THE FOUR KINDS OF ACTION
You can never take enough action in life; you can only take too little. Too much action will never get you into trouble. In fact, taking action is the way to get out of trouble. The only time action will cause you trouble is when there isn’t any or when there’s not enough of it.
It’s been said that there are three kinds of action in life:
1. The right action
2. The wrong action
3. No action (which will always result in nothing)
And in my world there’s a fourth kind of action:
4. Massive action! That’s the one I live by!
The fourth kind of action, massive action, is by far the most successful tool I’ve had in my life. It has resulted in more success for me than anything else I’ve done. When someone asks me what one thing has made the most difference in my life, this is it—massive action. Even when I had no clue what I was doing, I went ahead and took massive action. If I wanted to get a loan on a piece of property, I always went to three or four lenders. When I bought a piece of property, I made bids on more than one property. When I throw a party, I invite lots of people and then repeat the invitations. When I’m done with invites, I get on the phone and I keep calling until I’m guaranteed a great party. I don’t like small parties. I like them big and noisy with lots of people. I’d rather have too many than too few. Once I had a party at my home and went through 2,500 plastic cups! Now that’s the sign of a real party! I didn’t even know half of the people who were there. You’ve heard the saying “Go big or go home”? I say “Go massive, not passive!”
MASSIVE ACTION = NEW PROBLEMS
I watch salespeople make a few phone calls, send out a few pieces of mail, and then stop to take a coffee break and gossip about the latest news in the local paper. Then they sit down and chatter about how business is slow and how the phone and prospecting don’t get them results.
If you worked the phone the way I do, you’d know that the phone does not work; it’s the person on the phone who’s working. I never sit down to make one phone call. Never! When I sit down to use the phone, I do it with enough tenacity and with such massive quantity that I’m guaranteed to get something in return from my actions.
If it’s appointments you want, take massive action until your concern is no longer whether or not you’ll get enough appointments, but how you can possibly handle all of the appointments you have. The right amount of massive action should result in new problems.
One of my goals in my seminar business is to sell out the locations to the point that there aren’t enough chairs to seat the attendees. This goal always worries my sales guys because they don’t want the customers to get upset about not having a chair after they’ve paid $800 for a ticket. That’s a new and good problem to have! One of my salespeople protested that it wasn’t fair to the audience. I said, “Bring it on, ding-dong! You fill the place up to the point where people don’t have a place to sit and I’ll handle the fallout.” Never worry about the wrong things; if you do, you won’t ever get what you want. Doing too much will never fail you, but doing too little always will.
When it comes to action, go big, go bold, and then go more. This is the one thing that will guarantee results. Don’t deal in small numbers and small actions. Deal in large numbers and massive volumes of action. Go massive, not passive.
When I was a young salesperson, I was rough around the edges (my wife says I still am). But I never let that stop me from taking action. When you’re not perfect and polished, the only way to compensate is by taking lots of action. You’ll find that when you get enough volume going, you don’t have to be perfect. You’ll never become polished at this career if you’ve got only a handful of opportunities. The more action you take, the more business you’ll have, and the better you’ll get at your job.
If you’re unlucky enough to be one of those polished and professional types, you’ll still need to take massive action in order to get to the higher levels of production. I say “unlucky” because I’ve met many veteran salespeople who have been around for years and are very professional and know their business, but have an air about them that says they’re superior to others and don’t have to keep learning and changing and taking action. Wake up! It takes massive action, not polish, to get what you want in life! No one will pay you for what you know. They’ll pay you for what you do.
PRODUCTION YIELDS HAPPINESS
Most people don’t get enough in life only because they never do enough in life! Production makes people feel good. It almost doesn’t matter what you’re producing as long as you’re doing and producing something constructive. Decide to produce something and produce it in massive quantities, and you will win in life. Production results in happiness. This is a basic truth in every religious, economic, and ethnic group on this planet. People feel better when they are producing, and the more production they generate, the better they will feel. Money may not make people happy, but production will. In the words of Dr. Michael DeBakey, “Man was born to work hard.”