It's the People

This week my Sunday Seth tackles an issue that defines the top 2% from the other 98%.

People skills.

Fear of interaction.

Hiding behind a computer screen.

I never met my wife's Dad. He passed away before we met, but he was in sales and he was successful. I hear he was also a bit terrified some days.

That's okay. You and I can use that fear to our advantage and overcome it. Harness that energy, flip it over, turn it inside out and just change our attitude and deal with people.

After all, we're all just people.

Here's Seth Godin:

Sure, but what's the hard part?

Every project (product, play, event, company, venture, non profit) has a million tasks that need to be done, thousands of decisions, predictions, bits of effort, conversations and plans.

Got that.

But what's the hard part?

The CEO spends ten minutes discussing the layout of the office with the office manager. Why? Was that a difficult task that could only be done by her? Unlikely.

The founder of a restaurant spends hours at the cash register, taking orders and hurrying the line along... important, vital, emotional, but hard? Not if we think of hard as the chasm, the dividing line between success and failure. No, the hard part is raising two million dollars to build more stores. Hard is hiring someone better than you to do this part of the job.

Hard is not about sweat or time, hard is about finishing the rare, valuable, risky task that few complete.

Don't tell me you want to launch a line of spices but don't want to make sales calls to supermarket buyers. That's the hard part.

Don't tell me you are a great chef but can't deal with cranky customers. That's the hard part.

Don't tell me you have a good heart but don't want to raise money. That's the hard part.

Identifying which part of your project is hard is, paradoxically, not so easy, because we work to hide the hard parts. They frighten us.

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