Back a few moons ago I was working in sales
for another company and making what I
thought was a pretty good income. At a
meeting with a group of businessmen
someone asked me if I was ready to take
the next step.
"The next step," I said, "what are you
talking about?"
He said, "Adding another zero to your
income."
At the time, I was making around two
hundred thousand a year, and he was
talking about two million. That's a good
jump, and I didn't know how I would take
that big a leap.
So I said to him, "My company will never pay
me that kind of money."
To which he replied, "Jim...there all hundreds
of companies that will pay you big money, all
you have to do is call them."
"I said, "You mean start my own company?"
"Why not?" he said.
At the time I had all kinds of excuses why not.
But just weeks later, the company I was working
for really jerked me around. They had jerked
other people around who had accepted it, so I
guess they expected me to stay too.
But I didn't.
I scratched out a business plan on a yellow
legal pad and went to work. I found an office,
had telephone lines put in, and bought some
old office furniture, including desks, chairs,
and filing cabinets, and went to work.
In those first few months I made thousands
of calls. I was on the phone from 8 AM till 8PM.
Sometimes I would sleep on the couch in the
back room. I made so many calls that I lost my
voice and had to rest it for a couple of days.
But soon, everything began to pay off, and I
started making some very good connections.
I hired some office help, which freed me up to
do more selling. The first year ended, and when
I addded up all the numbers I was truly astonished.
I had added another zero to my earnings.
I accomplished this without ever really thinking
about it. I just thought about building a good
business without any interference from managers,
accountants, or lawyers. I had free reign to make
all the decisions, and to do all the things necessary
to build good long term relationships with my clients.
I did things that other sales experts told me never
to do, and they worked for me. I did learn some things
not to do, but I learned those on my own.
In the old days I used to call myself Salesman
Extraordinaire, but back then it was an inside
joke. Now I had really become what I had joked
about, so I appointed myself Chairman of the
Board. Pretty soon I will have to think about
another designation.
It really all started with another zero.
Add another zero to your goals, and see if
your life doesn't start changing very, very soon.
From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan
The Chairman of the Board
P.S. Somebody asked me, "How do you make
$500 million?"
I said, "Just repeat what you did the first
time 500 times."
thejamesrwhelanagency.com
206 407 3124
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