On January 28, 1986, seventy-three seconds after lift off, the space shuttle Challenger exploded nine miles above the earth. Only years later would the world learn from unofficial reports that some of the members on board survived the explosion. In those last few terrible moments as the spacecraft fell to earth, the last unofficial words recorded, was a single voice saying, “Give me your hand.”
To my knowledge no one knows who said it. We don’t know if it was a statement of courage or compassion; but I tend to think… it was both.
“Give me your hand,” resonates at the very core of what it means to be human and affirms without uncertainty or ambiguity that it is in the fundamental reaching out to one another that the true strength of what we are, and who we are, is most meaningful.
“Give me your hand,” reminds us in a way that no other words can, that we are never really complete as evolved creatures or master works of creation until we have the ability to connect with others.
Of all the words that could have been spoken that day, “Give me your hand” leaves us with the undeniable truth that the simplest of all human gifts-- are perhaps the most precious.
Before technology transformed our world, before we had societal boundaries that dictated how we coexisted with one another, before we even had words to define how we thought or felt, even then, the bedrock of how we interacted with one another still existed.
One fundamental truth continues to permeate all the levels of our existence, resonating up through our ancestral roots, remaining as infinitely poignant today as it was in the beginning. The way we reach out to others is, and always will be, a “human interaction,” not just communication, not just feelings, not just words, but everything thing that we are.
In “sales” much has been devoted to honing and crafting of the sales process without much attention to cultivating the basic skills that are the foundation of all that we can achieve.
As much as I wanted “The Quintessential Salesman” to be a book about sales and helping others to find their own sense of excellence and empowerment, I also wanted it to be a book about life. I believe that it is not enough to merely survive the trenches of business, but to thrive in them. My hope, my mission in fact, has been to inspire people to seek levels within their own lives that go beyond the accomplishments of the moment, to constantly pursue the greater wisdom of who and what they are, and to use that knowledge to set in place the foundations that are capable of sustaining true success and true fulfillment.
Just as in life, the most crucial element of any sale is not the product or service that is being sold…but the person who sells it. Perhaps finding the Quintessential Human Being that is within all of us is the first step to finding The Quintessential Salesman that is in each of us.
Kim Michael
Author
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