Continue to Do What Made You a Success, and Stay a Success! – by Tim Mushey

Bob reached out to me last year online. We had a great conversation about an experience he had as a teenager at the Old Chicago Stadium watching the Chicago Blackhawks play. As an avid hockey fan, I was captivated by the story, and we ended up having a great chat!

I see many similarities between pro athletes and sales professionals. This seemed like a great platform to discuss a topic that has intrigued me for many years:

• Why do so many athletes fizzle out and fade away so early into their professional careers?
  • The same could be asked of sales professionals.

I have been let down time after time by pro athletes who essentially disappear after storied amateur careers. There are many theories that could be incorporated into this post, but I will summarize with the statement,

They stopped doing what made them a success, and did not stay a success.

The will and passion for their craft does not burn as brightly for many athletes after a certain level of success is achieved. Many of them think just because they made it to the pros, now they can stop working hard and prepare like they had always prepared for practices and games. What they forget is, when they were dominant players growing up, they were playing against teenagers and young adults. Now they are competing against grown men and women.

The same can be said for a sales career. People work hard to secure a role that they really want and ultimately will achieve a certain level of success. The world appears to be their oyster, and unlimited earnings and advancement awaits them. But then they plateau and get in the mindset of “this is good enough for me”.

To take it a step further, many athletes still have long careers, but their raw talent never translates into massive success. Phrases like…

• “they don’t show up every night”
• ”lackluster effort”
• “they are just collecting a pay cheque”

… get tossed around regularly. It should technically say “superstar” on their jerseys, but says underachiever instead.

Every time I don’t feel like doing something that I planned to do with respect to my sales role or physical activity plans, I think back to a t-shirt Canadian Hockey Olympic Champion Hayley Wickenheiser owns. The words on the t-shirt are:

“If I don’t workout today, somebody else will”

The metaphors for the sales profession are endless:

• Show up every day to work, and don’t cheat yourself
• Practice, Practice, Practice and always be willing to grow and learn
• Stay focused on achieving results and limit distractions
• Take nothing for granted

Have you achieved a certain level of success in your career, and it leveled off after that? Did you accept mediocrity and perhaps even quit?

Is it time to make a list of action steps to finally “get over the hump” and work towards results that you are capable of?

Today is the day to make a change.  The sales profession is all about second chances. Now is your time to become a bigger success than you ever imagined. The million dollar question is…

Are you willing to pay the price to get there?

 

Tim has been a dynamic and energized sales rep, mentor and leader since 1999. He thrives on being part of successful, forward thinking teams. It is rare that there isn’t a smile on Tim’s face, as he takes it all in and has some fun along the way! He is currently blogging about sales and leadership, and loves the challenge of developing content and connecting with fantastic people.

 

You can connect with Tim at:

Blog                SellLeadSucceed.com

LinkedIn        Tim Mushey

Twitter            @TimMushey73

Google+          Tim Mushey

Posted by Robert Terson | 8 comments