Take Your Turn. Do You Ever Take Your Turn?

Business to Business Commentary by Kim Ades
Business to Business Commentary by Kim Ades

RISMEDIA, November 14, 2006?Taking your turn is one of the most powerful practices to affect success in sales. What it means is seeing an opportunity and going for it even when it may be uncomfortable, embarrassing or lead to terrible failure.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a book marketing conference and heard a story of just such an experience. The man’s name was Richard Paul Evans and one day he decided to write a story for his two daughters?it was called ?The Christmas Box. His wife loved the story so much that he had 20 copies printed to distribute to his brothers and sisters and other family members as gifts for the holiday season. A few weeks later, he started receiving phone calls from strangers telling him how much the book had touched them. The feedback was so overwhelmingly positive that he tried to get the book published?but no publisher was in the market for another Christmas book. So he decided to publish the book himself. He loaded his station wagon with books and went across the country from bookstore to bookstore peddling his little $5 book.

One day he decided to take a leap and buy a booth at a tradeshow held by the American Book Sellers Association. The cost of the booth was $400. He sat at his booth and nobody came. His frustration mounted until finally he stood up and went to find out where all the people were hiding. In the main hall, he observed an enormous table with famous authors assembled side-by-side greeting hungry fans waiting for a signature on their book. He then noticed something that would forever change the direction of his life?an empty seat at the table. It was in that moment that Richard Paul Evans took his turn. He returned to his booth, grabbed several boxes of his books, went back to the main hall and took the empty seat at the table. That event changed his life forever?he is now a best-selling author with more than 8 million books sold in both hard and soft copy worldwide.

Think about how many times you have shied away from taking your turn and ask yourself what you’ve gained as a result. Taking your turn requires blind faith, entering into the unknown with nervous excitement and all that can come from a single decision, the decision of the right turn…taking your turn. RE

Kim Ades is the president of Opening Doors, a company whose mission is to help service providers blow up their sales to the real estate industry. Kim can be reached at
tkim@openingdoors.tv.

Source: Real Estate magazine, November 2006