Reddit reviews The Greatest Salesman in the World

It's not uncommon to feel as though you're the Golden Boy in your smaller high school with a wider range of success and failure among kids - and then to find you are just a little above average after landing on a good college campus where everybody is smart and everybody has things going for them.

For example, a cardinal rule of Rush is not to wear your high school letter jacket or championship ring. After a few well deserved snickers, an Active will tell you everybody there has those, to take them off and show us what's beyond the high school accomplishments.

You've been chosen time and time again for your superior innate intelligence and your proven track record of accomplishment. Your Brothers chose you because they judged you as good to the core and capable of great things - worthy of their investment and love. Good on you. Now let's see what you can do to be worthy of their confidence.

Practically speaking, you may need a few wins to buff up your own confidence. Look at your schedule and see what you can cut out, so that you have more time and more focus to excel at the things that are left. Two generations ago, your fraternity was designed to be immersive - you worked hard to excel in class because being truly educated is a rare privilege (most workers are simply trained, programmed, or work by algorithm) - and the rest of your focus was with your fraternity: Brotherhood events, mixers, intramural sports.

Once you've swept the decks clear and have more time for what's left, start a physical conditioning program - cardio for stamina 6x/week and resistance training for strength and for your self image (3x/week full body or 6x/week for muscle groups - leaving an important rest day between working out the same muscle group), with cleaner and purposeful nutrition to feed and stimulate the muscle growth. Start working with a couple of Brothers who understand the science and rigor of conditioning, and be accountable to them. Losing 10 lb of fat and gaining 10 lb of muscle will do worlds for your self confidence and it will get you better notice from the Lesser Ribs of Adam. And unlike with molly, deep and well earned self confidence doesn't go away.

I'm not a fan of campus based mental health counseling for this level of downturn - counselors are in the business of finding or creating things wrong with you - and they are usually just Masters Degree level professionals. You do need a doctoral level professional (psychiatrist, not psychologist - only psychiatrists can prescribe effective meds) when and if you begin to have suicidal thoughts - new meds and very little couch time can turn that around. At your level, you need to unload to your Brothers, and start to work on a real plan to make you a better, happier, and more confident you. It's easily doable before you start class in the fall. If you want to hack your brain, the highest selling motivational book of all time is still in print and still as effective as ever: https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Salesman-World-Og-Mandino/dp/055327757X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KQZMCU9HQ2SY&keywords=the+greatest+salesman+in+the+world+og+mandino&qid=1554671423&s=gateway&sprefix=the+greatest+sales%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-1 128 pages. Under $10. Every successful man I know has read it, and as hokie as it may sound, when used as directed, it works.

The goal is not to have you believe you are the greatest man to walk the ivy covered halls; the goal is to remind you of your gifts - innate and taught - and to assure you that you can live a happy and significant life filled with people who love you and remarkable accomplishments if you will apply thoughtful analysis, laser focus, and indefatigable diligence toward accomplishing your goals. Many will look up to you and be drawn to your mission. You can, truly, Be Amazing.

DM me if you want to chat.

Buy This: https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Salesman-World-Og-Mandino/dp/055327757X

Remeber This: A true salesman is a master of empathy. Of understanding. You need to UNDERSTAND 'your customer'. Be their friend, collegue, voice from afar. And they will chose your business because of YOU.

Use one these: close.io, Pipedrive.com, GOOGLE SHEETS DAWG

Learn About: Porters Value Chain, Game Theory, Socioeconomics & Pyschology of Sales. <- gives you perspective.

Final Thoughts: Being thrown to the wolves sucks but its the only way to become a wolf. Sales training is a repetative memorization and attitude adjustment program. Have zero fear when doing, remove your ego, and climb by learning.

And if you're not happy with it go do something else man. Worlds a big place. Lots to do.

Seconded.

The recommended reading list is fantastic.

I would also recommend you read the following books

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

Edit - Point is, invest in yourself and the relationships with people around you. That will pay dividend in the long-term.

