Are you planting enough seeds?

One day. a guy decides that he wants to grow an apple tree in his backyard. So he walks into a garden store asking for the highest quality seeds so he can grow his tree. The store clerk gives him a bag with a bunch of seeds in it. The man tells the clerk that he doesn't need a bag. He just needs one or two of the best seeds.

The store clerk tells him that one or two of the best seeds are in the bag, but "we can't tell which one is which so you have to plant them all."

Life works exactly the same way. Many times we go out and reach for that dream or that special goal and we fall just short. That's because we didn't plant enough seeds.

In life:

1. The more people you meet (planting seeds), the more likely you will find someone interested in what you have to offer.
2. The more people you find interested in what you have to offer, the more appointments you make.
3. The more appointments you make, the more sales you make.

If you're not making enough sales, that's because:

1. You're not making enough appointments
2. If you're not making enough appointments, that's because you didn't find enough people interested in what you have to offer.
3. If you didn't find enough interested people, that's because you didn't meet enough people.

You didn't plant enough seeds.

You have to plant the seeds. You have to get out there.

In a club if a guy asks a girl to dance, and she says no, he has a choice: "Ask someone else or sit down?" If he keeps asking different ladies, someone is bound to say yes. But if he quits and sits down after asking one or two people, NO ONE WILL SAY YES.

But planting seeds, takes work. It takes guts to plant the necessary amount of seeds.

But not everyone is willing to do this; you need to get out of your comfort zone.

To get out of your comfort zone, YOU NEED A WHY.

ARE YOU PLANTING ENOUGH SEEDS???

When The Why Is Big Enough, The Facts Don't Count

Many times, we question our ability to reach our dreams and goals. When others question our ability as well, it just confirms and exarcerbates our doubts. I'm here to tell you that when your WHY is big enough, the facts don't count.

You may not have the talent, the ability, or the skills according to society. Just remember, that as long as there is AT LEAST ONE person in the world that still believes in you, you have a chance.

You are still in the game.

Even if the only person left in the world that still believes in you...IS YOU!!!

That's OK.

People want to follow people that are self-confident, that are excited about life. People will only buy products or services from such people. If you exude confidence, you will seem competent to others and others will want to deal with you only. If a consumer has to choose between two similar products or services and they can't decide which one to pick. They pick the product with the more successful salesperson.

You may not think you are successful...it doesn't matter, what's important is that others think you are.

Everyone wants to work with winners. Nobody wants to do business with a loser.

Dream big, set your goals and pay the price.

Eagles & Turkeys

I believe that one of the most important jobs of a manager is to hire well. However, it is a lot easier said than done. When you find the perfect person for the job, a superstar, an eagle, it is so rewarding watching them grow into that position.

It really is.

However, to find the eagles, you have to go search through a lot of turkeys. A LOT OF TURKEYS. Turkeys look like eagles, they have a beak, they have wings and they have feathers... but the similarities end there.

Turkeys are no eagles.

First of all, turkeys can't fly, they can't defend themselves, and they need to be fed and taken care of. Turkeys are a lot of work,they are high-maintenance. Besides, people eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

Eagles on the other hand, have no natural enemies (name one animal that eats eagles), they can fly and they feed and care for themselves. NO ONE MESSES WITH AN EAGLE.

Not only do eagles fly, THEY SOAR.

Turkeys are high-maintenance and eagles are not. Eagles are self-sufficient.

Eagles are winners.

So the goal of every great manager, is to find as many eagles as possible. THE TEAM WITH THE MOST EAGLES WINS. That's it. It's that simple.

You can now manage.

The job becomes very easy when you have a team full of eagles. But when you have a team full of turkeys, the job becomes extremely difficult. No management technique in the world will save you from a team that has too many turkeys. You will fail as a manager.

In management, there is nothing worse than hiring the wrong people (turkeys). In fact, it is my belief that terminating someone for poor performance is not really the person's fault. That person needed a job. That person did what they had to do to win that job. The fault really lies on the manager for making a hiring mistake. The manager hired a turkey.

When I interview candidates for a position, I go through several people until I find that eagle, that one person that I think has what it takes to get the job done. The funny thing is everyone sounds great on the interviews: "Hire me and I will be your top rep", "hire me and I will solve all of your problems." It would be so much easier to identify the turkeys if they would only tell the truth: "Hire me and I will commit fraud." "Hire me and I will sleep on the job."

Because everyone sounds the same and their credentials of the different candidates are similar, I like to dig a little deeper. The key to finding the eagles, is to find out if they have a WHY. What motivates them? Why are they here? How do they feel if they miss goal? Do they care?



People that have a WHY, can make things happen. These are the eagles.

People that don't have a WHY, will just watch things happen. These are the turkeys.

Are YOU a crab in a bucket?

Ask any fisherman, if you catch a crab and stick it in a bucket; you have to put a lid on it, because that crab will eventually climb out. However, if you put two crabs or several crabs in the same bucket, you won't even need to cover that bucket; because amazingly enough, none of the crabs will climb out. The reason being is that as soon as one crab tries to escape, the other crabs conspire to pull that crab down. It never occurs to the selfish crabs that if they worked together, they ALL could escape.

Are YOU a crab in a bucket? Do you find that people are making fun of your WHY? Are other people telling you that what you are trying to accomplish is much too difficult? Are other people telling you that you will not be successful at this, that you're wasting your time? These are "the crabs" who are trying to block your progress. They can be your family, your friends, your co-workers, even your spouse. People resent others that are trying to accomplish something worthwhile; because it forces them to look at themselves in the mirror and face the fact that they are where they are because of the choices they have made throughout their lives. Instead of reaching for their dreams, they gave up on them.

