What I’m looking for is that passion

"If I am an employer looking for high performers, I don’t care what someone’s IQ is; I don’t care what his grades are; I don’t care how he tests. What I’m looking for is that passion, because without that nothing is possible. With it, an extraordinary amount is possible. To the passionate person, hard work isn’t hard work. They’re just doing what they love." - Malcolm Gladwell

"Malcolm Gladwell - Talks about the Secrets of Success" 

http://www.mylinkage.com/blog/malcolm-gladwell-talks-about-the-secrets-of-success

Show up big today.

Show up on point, on purpose, and on fire. Refuse to settle for an average day; make today exceptional.

It takes massive effort to be successful.

Look around at the people watching TV and playing video games. They are the people making excuses.

You are going to have to work harder than you have ever imagined to be successful.

 

Don’t let schmucks convince you that they have an easy way figured out.  Anything fast or easy is for losers.    That’s the truth.  Avoid easy like your life depends on it - because it does.

Start talking to yourself now.

Start telling yourself that you are going to work until your eyes bleed and then you are going to keep clawing your way toward your goal until your fingernails tear off.

Nothing can stop you if you won’t be stopped.

"5 Truths About Sales Success We Don’t Want to Admit," by Dan Waldschmidt: http://danwaldschmidt.com/2011/04/edgyconversations/5-truths-about-sales-success-we-dont-want-to-admit

GateGuru

I was tipped off on this app from a good friend... as much as I have been traveling lately, I often find myself stuck at the airport at various times. This app is like the Yelp of airport food. It tells you by gate, where the best eating spots are. This is incredibly helpful, especially as I try to eat somewhat healthy while I travel. Try it out. Let me know if you have other cool apps you use.

 Other apps I use a lot when I travel:

• Kayak - check & track flights
• Southwest - change/edit flights
• Marriott - check points / track reservations
• Pandora - music
• The Onion - America's finest news source
• This American Life - random stories of people
• Wall Street Journal - read business headlines
• ESPN ScoreCenter
• Google Maps
• Yelp - min. 4 stars or don't do it
• Foursquare - besides checking in - good tips on places & recommendations on where to go
• Facebook
• Twitter

Some new books...

"The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World"
Ferguson, Niall

"Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap)"
Livingston, Jessica

"A Short History of Nearly Everything"
Bryson, Bill

"Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us"
Pink, Daniel H

"The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story"
Lewis, Michael

"The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream"
Coelho, Paulo  

"The Design of Everyday Things"
Donald A. Norman 

"Steve Jobs"
Walter Isaacson 

"I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on. I would tell myself 1 good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not." - Mark Cuban

Personal Momentum by, Matt Pavia

My good friend Matt Pavia who is out teaching in Peru wrote one of the best posts I have read in a long time... check it out: http://mjpavia.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/personal-momentum/

For those determined to rise to another orbit – intent to someday look back to the place they left behind – what is needed is rocket fuel. It lies deep within our souls – you can summon it, you can ignite it. Eventually, you will soar.

Hire the athlete, not the resume

Frank Slootman was the former CEO of Data Domain. His track record speaks for itself and he recently took on the same role at Service-now (Service-Now Names Software Industry Veteran Frank Slootman as CEO). During some down time between ventures, Frank wrote this excellent book recapping his experience taking Data Domain from $0 in revenue to a $2.2 billion acquisition by EMC. The book is called "TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story" (available in Kindle here and paperback here). 

Although this entire book is solid, one chapter in particular jumped out at me and helped me with my recent career transition - "Chapter 9 - Hire Athletes, not resumes".

Hiring can be very challenging for early stage ventures because they are unproven and high risk. New hires often have to take pay cuts. Looking for the perfect resume is a bit like a man looking for the perfect woman - when he finds her, it turns out she is looking for the perfect man, and he ain't it! Moral of the story: it is hard to land a candidate who meets your resume criteria, as you are not that good a catch yet yourself.


