My life’s not your life

 

NBA great Kobe Bryant said that he can’t talk his kids into hard work…he could only show them.

Michael Strahan echoed Kobe…

At 36 years old Strahan had retired from the NFL was a Hall of Fame inductee but, even though he was successful, he still shows his children that he works hard working multiple jobs and not resting on his accomplishments.

Strahan stresses, “My life is not your life. You will have privileges that many children your age don’t, but you’ve still got to create a name for yourself…”

His children don’t have permission to adopt his success, they have to create their own.

And this isn’t just about privilege, it’s about poverty too. Just because you grew up without the advantages of others- you lived in a bad neighborhood, had drug addicted parents, or were raised by others, it doesn’t give you permission to take their life & adopt it as your own.

Privilege or Poverty you don’t have permission to ride the backs of other’s accomplishments nor do you have permission to accept your past as your destiny.

You have to create a name for yourself. It requires struggle, failure, & tension because it’s your fight…your life.

Stay in The Sales Life 💪

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“You can’t do what I do…”

Hall of Fame NFL football player Micheal Strahan was on a radio talk show & found himself being humiliated by the host while on the air. Strahan was so embarrassed that he vowed to never come back on that show, but as fate would have it, the two met face to face again on a different show.

Strahan, matter of factly, set the record straight. “You can’t do what I do…” he told the shock jock. “I can do what you do…but you can’t do what I do. Like you, I can have a conversation on radio and tv in front of the lights & audience…but you can’t put on the pads and be one of the best in the world…”

From that point on, when others piss or try to put Strahan down, he psychologically frees himself up by whispering to himself, “You can’t do what I do…”

I worked with a guy like that…

For nearly two decades we worked together. He wore custom suits, Presidential Rolex, $300 dress shirts, drove baller cars…& always seemed to squirm his way out of his double life being found out.

He was in the room when I got demoted…

I remember the smirk he had on his face when I looked at him with tears in my eyes.

Back on the bottom rung he avoided all contact with me. While I struggled to relearn a department I’d left 17 yrs ago, he’d flaunted and gloated the fact that he was untouchable while I sank lower & lower.

My turning point came one night when we were closing up-everyone had left for the night & it was just him & me. “Lock me in because I still have to clean these deals up I told him…”

Right then that was my mantra, “You can’t do what I do…”

His identity was in his title & things he possessed. Me?…I’d been stripped of everything. I lost my family, home, income, and a position I’d given my all to possess.

I realized he couldn’t lose it all & be strong enough to climb out & up. Had he gone what I’d been through, he’d probably put a bullet in his mouth.

That’s what freed me up…”You can’t do what I do.”

Though tragic, I now had the unique advantage of being able to work every department in sales. Don’t get me wrong, even though I had decades of experience, I performed like a rookie because I had to relearn everything in that department again.

I was determined to take every deal…work long after others left to figure it all out and not only survive but excel. What others didn’t want to do, I took on.

As I got myself back together spiritually, emotionally, & physically, the same smirk he gave me when I got demoted, was the same smirk I gave him as I passed him in the hallway & in life.

He was playing to a title…I was playing to another level.

The people who try to keep you down- who flaunt, gloat, & are fooling everyone EXCEPT you?

Let them be…

“You can’t do what I do…”

Eventually everything caught up to that guy & he ended up getting fired.

I’d long let him go- not for him, but for me.

Those kinds of people aren’t the ones holding you down…you’re the one holding you down, because you’re holding on to them.

Free yourself up. Wink & grow while they gloat because…

“You can’t do what I do.”

Stay in The Sales Life 💪

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“Go ahead…”

Wally didn’t feel like playing the baseball game that day so he said, “Go ahead & let the other guy play…”

The problem for Wally is that the other kid never gave his Wally his position back.

You’ve probably never hear of Wally Pipp, but you’ve probably heard of Lou Gehrig…

For 56 years Lou Gehrig held the record for most consecutive games played.

This message is 2 fold:

If you’re deep on the depth chart today…even if it looks like there’s no way anything’s going to open up for you…

Play, practice, & prepare like you’re a starter because you never when that “1 opportunity” turns your whole life around.

When you hear, “Go ahead,” you play in such a way to never give that position up.

& if you’re in the lead position, don’t ever think that you can’t be dethroned.

Every opportunity counts…every customer counts…every situation counts…

Because all it takes is for you to “not feel like it,” & say, “Go ahead…”

That’s the day you fall…& the moment they rise.

“Go ahead,” is not a command it’s a mindset & if you say it once, you’ll say it anytime “you don’t feel like it.”

Opportunities exist for you…but they exist for others too…

Especially when you say, “Go ahead…”

Instead say, “I got it…”

Stay in The Sales Life 💪

(Thanks to Michael Strahan’s book for the inspiration for this post)