I asked Google for some guidance on the issue.
The phrase “business is fun” is listed 38,400 times. The phrase “business is war” is listed 733,000 times. That’s 771,400 in total.
The fun echelon makes up 5% of that total, with the aggressive group coming in at 95%.
So what? Well, these are two basic philosophies behind our approach to business life.
Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited) says that 96% of us startups close down by the end of our first decade. That is uncannily similar to the aggressive group number.
Are these numbers linked?
I don’t know, but it seems to me that I would much rather head out each day with the concepts of love and sandpits and friends filling my brain. The thought that when I practise my selling skills I walk away either with some income or with some education, and both are good. And I walk away with a friend. That’s fun, ennobling, and fulfilling.
If each sales meeting is a confrontation that I must win at all costs then I feel like a school bully. And I imagine that the person I am selling to feels like I felt as I stood at a primary school urinal while a giant from Standard 5 peed down the back of my legs. Now that I think about it I hope he did not go into sales.
Frankly, I froze up in public conveniences for years.
Maybe that’s why the person you are trying to sell to, selling an answer that really can improve his life, is as hesitant as he is. It isn’t because he’s an idiot. Maybe his legs are still damp from meeting your competitor yesterday?
I started down this self-employment odyssey in October 1984. During the thirty years since then I have spent just three months as an employee. I think that that the fun approach is, well, a life worth living.