Category: Wanderings

We are all salesmen

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Harish Salve, arguably one of the top lawyers in India, recently won a landmark case. In an excellent article on the case, a quote from him grabbed my attention: “If you are a good lawyer, you are a salesman of ideas”.

These are words of wisdom from the master of an art. They made me think of something that has been at the back of my mind ever since I started following Seth Godin, a marketing guru who’s blog regularly reaches over 1 million readers. He writes about marketing, of course, but what surprises me is that a lot of what he writes is relevant to many of us.

There is a good reason for feeling that. The fact of the matter is that we are all salesmen. We live in a world where we sell ourselves, our ideas, our thoughts, and our desires to some one else everyday. We try to convince others to look at the world from our view point. We pitch our ideas to our bosses. We attempt to sell the work we’ve done for monetary or non-monetary benefits. At home, we sell the idea of holiday to our kids or we try to convince the missus to let go off that gold chain. All of us we are out there in the business of selling something or the other.

Salesman, really?

Selling as a profession evokes a sense of low esteem. We think salesmen are people who don’t need to do anything new. Their job is to sell someone else’s work and that is the reason we attach a negative connotation to the profession. For example, in India, the profession is associated with door-to-door salesmen who annoy house owners.

We need to get rid of this notion. Selling, your work or even someone else’s, is an art. It requires innovation, the ability to grasp quickly and to respond adequately.

In the hyperconnected world, we are all competing for attention (mostly from those who will benefit us). Sure, we have more people to sell to but there are more people selling to the same people. Selling well becomes even more important than it has been in the past.

Picture credit: Tommy Schultz

The two things about any subject

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Stranger in the bar said, “For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.”

Difficult as it may be to accept, it might be true. Whether it is true or not doesn’t matter so much because I think the exercise of boiling down a subject to two sentences is tremendously valuable.

Glen Whitman, an economist who has compiled a list of two things ever since he met the stranger in the bar, says, “The “two-ness” is crucial. Three things wouldn’t demand such disciplined thinking; one thing wouldn’t give a truthful picture.”

The list hasn’t been updated for quite sometime.

Tired of the American Dream

Akshat Rathi1 Comment

I have come to find joy in change. Among the changes, the one that gives me most pleasure is when something changes how I look at the world. Something that helps me align myself with reality. Not many things have that power, but Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers makes that list.

In it Gladwell argues that the story of success is not based on a few simple things that successful people did correctly. It has a lot to do with where they are from, what period they were born in, and how they came about finding their ‘art’.

He talks about the 10,000-hour rule which is based on some academic studies. He finds those who are exceptionally good at what they do, have spent more than 10,000 hours doing it.

Although, as the title suggests, Gladwell writes about successful people who lie outside what is statistically plausible. Researchers find that mere number of hours don’t lead to desired outcome. You need to put in the hours and develop a strategy to ensure that you are improving every hour. This is why I feel that the American dream is a bad nightmare.

Actually, you’ve just woken up to reality.

The version of the American Dream that I am attacking is this one: It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from and what you’ve done in your past life, if you want to succeed at something (anything) then all you need to do is work hard to get there.

It’s mistaken to believe that only hard work will bring you success. It might enable you to become good at something. You may get recognised (in some way) for the work you do, but “success”, as most people define it, is different. That success is often based on public adulation of some sort.

Instead, what research shows is that all one can hope to do is take tiny steps in the right direction, where you improve at each step. Whether that leads to success isn’t something that can be predicted. The factors involved in such a prediction are too many to be aware of and most of them are beyond control.

People seem to believe that they have a lot more control on their lives than they really do. It’s this false hope that the American Dream gives people which is most worrying.

The illusion of control

Another book that changed how I look at the world is Leonard Mlodinow’s Drunkard’s Walk. The thesis he puts forth is simple – randomness rules our lives. As much as we’d like, there is a lot of truth in it. He is not saying that you don’t play a role in your life. It’s just that the role you play is very limited. A lot of things just happen to you. (PS: Harsha Bhogle admits it.)

This should in no way ‘demotivate’ you. Instead, it should motivate you more because, if you care enough, then you can find the few things that you really have control over. And once you find them, you should do all you can to influence them in your favour.

Accepting that randomness plays a vital role in your life only helps you to align with reality. It equips you to deal with the illusion of control and face the world more confidently. Swallowing this pill might be hard, but it’s worth a lot more than the pain.

Picture credit: Reuters