They settled.

Don't share your WHY with others because you will only hear negativity. You can tell your spouse or best friend IF they're going to be supportive. But if they're not, be prepared to hear some tough words.

Hang on to your WHY and remain focused on that finish line.

You can do it.

Proof that The Why Exists

IF you don't have a WHY, you will not succeed. It's just that simple. The price will seem too high, and you won't make the effort that is truly needed to get the job done. It is absolutely impossible to reach your goals without having a WHY.

NO WHY MEANS NO WAY

I can prove it.

Let's say for example, you are walking down the street and you find a dollar on the sidewalk.

Question: Do you pick it up? Or do you leave it there?

Chances are that you will pick up that dollar and you stick it in your pocket.

Let's analyze that for a second.

The WHY was the dollar, you wanted to get that dollar...but YOU HAVE TO PAY A PRICE in order to get it. The PRICE was to bend down and pick it up. In your mind, you decided that it was a small PRICE to pay, so you picked it up.

Mission accomplished. It all happened in a blink of an eye.

Your WHY was bigger than the PRICE that you had to pay.

If the WHY is bigger than the PRICE, the WHY wins.

Mission accomplished. You have reached your goal.

If the PRICE is bigger than the WHY, the PRICE wins.

Mission not accomplished. You are feeling frustrated and stressed.

I have another example:

What if that same dollar is dangling from a tightrope that is attached between two skycrapers, 100 stories high???


Will you go up there, walk that tightrope (risk your life), to pick up that dollar?

No, you would not.

In this case the WHY (the dollar) is too small and the PRICE (walk a tightrope)is too high.



Walking a tightrope, between two skyscrapers and no safety net, is a PRICE that is ridiculously high. No sane person would do it.

But what if it's your child dangling up there, screaming for help???

Under those same conditions, you would go up that tightrope with no problem at all. Why?

Because your WHY just got bigger.

This proves that your WHY must be bigger than the PRICE that you have to pay. In order to reach your goal, you have to be willing to pay the PRICE. If the PRICE is too high, then your WHY is not big enough to overcome it.

Find your WHY. You can do it.

Even a Vending Machine Knows This

In life, to get what you want, you have to pay the price---and it's not just any price, you have to pay the FULL PRICE. There's no other way. Even a vending machine knows this.

Let's just say for example that you want to buy a candy bar, the machine will ask you for $1.00. you want the candy bar but you only want to pay 80 cents. The machine will say "Sorry, you have to pay the FULL price and the price is one dollar. You say "OK, here's 90 cents.", and the vending machine will still not give you what you want---because you have to pay the FULL price. You can give the machine 99 cents, and it will still tell you no, because you still have not paid the FULL price. You get frustrated because what you are doing is not working.

The same thing happens in real life. We get frustrated because we're not accomplishing what we want, nothing seems to be working, but the truth of the matter is we're not putting in the maximum effort needed to actually get it done. We're not paying the FULL price.

The reason we don't pay the FULL price is because the WHY isn't big enough to overcome the price. If the WHY is small, the price will seem very high. If the WHY is big enough, the price will seem small by comparison. Picture in your mind a seesaw. That's how it works.

You can do it.


##Ruben Quintero

The Price

In order to get what you want, you have to "pay the price". Maybe your dream is to make a million dollars by the age of 30. That is a worthwhile dream, but if it was easy to do, everyone would do it. The bigger the dream, the bigger the price; so the question you have to ask yourself is: "ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE?"

We all live our lives in a "comfort zone", where we have our routines, we watch our favorite shows, follow our favorite teams, etc. Think of it as living in a cocoon, or a womb, or a warm embrace. To attain that dream, that burning desire, that WHY, we have to be willing to get out of our comfort zones. Leaving the comfort zone IS the price.

We have to be willing to do things we really do not want to do. It's very similar to the rules of baseball. As long as you have your foot on first base, you are "safe". But in order to score the winning run, you have touch second base, then touch third base, until finally going around the entire diamond, touching home plate and scoring the winning run.

However, once you take your foot off the first base bag, YOU ARE NO LONGER SAFE; you run the risk of being tagged "out". If you leave first base, there is a chance that you will score, but there is also a chance that you will be caught between the bases. However, one thing's for sure, if you never leave first, you will NEVER score. FIRST BASE IS THAT COMFORT ZONE.


###Ruben Quintero

What is the Why?

The Why is the reason that you're doing something. That reason is something that is very personal and may only motivate you and no one else. It has to be something that will motivate you to get out of your "comfort zone". The Why has to be so big that it will motivate you to do something that you probably wouldn't do.

Examples of The Why are:

Get rich
Retire early
Move up the corporate ladder
Recognition
Become famous
Get G.O.O.D. (Get Out of Debt)
Money for College
Travel around the world
Your first home
Start a family
Make an impact in the world

There many, many more examples but the point of this is that your friends, family, co-workers and your community can all support you and give you all the resources you need to succeed...BUT NO ONE CAN GIVE YOU A WHY.

The Why

In my many years of management; there's one common denominator when it comes to success. To be successful, to reach that goal, to attain that milestone, to make that dream come true, you have to pay a price. The bigger the dream, the bigger the price. YOU NEED A WHY.

THE WHY is the reason that you are doing something. THE WHY is that burning desire that you have in your gut, that wants to accomplish that certain something. What is your WHY? Is it to become famous? Is it to get out of debt? Is it to move up the corporate ladder? Is it to make an impact in this world? Whatever your WHY is, no one needs to know. Everybody's WHY is different. What is most important, is that you have a WHY.