Hey, welcome to another Friday Fast Tip. Today's topic is something that seems to have come up a few places recently and I don't like to ignore a karmic message and try to outsmart it. So, here's today's topic - What happens at eight o'clock does not matter at ten o'clock, particularly if you're in business development.
So often I hear people say "I'm having a bad day", "I don't know if I should make my calls" or "I don't know if I should call this client because I'm not having the right day, the right vibe, the right feeling, I'm just not at the top of my game". Well, frankly, too bad. That's just the way it is. Your eight o'clock performance, whatever it was, maybe you thought you were going to pick up the biggest purchase order of the year and the prospect just didn't come through the way you expected. Maybe you had a minor fender bender on the way to the office, or on the way to your first call of the day. What happened at eight o'clock happened at eight o'clock. It doesn't matter anymore when 10 o'clock rolls around. I really want to remind you that a bad day is just nothing more than a bad choice. You have, not just the opportunity, but the responsibility to manage your personal attitude 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Remember this, no one should ever be empowered to make you feel any way that you don't want to feel. So your decision to declare it a "bad day" are "not the right day" to go do the work you have to do, that's just a bad choice, and you've got to change it.
The next thing I've got to tell you is frankly, nobody cares about your troubles. We all have our own. I've got my troubles, my wife has her troubles, my daughters have their troubles, all my other clients have their troubles. And they're really not walking around looking for someone else to dump their bucket of woe in their lap. So, keep your personal problems to yourself. Don't make them an excuse for creating an interaction that's inappropriate and unprofessional with someone you're trying to do business with. Keep your cares and your problems and your troubles to yourself. Nobody signed up to be part of your personal pity party.
The last thing you've got to remember about eight o'clock and the 10 o'clock, the current audience always expects your best performance. Can you imagine if you went to see a matinee show, and the star of the show had a lousy show at 1pm and then came out at seven o'clock and said, "Hey, I just want to let you know you paid a boatload of money for these tickets, but I had a lousy show at one o'clock so don't expect much in the way of a performance for me". You get up and walk out after you threw a rotten tomato at the person.
Whoever you're in front of give them your best. Turn off all the emotion of the other things that are going on in your life that just did happen or are about to happen and give that person your full focus and undivided attention. Be the best listener, be the best nurturer, and give that person the performance they expected when they made time for you on their calendar. Don't cheat them because you can't manage your emotions.
So that's the deal, folks. What happens at eight o'clock should never impact what happens at ten o'clock, one o'clock, three o'clock, or worse yet, when you get home and you've got to spend time and attention on the people that love you and you love the most. Thanks for listening! Way to go everybody, go make money.
