Sales Success is all About Personal Responsibility

Bad things happen to good people. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that your results in life and business are far more likely to be a reflection of what you decide to do about the bad things that happen in your life, rather than a reflection of the bad things themselves.

It is your RESPONSIBILITY to make good decisions when bad things happen in your life and business. The good decision will create good results.

The truth is that everyone has problems in life. Everyone has money problems, health problems, relationship problems, work problems and INSERT YOUR PROBLEM HERE problems.

Dr. M. Scott Peck began his landmark book, The Road Less Travelled, with the simple truth that “Life is difficult.” Everybody has difficulties along the way. Nobody gets out of this deal alive. Everybody has challenges.

The question is not whether or not you are going to face obstacles in life and business, the question is, “What are you going to do about it?” Your decision about what to do with the problem will determine the outcome, not the problem itself.

Let me explain it this way:

When I was running amok and being a complete menace to society (and ending up in prison as a result) I used to think that I just had really bad luck. I always thought, “If I could just catch a lucky break things would be fine.” It never occurred to me that I was creating my own luck with the decisions I was making in my life.

I remember once being at the mall around Christmas time after I had been to prison. I saw a guy walking through the mall with his pretty little wife and his cute little kids. They were all smiles and giggles, and I just knew they had a nice little house with a white picket fence and puppies. 

I remember thinking, “If that guy had my problems and my luck he wouldn’t be so damn happy. If he had to walk a mile in my shoes he would know what it’s like to suffer.” It was all I could do not to walk over and wipe that smile off his face.

That’s how bitter and jealous and pathetic and miserable I was at that point in my life.

But you know what I learned later in life? Odds are that guy in the mall had problems too. Odds are that at some point in his life he had money problems or relationship problems or health problems.

The difference between me and him was not in the nature of our problems. The difference between me and him was in the nature of our decisions about how we would deal with our problems.

I’d be willing to bet that when that fellow had money problems he decided to get a second job, or work overtime or reduce his expenses. When I had money problems I decided to grab a gun and a bottle of whiskey. That was the only difference between us.

My life was a pathetic mess because of what I decided to do about my money problems. My life was a reflection of what I decided do about my money problems. It was not a reflection of having the money problem. Our lives are a reflection of what we decide to do about our problems. They are not a reflection of the problems.

Success in life and business is not a reflection of our problems. Success in life and business is a reflection of our decisions about our problems. Our decision are 100% our responsibility.