An introduction to my experience

[maxlane]

I got the idea that I wanted to be rich when I first heard Jim Rohn talk in 2009. That convinced me that it was actually POSSIBLE to become rich. But my greatest problem, as I saw it back then, was that I was horribly incompetent at social stuff so it was stopping me a great deal. I decided that if I a) ever wanted to seduce a woman and b) ever wanted to get rich then I had to c) learn how to interact with people.

Maybe it was completely off the edge, but I didn't have anyone who could point me in any kind of direction back then so I just followed the path that seemed the most promising for me. But what I decided was that getting into "selling" was probably a very good thing to do in order to gain social skills that would help in everything else.

I remember that first time that I knocked on a door in the neighborhood and how it opened and I was shaking because I had no idea what to say. But I said "hi" and then I did the "intro -> short story -> impulse -> close thing" just as I learned it on the morning meeting before we went out into the field. And it made me feel good. It felt good because I was overcoming a handicap I had in talking to people. But it was also very hard.

I kept going for months. Mainly because I had that belief that what I was doing was making me better at talking to people in general. I did that for months. It took maybe about 6 months to come to the point for me that I could say with confidence that my fear was completely gone. I was out in the field 6 days a week from 1 oclock to 8 oclock knocking on doors and doing that routine (I guess that I also figured out that I could get rid of my fear and get paid for doing it at the same time, so it was even better).

It was back in 2009. But in 2010 I felt completely burned out. It was like "I'm done with this. I don't want to put myself through this anymore." So for about a year I was just floating around. I still felt that I learned a lot and I gained in experience but I wasn't really getting anywhere financially. Selling like that was very hard and it was not making much money at all. It was just very hard.

By the end of 2010 I ended up in another "selling job" and then I found a consulting job where I got to sit and program all day in front of a computer. I was very happy and it felt like finally being able to take a break from all the "social interaction". But it was horrible in the fact that it was a "job" and all the people there were completely "run over" and the level of motivation in the common employee seemed to be almost non existent. They were all just there because they had to "go to work" every day at 8 oclock, work for 8 hours, give away everything they have produced, get some money for it and then go home and just wait for the next round of the same thing and repeat it all over again.

I was longing after "the field" after the excitement of the idea that one could "sell anything to anyone" - to anyone at all. That person walking down the street could be sold something. Not that I knew how I could do that - cause obviously I would have done it then. But the idea was there.

So in the first half of 2011 i was back out on the streets. But this time I found a company that was selling a really good product that I thought that I could make good money selling. But I once again made the mistake of asking for a job there (which I got) but I was longing to start my own thing and be on my own so my employment there only lasted about three months. Then I was out on my own again. But this time I was selling their products - but as an independent retailer instead of an "employee".

I learned that I had to ask good prices and sell stuff to the customers for the "market price". I learned that good prices could be negotiated but I didn't quite know how. The best discount that I got was 45% from a supplier for products that I did not even know where to market and how to seel high volumes of. But from that company where I preciously worked I only got 15%.

But in this business I could go out and "rake in" $14000 per week! But we all know of course that "raking in" 14000 does not mean that you can keep all of it. Most of that money was spent on paying taxes and paying the suppliers. And most of it was probably made doing the things that I have learned from that previous employer who was extremely successful at selling things. So that's how it always seems to be - I take jobs, but I'm not committed to them because I'm only there to learn how to run my own business more successfully - and so that I can finally quit working at other people's offices and have my own. But at the same time I feel that I want to be able to do everything right and not have to wonder where the next sale will come from.

That's what I'm here to learn. I also want to learn advertising, copywriting and selling stuff. I have always wondered how a guy next door can buy a house with a pool "selling stuff" and how the same guy can buy a limousine. I want to learn what they are doing that makes such things possible - but I would probably buy a more powerful computer or a datacenter instead of a house, and I would have absolutely no use for a limousine. But nonetheless I still want to have it as an option

That's my story.

PS. I'm once again in the position where I'm thinking to take a job because simply I think I would make more money that way instead of trying to sell stuff myself. I need some tips QUICK about how I can sell more of the products that I have good potential margins on so I don't have to take any more jobs.

 

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