If you want to make money, you gotta make stuff.
Thinking about making stuff earns you exactly $0.00.
To get shit done, you gotta have courage.
All the people you see on TV making big bucks, living the life you want to live have courage. Lots of it.
You can have courage too if you want it.
How To Develop The Most Important Inner Skill In Entrepreneurship
I am a big wuss. 98% of the time.
If you “front” on me, I will run.
When the floor creaks in my house at night I have a mini-heart attack.
I don’t do social gatherings.
But when it comes to business risk and creating things from scratch – I turn into Conan The Barbarian and slay those that stand before me with ease.
Here is how I developed that courage:
Step #1. I learned how to sell.
Step #2. I sold something I had made.
Step #3. I realized that the key to success in life is Step #1 & Step #2 and all the mysteries of the universe melted away before me.
Why This Matters
If you want to be able to confidently think big thoughts, then learn to sell.
How to sell products, how to sell yourself, how to sell your ideas.
When you can sell, you literally write your own ticket in life.
People consider sales people to be scam artists, skeezy individuals who are dishonest etc.
Good. Let them continue to have that ghetto mindset. Means I don’t have to sell as hard to beat them out in the market.
What is the difference between Hugh Howey and a self-publisher who makes $500 a year?
Hugh Howey isn’t afraid to sell.
It Isn’t What You Think It Is
Selling DOES NOT = pitching.
Pitching CAN be a part of selling, but you can also sell REALLY, REALLY well without ever pitching.
If you learn to sell, you can literally do whatever you want. You want to bypass Hollywood and make a movie yourself?
Cool. Zach Braff did.
And you know why? Because he figured out how to sell his idea, and then he sold it.
If you want to completely revolutionize the way you see the world, start reading at least one book on selling per week. It will be like someone has taken off your sunglasses for the first time and you can see the world in full vivid color.
How To Get Started Mastering The Art Of Courage Without Getting A Job As A Telemarketer
Books I recommend that you start reading:
Anything by Zig Ziglar
Anything by Dan Kennedy (especially his direct response stuff)
And any book on marketing.
Then watch this >>> http://youtu.be/OXUzG6YKuvo
Nobody will give you anything until you sell them.
If you want your friends to believe in you and support you when you tell them about your awesome journey, you have to sell them.
Nobody, and I mean nobody does anything without being sold – whether they know it or not. Including me. Including you.
This blog post is a sales pitch.
The more you learn about persuasion and influence and selling, the more you realize that your biofeedback loops all around you are filled with this pushing and pulling of someone or something trying to sell you something.
Learning to sell = freeing yourself from the captivity of being constantly sold to without your knowledge.
In other words, it allows you the freedom to choose YOUR path.
Liberate Yourself From Yourself
Persuasion = getting 100% of what you want out of life.
And you don’t have to screw people to do it either.
As a matter of fact, selling become exponentially easier when you learn how to help people (giving value) THROUGH your selling efforts.
Sales is about recognizing a problem, pointing it out to the person who has it, then helping them find a solution.
That. Is. It.
That’s the trick.
That is why I can honestly tell you with a straight face, “I am going to grow my Kindle business into a multi-media story delivery platform and I am going to work with directors, actors, editors, writers, camera people etc. etc. etc.” Because I know how to sell.
I have sold harder things to harder people before. My confidence comes from knowing that I have mastered the basic skill that underlies all achievement.
Selling.
I will find talented people and I will sell them on my vision. I will find their problem. Maybe it is they feel constrained in their current job filming commercials. Or maybe they need more consistent work. I will then deliver that solution. “Come work with me 40 hours per week, and you get full artistic expression under my vision. You want to start tomorrow?”
Who benefits more from that?
Answer: We both benefit equally if the selling was done right.
Then, in order to make sure that I can afford this dream, I will sell the product that we create. How do I know I will sell enough?
Because I will find a problem. People hate that Hulu locks everything and you have to pay a monthly fee. Hollywood would rather buy pre-finished shows with a proven audience than to purchase another half-a-mil spec script etc. Then I will deliver that solution.
Courage Is Simple
The actions aren’t complicated. The process is simple.
We could sit down and find 50 problems in 30 minutes that would radically change the world, business, etc. if we just sold a solution to that problem.
I have a notebook called my idea notebook.
Every day I write 10 new ideas.
10 new ideas for whatever I want to write new ideas about.
At the end of the year I have 3,650 ideas.
One of those is going to be a million dollar idea, no matter how bad I mess it up.
And the key for me is to simply list 10 solutions to 10 problems everyday. To practice the art of selling.
Sometimes those are micro-problems like “I need a better hero for my romance.” Ok, let’s list 10 potential heros for 3 days in a row. Wow, now we have 30 heros to choose from. Seems like at least ONE of those are going to be good enough for our book.
And the same goes with business etc.
Anyone can sell if they decide that they want to learn how. But selling isn’t something that you learn in a week long conference/training seminar.
Selling is something that you learn by doing. Selling is something that you BECOME.
Selling will make you a more financially successful writer than learning the craft of writing ever will.