When I Realized I Had to Learn the Most Important Skill to Succeed

When I Realized I Had to Learn the Most Important Skill to Succeed

People don’t believe me when I tell them I was a quiet little workaholic in my 20’s.

Well, they believe the workaholic part… but never the quiet part.

I was afraid of everything.

And worked so hard to overcompensate for all these fears.

I worked the longest so no one would think I was lazy.

I worked the hardest so everyone would see me as a dependable “result dispenser”.

I made sure I always had a solution since I wanted you to always know that I worked smart.

But I never told anyone I worked the longest, or the hardest or the smartest.

I just did it.

And I expected my boss, co-workers and other managers to see that, well, I was rocking it… and recognize me.

And they didn’t. 

Well, they sort of didn’t…..

When there was additional work to be done, I was always “recognized” (you know that feeling, eh?).

And when there was a promotion available, I was not always recognized.

#insertsadlisaface

I am not saying the person who got the promotion didn’t always earn it on their own merits (sometimes they didn’t deserve it, but other times it was a deserving person)…

But whether the person did or didn’t deserve the promotion wasn’t the issue.

The issue is that it could have been me.

If I had spoken up about my wins…my working smart, hard and long hours… results I brought… that promotion could have been mine…

But I didn’t speak up…and the promotion was not mine.

I was about 27-28 years old when I realized this.

I realized I had to learn how to sell my abilities and influence others to my point of view…no matter what I decided to do in life, I had to learn this…

I had to learn to sell….

I realized, then and there, I could not depend on other people selling me…even if they believed in me…

Even if I did not stay in sales my entire life, I had to learn how to sell someone on my ideas, on hiring me, on joining my team, on giving me funding, on my way of doing something.

I realized sales was a life skill.

So I took a job where I had to learn how to sell or I’d get fired.

I took a job as a commission-based recruiter in a bullpen office environment with just me, my phone, and a computer at my desk.

With my desk up against 20+ other desks with other recruiters making calls from 8am-6pm.

Me—shy, people-pleaser, do-what-you-ask-to-make-you-happy girl sitting in a bullpen with mostly aggressive recruiter dudes (and a few aggressive chicks) in a Wall Street financial recruitment office.

And if I wasn’t making calls, everyone saw it.

And if I sounded like an idiot on the call, everyone heard it.

And if I did not make my numbers, I would not have the honor of dialing for dollars at my desk with my phone and computer any longer.

There were some days I swore I was on the brink of tears.

But I would not cry in front of the recruiter dudes and chicks (I would save that for the short, infrequent bathroom trips). I was going to learn how to sell, damn it!

“I can do this,” I would say to myself…

And I would listen to people make calls. I would listen to sales tapes. I would write my scripts over and over until I was comfortable using the tactics in my words.

And I sold… I sold my face off…

And I got promoted – 4 times in the next 9-1/2 years – maybe even 5 if you count the time I did 2 jobs simultaneously for 7 months until others were hired.

Promotions (and subsequent new jobs) happened not because I never stopped working harder, smarter or longer than anyone else…

Promotions  (and new jobs) happened because I sold myself…I worked my network to get opportunities to sell myself.

I depended on my network for introductions, but I never depended on them to sell me.

I sell me.

And now I teach people how to sell themselves and how to create opportunities to sell themselves.

No matter where you are in life, if you can learn how to sell you, you will create demand for yourself…always

Let me teach you how to sell you: https://chameleonresumes.com/ghf

Lisa Rangel – Executive Resume Writing Services

Chameleon Resumes