You Sell. I Sell. The World Sells.

How Selling is like Breathing

Think about the last time you were hesitant about going to an event. It can be a birthday party, a dinner, or even just a movie. You might’ve been really tired from working a 10-hour shift or even just having one of those days where you didn’t want to do anything. However, a friend begs, pleads, and somehow convinces you to go. Somehow he or she sold you on the idea that if you go to that event, it’ll give you some sense of fulfillment. As human beings, that’s what we all aim for in life.

Whether it’s trying to get a friend to go to dinner or selling someone a car or even something on a larger scale like selling the idea of peace to a country whose history has known none, it’s all about being able to successfully sell you idea to someone. What’s the idea? It can be whatever you want it to be, but if you can master that ability to sell, you can master the way the world works.

This country, nay, this world is built upon a foundation of people who are born with an innate sense to sell. We just don’t always look at the selling we do as “selling.” “Selling” has gotten somewhat of a negative connotation, but it isn’t negative. To sell is to be human.

In school, they were selling you the concept that memorizing a bunch of facts and figures and utilizing that information will get you that great-paying job. The idea they were “selling” was that in getting that great-paying job, you would find happiness through that job. When I graduated, I wasn’t one of those lucky individuals who knew exactly what I wanted to do in life, so I got into sales as something “temporary” until I found a “real” job. What’s a real job? It’s one that has a title like manager, doctor, or lawyer. But through that, I came to realize that learning how to “sell” gave me a much wider view on the society in which we live; a global perspective.

With this global perspective, I came to understand that a “real” job comes with a title that is supposed to connotate a certain class level in our society. But let’s take a moment to consider whom is selling us the idea that a title will be able to offer that higher distinction and in turn, personal fulfillment. It doesn’t work. On a more fact-based scale, it’s easy to see that without selling, our economic societies would not exist, as people cannot buy what is not being sold. Ultimately, with no service or good being sold, nothing is being spent. Without any monetary transaction, an economy could not exist. It’s all interconnected.

Although there is “prominence” in having a “real” job, most never seem to truly offer the benefits deserved from the work that would be put into it. I didn’t want to spend my life being zapped of my passion, my focus, and my dreams. I realized that if I could just master one concept, a concept so natural that everyone (doctors, lawyers, parents, and even children) partakes in everyday, in one from or another, then I would be able to transform my dreams into reality. That one concept is simply to sell.

Grant Cardone, International Sales Training Expert and NY Times Best-Selling Author

www.GrantCardone.com | www.CardoneOnDemand.com