When I was 8 years old, I started mowing the lawns of the car washes my step dad managed. After I’d finish mowing, I’d go vacuum cars until it was time to go home. Vacuuming cars sucked! It was manual labor in the Texas heat. I noticed the guy who sold car washes didn’t have to actually clean them. The second I noticed that, I made being a salesman my goal.
By the time I was 13, I was selling car washes to people. I broke multiple records and learned so much from making 100s of sales on a daily basis. I left school at age 15 and went to work for the car wash full time. Thanks to sale, I was making more money than any of my teachers, so it was time for me to go.
At age 18 I took a normal job doing construction. The car wash had taken commission away so I went to find a higher dollar per hour job. That job was being an electrician’s assistant. It had to be the worst job on the planet. I would rather have cleaned port-o-pottys.
When I would be running wire through the houses, sales reps would stop by with the homeowner to show them the progress of their new home. The sales guys didn’t work and drove fancy cars. Meanwhile, I’m dying of heat exhaustion in the attic of a house in the middle of Texas summer. F*CK THAT!
I decided to go find another job in sales.
I’ve only worked a total of 8 months of my life since I was 13 years old, without commission. Those were the worst 8 months of my life and I’ve spent almost 4 years in prison. Sales is and will always be the only job for me. Any other job is just not exciting and won’t pay enough for me to get excited about.
Sales may not be for everyone, but I’d hate for someone to take a “normal job” and miss their calling, working in sales. I firmly believe everyone should work in sales at least once, before they go to college or try and get a corporate job. i could list 100,000 reasons to get a job in sales but for the sake of saving you time, I’ve got the top 3 reasons compiled below.
Humor – The sayings, phrases and lingo you learn in sales are priceless. Some of the funniest scenarios will happen to you. Humans are strange beasts and when you sell to them, you see evidence of this over and over again. They say “laughter is the best medicine” which means I’m gonna live forever because I’ve laughed my ass off, working in sales for years now.
You’ll learn humorous people skills that will carry you through tough situations in the event you decide to bolt on sales and go corporate. Humor is a great tool and powerful skill to possess in the workforce. If you can make people laugh, they will generally want to do what you ask or need them to do. Everyone loves to laugh.
Pay – The best thing about sales is the pay that goes along with it. You literally make your own paycheck. When there is no limit, you find out what limits you set for yourself. You find out your true worth in the marketplace quickly with sales. If you have an average work ethic you will earn an average income.
As a w2 salesman I’ve made as much as $300,000 in commissions on a w2. As a 1099 salesman I’ve had a year with $770,000 in income from various sales closes. There is no limit to your income. I once took a mortgage job where the average person did $50,000 per year, my first year I earned $183,000. Don’t let anyone else set your income limits.
Co-Workers – This is a major bonus no one ever talks about. Most of my friends that I have today, I met while working in a sales job. My best friend of over 14 years now, Timothy Q Dreslinski, and I met my first day on the job selling mortgages. Travis Plumb and Patrick Grabbs met me while selling cars at Ford in 2011.
I’ve made friends for life from working sales jobs. All the cool people work in the sales department, the boring people work in engineering, HR and accounting. Those people make friends for life too, because they don’t know anyone else lol. Not to mention the friends you make along the way that started out as clients.
If you’re considering trying your hat at sales, especially before you go off to college, I can’t recommend it enough. Before you go into debt, have kids or settle down, you should try sales. After you have debt, kids and responsibilities it might be too late. To learn all you need to learn about sales and more, join our Entourage program at www.breakfreeacademy.com/entourage
