Can You Play Point?

I've been called a "master salesman." I hate that expression. It sells me short and doesn't define what I've done over forty years and do to this day. Once I learned what great salesmanship was about, I stopped selling. I learned that the more sales people worry about selling, the less they sell. The more they think about their own success, the less successful they are. Here's the secret to uncommon, remarkable sales performance: Your success will be in direct proportion to your effort to help other people be successful. It's about them, not you! This is not a spiritual doctrine but rather an observable phenomenon. The great sellers I know are devoted to, and focused on the success of their clients, bosses, colleagues and employees. And because they are, they become rich as an incidental, and automatic, by-product of that devotion. Listen, do you like basketball? What's the knock on Stephan Marbury, ex-point guard for the Knicks? Here's a guy that can score at will and yet what do guys who know the game say about Stephan? He's a point guard that doesn't make his teammates better. He's a selfish player only out for himself. And guess what he doesn't win. I'll bet he couldn't sell either. Good selling to you!