Salespiration

Life lessons and actionable wisdom for becoming an even better sales professional.

How mental preparedness can make you a happier and more resilient salesperson   

Excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s book Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage

“Today, the premortem is increasingly popular in business circles, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and the Harvard Business Review. But like all great ideas, it is actually nothing new. 

The credit goes to the Stoics. They even had a better name: premeditatio malorum (premeditation of evils). 

A writer like Seneca would begin by reviewing or rehearsing his plans, say, to take a trip. And then he would go over, in his head (or in writing), the things that could go wrong or prevent it from happening: a storm could arise, the captain could fall ill, the ship could be attacked by pirates. 

“Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation,” he wrote to a friend. “… nor do all things turn out for him as he wished but as he reckoned—and above all he reckoned that something could block his plans.” Always prepared for disruption, always working that disruption into our plans. Fitted, as they say, for defeat or victory. And let’s be honest, a pleasant surprise is a lot better than an unpleasant one.

What if… 

Then I will… 

What if… 

Instead, I’ll just… 

What if… 

No problem, we can always… 

And in the case where nothing could be done, the Stoics would use it as an important practice to do something the rest of us too often fail to do: manage expectations ….

Your world is ruled by external factors. Promises aren’t kept. You don’t always get what is rightfully yours, even if you earned it. Not everything is as clean and straightforward as the games they play in business school. Be prepared for this ….

Because the only variable we control completely is ourselves” 

(From:The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Ryan Holiday.)

“Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets”

– Philip Kotler –
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