A book called Art and Fear shows how failure is tied to learning. A ceramics teacher divided his class into two groups. One group would be graded solely on quantity of work - fifty pounds of pottery would be an "A", forty would be a "B" and so on. The other group would be graded on quality. Students in that group had to produce only one pot - but it had better be good.
Amazingly, all the highest quality pots were turned out by the quantity group. It seems that while the quantity group kept churning out pots, they were continually learning from their disasters and growing as artists. The quality group sat around and planned and theorized about perfection - and worrying about it - but they never actually got any better.
It appears that trying and failing, learning from failure, and trying again works a lot better that waiting for perfection. No pot, no matter how misshapen, is really a failure. Each is just another step on the road to an "A".
In the field of selling, continual education and training are vital to being among the best, but Top Guns don't obsess about perfect scripts and presentations before they act. They know that there is no perfection, only progression. Make the calls, set the appointments - with each call and each appointment, you can learn something of value to make you better and more effective. Focus more on quantity and learn from your mistakes, and watch your quality continually improve.
Jeffrey VanCleve
www.jlsmarketingconceptsltd.com
