New this week at ChangeThis.com: Tom Peters’ collection of 111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling.
The 111 Thoughts are a spicy mix of deep insight, common sense, hardheaded pitchmanship and more than a few tips-of-the-hat to biblical traditions in commerce.
Here are a few of Tom’s 111 Thoughts with biblical texts from The New International Version added by us:
[5] Little starts can lead to big wins. Most true winners—think search & Google—start as something small. Many big deals—Disney & Pixar—could have been done as little-er deals if you’d had the nerve to step out before the value became obvious.
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. “‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
— Matthew 25:14-29
[23] GREAT LISTENERS ARE GREAT SALES PEOPLE. (Listening “skills” are hard to learn and subject to immense effort in pursuit of Mastery. A virtuoso “listener” is as rare as a virtuoso cello player.) (“If you don’t listen, you don’t sell anything.”—Carolyn Marland, MD/Guardian Group)
He who answers before listening— that is his folly and his shame.
— Proverbs 18:13
[36] Don’t waste your time on jerks—it’ll rarely work out in the mid- to long-term.
Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. At the beginning his words are folly; at the end they are wicked madness—and the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming— who can tell him what will happen after him? A fool’s work wearies him; he does not know the way to town.
— Ecclesiates 10: 12-15
[38] You haven’t a clue as to how this situation will actually play out—be prepared to move fast in a different direction.
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
— James 4:13-17
[47] Know more than the next guy. Homework pays. (of course it’s obvious—but in my work it is too often honored in the breach.)
Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.
— Proverbs 10:14
[50] Don’t hold grudges. (It is the ultimate in small mindedness—and incredibly wasteful and ineffective. There’s always tomorrow.)
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
—Matthew 6:14-15
[65] A THREE-MINUTE CALL TODAY CAN AVOID A GAME-LOSER OF A FIASCO NEXT MONTH. There was always a time when a little thing could have been addressed that headed off a subsequent big thing. As to avoiding that call, didn’t someone say, “Pride goeth before the fall”?
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD. The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction.
— Proverbs 16:18-21
[72] Lend a helping hand, especially when you don’t have the time. E.g. share relation-ships— the more you give away the more you get in return (just like they say in church).
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Luke 6:38
[108] Be kind. It works.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
— Luke 6:35
[109] Be especially kind when there are screw-ups. (There’s plenty of time later to play the Great Accountability Game.)
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:15
One thing we keep seeing over and over is the heady mix of wisdom that’s blended in a biblical worldview. Because a biblical worldview is not formed in a vacuum. It’s the work of people noted, like the men of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12, for understanding the times. Put another way, a biblical worldview comprehends what’s happening in the world — the zeitgeist — against the backdrop of a biblical comprehension of life, the universe and everything.
