Commitment and consistency…

 

I came across a 2017 speech by Denzel Washington - on YouTube of course 😊  He offered compelling words to the next generation in his industry aka the young people:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBGb40yh4SY).  A few of his statements stood out to me: 

…without commitment you’ll never start…  without consistency, you’ll never finish… 

It made me think about the next generation of technology sales professionals aka the young people.  My company has literally “bet the ranch” on the selling capabilities of our next generation of sellers.  Commitment and consistency will certainly be key elements in their (and our) success. 

I was part of said “next generation”  once - three generations ago LOL!  Throughout my career for myself and for those I have led, managed, mentored, and coached I developed my own “philosophy”: 

            Adversity clarifies commitment 

I took Denzel’s comments about consistency to mean that working at our profession is a career-long requirement.  Working begets consistency; consistency begets opportunities to finish our career; and adversity hardens us for the realities of ups and downs.  Denzel put it this way: 

            Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. 

If we find ourselves in an “easy” job, that may mean something’s wrong.  I’ve seen too many people throughout my career “switch to glide”.  Either because they feel they’ve mastered their trade or worse, they lose the motivation they had in the beginning.  To keep progressing and succeeding requires we avoid that common “off ramp”:

I once heard someone joke that the road to success is marked with many tempting parking places. 

Harvey Mackay 

Knowing how hard success can be to come by, consistent success is certainly an achievement to be proud of.  I have spoken often about the power of process I learned from a boys’ high school cross country coach in my hometown of Elmhurst, Illinois.  

I didn’t run cross country, but I studied the success of Joe Newton’s York High School teams over the course of 40 years.  It wasn’t his athletes -  he turned over 25% of his runners every year; 100% every 4 years through graduation.  There was something else he did to achieve these amazing results between 1961 and 2000: 

t  Dual meet winning percentage (York vs. one opponent); York won 94% of those meets;      94%!

t  Conference championships (York vs.8-10 other high schools); York won 37 out of 40 years

t  State of Illinois race performance (York vs. all high school teams in Illinois)- York’s results;

Ø  State championships      21 out of 40 years

Ø  State runner-up          10 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 5 finishes     37 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 10 finishes    39 out of 40 years

t  National competition* - York’s results;          

Ø  National championships   20 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 3 finishes     33 out of 40 years    

* As recorded by the “Cross Country US Postal” organization and including more than 10,100 high schools throughout the USA. 

Something else indeed. 

Finally, Denzel cited the Japanese Proverb: 

            Fall down seven times.  Stand up eight. 

I can personally attest to this.  Although beginning without experience, throughout my career I have remained committed, coachable, and tough enough to make it through all of the falling down and standing up parts.

As I witness the passing of my sales profession on to the next generation  of “up and comers”, Denzel’s advice on commitment, hard work and consistency resonated with me.  I hope it does with them, too. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.