If you want to light me up, as if I’m the lighter fluid and you hold the match, let me walk up to you and you cry out, “Marsh, I’m trying!”
I hate the saying because “trying” is usually a half-hearted attempt — it’s half-hearted because you’re in a victim state of mind. You feel as though things are out of your control — the inventory is all wrong; all of your customers have bad credit or are upside down; F&I can’t get a deal bought; and your manager is conspiring against you. You feel as though, out of 7 billion people, the world has zeroed in on just you.
With that trying, crying mind, you set out to grab your next customer and, as luck would have it, in the first 30 seconds of meeting them they say, “I’m not buying today;” “I need to keep my payments the same;” or “I need payoff for my trade;” the minute you hit any sort of resistance, your psyche kicks in and says, “See, I knew it. I tried.” Then you walk back in, sit at your desk and seek validation from all of the other salespeople who are trying, too.
Trying gives you an out — an excuse to lay blame on everything and everyone … everyone except you. Saying you’re trying negates ownership; you say you’re doing you’re part, but no one else is doing theirs.
“If Bill would put more in my trade … if Tom would pick up the phone and call the bank … if Larry would run a decent commercial to get good credit customers in, I could do my job.”
Have you ever seen someone so fixated, so determined that they just say, “I’m doing this!”? I mean nothing … nothing … will stand in their way. They’re so zeroed in on losing weight, hitting a goal or winning that trip that they’ll do whatever it takes. With a doing mind they take off. They don’t wait for the starter’s pistol; they fire then aim. For them, there is no other option; there is no Plan B, only Plan Do and their mind, body and soul are aligned in such a way that they feel they will; they must.
Will you always win? No. When you do, you won’t always achieve first place. Sometimes it all blows up in your face. In sales and in life, you’ll lose and lose often, but you lost not because you tried — that’s losing before you started. You lost while doing and when you lose, like a fighter who got knocked out, you stand up and dust off, knowing you gave it your all and left nothing in reserve. You own the loss; you learn from the loss and then you do it again, only better.
There is no “well tried,” only well done.
I’ll see you on the blacktop.
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