After suffering through a few instances of this mismatch at Data Domain, we adjusted our search algorithm and began looking for candidates who did not have the resume yet but did have the potential and desire for a career break to get to the next level. We call them "athletes": candidates with the right aptitude and behavior for your profile but without the prerequisite experience.


Put differently, we started looking for people who we thought had their best work still in front of them, rather than behind them. How did we know? You can't just rely on the resume or references - you are making a bet that they can become what you need them to be. We looked for energy, pedigree, passion, ambition, intelligence, intensity, and desire for the job. We staffed many (if not most) of our executive and key managerial roles that way.


Our approach worked so well that we started to prefer this style of hiring even later on when could attract "resumes." In fact, it drove a vital ingredient of the Data Domain culture: everybody had something to prove. 


The thinking to "hire athletes, not resumes" has grown more accepted in recent years, and startups have adjusted to this style of hiring. But there was a time when it was hard to get past the "resume mentality," e.g. just looking for all the boxes to be checked. We stumbled upon our way of thinking by sheer necessity, yet it grew into a key component of the Data Domain success formula.

My thoughts...

The challenge is most companies do not think this way (no one ever gets fired for buying IBM, right?). You probably won't change their thinking either. What you can change is your positioning in the market place... try this instead (regardless of your age/experience).

"If you're looking for someone who can check the boxes; I'm not your guy. If you're looking for the best athlete. You found him."

Whether you're looking for a new job, career/industry, or promotion - Don't lead with experience (or lack there of)... lead with value, passion, intelligence, and excitement. The rest will fall into place.

New Job? Don’t Give Up Too Soon

This is an old article from SalesGravy.com; the website is labeled as the "fastest growing international community for sales professionals". Jeb Blount is the guy running the show over there - I had the pleasure of meeting him in person a few years ago at the National Collegiate Sales Competition.

Not that any of my readers are quitters, but this is a good article to get you fired up no matter what you are starting....

New Sales Job? Don’t Give Up Too Soon
by Jeb Blount

Most people when faced with challenges quit too soon; most often right as they are on the cusp of success. This is especially true with salespeople in new sales jobs. Starting a new sales job and taking on new challenges is frustratingly hard. There are many dark days when you feel like all you do is fail and there is no hope. As you get closer to success things actually seem bleaker. You are tired, beat-up and worn down. It is at this point that faith and persistence have to take you the last mile.

Faith is crucial - faith that by doing the right things every day the cumulative impact of these actions will pay-off.

In sales this means consistently prospecting, qualifying, presenting and following up. Faith is an internal belief system that you create that helps you remain focused on working towards your goal when no tangible evidence exists that the hard work you are doing will get you there.

Persistence is the fuel of winners. Persistence is determination to win in spite of self-doubt, roadblocks, failure, embarrassment, and setbacks. Persistence picks you up off the ground, dusts you off, and sends you back into the game. Persistence is the last, final push that sends you across the finish line.

If you have just started a new sales job I promise that the first few months will be miserable. It won’t be easy to learn new behaviors. Each day you will be given a dozen reasons to quit. Don’t do it. Don’t quit! Instead get up every day, reflect on your past success, and consistently do the sales activities that build your funnel. I guarantee that if you do the right things, have faith that your efforts will pay off and persevere when you are ready to quit, you will be rewarded.

Sales Advice

I recently received some sales advice and thought I would share.... I'll keep the "advice giver" anonymous for the time being, but they are a well respected sales person in my eyes. Here it goes:

Selling is easy. Just remember that customers are people and they make decisions, are made happy and get pissed off by exactly the same things as the rest of us.

Never take anything personally, it's just business. None of this is life threatening.

If someone comes up with an objection (e.g. "that won't work here because") STOP, think and the next sentence that comes out of your mouth should be "that's not a problem". Amazing how those words diffuse a multitude of situations...

