9/18/2020
[ Attn: If you’re going to read this blog page, it will help you to read the previous page first. If you already have, read on…]
(The two young men and I began to move through town, supposedly for them to look it over while I talked—them seeing me as a peer, an 18 year old, but me knowing I am 78 years old trying not to seem crazy to these two products of 1950s Indianapolis.)
“Tell me, guys, do you read much?” Naw, says Stude, I don’t read much. But, Hen said he did. “What do you read,” I asked. Hen says he likes novels, but his Dad and brothers want him to read history. Stude snickered. “What’s funny, Stude,” I asked. He said history made him mad, said he didn’t believe it. Hm, while agreeing with him outright didn’t seem the thing to do, I sure could see his point. I wondered how he got that perspective at his young age. I took another side and began recalling some things I saw between the ages of 18 and 22.
Guys, I said, that man I just told you about, the psychologist who works for the state of Indiana, his system will really help eliminate some things so’s you can make less errors. (They both glared at me.) Oh, I know you don’t want errors, but errors in life are like habits—they can form and become such a big nuisance in your life and we are often late in noticing the problem. Then it costs us precious time to undo them. But, you can learn from others, like the good Dr., or you can learn by just blundering through in your own way. You’re still gonna blunder, just see if you can hold ‘em down to a few—specially the big ones.
People go along in everyday life feeling pretty good till some disaster occurs and it affects them in a way they didn’t expect. “What kind of disaster you mean?” they asked. [I was thinking of the Ice Capades explosion in Indianapolis,I think in 1963 — but, I couldn’t tell them that.] It might be that a whole lot of people get killed in a big accident or explosion or something. It’ll shock you, but, you know there’s a lot of people and maybe you won’t know anybody who dies so it won’t effect you. But, sometime, probably, one of those kinds of things will be close, make you have a sort of emotions you didn’t know was in you. Teach yourself how to minimize that, to keep it from bothering you so much you can’t get over it. I lost a brother that way. He died in a one car crash, devastated my family, when I was 15. It’s fresh in my memory still and it has an altering effect on your life when that sort of thing happens. Every now and then something brings him and the event to mind as if it just happened. Don’t let that shock you. We were silent for a few moments.
Then I continued: That state psychologist asked me if it was true I liked meeting people. I told him yes I sure do, always have. He said the tests showed him that. Don’t ask me how, he never explained that. But, he told me it was probable that I could sell stuff. I asked him, just anything? He said no, I should stay away from “intangibles”—I must of had a dumb look on my face (since I had no idea what an intangible was) so he said, that’s like Insurance, or stocks & bonds-stuff you can’t see or pick up and handle it. Probably, you can sell anything you can touch, from cars to fence posts. I said what about real estate and he said with a smile, “Yes, I can see you out walking in farmland showing folks how to live in the country!” I believe he’s right about that, too. My point there, guys is this: neither of you had any trouble speaking right up to me when you arrived, perhaps you could be salesmen, what do you think if that? They just snickered.
Let me tell you some things I learned while I been selling stuff. First good impression I had about selling is this: people buy what they want. Whether it be good for them or bad for them, they buy what they want. I sold grilled peanut butter sandwiches back home in the drugstore. The owner hired me to work an hour before school and sometimes Saturday and Sundays. She served grilled cheese sandwiches, but not peanut butter. One Sunday I went to make one for a young lady and I couldn’t find any cheese. I said, “I can’t find any cheese, how about grilled peanut butter?” She said OK. I thought just a second and said it’ll be a dime more than grilled cheese. She grinned and said ok. She liked it, The next day I was in the store but not working when she came in and told my boss I had made her a grilled peanut butter sandwich and she was glad it was now on Ruth’s menu. I glanced at the boss, she glared at me. After the girl left the boss said, “Well?” I said there wasn’t any sliced cheese and I saw the peanut butter…I charged a dime more. She said, “You did?” I said, yes. She said, “That’s a good new item!”
Another thing: if you want someone to like what you’re selling you have to watch their reaction to everything you do and say. They might turn up their nose at first, then turn that into smiles because of how you explain it or they see it from another angle or some other little thing that happens in the few minutes they allow you to speak with them. If you’re selling, you’re borrowing time from them. Treat their time like you were borrowing your Dad’s most precious tool or shotgun. Never waste what you just borrowed!
Now turn that toward your own time: never waste it! You know, guys, I think there must be 4 or 5 singers that sing songs about “Wastin’ time!” Uh, they said they never heard one yet. (There I go again, forgetting we’re talking in 1960.) I said, “Well, remember this: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s use of your time!” They looked at one another, then me, and asked, “Did you just make that up?” I said no, a famous guy said it. Who? I forget. [Truth is it was Steve Jobs, I don’t think they would’ve known him.]
[More of this coming. Hope you can continue to read.]
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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