Ignore the Naysayers

Do you march to your own drummer or do you follow along with everyone else? When someone tells you that you couldn’t possibly sell a certain account, do you accept their verdict or do you follow your own instincts and make things happen? It’s hard not to pay attention to others when they tell you something on the basis they are trying to help you. All of us want to get along with our colleagues and peers.

I learned a wonderful lesson very early in my career. It affected everything I did in the ensuing years because I learned to trust my own judgment and employ a healthy cynicism about what you had been told by others.

The story is really a simple one. Early in my career, I represented a magazine with a circulation of some 365,000 executive secretaries. It had enjoyed some success over the years but at the time I became involved, the publication was faltering. Consequently, there was a lot of pressure on the sales force to produce.

There was a company in the Minneapolis area which ran no advertising in the magazine even though their products were a natural for the secretarial market. I was told that I would probably never sell any space in my magazine to that company because one of the other magazines at my company had fired a good friend of the ad buyer. I was told he was a tough guy who didn’t smile much and had a bad temper but for some reason, in spite of all the warnings, I made the call one day to see if I could get through to him and sell him a special offer in the magazine.

To my surprise, I did get through to the gentleman who told me he couldn’t give me an answer that day but would call me the next day. I didn’t know what to think and when I told my boss in New York, he was dubious about my chances. He actually laughed at me, but that didn’t bother me at all. I was convinced I had made a sale even though so many people had told me it couldn’t be done.

The next day I received a phone call from the gentleman in Minneapolis. He gave me a four-color spread and thanked me for calling him to give him an opportunity to take advantage of my offer. I was stunned and immediately called my boss in New York who wouldn’t believe me when I told him what had occurred. When the order came in later, I was a hero for a day.

Here’s my point. Don’t let others tell you who to like and who not to like. Don’t let others tell you what to believe and not to believe. Make you own assessments about people. Too many times we listen to others and miss opportunities because we believe what they tell us. March to your own drummer and standards. Don’t listen to gossip and innuendo because more often than not what you hear is only hearsay and not founded on fact. Believe in yourself and don’t let the negative thoughts of others smother your enthusiasm.

Remember, attitude is everything!

Chuck