{"id":1073,"date":"2010-08-20T23:56:10","date_gmt":"2010-08-21T06:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2010-08-20T23:57:05","modified_gmt":"2010-08-21T06:57:05","slug":"how-to-succeed-at-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1073\/how-to-succeed-at-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"How to succeed at failure . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote this in the Summer of 2001, also. At the time, my friend Richard Riccelli<\/a> convinced me to sit on it because it’s pretty arch. Even so, this is the counterpoint to Shyly’s delight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0
How to succeed at failure<\/b><\/p>\n

I work in sales, and while I don’t have many role models for success at my job, I am lucky enough to have an immense number of role models for failure. My co-workers fail all day, every day, and they are gracious enough to share ideas with each other about how to fail even more. Watching them and listening to them, I’ve been able to abstract the principles of a whole new self-help discipline: How to succeed at failure.<\/p>\n

There is no better field in which to succeed at failure than straight commission sales. If you succeed at failure in education, they make you the principal. If you succeed at failure in politics, they elect you president. But if you succeed at failure in straight commission sales, you slowly starve to death… Top that!<\/p>\n

And succeeding at failure in straight commission sales is easier than you think!<\/p>\n

Here are a few simple rules:<\/p>\n

First, start late and leave early. Some people try to make failure an endurance contest. This is a mistake. If you spend too much time in the office, sooner or later someone is going to buy your product from you just because no one else is around.<\/p>\n

In the same way, when you do get to work, immediately do something useless, irrelevant and unproductive. The newspaper is a good bet. So is the restroom. The two together make for a perfect combination. Take your time. The point is to establish to yourself, to your co-workers and to the world that doing business is the last<\/i> thing on your mind.<\/p>\n

Once you get to the office — stay there. Don’t go out looking for business, make the business come to you. Show the customer who’s boss. That way you’ll have plenty of time to complain to your co-workers that customers just don’t appreciate all you’re doing for them.<\/p>\n

Find innovative ways to waste your work-day. Do research about Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote this in the Summer of 2001, also. At the time, my friend Richard Riccelli convinced me to sit on it because it’s pretty arch. Even so, this is the counterpoint to Shyly’s delight. \u00a0How to succeed at failure I work in sales, and while I don’t have many role models for success at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13194,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13194\/how-do-you-make-the-praxis-of-continuous-goal-pursuit-work-in-practice-its-not-a-matter-of-avoiding-the-negative-consequences-of-failure-but-of-celebrating-the-steady-accumulation-of-successes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1073,"position":0},"title":"How do you make the praxis of continuous goal-pursuit work in practice? 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It's his hammering away on the topic of goal-achievement that induced me to think about the subject in a systematic way, and I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8463,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8463\/unchained-freedom-friends-keep-friends-in-the-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":1073,"position":1},"title":"Unchained Freedom “Friends Keep Friends In The Business”","author":"Mark Madsen","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As I was driving back to Las Vegas after a full week of hanging out with the Bloodhound crew at Unchained, my mind was racing to get a grasp on all of the new real estate marketing possibilities that I could achieve by the end of the year. The confidence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8806,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8806\/name-of-my-new-band-best-efforts-are-for-cowards\/","url_meta":{"origin":1073,"position":2},"title":"Name of My New Band: Best Efforts Are For Cowards","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"June 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It wasn't until I was past 30 when it came to me, much like the clich\u00e9 bolt of lightning. As is the human condition, I sometimes allowed circumstances to dictate my thoughts and actions, instead of rational thought dictating even more valuable thought, often followed by ever increasing productive action.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14765,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14765\/a-virtual-real-estate-broker-who-declares-freedom-an-anathema\/","url_meta":{"origin":1073,"position":3},"title":"A Virtual Real Estate Broker Who Declares Freedom – An Anathema","author":"Chuck Marunde","date":"July 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This virtual real estate broker hereby declares freedom. Freedom from the traditional bricks-and-mortar business models that worship the institutions of the real estate industry. I have always been an iconoclast who is bored by the weekly office manager giving his inane speech about \"get out there and get those listings.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Virtual Real Estate Broker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cover-3D-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2546,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2546\/principles-of-flight-and-real-estate-getting-off-the-ground\/","url_meta":{"origin":1073,"position":4},"title":"Principles of Flight and Real Estate — Getting Off the Ground","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"January 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've seen in the real estate business the rough equivalent of what my grandma saw in her lifetime with flight. Born in 1909 she saw in real time the embryonic stage of flight. The first successful flight was only six years before her birth. 60 short years later she watched,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13500,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13500\/if-you-cant-sell-teach-and-if-you-cant-teach-teach-e-pro\/","url_meta":{"origin":1073,"position":5},"title":"If you can’t sell, teach. And if you can’t teach? Teach e-Pro!","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't pay close attention to this crap, because -- well -- it's crap. 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