Choosing Thankfulness.
Our marketing team at Southwestern is listening to an audio project from Dan Sullivan called The Gratitude Principle.  In it, Sullivan proposes that we can achieve endless progress and succes

The Worst Salesman I’ve Met in Awhile
As Southwestern Company’s sales trainer, I’m always interested in seeing how other companies’ salespeople perform when they’re making a sales call.  You might say I’m a keen observer of their techniques, or lack thereof. This week, my wife and I were considering consolidating our phone services, and getting new phones for our daughters.  We headed into a local long distance service provider store (OK, it was Sprint).  We walked in; the store was empty.  I was excited because I knew we

Tiger Woods–ever the confident optimist
  Did Tiger Woods ever sell books with Southwestern?  No.  But he sounds as if he’s been out there: Tiger exudes self-confidence and is always visualizing success, always expecting to win.  As the top-ranked player in the world, Tiger thinks differently than most of us. He is sure of himself, but not cocky.  Well, maybe he is cocky or possibly just ve

Decisions & Delay–pt. 2
“I just can’t decide!”  We were standing in line at a busy fast food restaurant, staring at the menu we were quite familiar with.  “Uh…can I get…ummm…how about…?  What should I get dad?”  The customers in line behind us shifted, like cattle in a chute.  “It doesn’t matter.  Come on, honey, it’s not that difficult.”  My youngest was agonizing over this standard menu.  “Just pick something.  De

Practice Makes Perfect, pt. 2
I formed my habits, and my habits formed my future. Whether it’s selling books with Southwestern in the summer, or recruiting friends back at school, or playing the piano, or speaking in public, if we practice long enough, we get good at it.  Your habits are proficiencies born out of practice.  Some are conscious, some are not.  They are powerful–mostly because they’re too deep to be visible.