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A Primer On Being The One Everyone Admires
It's easy on paper but challenging in real life
When I entered the conference room for the networking event, I shot a reflexive oh-crap eye-roll at the attendees seated around the table.
Awkward smiles of other hopeless failures greeted me, most wearing ill-fitted button-down shirts and clutching business cards printed on home computers, as evidenced by the uneven cuts around the edges and flimsy paper stock.
Just my luck. Another one of these snake-oil pitches where a slick salesman corrals a bunch of wannabes into buying his magic elixir sales formula. But after months of defeats and no clients, I stuck around since I had nothing else to do.
As I sat waiting for his sales pitch, I knew I had walked into a classic timeshare hard sell, but when the presentation concluded, he shocked us by avoiding the typical lock the door and don't let them leave until they buy format.
Instead, he offered free coaching for five days, and if we saw positive results, he'd sell us on his super-expensive mentoring. I don't think anyone else took him up on the offer. I did as I had nothing to lose.
The guy had so much confidence in his abilities, but I remained skeptical as I doubted I could get the results he promised. Fortunately, he delivered.
Make a bold promise and deliver on it.
One week later, despite the astronomical price, I entered his office and officially became his mentee. Today, almost two decades later, I can attribute the root of my professional success to that experience.
To this day, I still admire him even though it's been fifteen years since we last spoke.
It's simple. He made a bold promise and delivered on it. As a result, I admired him for it.
Admiration.
It's one of the few genuine emotions you cannot elicit by faking it. You can't win admiration from confidence, strength, or even generosity. People are often generous for disingenuous reasons.
Make bold promises and deliver on them. That's one but not the only way.
