Three strikes and you’re out.

That’s baseball right?

While I’m not American and haven’t watched that
much baseball, I do know that much.

Unfortunately, many of us confuse the game of
baseball with the game of life.

I know I have.

Let me explain: Sometimes we make mistakes.
Sometimes we fail. Sometimes stuff just doesn’t
go the way we planned.

For instance, let’s say you try a new project
but fail to get it done because of time commitments.

So you try again, only to be overwhelmed once more
with how much you have to do (now you start to
wonder why you ever started in the first place)

Then you try one more time to get the project
over the line (perhaps it’s to lose weight, start
a part time business, spend more time connecting
with the love of your life)… only to bomb out
once more.

Now you are less likely to have time challenges
if you follow the principles available here
but the truth is most people would give up at that
stage.

Psychologically, they turn their back on trying
again and head back to the dugout.

They stop trying… stop dreaming… stop trying
to learn and grow.

These are the people who say, “It’s all too hard”
or “That will never work… I tried it and it
didn’t work for me”…

You get the idea.

And sadly, they end up just chugging along, making
ends meet, doing what they need to do to survive,
never really happy with how their life is… secretly
wishing things could be different but never having
the courage to try again.

After my first business venture went under. After
my first property development venture went south.
After I got fired twice in 8 months. After I
struggled for months with my consulting business,
it would have been easy for me to throw in the towel.

But no matter what happened. No matter how many
times I screwed up, no matter
what my history suggested…

I never stopped dreaming about running a
successful business, being financially free and
making a difference in the lives of other people.

Most successful business people I have met have
had the same experiences.

Now, I still have a while to go before I call
myself a successful businessman but here’s the
thing:

If you have 3 strike outs in
business, in love, or in life in general…

YOU ARE NOT OUT

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE DUGOUT

YOU ARE STILL IN THE GAME

The only time you are OUT is when you decide to be
out.

Remember that – as long as your heart is still
beating, you are still in the game… if you
choose to be.

And that’s the key thing to remember. Life is
all about choice.

So if you’re struggling right now…

If you’ve failed and can’t seem to get things
working…

Don’t give up.

By all means, do something different…

Learn how to master your time (it’s the only
thing we all have the same amount of everyday)

Discover how to change your attitude...

Master how to handle rejection…

Focus on getting through those tough times…

And keep looking for new avenues to succeed.

But whatever you do, don’t give up after 3 strikes.

Because the gold is sitting somewhere after the
fourth strike.

To your success,

Niro

As I write this, I have to admit, I’ve had a pretty challenging and character building week. I’m in the middle of a large number of sales calls… and when I look back at my results, I have not received as many “yes’s” as I would have liked.

Of everyone I’ve seen, I’ve only had around 1 in 5 people say yes to my offer. In other words, every time I see 5 people, 4 of them say no to me. Either what I have to offer is too expensive, or they think they have a better way or they just don’t see the vision I’m painting.

I don’t know about you, but I hate people saying “no” to me… I hate feeling like I wasted my time seeing someone (who appeared qualified) only for them to turn me down.

But here’s the question…  are they actually turning me down?

When I first got into sales, I hated people saying “no” even more than I do now. I was so petrified of getting a “no” and being “rejected” that I almost would not even turn up for the sales meeting. I also postponed following up people and I rarely asked for the actual order… hoping that somehow people would just pay me. Stupid right?

Absolutely… but it was how I went through life. Little wonder my bank balance was always closer to zero than I would have liked.

So what’s changed for me? Well, I still hate getting a “no” … but I don’t get hung about it. I’m well aware that, regardless of how good my sales pitch might be, how great my product offering could be, people are still going to say no. It’s just a fact of life.

Sometimes they will say “no” and other times it’s a “not now”… but either way, I don’t get paid.

That does not mean that I give up though… and neither should you.

All of us have been seen and heard of the great Walt Disney and his legacy that he left behind for the world. Yet, he heard “no” from virtually everybody that he spoke to when he first came up with the idea of Mickey Mouse. They thought his idea of a cartoon about a mouse was one of the dumbest things they had ever heard. In fact, when he went to banks to get funding for his first Walt Disney theme park, he was turned down and rejected by 302 bankers before someone finally believed in what he had to offer.

Imagine what kind of loss that would have been for the world… for all the children and adults alike who’s lives have been improved by Disney’s creations… if Walt Disney had not persevered through all the “no’s”.

And he did it by playing the numbers. He knew that he only needed a single yes for his vision to be carried out.

I’ve adopted this exact philosophy in my sales duties. I know that everyone won’t say yes (even if I think they are crazy to say no to me   ) However, I know that approximately 1 in 5 will say yes… so I need to see 5 qualified prospects to get 1 sale.

How about you? What are the numbers that you need? Perhaps it’s 1 in 302 like Disney or 1 in 5 like me.

The other thing to remember as well is that when someone does not accept your offer, they are not rejecting you… they are rejecting what you are selling. It is the product that is being rejected, not you.

It was when I realised this that I stopped worrying about people saying “no” to me. Of course it still bothers me because I truly believe that what I’m selling can change lives. However, I am no longer stopped by the fear of people saying “no”.