So I read a few rants about people having shitty mornings today (including me) and figured I'd drop some knowledge. If you have a chance, get The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino, and read one of the "scrolls" near the end of the book every morning with breakfast, or on your commute. They're very short, but very motivating tid bits that will help improve your life one day at a time. The first half of the book is a story of some salesman (which, admittedly, I've never found the need to read), but the second half is composed of these short scrolls. Each one focuses on a different tweak to your mindset.

We're talking about two different things, here -- or at least two aspects of it. One is the acceptability of an employer pushing its belief system on its employees (particularly when those belief systems are "faith based"); the other is whether/when that applies to the CofS or the members who are themselves employers.

Let's start with the first piece, which is the "rights" of an employee. I'm thinking of the many times I have worked for a large company that got into a Management Thing Of The Month Club, whether it was "Quality Circles" or Agile development or "business process re-engineering." If the boss says you're going to take the course, and that this is the way we do things around here... that's how it works. If you disagree with its premise or practice, you could bitch about it, or be insubordinate, but eventually (a) you do it anyway (b) you go to work somewhere where you don't have to endure such silliness (c) you give it a try and decide it's useful after all or (d) you hold your breath until the Management moves on to another fad. (If indeed it actually is; I'm a serious proponent of Agile, for instance.)

Note that some of these management objectives do have faith at their core, at least in practices such as "we're closed on Sunday so you can pray" or choosing franchisees who participate in group prayers. While I've been lucky enough to avoid such companies (they also tend to have crappy pay), I have known people to work in "Christian companies," and even if such businesses cannot legally discriminate in hiring... well, you're probably not going to last long unless you put up with the "Thanks to Jesus" commentary. If you took a job at such a firm and their employment contract says, "We apply biblical management principles," then you know it ahead of time, and you have the freedom to not accept the job.

> You could claim that parts of Leviticus are not part of the religious teachings of Christianity, being that it is a "book of law" and not a book regarding the sacrifice of Jesus, but its part of the "holy scripture" and thus it is inseparable from the religious teachings of Christianity.

A better analogy is the Talmud. The bible is "the word of god," but the Talmud is interpretations by men. It's possible to consider yourself Jewish without following the Talmud -- and that's pretty much what Reform Jews do. (It was the Talmud, for instance, that interpreted, "Do not eat the calf in its mothers milk" as the complex laws of Kashrut.)
Now, is WISE part of Scientology? I don't think so. It's based on the Green Volumes, sure. But it isn't the Green Volumes, any more than Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World isn't part of the bible... though he sure refers to it a lot. (I haven't read the book in 30 or 40 years, and I recall it as being good sales advice... and also very Christian.) "Inspired by," sure. "Aligned with." Absolutely. Does that make the advice less valuable, if it's true...? And if it's not, I don't care where it came from.

If someone accepts a job that uses WISE management techniques, and is open about doing so -- which seems to be the case here -- then I can't see how they are being forced to adopt a religion.

http://www.amazon.ca/Greatest-Salesman-World-Og-Mandino/dp/055327757X

http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Salesman-World-Og-Mandino/dp/055327757X

Og Mandino bequeaths a lot of wisdom in this book, with a religious theme. I don't consider myself religious at all and did not find it too preachy. I would say that it provides incredibly persuasive ideas that will help you stay in a positive state-of-mind. The following is a snippet:

"I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. I will hear not those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious. Let them join the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny."

In sales we call it the 3 steps.

Set the goals, plan the work, work the plan.

It really is that simple.

I'm just saying, figure out where in the sky you want to BE in 10 years, figure out what you had to do starting NOW to get there which gives you a bearing and a plot to your personal 'North Star'

Set the goal, plan the work, work the plan.

There's a lot psych to it like writing positive statements and leaving notes all over the place and forcing yourself to think positive YES I CAN!

Crap like that.

Check out Og Mandino's 'The Greatest Salesman in the World' , while based on faith and 'churchy' sounding (it was written in another Era), it is actually a primer on life. Oprah recently made a lot of noise about 'THE SECRET' which is a very similar rhetoric and how to psych yourself out to achieve your dreams.