The greatest self help-book of all times ?The Greatest Salesman in the World? was written by Og Mandino. He is probably the most famous for an anecdotal story he tells from one of his favorite books called ?Acres of Diamonds? written by Russell Herman Conwell which is known by just about every great salesmen or trainer alive today. Og Mandino invigorated the story just as every motivational guru has since. The ?Greatest Salesman in the World? sold over 40 million copies and was translated into 22 different languages. In ?Acres of Diamonds? the anecdotal story is told about an Arab guide, a man who wanted to find diamonds so badly that he sold all he possessed to go off in a futile mission to find them while the new owner of his home actually discovers that a rich diamond mine was located right there on the property originally owned by this Arab. If the Arab had gone just three feet more he would have found that diamond mine, he would have found the diamonds in his own back yard if he had looked a little harder and not given up so easily. Instead he lost his enthusiasm and looked for greener pastures elsewhere. There are a lot of lessons in that story, but the chief one is the idea about not giving up.



Abraham Lincoln spoke also about not giving up. He said "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." Easier said than done, right? Nevertheless this is a truism, one of those natural laws of the universe I speak so much about. The fact is we are here in this life on this planet to learn. Earth is our school set up to develop our talents, and teach us how to acquire skills we need to live and love one another. How we go about that is truly our unique path in life, but one of the lessons we are bound to run into is the one where our resolve is tested. Will we give up or press on?

The fact is so many of us do give up. Consider the ratio of business failures to start-ups. Consider that over 50% of marriages fail in divorce. Consider the rate of drop-outs to graduates. It is a glaring truth that we as humans do give up more than we should. Above all that is the amazing comparison to the anecdote that is we had just hung in there a little longer we would have made a success of our endeavor

We all have weaknesses to work on. This one quite frankly is so wide spread we might as well say that we should all pay attention to not giving up. In Lincoln's quote we find an important tidbit of information that could help us. He said, ?Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.? First recognize that failures are part of the game. Learn to embrace failure to failure. You must fail to learn. In the movie ?Batman Begins? young Bruce Wayne is asked by his father, ?Why do we fall son?? The answer is, ?So we can learn how to get up.? In sales we all learn it's a numbers game. Your victories, those things you call closes are based on how many successful appointments you get, which in turn is based on how many calls you make, which is based on how many leads you get. It's all a numbers game. You know as sure as the sum rises that you will have 10 sales if you can get 20 appointments. You need 100 calls to get 25 appointments. It's a numbers game, So is everything in life. Learning how to recover is a lesson all its own. Eventually you can get up and smile and take on the world again with enthusiasm. That is the meaning in the message today. Be empowered and learn to fall and get up again. Learn to go from fall to fall and maintain your enthusiasm. Don't let anyone get you discouraged.