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I have no problem showing up or looking like a fool. But, many people do and that’s where your success is. When you show up and you do things, without regard for immediate benefit or without fear of embarrassment, you increase your odds of succeeding.
I know sometimes when you’re doing something new or different, the embarrassment factor can be high. I’m learning some new software programs that are kind of kicking my ass, because they’ve changed everything up. What I’m going to do is find some kid on YouTube and sit there and go through all the tutorials. That’s what I’m going to have to do.
Many people don’t want to suffer through that process to become successful. That’s where the real success is. The success is not the end result. The success is going through all the bullshit to get to the end result.
Why is it hard for you to show up? Is it fear, embarrassment or craziness? What is the big problem?
Going back in my time machine to my past, one of the reasons I didn’t want to show up was fear. It was about my fear of failure and fear of looking like a fool. It was about fear of making the wrong decision. It was fear, fear, fear, fear.
I can tell you that some of those fears are warranted. Most of them aren’t. What you’re going to have to do is put yourself out there and see what happens. This is a case of ignoring conventional wisdom.
What I am seeing in some of my Facebook groups is that a lot of ideas such as your 401K and going to college as the surest path to prosperity are being exploded. These ideas are being blown the fuck up. It’s really amazing how that happens when rigorous intellectual thought is applied to it.
My first year in the storage auction business I learned a valuable lesson about showing up. It was three days before Christmas and after paying all my bills, I had $28 in my pocket. I decided to go to the storage auctions just for entertainment. It was addictive and just so much fun.
I got there and there were only four people. I figured more people would show up. Nobody else came. There was nothing real interesting at first. Stuff was going dirt cheap. It was a full day and there turned out to be lots of units. When I started buying, I was getting units for a dollar. I was getting units for five dollars. I ran out of locks. I was borrowing locks off of people because I spent all my money. It got to the point where when no one would bid, I said if you give me 30 days, I’ll clean it out, and then they would give me the unit.
I got damn near 30 units for $28. These were full 10 X 20 units. The storage unit manager explained to be me that people didn’t show up at Christmas time. For the future, that became part of my strategy. I found out that a lot of storage auction people go dead after Thanksgiving. So, the supply and demand factor came into play and stuff was really, really cheap.
It was an extremely profitable lesson. When tax season came around and all these people came out flush with cash, driving the bidding up, we were able to sell from those units bought at Christmas and skip tax season buying. This happened because I showed up.
There are many of you who have something you’re doing but you’re afraid to show up. I’m here to tell you. Try it. If it fails, okay. At least try it. Sometimes you win for just showing up.
Another time, I remember there was this sales meeting I needed to go to. I felt like the deal was dead. When I called up to talk to the guy I’d been working with, I found out he had been fired. I ended up talking to a new person. Essentially the deal started all over again. On the way over there, I am listening to Brian Tracy. I got so relaxed because I didn’t even care. I really, really didn’t care.
I told myself there was no reason to be stressed out and I wasn’t going to go over there crawling on my knees. I decided I was going to walk in there and give the best presentation I could. I decided I was going to have a great day.
I get there. I go in to talk to this lady. She’s on the phone and thanks me for being so patient. I said, “No problem.” I’m in a happy place. I’m sitting there doodling on my pad while she’s doing her thing. Literally, she’s on the phone like 40 minutes.
When she gets off the phone, she apologizes. She explained they had an unavoidable internal crisis. She said she was new and there was a lot going on.
Then she asked me, “What do you have for me?”
I presented the most expensive package I had. I’m just swinging for the fences. I also showed her the cheap package.
After I finished, she said, “Wow. This is the first thing that is easy today.”
I asked her, “What do you mean?”
She said, “We’re going to go with this package. Part of the internal crisis is because we need to improve our corporate image.”
She said she had complete carte blanche to do what she wanted because it wasn’t handled properly. So, she bought the most expensive thing I offered. I just showed up. I didn’t really care. Afterwards I was sitting there in my car wondering to myself, “What the hell just happened.”
Little did I know, I had reframed my thought process. I had changed my energy and she was in a state of crisis. I came in calm and happy. It was one of the biggest deals I ever got. I just showed up. I thought the deal was dead.
The real problem isn’t showing up. The real problem is taking a chance and having courage.
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