Today, my friend and attorney, sent me a recent blog entry from Seth Godin (a fellow typepad blogger): Is Everything Perfect? It's a great blog entry about positive thinking. It reminded me of a habit I used to have and somehow stopped.
When I was forced into entrepreneurship in 2001 and I didn't have much business, people would always ask me "how's biz?" My response was the intentionally vague answer: "Unbelievable!" Almost without fail, the person would interpret this as a positive statement. I can't even recall one time that someone asked me to clarify if this meant "unbelievably bad" or "unbelievably good". Sometimes, they might say, "Really?" to which I would reply, "Absolutely!" That would certainly be the end of the query and the inquirer would leave with a very positive view of my business.
I never felt deceitful with this strategy. I was relying on one simple rule:
People want to work with successful people.
Getting your first client or gig is always a chicken and egg scenario. The bottom line is the if you appear to be desirable to one client, then the next client is going to assume that you have some value or merit. (Perhaps that is why some guys wear a wedding ring to make other women believe that at least one woman found something redeeming enough to marry them.) That's why new businesses often do freebies at first just to build a bit of a track record. Success breeds success. Everyone knows that.
I have been blessed with the ability to actually say that biz is good and that it's growing. But I'm still going to go back to "Unbelievable!" It sounds more exciting and optimistic even to me. Give it a try and let me know what happens.
i like this entry, good stuff steve. i was on the shuttle to the savannah airport and overheard the driver talk about how people say, "well i can't sleep on the plane," and how they've already lost the battle. if you say you can't sleep on the plane you're defeated and in turn will not. confidence truly breeds confidence.
Posted by: cliff weber | July 27, 2010 at 09:44 AM