Oh and Read "Selling to Vito". Best book on selling I ever read. Many deals die on the CEO's desk. So sell to the CEO.

My advice is go for it. Good luck.

25 New Books on My List

"Hey, you should read..... ". I hear that all the time and I keep a list; then I buy them on Amazon. The lists grows from personal recommendations, blogs, twitter, presentations, meetings, etc. I am also a huge fan of buying books for their cover. Most of them tie back to sales, but they have twists of management, leadership, influencing, clawing ahead, company strategy, etc. All good stuff to get your fired up.

I put them on a shelf, read them or parts of them (when I get around to it), and often refer back to them. Here is my most recent list that has grown over a few months and a quote from Mark Cuban to help me justify buying them.

“I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on. I would tell myself 1 good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.” – Mark Cuban

·         “Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO” by Harrison Monarth

·         “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It” by Marshall Goldsmith

·         “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield

·         “Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation” by John Doeer

·         “Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload” by Bill Kovach

·         “The One Minute Manager”, by Kenneth H. Blanchard

·         “Only the Paranoid Survive”, by Andrew Grove

·         “Strengths Finder 2.0”, by Tom Rath

·         “Poke the Box”, by Seth Godin

·         “High Output Management”, by Andrew Grove

·         “From Bud to Boss”, by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris

·         “Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow”, by Chip Conley and Tony Hsieh

·         “Speak as a Leader”, by Herman Cain

·         “Boring Meetings Suck”, by Jon Petz

·         “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels”, by Michael Watkins

·         “The Effective Executive”, by Peter Drucker

·         “On Leadership”, by John Gardner

·         “First Break all the Rules”, by Marcus Buckingham

·         “Leadership is an Art”, by Max DePree

·         “Execution”, by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

·         “Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week”, by Dave Barry

·         “Small Is the New Big and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas”, by Seth Godin

·         “TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story”, by Frank Slootman (Kindle only)

·         “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

·         “Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion”, by Gary Vanerchuck

MapQuest and AOL

We used to say "MapQuest it" or "IM me on AIM".

We don't anymore.

Technology is always changing and adapting. Are you?

Chasing Quota

Walter Brown is one of the top sales authors you never heard of. You won't find him on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. He has a simple website that promotes his only book, Chasing Quota.

Chasing Quota is one of the best sales books I have ever read. It is clear, precise, and simply genius. Walter recently posted an updated version of his book in a .pdf version I uploaded here: Chasing Quota 2. Read it. It's only 25 pages.

Here are a few of my favorite lines from the book:

WHO SHOULD BE IN SALES:
Maybe you, if you:

• Love to win
• Hate to lose
• Like money a lot
• Like people, and vice versa
• Believe strongly in your product and service
• Truly help prospects find solutions
• Can persuade
• Can tolerate income risk
• Can tolerate rejection

Sales Success Can Be Summarized in Eight Words:

BUILD A GOOD PROSPECT PIPELINE, THEN HARVEST THAT PIPELINE

Every Prospect's Three Basic Questions Are:

WHY DO IT? WHY NOW? WHY WITH YOU?

Keep it simple - sell to those questions 

Problems are normal:

SO DON'T WASTE ENERGY ON WHY THE PROBLEM CROSSED YOUR PATH. INVEST THAT ENERGY IN SOLVING IT.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

- Bob

Focus on the road not the wall

I recently read a fantastic post on Ben Horowitz's blog entitled "What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology". This part jumped out at me and I had to share...

"When they train racecar drivers, one of the first lessons is when you are going around a curve at 200 MPH, do not focus on the wall; focus on the road. If you focus on the wall, you will drive right into it. If you focus on the road, you will follow the road. Running a company is like that. There are always a thousand things that can go wrong and sink the ship. If you focus too much on them, you will drive yourself nuts and likely capsize your company."

"Focus on where you are going rather than on what you hope to avoid."

Stay tuned for more on the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz (they have funded Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, and Groupon).