Thoughts prompted during my Norwegian Speaking Tour
1 Nov 2008
I arrived in Norway on Sunday and by Monday morning I had the most dreadful cold. I awoke with a streaming nose and eyes and was sneezing and coughing very badly. There was no way I could or would cancel any of my ‘How To Double Your Sales’ presentations. If necessary they could have wheeled me onto the stage in a bed to present them. So I dosed myself up with cold remedies, cough remedies and cold symptom inhibitors and carried on to the very best of my abilities. And that made me think....
How many times in our lives when things get really tough do we use something as an excuse not to show up. Woody Allen once said – “80% of success is just showing up!”
I made several presentations in-house to some of Norway’s largest companies and on the last day, I was the keynote speaker at a large conference which was attended by some 600+ people. Norway has a population of less than 5 million people. In the UK which has a population of 60 million people, the average audience I speak to is considerably less. And I also know that most conference organisers in the UK struggle to get bottoms on seats no matter who is speaking.
And that made me think...
Why is that? Why is it that Norwegians have such a thirst for knowledge? Why don’t people in the UK have that same thirst? Could that have anything to do with why Norway has one of the strongest economies in the world?
Norway is also suffering from the global economic downturn and whilst having a chat with one of the directors at one of the companies I spoke in-house for, and after rattling on with my usual line about ‘when the going gets tough – the tough get going’ it was politely pointed out to me that it’s OK for me to say that but if you wake up in the morning with no job and no way of paying your mortgage, maybe it’s not as easy as I make out. I didn’t have time to get into an extended conversation on that point, but it did make me think...
And I still believe that when the going gets tough – the tough do get going. So if you did wake up this morning with no job and no way of paying your mortgage, what could you do about it? Well if you’re in sales and there’s no salaried sales jobs available, how about offering your services to a company on a commission only basis. I’ll bet there will be several companies who will take you on, on that basis. Or how about starting your own business? Maybe that’s something you always wanted to do anyway? No money to set it up? I can assure you there are plenty of people who are prepared to back you if the idea sounds like it will make money. Put a business plan together – just an outline to start with – and send it out to several people you know who may have a little savings tucked away and are looking for a better return on their investments than they may be getting in the bank. You can even send me a copy – I could be interested too!
And finally - one of the speakers who was presenting before me at Friday’s larger conference was Mikael Andersson. Mikael was born without arms or legs and has carved himself out a very successful career as a motivational speaker. And that made me think...
What’s your excuse?!