair straighteners was so good.

The fear of having a bad day at work was powerful enough for me to rearrange my entire life to insure that it happened as infrequently as possible.

Time doesn't move when you're having a bad day on the kiosk.

The fear of selling for less than my coworkers after creating a reputation as the top salesman pushed me to work even when my feet hurt. It pushed me to drink a liter of energy drinks per day until the adrenal fatigue started fucking with my head.

Is that good? I don't know.

All I know is that at by the time I burned out, I had made more money than I did the previous year. More money than I'd made in my entire life.

Now I can use that money to create a new life for myself.

I can use my ample supply of fear to get what I want.

Fearlessness? Discipline?

Total nonsense sold to you by terrified people who were lucky enough to eat enough of the right type of shit.

Don't buy into the hype.

Gotta go out and suffer against your will. However you do it is up to you.

I recommend selling hair straighteners.

What do you think? Am I spot on or the biggest bullshit artist you've ever met?

Let me know in a comment below! Don't be scurred

Can't get enough of me? Follow me on Instagram!

think like a stripper.png

Check out some of my other posts here:

Follow, resteem and smash dat mf like button...

Discipline, Fearlessness, And Other Lies Sold To You By Clever Marketers