Power of Choice – Charles Marshall
Toward the beginning of my speaking career, my main marketing method was telemarketing. Back in those days, I sat at my desk for hours each day making call after call in an attempt to drum up business. If you wanted to get someone’s attention in the days before the Internet, you had to pick up the phone or write a letter.
So, day in and day out I would call businesses, churches, or non-profit organizations and ask to speak to the person in charge. After I got him or her on the line, I would begin pitching the idea of hosting me for one of their events or gatherings.
Over the years, I made thousands of these calls and by doing so, got an education that money can’t buy. The lessons I learned and the discipline I built making all those calls are invaluable to me now.
Out of all of those phone calls, one sticks out in my memory as especially relevant to the Power of Choice. I was talking on the phone with a friend who was an Ohio businessman, telling him about a particular employee of mine. I complained that she never seemed to follow my direction and that I was constantly having to bring her back on course. When left on her own, she would do almost anything but what I had instructed her to do.
My friend patiently listened to my whining and then chuckled and said, “Well, Charles, if you don’t run your business, someone else will.”
I’ve since come to realize the truth of those words and learn that they apply to not only business but every area of one’s life. If you are not consciously making decisions about your marriage, career, finances, family, living arrangements, or health, you can bet someone else is now, or shortly will be, making those decisions for you.
Excerpted from The Seven Powers of Success; Unlock Your Strengths, Unleash Your Dreams. www.charlesmarshall.net © 2013 Charles Marshall
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