The Quintessential Salesman: The Myth of the Cave by Kim Michael

Friday, February 6, 2015

The Myth of the Cave by Kim Michael

The Myth of the Cave

By Kim Michael

September 1940--four teenagers looking for a lost dog stumble into a cave in the south of France and what they find there will forever change how we look at our own past. The cave is known as La Grotte de Lascaux and what made the discovery so unusual was that the walls extending the entire length of the massive chamber were covered with more than 600 drawings; extraordinary drawings in both detail and beauty, drawings that would easily compete with those of the most highly skilled artesians of today. And yet amazingly, the drawings were not only old, even by today’s standards of what we consider old to be, these drawings were “ancient”. They predated the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Pyramids of Egypt by literally thousands upon thousands of years. In fact most experts now believe the drawings to be no less than 17,000 years old. So who made the drawings and why?

Anthropologists wrestling with this question for the last sixty plus years now believe that the creators of these amazing artworks were actually the early Paleolithic inhabitants of the area, a race of people that before the stone age. Based on artifacts that were left behind it has even been suggested that the early dwellers may have considered the cave to be a sacred place; perhaps even a “magical” place.

When I saw the pictures the thought occurred to me, “What would make a cave, or for that matter, a wall of drawings--“magical”? Art that commemorates historical events is not magical. If the intention of this art was to memorialize events of a people who had no written language, the cave and its drawings may have had a special significance, but it would not be considered magic.

Another theory that has been put forth through the years is that when fires were used to light the chamber that the drawings on the walls would appear to move, or more to the point, come alive. As interesting as the premise sounds, it is hard for me to believe that these accomplished artisans would really have mistaken the shifting light of a fire for anything but what it was. That coupled with the fact that the drawings were in caves to begin with, meaning many were probably created by firelight would alone suggest to me that their creators probably had more than a passing understanding of flickering light and stationary pictures.

No, for me to believe these early inhabitants thought something about the cave was magic, something more sophisticated had to be involved. Then while looking over one of the many pictures depicting a tribal hunt, the light suddenly went on in my brain and in that moment, I saw it…the magic.

Now, to understand this, you do not need to see the picture I saw, or the cave that it is in for that matter, but you do need to imagine yourself, seventeen thousand years ago, standing in front of the picture and looking at it. The first thing you would notice is the amazing detail. You can literally see everything, what the terrain looked like, the warriors crouching at their stations as a stampede of animals rush between them. And then the kill, every detail frozen in a single moment so deftly displayed that you actually see the actual methodology they used; and then the successful outcome, the animals as they are field-dressed and carried back to the village.

But where is the magic you may ask?

Consider now, as you stand looking at the drawing, that it is not the day after the great hunt, but the day before! The great “magic” of the cave, I believe, was the belief that anything drawn on the walls would become “real”. But the great magic of the cave was also the great myth of the cave; in that the magic was not in the walls, or the paint, or even in the cave itself, but rather, in the hearts and minds of those who had made the drawings. The magic was the “planning” of the picture, and the more thorough that process became the more likely it would be that the magic would happen. That same magic exists today though we call it by other names, “business plans” and “goal setting” or mapping out our dreams.

Until we take an idea to the next stage and remove it from the medium of our mind and give it life by committing it to paper, mapping out the details and making it real, an idea will remain only that, an idea. But when we take the magic next step, the magic of the cave will begin to happen and "The Myth of the Cave" will cease to be a myth.

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Rule of 25

“The Twenty-Five Truths of Sales

I. THE QUINTESSENTIAL SALESMAN - The most crucial element of any SALE, is not the product or service that is being sold…but the SALES PERSON who is selling it.

II. SUCCESS - Success has different meanings to different people. Understanding what success is to you is to know the door you must choose and the key that will unlock it.

III. BELIEF - The opportunity we hold in our hands is what we choose it to be-- and what we become, is what we choose to become.

IV. RELATIONSHIPS - Selling is first and foremost, a human interaction driven primarily by relationships, and our ability to create those relationships. To invest both time and effort in understanding prospects as people is to inspire in them to make the same investment in you.

