My motivational touchstone

Whenever I think about sales motivation, I remember a chance meeting at a networking event years ago. A stranger handed me his business card. When I glanced at it, I was surprised to see that it didn’t have the standard name, company and contact info. Instead the card said simply, “Never believe in never! — Robert H. Schuller”

When I commented that his card wasn’t at all what I was expecting, he just smiled and said the message was more important than his mundane contact information. We chatted briefly and he disappeared into the crowd. I never saw him again.

How it’s impacted my life

The man I met wasn’t actually Robert H. Schuller. He was merely sharing the message of this popular televangelist. But this business card had a huge impact on my life. When I got back to the office, I tacked it up on the wall in front of my phone. Every day I stared at it, and soon the message wormed its way into my thinking: Never believe in never!

Instead of letting myself get down when I faced a tough situation, I accepted reality. Where I was at any given moment in time was simply my new starting point. I might have been behind, but that didn’t mean I had to stay there. The roadblocks were simply challenges, not obstacles that could never be overcome.