Do You Follow the Leader?

Okay, I know that sounds a little crazy, but I was just read something on LinkedIn and it made me think about this.

If we choose our leaders wisely, it's a great idea to do what they do, because that can lead you to what they have.

If you want to be the best salesperson in your company, you need to know who holds that position today, learn what that person did to achieve the lead position, and then follow they path they followed. I don't know that I have followed this advice very well myself, but I heard it long ago on a Zig Ziglar tape.

At the time Zig was not doing well as a salesperson in his company and one day the best salesman happened by and said "Zig, I have never seen so much wasted talent as I do in you!" Can you imagine your hero, the person you look up to making such a statement? How depressing would that be? It would definitely be an eye opener.

We frequently make the mistake of spending time and following the lead of the wrong people. If we want to have success, we need to talk to those that are achieving success, not those that are lamenting being unsuccessful. The unsuccessful person associates success with luck; successful people may say the same, but upon further investigation we find that it wasn't luck, it was hard, specific work that allowed them to achieve their success.

To achieve the same success you need to emulate the actions and do the things successful people do.

So here are the steps:

1. Identify the person that has or is what you want to be.
2. Find out what that person did and copy, copy, copy, and copy some more.
3. Don't waste your time with negative people that do not share or encourage your goal.

Happy Networking!