Accept Failure and Start Winning

Anyone starting off in selling as a career needs to be able to handle failure. To put it bluntly you can expect to fail 80-90

% of the time. You need to become comfortable with hearing "No", "Not at this time", "Come back another time" anyway you slice it, it will hurt the first few hundred times.

I have had more than one set back in my career and the key is to success is to understand why the failure occurred and then move forward. It is certainly not easy.

I was selling wholesale in the retail appliance industry when the market real estate market went into a massive slump. On the heels of the real estate slow down, the auto industry started hemorraging in North America. Governments were bailing out the auto industry in an effort to keep jobs.

As major consumer purchases go: 1. House, 2. Cars, 3. Home Appliances.

Basically the home appliance industry was slowing beyond belief.

While all this industry turmoil was happening I had just bought a home, gotten married and my wife was expecting...I had a decision to make. Do I continue in the Home Appliance industry or do I look for a change?

After surveying all the industries I settled on joining the Consumer Packaged Goods industry. My focus was finding an "recession proof" industry.

I had decided to accept that I was leaving a industry with troubled fundamentals and was joining a new industry with extremly strong growth potential. One door closing, another one opening.

It took quite some time for my experience to build in the CPG industry and build up my income to the level it was in the Home Appliance industry. However, my experience grew and allowed my family to gain a healthy liviing in a great industry.

I hope my experience in managing difficult times will help you. I am glad I went through this challenging time because it has helped me truly appreciate where I am today.