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make the connections tagged posts

Making Connections Produces Creative Solutions

I’m in the middle of reading The Myths of Creativity by David Burkus and I’ve just read a section that has hit me like a sucker punch to the gut and left me in a stupor of deep thought.  I’m compelled to write.  The portion of the book that I just read has a profound connection to one of the underlying reasons I write this blog, an experience I had with my Dad a few years ago.

You can read about what my Dad said about making connections in an older post, but I’ll summarize that story for the newcomers.  My Dad used to be a college professor, author, and lecturer.  While he was in the hospital a few years ago for a broken leg I found myself thinking a lot about an idea he would often teach his students about “making connections...

October 30, 2013 making connections, The Myths of Creativity 2 comments
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To Sell Is Human: How to Toubleshoot Your Pedal Board

***This is my last post on Dan Pink’s book To Sell Is Human before it becomes available for purchase on 31 Dec 2012.  If you are quick, you can still pre-order it and qualify for a number of awesome freebies.  If you pick it up later, you lose the freebies!  Thanks to Dan Pink and his team for sharing an early copy of the book with me and letting me be a part of his Launch Team.***

The last principle from Dan Pink’s To Sell Is Human that I want to highlight is what he calls Clarity.  Pink writes that those working in sales, or who try to persuade people, need to focus on bringing clarity to people’s needs instead of simply trying to push a product or agenda.  It’s not about moving units off a shelf, cars off a lot, or making sure to up sell the lobster before it goes bad...

December 30, 2012 To Sell Is Human One comment
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To Sell Is Human: Just Don’t Give Up

Staying afloat amidst a sea of rejection requires buoyancy. Just don't give up because to sell is human.

Staying afloat amidst a sea of rejection requires buoyancy.

Dan Pink writes in To Sell Is Human, “Draw a map of the world of selling and the most prominent topographical feature is that deep and menacing ocean [of rejection].  Anyone who sells – whether they’re trying to convince customers to make a purchase or colleagues to make a change – must contend with wave after wave of rebuffs, refusals, and repudiations.  How to stay afloat amid that ocean of rejection is the second essential quality in moving others.  I call this quality ‘buoyancy’.”

One of the most important principles to successful sales, according to Dan Pink, and one with which I agree, is to be able to stay afloat.  You have to stay buoyant.  But I would add that the heart of buoyancy is, just don’t give up.

The problem...

December 29, 2012 To Sell Is Human No comments
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