116. What should I do to be good?

Dear Erik,

I am not sure I understand your quote: “Small businesses focus on exploitation and larger companies on exploration.” Exploitation is the exploitation of property, the use of a building or a product or the performance of a service. Exploration is the attempt to find something out, i.e. researching and developing an idea. I would love to get some additional explanation from you in your next column as this does not really ring a bell for me.Now for something completely different. I recently had a conversation with my daughter. She is studying sales and marketing at the Academy/College of Amsterdam and is taking an internship at a company growing and processing industrial hemp in the Netherlands and Romania and she is also busy preparing a marketing plan for hemp as bedding for livestock.

She is ambitious and is working day and night on the sales plan and also actively selling it. She asked me a very special question: “Dad, I want to be very good at what I do, I would like to be the best, but how do I do that? What should I do to be really good?”

I think this is a question that each of us should ask. And once you’re good you have to ask yourself what you need to do to stay good.

I did not have an immediate answer for her, so I asked her what she thought she had to do to be good: “You have to surround yourself with the right people who can help, you should practice a lot, you need a good network, you need to have a good attitude, you must be highly motivated, you should have a good product and a good company to work for.”

I can understand her question very well. She is young and inexperienced in business, but she has great ambition. And what should you do to be good? Motivation and attitude is not the problem in her case. This she has. She lacks knowledge and experience. You become good by acquiring knowledge about the company and the product or service – the cost, selling prices, the (potential) customers, competitors, marketing strategy, and so on. What she already understands is that she has to learn and practice a lot and ask for advice. She is driving a lot for her job and has bought CDs from Jeffrey Gittomer (a great sales trainer) and constantly listens to them to develop her sales skills. She has also started selling – cold calling and arranging appointments with potential customers. She is fearless and enjoys this.

So actually Michelle already knows what she needs to know. To be good, you have to learn a lot, question a lot, and practice a lot. What you learn you should immediately put into practice. Even if you haven’t learned something yet, you should still try to put it into practice. This is how you learn a lot. You need to be fearless and not afraid to make mistakes.

That is what I think you need to do to be good. I wonder what you do Erik to be good and stay good.

Groet,

Gerard