Blog - Brock Henderson Marketing Guru

Businesses as well as individuals face obstacles, some are major, others hardly worth noting.  There is however, one obstacle that we continually face, daily.

It’s a difficult obstacle to overcome.  If you don’t conquer it, you’ll feel defeated and won’t accomplish much.

The obstacle is you.  That person you see every morning in the mirror, can make you or break you.  I remember hearing a speaker who had a motto, “If it is to be, it is up to me.”

If you want something, then go after it, I assure you that whatever it is you want, will not stroll up to you and say  
“Here I am”.  That may happen in movies, but don’t count on it in real life.

If you are in sales, then ask for the order.

If there is someone you fancy, then ask them out.

If you want a promotion, then ask for it.

Whatever it is you want, you have to go for it.

For several years I taught at a local college, and in one of my classes was a young man who always made “C’s”, he wasn’t a slow learner, he just always made “C’s”.

One day after class, I was talking to him, and told him that he is capable of better grades, to which he agreed.  But he told me, “Mr. Henderson, I study hard, but am just not able to do better.”

He had a self-imposed ceiling as to how well he could do, and I was determined to see him break that ceiling and excel.  So, I did something a bit mean, underhanded, and quite possibly unethical.  I said, “You either get an “A” in this class, or you’ll get an “F”.  “A” or “F”, your choice.”

He looked at me in horror.  “You can’t do that.”

I shrugged, “Watch me.”

After the next test, he got his predictable “C”; and he came to me and said, “See, I just can’t do any better.”

I looked at him, “An “A” or an “F”.”   His look of horror returned, and I walked away.

On the next exam he got a “B”, I think it was the first time in his life that he got anything over a “C”.  He was ecstatic, and I congratulated him, and told him I knew he could do it.  After that, he only made “A’s” and “B’s” in his classes; he had broken through that self-imposed ceiling of only getting “C”.  He ended up making a “B” as his final grade in my class.

A couple of years later he came back and visited me, I asked how his grades were, and he told me, “Straight “A’s”, but I’ve always gotten “A’s”.”  He had forgotten his false belief that he could only do “C” work, and I was, (and still am), very happy for him.  Yes, I lied to him, I would never fail someone who was making “C’s”, but he had to think I would to jar him out of his erroneous mind set.   

So too, with you and me.  We let life get in our way of accomplishing something.  Do you realize that a professional salesperson will give up after a prospect has rejected them three times, but most sales are actually closed on the seventh visit.   

Do children give up asking for something just because the parent said “No”?  Of course not, they will hound their parents an endless amount, in an effort to get what they want.

So why do you give up so easily?  If you want your life or business to be better, then it is up to you and you alone.

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”