If you are opening this with anticipation of a formulaic strategy to drive success you probably excelled at hard math. I was disappointed in my grade and electively retook it in summer school because I was an overachieving child and valued my GPA. While that is a point I intend to revisit, my core thoughts of the subject of Algebra are just an overall sensation of joy that I do not have to utilize those wizard formulas to create cash flow to support my family.
My 17-year-old just wrapped a semester of Algebra 2 and it was not only hard on her, but in general hard on our relationship. Nobody likes to see their child struggle and simultaneously I have high expectations. Midway through the semester the overall performance resulted in a failing grade. I questioned the effort, I questioned the teaching, I questioned the support I was giving her, I was at a loss, and she was losing ground and only getting further behind. We ended up getting a tutor. We redid every single assignment to resubmit for a higher grade and even got some bonus work for extra credit. She rallied. The final grade ended in a very stressful and hard-fought almost B. This is where my view on the word Algebra began to really take on a new form.
My title on this article has really, absolutely nothing to do with math, and everything to do with effort. I saw a quote from Matt Rife that asked “how big would you dream if you knew you couldn’t fail” and from that I was drawn to this self-defined idea of the “Algebra of Sales”.
It is a fact that you cannot fail until you quit. Failure is a step in the process, failure is a measuring stick, failure is good. A salesperson that never fails is a salesperson that isn’t working! The salesperson with the highest closing ratio is usually the salesperson with the lowest prospecting volumes. Gordon Gekko knew Bud Fox had called 59 times. Bud “failed” 59 times. The secret sauce to success, the equation for riches, the Algebra of Sales is in turn “X= EFFORT”.
My daughter passed Algebra 2; she also failed every single test she took in that class. I disliked my Algebra grade, so I just retook the entire class. That is a key thing to grasp not only in the sales equation, but in the Algebra of life. Failure isn’t permanent. Quitting is. Failure can be erased. The relevance of a chapter exam is null after the semester closes and all grades and effort are accounted for. She passed, and that part is the only relevant grade now. I bombed Algebra 2, retook the class, and completely erased the history of failure. Failure is not a sign of weakness, and it is not a value in intellectual measurements. Failure is just the ugly hard part of our careers that type A personalities bolstering with ego like to pretend doesn’t exist. And it doesn’t exist if we don’t quit. It is so very important to understand the difference in failure and quitting. Failure comes with learning, failure comes with change and most importantly, failure comes with success when you choose to continuously learn from and respect it! Quitting comes with nothing. Therefore my Algebra of sales can deduce that “0=QUIT” and “+=FAILURE”.
It is hard to remember the people that slammed the phone down and cussed me out from ten years ago, but I remember the whales I hooked and the conversations that lead to reeling them in vividly, even the ones from twenty years ago. I can’t tell you a single person’s name that closed the door on me or what their business was, but I can tell you the names of the kids, wives, and the life story of the businesses on the ones that opened the door for me. If I stopped when someone berated me, called me names, or took a complete disinterest, well, I would know exactly who they were. They would have been my last failure right before I quit, and I would know them forever. I am not in the business of perfection though, so I pushed on. I am more like a happy dog chasing its tail by the magical bowl that occasionally has treats in it. You see, if the dog went to that bowl 5 times and there was no food in it and he decided to never return, he would starve to death. The Algebra of sales proves that if the dog continually returns, the dog will get fed. The magic bowl only yields treats to those that are present.
EFFORT(X) BEYOND FAILURE (+) and NEVER QUITTING (0)= PATH TO SUCCESS
The main thing here my friends, is that struggle is a necessary step in improvement! Keep grinding, keep pushing, it gets easier!
Happy Hunting!
