Envy’s a Good Thing (6/24/14)

I watched a video on YouTube by a Toastmaster named Darren LaCroix. Darren won the highest honor a speaker in Toastmasters can earn, the World Championship of Public Speaking. It’s a speaking competition held annually where every Toastmaster has an equal opportunity to compete for the right to be the organization’s top speaker.

Previous World Champions are all held in reverence. I guess you can say that those who haven’t hoisted it yet have trophy envy. However, Darren will be the first to tell you not to envy the trophy. Instead in this video Darren walks you into his closet and shows you mountains of videos and foothills of audio tapes from every presentation he had ever given. “Envy this (collection of audio and video files) don’t envy this (trophy).”

In sales a little bit of envy from your competition is a good thing. It means you are getting results. Like Darren I’m in the process of collecting my own closet of AV files, but I’m just calling it a book tour. No one is envious of me right now, but if I achieve the results I’m anticipating that will change. However, like Darren I say don’t envy the title envy that closet and the qualities it took to fill that closet. Those qualities are the true enviable part because those qualities are what permit you to achieve whatever you set your mind to.