TJ Walker quit a vacuum sales job after three days because he didn't believe in the product, then switched to pond cleaning instead. He argues that genuine passion for what you're selling or presenting makes communication and sales far easier than faking it.
Chapters
This is a story I don't know if I've ever told anyone. It's so embarrassing. In college, I already thought of myself as a strong communicator. I was a commentator for my college TV station, a commentator for my college radio station. I wrote columns for the student newspaper. I had run for student government and been in student government and given speeches and presentations. I certainly thought of myself a good, strong communicator. And I was looking for a summer job. And I thought, how can I really use my communication skills to make money, make my parents happy, make my dad not upset with me, and be able to pay for some of my college and so have my at least spending money. So a couple of people say, you should be in sales. You'll make more money. I was like, great. So I saw an ad in the newspaper and it was a sales position. I went there, I was trained, very intensive training, charismatic training, instructor, sales trainer. And I was so excited. And I brought the item to be sold home, gave the demonstration to my mother, who was very impressed, gave the presentation to my next door neighbor, who was very impressed. Nobody bought anything. It was a Kirby vacuum. Now, it certainly seemed to me then and now that it's a fine vacuum, but guess what? I don't care anything about vacuum cleaners. I was one of the world's worst vacuum cleaner salesmen. It just didn't work out. I had no passion for. Didn't interest me at all. And the idea of going from home to home to home, barging in, asking people for favors to take up their time, leaving with nothing, potentially working all day long and making nothing, that just wasn't something I could do. So I quit that job after three days. You know what I did that summer? I cleaned out pond scum from ponds in industrial office parks. Not glamorous at all. And I think I made about $3.75 an hour. But it was something consistent in retrospect. You could make the case, maybe I would have been better off muscling it out and maybe could have made more money selling vacuum cleaners. But I didn't want one. Two, I had no passion for it. And that's my real message to you, which is, if you want to be good as a presenter, you've got to believe in what it is you're talking about. Whether you're literally selling something like a vacuum cleaner or whether you're selling an idea, whether you're running for office, whether you're trying to get approval for new zoning, whatever it is you're doing. At some point, you have to care about it. Now, there can be varying degrees of caring, but if you have literally no interest in the subject matter or the product you're selling, it's going to be virtually impossible for you to be good at it unless you have extreme motivation. If you've got 10 children, they're all going to starve to death if you don't bring home money. That could be motivation. As a college student, I didn't have that motivation. So my advice to you is there's a million billion things you can sell. Products, services, policies, beliefs, campaigns. Find one you care about and it's going to be a lot easier for you to be successful at presenting it and selling it.
