Jaime R, 23, CT

In sales, you have to be freakin' persistent--not only with potential clients, but with yourself, or you'll never get anywhere. 

I am an insurance and risk management specialist and part of my job is to acquire new business (sales). One of the ways I do that is by cold calling. I freeeeaakin' HATE cold calling with a fire burning red, but right now, it is one of the necessary methods of prospecting (finding potential clients). Cold calling refers to telephoning someone with whom you have no connection (you've never met them, never spoken to them) to try to land an appointment in order to further discuss your service. I don't like cold calling because I am driven by relationships and I feel like an idiot calling a stranger and expecting them to hear me out. 

As much as I hate it, though, I have gained appointments and secured closed business from cold calling. I have met success a number of times from cold calling, but I realized that I could be enjoying even more. Sometimes I'll get lost in work or lost in procrastination and I won't make a cold call for weeks. Then when I decide to pick up the phone again, I'll call 5 people who will all say, "Ooooh, I just renewed my policy. I wish you had called a week ago! Try me next year." That's when I mutter, "ugh, fuck," under my breath and smack my forehead. I missed an opportunity to sit down with a potential client that could have developed into a relationship, which would have translated into dollars in my bank account. All because I felt uncomfortable and would have rather busied myself with anything else.

The secret is: no matter your profession, first determine what you need to do to succeed and second, FUCKIN' DO IT, no excuses.  Even if you are equipped with all the knowledge and skill necessary for your job, it is equally important to be steadfast in your resolve. If it makes you uncomfortable, get over yourself and be consistent and be persistent or else nothing will ever materialize. You need to sell yourself to yourself before you even think about selling anything to some poor victim. I wasn't believing in myself, instead spending WAY too much time thinking about and planning for and second-guessing my next step.  I came to realize that I was engaging in too much thinking and not enough DOING. I was wasting precious time conceptualizing what I wanted to do instead of just doing it. Nike seriously has it right on point with their slogan.