Pursuing the Thing That Scared the Crap out of Me
Exactly one year ago I left my job.
During my time with that company, I had a talented team, built great relationships with clients, and learned more than I could imagine about the business world and my career. To say I was challenged would be an understatement. However, as you’ll soon learn, that’s not why I made the decision to leave.
It All Began in South America
A few days later on October 4, 2016, I boarded a plane for Quito and spent the next three weeks exploring, running, hiking, and devouring my way through street food in Ecuador and Peru.
It was the time of my life.
You would think the highlights of this trip involved the world famous sites or friends I made along the way (which were fantastic), but it was actually a combination of four simple things that had the most profound impact: two books (links at bottom), my journal, and above all, the time I had to think.
The Gnarly Thing Holding Me Back
Over the course of these three weeks, I spent almost every waking moment reading, writing, and thinking about my biggest fear, the one gnarly thing holding me back…
I was scared shitless of sales.
Forget heights, change, failure, public speaking, and some of the other common things people cite when asked about their fears. I was scared to death of trying to convince someone I don’t know to hire me or buy from me.
As you can likely figure out, the true root of my fear was not actually sales. It was rejection. I hated the idea of someone rejecting me, and for years, I went out of my way to avoid situations where this was a possibility.
How can you dream of starting a successful company if you’re scared to death of opening up and selling? It turns out, you can’t.
My Commitment
I made a commitment sitting in a Peruvian coffee shop that the fastest way for me to overcome this fear was to start cold calling hundreds of people per week until I became immune to the word “no.”
That’s exactly what I did.
Over the past year, I’ve started sales conversations with thousands of random people. I launched this very blog as a way to open up to the masses without fretting about their judgements. I’ve even grown two highly profitable businesses that specialize in the one very thing I was scared to death of: sales.
I left my steady job because I knew the only way for me to get to the next level was to force myself to learn how to sell. I knew I had to be in a sink or swim situation (sell or don’t make any money) to overcome my fear.
The truth is, overcoming that one fear has completely changed the trajectory of my career.
Whatever it is holding you back… Take the leap. I promise it’ll be worth it.
See you next Sunday at 8:30pm. 🙂
Travel book #1: Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
Travel book#2: Think & Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
