N D Brown
When I was a kid I loved Robert Louis Stevenson. He’s the guy who wrote adventure books boys like me devoured and whose stories helped Disney make even more money!
Mr. Stevenson’s creativity begat the fictional lives of Long John Silver, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and a bunch of other guys. He was a master story teller who could take his readers to places they had never seen and give his made up his characters live on a printed page. His work was writing and creating. So I was surprised to see Mr. Stevenson quoted in a business context.
Mr. Stevenson’s imagination transported his readers to the South Seas and the gritty, foggy streets of Victorian London but he also knew about the practicalities of living. His pithy quote: “Every one lives by selling something.”
He knew it as a fact of life. Unfortunately many of us don’t believe it. We are positive we are not sales people.
There are two statements that get under my skin. Ok. I admit it’s a much bigger list but here are the top two.
“I am not creative.” And. “I am not really very good at sales.”
Mr. Stevenson, who proved his creativity by writing 12 novels and an endless stream of poems and essays, summed up the other statement by saying, “Everyone lives by selling something.”
Every one of us is creative and every one of us sells. All the time.
Think about the last time you took a different route driving home. Creativity.
Think about the last time you walked down a grocery aisle, list in hand and seeing a new product plopped it into the grocery cart. Instantly you had a thought about how you might use it. Creativity.
Remember the last time you said something like, “You know I am really in the mood for seafood. Aren’t you? Let’s try the new place that just opened on Maple Street. Whaddaya say?” Selling AND creativity.
Being creative is not hard. Your brain will take you there naturally. And you are selling every day, you just don’t realize it. All you have to do is stand back and watch yourself.
If you are a start up you probably have already put them to work. You just might not realize it.
If you have been in business awhile hoping to grow then you need to nurture them every day.
Every small business owner faces problems that were never anticipated. To many they might even be daunting but if you look at each problem as a way to use your inborn creativity it will be solved.
Look at it from a different angle. Put your mind on something else for awhile and from some hidden crack in your brain something will come to you. Really!
The problem wins if you stress over it. It can be solved and your inborn creativity will help you do it. Over worrying the problem stifles your own creativity.
Every time you sweat about selling something remember how you convinced the love of your life to … well you can fill in the rest.
Repeat every day. I am creative .. I can sell anything.
———————————————————————————————————————
N D Brown is the Principal of brownchild ltd inc, 3754 Sunset, Houston, TX 77005
You can contact him at 713 807 9000 or cell 713 822 8370
