Robert D. Smith

Nearly 40 years ago, I learned the one business lesson that became the foundation of every success I’ve ever enjoyed.

I was out of college for the summer and working as a door-to-door educational material salesman for the Southwestern Company. Believe me when I tell you that there is no better introduction to the feeling of rejection than having a door slammed in your face over…and over…and over again.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

Warren Buffett, American investment entrepreneur

Golf ball. Just short.

Last week at the Players Championship, Tiger Woods played 275 shots over 4 days. He won by only 2 strokes over 3 other world class golfers. That means he was less than 3/4% better. He only played 1 in 137 shots better than the others. He only had to play 2% better than the next 13 other golfers to win. He walked away with $1.7M. They got $709K down to $237K. But, what if golf was like sales? What if no one got paid for second place? 77 golfers got paid that day. In sales, 76 would have gone home empty handed.

Universal Problem…

As I’ve been invited to speak and work with companies over the past two decades, one of the reoccurring thorns in the side of every executive is the difficulty in forecasting accurately.

59% the percentage Bloomberg reported of the S&P 500 companies who missed their sales forecast in Q3:2012.

Reality (in business) is often looking in the mirror but wearing an invisibility cloak. We look straight past our current situation without seeing what we’re doing in our daily role. Because we’re invisible (going through the motions), we often miss what’s really going on.

This story is specific but in reality it’s more common than not across all enterprises.

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