V. BALANCE - Seek the balance between success and failure; neither the “highs” nor the “lows” of a career should be allowed to define your future.

VI. HUMILITY - I am reminded of the atheist who wakes up every morning and takes a moment to raise his eyes upward and say thanks for the life that he has been given, not because it is important for something, or someone, in the great somewhere to hear it, but because it is important for he, himself, to hear it.

VII. CONSISTENCY - In business you are either moving toward your goals or moving away from them. To remain in one place is to fall behind by virtue of a world that will continue to move around you. Consistency is cultivating the discipline of focus, continuing to do what you know to be right, even when success or failure is not immediately apparent to guide it.

VIII. SELF ADVOCACY – Never expect another person to put your best interests above their own. You must be your own protector, your own motivator, your own inspiration, and above all, your own greatest advocate.

IX. QUESTION – Learn to question everything. It is the doorstep of creativity, the mainstay of truth, and the one true weapon against deceit.

X. INTEGRITY - All that is legal is not necessarily moral or ethical. Integrity begins and ends with the basic understanding within one’s self of what is right and what is not.

XI. PROFIT- The single most important goal of any company or individual is to make a profit. Without profit, there is no equity, no excellence, no integrity, no philanthropy, and no quality. It is the life blood of commerce that makes our jobs, our society and our world possible.

XII. REALITY -It is possible for a company and/or an individual to do everything wrong and still be successful. It is also possible for companies and/or individuals to do everything right and still fail. The most difficult form of success is one that masks all the things you did wrong to attain it.

XIII. LUCK-- People who believe in luck and possibility, open themselves to life’s providence. People who trust in LUCK, commit themselves to the randomness of fate.

XIV. CATYLST - We transmit to others the kind of energies we attracted. Our lives are the true reflection of what we think and who we are, often on a scale far greater than our conscious ability to make it seem otherwise.

XV. COMMITMENT- The best laid plans without a conscious commitment to make them happen are doomed. The road to Hell may not be paved with good intentions, but it is certainly fortified by good intentions that are not acted upon.

XVI. CHOICE--There will always be a better mousetrap, a lower rate, a better price, a smarter person, yet none of these will have an impact upon your own success—unless you let them.

XVII. ADVANCEMENT- Actively pursue your own advancement. Never, never, never, wait for a company, or individual, or an opportunity, to pursue you.

XVIII. FAILURE - You will fail. All sales professionals fail, the best ones find ways to fail less often and learn from the experience. Never let a failure pass without taking responsibility for it and learning from the experience.

XIX. ENDURING - A sale is never over. The validation of a sale, and you as a sales professional, is in the actualization of what you have sold and its continuing value to those whom you have sold it.

XX. PERCEPTION -The greatest demise of those who are highly successful is they make what they do appear easy, masking their true value to the people for whom the effort is spent. Never underestimate someone else’s ability to marginalize or underestimate you.

XXI. PATIENCE- React calmly, never let emotional untruths cloud your perception of events that surround you and be mindful that everything must happen in its own time and not necessarily in the time frame you have set for it.

XXII. EXCELLENCE - The Pursuit of EXCELLENCE begins with; The COURAGE to recognize your weaknesses, the COMMITMENT to change them into STRENGTHS, and the TENACITY to make them lasting.

XXIII. TENACITY - Tenacity is the inability to accept defeat. Tenacity does not believe in “no win” scenarios. Tenacity knows there is always another way, another option, another direction, even if it appears otherwise. Tenacity learns from failure and is strengthened by it.

XXIV. CHANGE - All things change, in life, in business, in nature. To see change and perceive that something has ended or ceased to exist is to blind yourself to its existence in a new form. The face of “need” may change, but the nature of “need” will always remain the same.

XXV. FEAR - The most repeated phrase in the bible is “Fear Not”. It is mentioned three hundred and sixty six times; more than any other single sentiment. The most destructive forces to the human heart are fear and anger, and though anger can consume a mind, it is fear that can consume a soul.