How I Raised Myself From Failure

by Frank Bettger

Dale Carnegie than gave our class a stirring talk on the power of enthusiasm. He got so excited during his talk, he threw a chair up against the wall and broke off one of its legs.

I would not want to give anybody the impression that I think enthusiasm consists of fist-pounding … but if fist-pounding is what you need to arouse yourself inside, then I am overwhelmingly for it. I know this: When I force myself to act enthusiastic, I soon feel enthusiastic.

Stanley Gettis repeated a poem almost every morning for twenty years. He found that repeating it helped him generate enthusiasm for the day.

It was written by Herbert Kauffman and has a good title … VICTORY You are the man who used to boast That you…d achieve the uttermost, Some day. You merely wished a show, To demonstrate how much you know And prove the distance you can go…. Another year we’ve just passed through. What new ideas came to you? How many big things did you do? Time … left twelve fresh months in your care How many of them did you share With opportunity and dare Again where you so often missed? We do not find you on the list of Makers Good. Explain the fact! Ah no, ’twas not the chance you lacked! As usual—you failed to act!

“Yes, more than enthusiasm,” said Chrysler, “I would say excitement. I like to see men get excited. When they get excited, they get customers excited, and we get business.”

Without records, we have no way of knowing what we are doing wrong. I can get more inspiration out of studying my own records, than anything I can read in a magazine.

In a way this is similar to mind mapping - engaging other types of intelligence, visual in case of mind mapping, to process and solve tasks otherwise limited to the more abstract logical intelligence.

The best way I ever found to help overcome fear and rapidly develop courage and self-confidence is by speaking before groups. I discovered that when I lost my fear of speaking to audiences, I lost my fear of talking to individuals, no matter how big and important they were. This training and experience in public speaking got me out of my shell, opened my eyes to my own possibilities, and widened my horizons.

Henry L. Doherty, the great industrialist, said: “I can hire men to do everything but two things, think, and do things in the order of their importance’”

the real answer is simply this: Take enough time to think and plan.

You are already living on a schedule. And, if it’s not a planned one, it’s probably a poor one.

don’t think anybody is cut out to be a salesman—or anything else. I think we’ve got to cut ourselves out to be whatever we want to be.”

Incremental vs entity theory - is it like height, which doesn't change, or like a muscle that needs practice.

“I read that Ben Franklin said that only a few men live to old age, and fewer still ever become successful who are not early risers. So I set my alarm clock an hour and a half earlier in the morning. An hour of that time I used for reading and study. Of course, I soon found myself going to bed earlier, but I thrived on it.”

Whatever success I’ve had in this business has been due to the fact that I refuse to allow anything or anybody to interfere with the schedule of the week which I devote every Friday to preparing.”

When you show a man what he wants, he’ll move heaven and earth to get it.

Ben Franklin’s prayer: O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to Thy other children as the only return in my power for Thy continual favors to me.

Elliott Hall’s questions had only one purpose: To help the other fellow recognize what he wants, and then help him decide how to get it.

His method of helping people to crystallize their thinking—with questions—continues to be without parallel in my experience.

What Is the Key Issue? Or, what is the major point of interest? Or, what is the most vulnerable point?

Never try to cover too many points; don’t obscure the main issue. Find out what it is; then stay right on the beam.

It is an unusual person who can go into an interview or conference or even make an important telephone call, and Remember points he wants to cover. Cover them in logical order. Be brief and stay on the main point.

if my memory fails me when interviewing people, I do not hesitate to pull out my card of key-word notes.

Do something startling, surprising. It is often necessary to arouse people and stir them to action for their own benefit.

I said to Mr. Booth: “Knowing what I do about the insurance business, if you were my own brother, I would tell you to take all those proposals and immediately throw them into that wastepaper basket!”

Arouse Fear. Basically, there are only two factors that move men to action: desire for gain, and fear of loss.

Create Confidence.

Be an Assistant Buyer.

Feeling this way, I didn’t hesitate to put all the enthusiasm and excitement I could command into what I said. That idea helped me to be absolutely fearless. The assistant-buyer attitude was such a definite help to me in that sale that I have kept right on through the years playing that role. I would urge any young man selling, or dealing with people, to become an assistant buyer. People don’t like to be sold. They like to buy.

“If you were my own brother, I’d say to you what I’m going to say to you now….” A powerful confidence-gainer, if you can use it with absolute sincerity.

Praise Your Competitors.

“I am in a position to do something for you this morning that no other living person can do for you.”

People are hungry for praise. People are starving for honest appreciation. But we don’t have to go overboard.

“They have confidence in you, if you live; but in the event of your death, they don’t have the same confidence in your company. Isn’t that right, Mr. Booth?”

Assume a Close.

I had used the word “you” or “yours” sixty-nine times in that short fifteen-minute interview.

See things from the other person’s point of view and talk in terms of his wants, needs, desires.

I realized this: If I had attempted to say exactly the same things without putting them in the form of questions, I’d have been kicked out in three minutes flat!

Putting my ideas in the form of questions showed him how I felt about what he should do, but at the same time kept him in the buyer’s seat. Each time he offered an objection or comment, I passed the ball right back to him with another question.

When he finally got up, took his hat and said: “Let’s go!” I know he felt that the idea was his.

“If it’s insurance you want to talk about, I’m not interested. I just bought more insurance about a month ago.”

“Mr. Allen, how did you ever happen to get started in the building construction business?” I listened for three hours.

Two weeks later, I presented a plan to him and his two associates for the perpetuation and protection of their business.

Never once have I felt that I’ve “sold” them anything. They’ve always “bought.” Instead of trying to give them the impression that I knew all the answers—as was my habit before I heard J. Elliott Hall—I made them give me the answers, largely by asking questions.

How can you get at the key issue? Encourage your prospect to talk. As soon as a man gives you four or five reasons why he won’t buy, and you try to argue each one, you aren’t going to sell him. If you just get him to keep on talking, he will help you sell him. Why? Because he will pick out of these four or five things, the one thing that is the most important, and stick to it. Sometimes, you don’t have to say a word. When he gets all through, come back to that one point. Usually, that’s the true one.

“Each time I talked price, he counted those trees. He sold me the eighteen trees … and threw in the house! “That is salesmanship. He listened until he found out what I wanted, and then sold it to me.”

by trial and error, I have found the thing to do is to agree with everything he says until I find out what is the real reason he isn’t buying.

In 62 percent of the cases, the original objection raised against buying was not the real reason at all. I found that only 38 percent of the time did the prospect give me the real reason for not buying.

“A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing—one that sounds good, and a real one.”

Franklin wrote these words in his famous autobiography: Considering that in conversation knowledge was obtained rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, I gave Silence second place among the virtues I determined to cultivate.

Dorothy Dix, one of the most widely read newspaper columnists in the world, was right when she wrote: “The shortcut to popularity is to lend everyone your ears, instead of giving them your tongue. There is nothing you can possibly say to an individual that would be half as interesting to him as the things he is dying to tell you about himself. And all you need, in order to get the reputation of being a fascinating companion, is to say: ’How wonderful! Do tell me some more.’ ” I no longer worry about being a brilliant conversationalist. I simply try to be a good listener. I notice that people who do that are usually welcome wherever they go.

find out what the other fellow wants, and then help him find the best way to get it.