Jun
27
What’s Your Number?
I joined this industry for the second time on March 3, 2003. It was a Monday. I was just back in Atlanta after spending 10 days snowboarding in Park City, Utah. I was doing my best to burn up my paid vacation days as I was about to start looking for a different job. My company had rewarded my consistent and disciplined performance by giving me a pay cut and an attaboy! In hindsight, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I was promised a promotion in October and when the new year rolled around, I received a pay cut in the form of a promotion.
The “promotion” changed my title from Major Account Executive to Manager of Major Accounts. Well… not only did my title change but my huge promotion effectively lowered my pay by 1/3 and raised my quota by 1/3. I was told I should consider myself “lucky” that I still had a job. Hadn’t I just seen my VP, GM and Sales Manager all get fired from flattening out middle management? Yes, but I was a producer, I argued. My new boss was my sales engineer and we were pretty tight. This was a hard pill for him to swallow as he delivered it to me. I’m sure he saw the wind leaving my sails as he delivered the news. As I walked out of his office, I was devastated. This was my reward for being a “Top 3” sales executive and always blowing my quota out of the water? I had won the trips and the prizes and the extra stock options (golden handcuffs) and then it occurred to me… I was just a number to the three-letter telecom giant.
I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to use my well deserved vacation days on a snowboarding trip having fun and living life without limits and upon my return begin searching for a new job. My fiancée Leslie (now my wife) and I went to Park City with her brother and his wife. He was in network marketing full time and was the guy that had signed me up in “one of those things” back in ’98. While we were in Park City (unbeknownst to me) he was dripping all over me. He wasn’t jamming the business down my throat, he was just dripping… dinner here, relaxed and confident attitude here, drip, drip, drip. I had begun to ask him questions about the business at Christmas but he was pretty tight lipped. He just laughed and said that I wasn’t ready… and in December he was right because I “knew” I was getting that “big promotion” in January!
February was a whole different galaxy in my world. I was still making the $100,000+ income but they pulled1/3 of my income out from under me like a cheap rug because some pencil pushing geek at the corporate headquarters decided I was making too much money. That pain fueled my quest for the chance to determine my own worth. So I went snowboarding and it was the trip of a lifetime. I was watching my wife’s brother answer the phone, introduce himself to the person on the other line and then answer some questions. Here’s the weirdest thing… at the end of the conversation, he was telling people where to send him a check! He was doing this between our runs down the mountain as we were sitting on the gondola heading back up the mountain.
All of a sudden, I had an epiphany. If he could do this… I COULD DO THIS! I listened to the business presentation that afternoon from the mid-mountain lodge over a warm lunch. It almost sounded too good to be true except that I literally had been watching it happen right before my eyes. I so badly wanted to dispel my disbelief and cynicism. I wanted to believe… but. BUT. Leslie’s brother must have seen this internal battle happening within me. He pulled out his phone, called someone on speed dial and the next conversation went like this; “Hello John. I’m snowboarding up in Park City and checking in – I just want to know what kind of month you’re having.” He put the phone between our ears and never told this John guy I was listening. What I heard next literally pushed me off fence. “I’m looking to earn $150,000 this month and we’re somewhere north of the $113,000 mark.” Did I hear that right? His goal for the month was $150,000? That’s what I was earning yearly BEFORE I got my pay cut. That’s it. I was in.
To make a long story short, I made the decision to get started. I waited until I got home to Atlanta to start. It was Monday, March 3, 2003, and I pulled the proverbial trigger. One of the first things that I remember when I was brand new in the industry was being told to set my goals in my first week. Find your “WHY” they said. I was taught to set three types of goals for myself – short term, medium term and long term. My short term goal was to become profitable within 30 days. As I began to look at my medium goals, I knew I wanted and deserved to quit my job. I declared to myself, Leslie and the universe that when I earned $15,000 in a single month I would walk into my boss’s office and FIRE him! I could see that sweet moment in my mind’s eye.
Back from snowboarding I told the entire office in our Monday meeting that I was starting a home based business. Two of my colleagues jumped up and ran to the window. Between gusts of laughter they were saying stuff about not being able to see my pink Cadillac and were calling me the Mary Kay lady! Rather than taking offense, it just fueled my fire. Each week the office would ask if I had made my millions at home yet and by week three, I had earned $10,000 profit. On day #21 my beautiful fiancée Leslie retired from her job and the following week, it occurred to both of us that we had reached and exceeded MY $15,000 target. Now it was time to put up or shut up. I was already a little freaked out when my fiancee quit her job. Now I was a lotta freaked out!
Leslie and I sat down and what she said next was one of the most powerful lessons I have ever learned, telling me what I already knew; “Right now you have a choice. You can be your word or or succumb to your fears and doubts.” The next day was Monday, March 31, 2003. I chose to be my word, FIRE my BOSS and leave the false security of my job behind forever. At lunch I drove home, cleared all the personal stuff off my laptop and wrote a very simple resignation letter. The hardest part of the experience was hitting the “Empty Trash” button on my computer when I got back from lunch. With my corporate AMEX, parking pass, office key and my laptop, I marched into Dan’s office.
The next few minutes were forever burned into my memory. I said, “Dan, I can no longer afford to work here. YOU’RE FIRED! Here is my 2 week notice effective immediately!” He had me repeat myself. When he asked what it would take for me to stay, I replied that unless the company was prepared to GUARANTEE me $500,000 annually, that I could not afford to work there anymore. I handed over my stuff and marched back to my cube with hands sweating and heart pounding. As I boxed up my personal effects, I started to hear the buzz; “Did you hear about Hamburger? He demanded half a million dollars and then quit! HAMBURGER QUIT!!!”
Dan asked me to come back in on Tuesday to meet the new acting GM from Orlando and I had to quit all over again. The GM was smirking when I came into the conference room. He said he had heard that I required $500,000 to stay, which I confirmed. He wished me the best and asked me to come back the next day to deliver the resignation to the Regional VP of Sales. When I showed up the next day, the office was weird. My VP was awesome. He had heard the news, wished me the best and told me I was always welcome to come back should my deal not work out. Little did I know that he was there to lay off some of my now former peers. As I walked out of the door, I did so with the #5 guy from the office. He had just been laid off after landing a HUGE deal worth tens of millions to the company. He asked if I had known about the layoffs and if that was why I had resigned. I asked him if he remembered running to the window looking for my pink Cadillac? I went on to share with him that I had already earned $19,000 PROFIT in my spare time and that I was going to focus on building this full time. Our next stop was Starbucks and within a week he had joined my business. He went on to earn a 6 figure income in his first 12 months.
I share all of this with you because I’ve experienced the power of establishing these goals for yourself, your family and your Avant enterprise. You deserve to set your goals right now… today… and to fixate on them several times per day. Write your goals in the present tense as if you’ve already accomplished them and be sure to tie in your emotions and feelings. For me back then it would have read like this; “I am so happy and grateful that today, August 3, 2003, I have earned $15,000 monthly and am now free to work my business on a full time basis. Leslie and I have both quit our jobs. Our business is growing and our lives are filled with the joys only available as self employed entrepreneurs. Our future together is filled with endless possibilities.”
Setting my number at $15,000 was the game changer. That was the amount I required as the catalyst to make changes. I’ve seen countless people claim to want a change but at the end of the day they wish for it without action! By personally taking action and using this formula, I’ve created what I have coined a “genie in a bottle” life! Decide what your number is and get after it. You can create anything you want out of your life. By the way, Dan, my sales engineer / sales manager, ended up joining me in the business and that “John guy” was none other than my buddy John Lavenia. John, I was listening in on that conversation… thanks!
