To: All Social Entrepreneurs, For Impact Leaders & Development Staff
with less than 10 years experience.
THIS TOO SHALL PASS. In a coaching call yesterday, a wonderful young lady on the sales team at a leading Liberal Arts college mentioned the turmoil of the market and the impact that was having on people she was meeting with.
3 Gentle Reminders:
- The “economy” is cyclical. It always has been. Ups and downs. Ride it out. According to Inc. magazine, I have “survived” 10 recessions in my life. Yes, that makes me both old and able to say from experience that “THIS TOO SHALL PASS.”
- Not everybody has their life savings or their wealth tied up in the stock market or Lehman Brothers or AIG, etc. (I, for one, don’t have a single dollar tied up in the stock market. Of course, I also don’t have one dollar tied up anywhere except in our business.) Not everybody’s house is being foreclosed. Not everybody is waiting for their government check.
Our very best prospects are usually smart, successful people who are trying to move from SUCCESS to SIGNIFICANCE. Let them figure out the “mechanics” of how they’re going to do that. Our job is to “JUST ASK” (PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY).
- This story either reinforces my point or is another sign of the Apocalypse. Sotheby’s Auction House announced yesterday that the two-day sale of British artist Damien Hirst’s work raised $198 Million, a record for an auction of work by a single artist.
The article I read from London said, “The turmoil engulfing the global financial market did nothing to dampen prices as more than 600 prospective buyers packed the showroom and others bid by phone.” The $198 Million bought a tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde ($17M), an embalmed calf with golden hoofs and horns ($18.5M), and some stainless glass and manufactured diamonds ($9.4M).
To me, this is the same thing as one of the wealthiest people in the world putting $88 Million into what is, in effect, the Jimmy Hendrix Museum.
The point isn’t about Jimmy or pickled sharks and butterfly paintings from Hirst. It’s about why that money didn’t go to your FOR IMPACT ORGANIZATION. It’s almost always because we didn’t JUST ASK.
