Our lives are made up of snapshots. In my 26 years of life, I can look back on my life and see some of my snapshots.

A snapshot of me in middle school would show you a young, funny, overweight, insecure, hopeless romantic wishing one day that he would find a girl who would fall in love with him. You would also see a young christian who believed he was called to go into ministry.

If you took a snapshot of me in high school you would see a young kid whose mother was ill and dad worked a lot, a kid who experimented a lot with drugs, sold drugs, and ended up graduating with a 1.6 GPA.

When I was in middle school and high school, my snapshots told me that I’d never find someone who would fall in love with me and I would never amount to anything in life.

Photo Courtesy of Deviantart

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I recently stumbled upon Harvey Mackay through my recent subscription of Success Magazine. This book is for people interested in learning how to sell. I’ve been interested in the topic of sales for the past few years and this book was a great resource for me. It’s an extremely easy read as it is broken up into nearly one hundred short nuggets on sales and personal growth.

If you are new to the world of selling and personal growth or if you’re struggling with sales, I’d recommend picking this book up!

Buy the hard copy version here!

Buy the Kindle Version Here!

Some Highlights:

• “You don’t sell anyone. You help people get what they want.”

• “Do what you love. Love what you do. And deliver more than you promise.”

• No matter where you go to work, you are not an employee—you are a business with one employee: you. Nobody owes you a career. You own it, as a sole proprietor. You must compete with millions of individuals every day of your career. You must enhance your value every day, hone your competitive advantage, learn, adapt, move between jobs and industries—retrench so you can advance and learn new skills.

• Believe in yourself, even when no one else does.

• In sales, you have good days and bad days. The trick is to convince yourself every morning that it’s going to be a good day.

• Before you post anything on the Internet, ask yourself: “How would I feel if this appeared on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper?”

• Make a list of the 10 people you want to meet in your lifetime. Use the Six Degrees of Separation theory, try LinkedIn or Facebook, write a fan letter and ask for a meeting. But don’t assume everyone is out of reach.

• Find something you can be passionate about, and work at it until you can’t imagine doing anything else.

• Rejection is a part of life.

• • Focus on the moment. Keep your perspective. Rejection lasts only a moment, and once it’s over you’ll be able to move on to the next opportunity. Overcoming your fears can be an exhilarating experience, so savor your triumph. Great athletes and ace competitors of all sorts are masters of deftly moving through both ups and downs . . . and not wallowing in either.

• • Be more assertive. Most fears of rejection rest on the desire for approval from other people. Don’t base your self-esteem on others’ opinions.

• Life is not always fair when it passes out the natural gifts, like looks and talent. But no one was ever born with determination and character. You have to develop those yourself and if you do, all the rewards life has to offer can be yours

• Long ago I learned that there are three kinds of people in the world: • the wills • the won’ts • and the can’ts. The first accomplish everything. The second oppose everything. The third fail in everything.