Conrey is for Closers

No I’m not going to rehash the old line “If you fail to plan you plan to fail” or its derivatives. That would be too easy. We all know that you have to have a plan to guide you in some manner. You don’t have to be an anal retentive OCD person and plan everything every day, but you have to have a goal or target you are aiming for and a plan on how to achieve that.

Just having a plan though isn’t good enough. I personally have made many plans, most of which never got past the first step. I’m sure you have as well. Implementing the plan is the real important bit. It is super easy to get caught up in making the perfect plan and never actually start doing things. Besides as the great philosopher Mike Tyson said: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”

This is one of the things that I love about the Agile Software movement and the way that we build software at Integrum. Agile believers believe that the best way to build software is to get the requirements at the last responsible moment. This way rather than doing the old school 800 page spec document for two years, you just start building the first part.

In sales it is easy to get caught up in making sure that you have the perfect product presentation or have the perfect close ready to throw at any objection. But if you don’t pick up the phone and set the appointment first, none of that matters.

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” – Kurt Vonnegut

The edge is a scary place. Things operate on a very low tolerance before you fail. Sometimes you can fail spectacularly and fall right off the edge. Sometimes you get overwhelmed by how close to the edge you are and become paralyzed with fear.

Most people like to get close to the edge but only when they know that they have a safety net to catch them, or when they know that the fall isn’t very far at all. If you only go to the edge when you have someone else to blame if you fail, or you have a low risk, or the failure doesn’t hurt, then you aren’t on the edge. Standing on the curb isn’t standing on the edge at all.

The vast minority is liberated by the view beyond the guard rails. They hang their big toes off into the gap, knowing that if the edge crumbles out from beneath them that it is going to hurt. But they also know that it is the only way you can see the really cool stuff that no one else can see. They get to see things before anyone else and have a chance to react to them. The risk is great but so is the reward.

Are you standing close enough to the edge to see the cool stuff? Or are you sitting back comfortably behind the guard rail?

I don’t know the answer to that one, but I do know how NOT to get there. You don’t follow a “make millions at home” plan or pyramid marketing scam. If you are reading this blog then you probably already know better – but a lot of people seem to jump right into these things looking for an easy score.

Anything in life is worth taking the time for – your overnight success will likely take a long time. You need to work for it, build your client base, build your product, build your services, build your reputation, build your brand.

Notice the word I used there a bunch – build – not make or create. Building anything takes time and effort. It is an investment for later gains. You wouldn’t take a pill and assume to build a world class musculature, so why would you expect build wealth by just sending $10 a month away to some scam?