#1214 Could I BE more Annoying?
I am an annoying human.
A very, very, annoying human. I have no cutoff switch when it comes to getting something I fancy.
This worked to my advantage when I pursued Deborah for several months before I got a date. This year is the 50th anniversary of that dogged pursuit, and I am happy to be growing old with her.
Often though, I was too much – a nag. I didn't understand discernment.
Rock-headed pursuit of a goal can be a good thing. I used to proclaim proudly, "I got no quit in me." However, there are people and clients I have alienated over the years because I was too much, never giving them the space they needed to decide.
When the decision seemed obvious to me, I couldn't allow someone to take their own route to that conclusion, and I let them know… numerous times.
My good friend Vinny has the same trait. I remember his wonderful wife, Carol, talking to me at a company function. "Vin is wonderful," she said. "The only thing that bugs me is he never stops asking! If he wants to head out on a ski trip and I want to think about it, he will ask, in a different way, several times a day, until he gets his way." I smiled and thought to myself, "That is what makes Vinny a great salesperson."
I believe Vinny and I have both developed an understanding of what "nuanced pursuit" is. We still have that same tendency to run a full-court press every day in every way, but we've learned how to let folks reach a conclusion on a more circuitous route than either of us would have prescribed.
Maturity in business (and in life) requires a lot of self-evaluation and an understanding of how we are received by others who may not be like us.
Then, if we are smart, we figure out how to be true to ourselves while tamping down some aspects of our personalities and firing up others.
It's not much different than Edison inventing the lightbulb. Try something, see if it works, then try something else and see how that works. Eventually, if you keep working on it, you'll light up the world.
Own your sales gene…