So whenever you are looking at selling something… apply the Walt Disney methodology. Sell by the numbers, accept that some people will say no to you no matter what… and just move on. It may be hard to do initially… but it gets easier.

And what’s your other option? Give up? That wasn’t an option for Walt Disney, it’s not an option for me and it should not be an option for you.

Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts on handling rejection. How can you use the Walt Disney Strategy in your life?

To your success,

Niro

PS: If you thought this post was valuable, please share it on twitter, facebook or stumbleupon. I’d really appreciate it

Being in a rut stinks! You feel like nothing is happening for you. Sometimes the harder you try the worse it gets… and the further backwards you go.

Sometimes, the best thing to do when you’re feeling like that…. is to stop working so hard. I know that sounds weird but believe me.

Take a break. Revive!

Then start looking at what opportunities you have to move forwards… opportunities that are within reach.

Sun Tzu, author of “The Art of War” and a gifted military strategist was once quoted as saying…

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized”

… and let’s take a moment to look at that quote in a little more detail.

I’ll use my own experience as an example…

When I was trying to get myself back off the floor after failing badly, I decided to begin a consulting business. However, I had no leads. So I chatted with some friends and asked if I could consult for them.

One of them said yes.

So I took him up on it. Now I had an income.

I then asked if he could refer people to me in exchange for a cut. He said yes.

Now my income started to grow.

Then I started looking at networking functions where I might be able to find potential clients.

I found a few. But no new clients.

I persisted.

And then at one networking function, I met someone who said he would love my consulting services. Within 2 weeks, his company became my biggest client.

Now I had a great income.

I then started asking myself what else I could do. I started adding more value to my services. Then my biggest client asked if I could come on board as part of the company’s management team to build the company.

I said yes.

Now, I’m working very hard to build this company up and I’m having a ball.

If you get what I’m saying here, you have everything you need to get yourself out of a rut, take advantage of the opportunities that are right before you and get yourself moving forwards again.
Here is what I hope you take away from this post

• When you are stuck in a rut, take a break and revive.
• Look for the opportunities that are right in front of you.
• Persist – it may not always work the first time but hang in there.
• Focus on continually improving yourself and your skills.
• When opportunities come, seize them. They will lead on to bigger and better things.

I applied these 5 principles to get myself moving fowards again. Try them yourself and leave me a comment about what you think.

… And if you think this post could help others, please share it on twitter, facebook and stumbleupon.

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Roger Federer, defending Wimbledon champion and the greatest of all time very nearly lost in the first round of Wimbledon this year. He came back from the very brink to win the match and as he admitted, “I won this match that I should have lost.”

How does someone so great survive and snatch victory when defeat seems assured?

This is the one characteristic of Federer that is so underated – his ability to survive and keep fighting until the very end. And this is what we can learn from the great man.

How many times in life have you been faced with tough challenges, overwhelming circumstances and things not going right? What do you do when that happens?

Every New Year’s eve, one of the top 3 most common resolutions is to lose weight. We go and buy the new training gear, perhaps sign up at the gym and get started. Yet very quickly, most of us give up on our new routine as “life gets in the way.” But a few persist, regardless of the challenges and a few months later they are enjoying their new found health and fabulous looking bodies while the rest of us look forward to the next New Year’s eve so we can start all over again.

Does this sound familiar? Have you started something in the past only to give up when things got tough? I know I have – many times unfortunately. However, the great ones, the ones that achieve the success they are looking for, never give up.

The ability to persist in the face of massive challenge, adversity and circumstances out of our control is the number one characteristic that distinguishes the ones who make it from the also rans.

When we set ourselves a goal in life, we must also resolve that no matter what, as long as we still want to achieve that goal, we will stick with it until we achieve it. Sadly very few of us make this decision. Most of us want a goal and are willing to work for it until things get hard, but that’s when the rubber meets the road. That’s when you know how much you want the goal – when you’re willing to still go after it even when everything seems to be going against you.

Federer says that he felt that everything was going against him, he could not play the way he wanted to play and his opponent just had it all over him. So he said the only thing he could do was hang in there and fight as hard as he could.

What about you? Do you resolve to hang in there and fight as hard as you can until things turn around? I know that isn’t always easy to do – as I said, I’ve given up many times before. But now I don’t give up anywhere near as often and that’s made a big difference to the results I’m achieving in my life.

So how do you keep going when things get tough? You look at your reasons why you wanted to achieve that goal in the first place. If your reasons are strong enough, you will find a way. I don’t know exactly what Federer’s reasons are but I know that he feels that Wimbledon is his tournament and nobody is going to take it away from him. He knows that if he lost in that first round match, he would have to endure the pain of that loss for a whole year. There was no way he was going to face that. So he fought!

What are your reasons? Why would you get back up when you get knocked down? I’ve heard the quote: “Success is falling down 7 times but getting up 8.” However, the only way you are going to get up is if you have a big enough reason. Remember, the size of a challenge is limited but the size of your reasons can be unlimited.

So next time you go after a goal, make sure you know exactly why you want to achieve it. And then decide that no matter what you will persist until you achieve your goal. Change your strategy if you need to but never give up on your goal!

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think this post. What do you think separates the successful from those who never make it?

To never giving up,

Niro Thambipillay

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