By: Chris Cummins
For my engagement I decided to do something different. Something memorable. Everybody asked me "What if you can't find them? What if you run out of gas? What if something goes wrong? What if...". I responded to each of them, "What if I DO find them? What if I don't run out of gas? What if something doesn't go wrong?".
I had asked a friend with a float plane (a plane that can land on lakes) to take me 350 miles north of where I live - to a remote lake system - to land on a lake so that I could ask my girlfriend to marry me. He accepted the challenge.
The day before we were supposed to leave, he calls me at work and says, "Sorry Chris, I've done the numbers and it's just too far for my little, 45-year-old plane. And besides, I'm nervous about the weather. We can't do this." But I had the ring in my pocket. My girlfriend was already away on a five-day canoe trip with a bunch of her girlfriends . This HAD to happen.
In my world, no just means “begin again at the next level up” - so I called everybody I knew and asked if they knew anybody with a float plane. Nothing. Then I realized that it's best to call places where planes hang out, so I started calling flight schools and regional airports. No after no.
Eventually, I called an instructor at a flight school a second time. I was cycling my list and not ready to give up. He said "Wow, you really want this huh? Okay, I'll call you back in a second."
He calls back and gives me a phone number. He says "Call this number and ask for JR. Tell him the same story you told me in all the detail about your buddy and the ring.”
So I called him. He said "Sure, let's do it."
I arrived at his house with two Starbucks Grande Lattes (extra hot) and he starts to ask me about which lakes the canoe trippers will be on. I rhyme off some lake names "Um, Chinigouchi Lake, Wolf Lake...". He cuts me off and says "Wolf Lake? Nuts. That's too small for my plane to land on."
Crestfallen, I look at him for 10 seconds in silence, coffees still in hand. So many obstacles. We've come this far. There has to be a way to do this.
He smiles, turns toward the house, and cupping his hands around his mouth yells back at the house, "Honey... Can I borrow YOUR plane?"
"Yes dear, no problem," comes a muffled reply from inside the house. Yep. They had his and her float planes. So we get in his wife's tiny float plane and take off.
We find my bride to be at a campsite and I ask her if she's having a cool adventure. She says "Yea, it's a great adventure out here on the lakes." Then I ask her, "Do you by any chance want to go on more adventures with me?" She starts to cry. I start to cry. The next thing you know we're engaged. Champagne everywhere.
With the ring firmly on Shelagh's finger, I asked the pilot how much it was going to cost me. He tilted his head and said "Chris, with the connection that you and I made on the phone, and the passion in your voice as you described your plans, I knew I wanted to help make this happen. Aviation and life have been good to me. Consider it an engagement gift. From the little I know about your character, I already know you'll do the same for someone else one day. Just pay it forward.”
Every step of the way people tried to talk me out of a lofty plan. Does that ever happen to you? Have you ever started to talk yourself out of something? Some people think sales is about making people do things they don't want to do, or about making quotas, or about products or services or packaging. It's not.
Sales is about your attitude toward what you do and how you do it. Sales is about building relationships - real relationships with real people. It all starts with your attitude and what you tell yourself.
In life, in sales, and in business, follow these seven steps and aim high:
1. In order to achieve beyond your wildest expectations, first you must start with wild expectations.
2. Hang out with possibility thinkers.
3. Don't let anyone talk you out of it.
4. Whatever you do, don't talk yourself out of it.
5. Learn from the past. Don't hold on to it. Learn from it, then let it go.
6. Stop asking, "When will THEY do something about that?" Who are THEY? Turns out that WE are they. When are YOU going to do something about it? Go make it happen.
7. Henry Ford said "Whether you think you can or you can't, either way you are right." What you think about changes the way you feel. What you feel changes the way you act. The way you act changes your outcome.
What are you waiting for? Go get it.
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