Wednesday, June 14, 2006

You can't fail nor can you succeed if you don't try

Tonight I was playing softball with my co-ed team. I personally had a "not so good" night hitting the ball. I injured my knee the last time I played so I was doing what I call "the golfer's swing" all the balls that came into contact with my bat were pop flies and resulted in outs. Although I stunk the rest of the team stepped up and hit well. The best part is we won 15-4.
Let's apply this analogy to our business. I'm sure that you can relate to my injury. Let's call "rejection" your injury. How many times have you been rejected after sharing Xango? It doesn't feel very good and I will be honest with you that it takes time to learn not to take the no's personally. It's one of those learning curves that everyone goes through and some go through it quicker than others. Many times after your "injury" it's difficult to step back into the batter's box and do your best. You're thinking "I want to share my business successfully but dangit, the last 5 told me no" so your hesitant, scared, you lack confidence which results in failure again. It can make you crazy.
Let me point out that our team won the game tonight. Although I couldn't bat I still played great defense as catcher. The runs that we had were because of the strength, experience, talent, and confidence of the other members on the team. Your business runs the same way. If you lack confidence in follow up use your team to follow up with you. If you aren't comfortable asking for the sign up get your team to do it with you. If you're struggling with your approach call a team member for advice. They don't know you're struggling unless you holler out that you are.
Your business is a team effort just like my softball team. We can't win just because one person is having a great night, we must work together and work off one anothers strengths. If we work as a team we walk away feeling great about our performance whether we win or lose.
The key to life is to get back into the batter's box no matter what. You can't fail nor can you succeed if you don't try. Maybe you need to simplify what you're doing in your business. Are you saying too much? Are you giving out too much information? Are you giving out to little? Are you not following up hoping they will call you? These may or may not apply to you but sometimes we need to re-evaluate our strategies. If what you're doing isn't working try something else. For example, over the weekend my son Logan played in a tournament. He has struggled endlessly all year in hitting the ball. He's so talented, so strong and tries so hard but he just hasn't been able to connect consistently. I said, "Logan, what you're doing hasn't worked the last 3 games, let's try something different, rather than trying to read a strike or a ball swing the bat at everything (unless it's an obvious ball). I'd rather see you strike out swinging than strike out standing." So he took my advice and hit the ball out to the fence every time he was up. The confidence in him went up instantly. It was awesome.
The moral of my long drawn out story is no matter what don't quit and use your team. Keep learning and keep playing the game because you will have success personally, spiritually, and financially along the way if you use your team. No one can build a business by themselves, it isn't even designed to be a one player business so ask for help and don't forget that
YOU CAN'T FAIL NOR CAN YOU SUCCEED IF YOU DON'T TRY.

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