The vibrant & professional sales team at Merck
Sharp & Dohme (I.A.) Corp!
We conducted an in-house, intensive, 2-day
workshop on Think On Your Feet(R) for
these sales professionals from Merck Sharp & Dohm.
Everyone had a fabulous time in learning all
the plans and structures that make up persuasive
presentation when under pressure. Of course, the
Raffles Convention Centre Chinese Restaurant
didn't fail to impress either, and it turned up a
palate pleasing, scrumptious range of delectable
food. I'm sure my waistline's grown a tad after that
visit!
Especially so if you're a durian lover - the
durian mousse is so good you'd want to go back for
seconds!
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This month, I include an article from The
Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn
(Excepted from the book The Five Major Pieces to
the Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn)
"Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do
not
fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of
an
accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To
put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few
errors in judgment repeated every day.
Now why would someone make an error in
judgment
and then be so foolish as to repeat it every
day? The
answer is because he or she does not think that it
matters.
On their own, our daily acts do not seem that
important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or
a
wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant
and measurable impact. More often than not, we
escape from any immediate consequences of our
deeds.
If we have not bothered to read a single book in
the
past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not
seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And
since nothing drastic happened to us after the first
ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for
another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why?
Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies
the great danger. Far worse than not reading the
books is not even realizing that it matters!
Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are
contributing to a future health problem, but the
joy
of the moment overshadows the consequence of the
future. It does not seem to matter. Those who
smoke too much or drink too much go on making
these poor choices year after year after year...
because it doesn't seem to matter.
But the pain and
regret of these errors in judgment have only
been
delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom
instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable
day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be
paid for our poor choices - choices that didn't seem
to matter.
Failure's most dangerous attribute is its
subtlety. In
the short term those little errors don't seem to make
any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact,
sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment
occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity
in our lives.
Since nothing terrible happens to us, since
there are no instant consequences to capture
our attention, we simply drift from one day to the
next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong
thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making
the wrong choices.
The sky did not fall in on us
yesterday; therefore the act was probably
harmless.
Since it seemed to have no measurable
consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.
But we must become better educated than that!
If at the end of the day when we made our first
error
in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we
undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to
ensure that the act would never be repeated again.
Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner
despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an
instantaneous experience accompanying our error in
judgment.
Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its
warnings
as our parents once did. This is why it is
imperative
to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make
better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy
guiding our every step, we become more aware of
our errors in judgment and more aware that each
error really does matter.
Now here is the great news. Just like the
formula for
failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's
a few simple disciplines practiced every day.
Now here is an interesting question worth
pondering: How can we change the errors in the
formula for
failure into the disciplines required in the formula for
success? The answer is by making the future an
important part of our current philosophy.
Both success and failure involve future
consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or
unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If
this is true, why don't more people take time to
ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so
caught up in the current moment that it doesn't
seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of
today are so absorbing to some human beings that
they never pause long enough to think about
tomorrow.
But what if we did develop a new discipline to
take
just a few minutes every day to look a little
further
down the road? We would then be able to foresee
the impending consequences of our current conduct.
Armed with that valuable information, we would be
able to take the necessary action to change our
errors into new success-oriented disciplines.
In other
words, by disciplining ourselves to see the
future in
advance, we would be able to change our thinking,
amend our errors and develop new habits to replace
the old.
One of the exciting things about the formula for
success - a few simple disciplines practiced
every
day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we
voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines,
we experience positive results in a very short period
of time. When we change our diet, our health
improves noticeably in just a few weeks.
When we
start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost
immediately. When we begin reading, we
experience
a growing awareness and a new level of self-
confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to
practice daily will produce exciting results that will
drive us to become even better at developing new
disciplines.
The real magic of new disciplines is that they will
cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to
start
today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the
classes, listen more and observe more, then today
would be the first day of a new life leading to a
better future.
If we were to start today to try
harder, and in every way make a conscious and
consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors
into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would
never again settle for a life of existence - not once
we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!"
