"What did the customer say no to? – nothing? – then how did you know he was done (had bought all he was going to)?"
- Go for No, page 28
"Failure is the halfway mark on the way to success."- Go for No, page 29
How many sales have I happily made (ideas to my boss/staff/co-workers and products/services to customers) thinking that I got exactly what I wanted, a Yes? Now I wonder, was I thinking too small in my ask? Had I gotten some No’s (4 of them) on the way to Yes I’d know for sure I’d done my best.
"Set goals for the number of No’s you’re going to get each week."- Go for No, page 46
Being innately competitive as a species, we have a natural desire to reach any goals we set for ourselves (or are set for us). Setting failure goals is a way to be excited about failing/hearing the word No. Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” So go out and try, even if you may hear the word No!
And crucially important for managers/companies – to help staff succeed, we need to reward failure – recognize it as an essential part of getting to yes – or no matter what, people will still work for Yes and therefore avoid No. We work for what we get rewarded for!
"Failure Quotient – how many times is a person willing to fail before succeeding?"- Go for No, page 50
As I was reading I was thinking – what could make me want to implement this concept? What makes people be able to overcome decades of not wanting to hear no, to now embracing it? And then I realized that the people the authors use as examples have something in common (Colonel Sanders, Babe Ruth, Allen Breed – who? Read the book and you’ll see), they have passion for what they’re doing. If you don’t have passion, Go for No will be harder to implement because your only reward will be hitting your No goals – likely not enough to make it worth it to fail and fail and fail and fail (that was 4 times!).
When I first started reading Go for No, the storyline felt a little hokey. But seriously, stick with it. It’s a short book so it’s only a few pages before you get to the concept of Go for No – a concept that is so clearly what you need to be doing that you’ll forget that it was a hard start.
• Received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice (Long Beach State)• At the age of 8 she called George Lucas to see if she could work with him on future movies• Youngest General Manager in eyeglass retailer LensCrafters history• Launched her own training company at the age of just 24• Speaker Member of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance• Currently has 8000+ followers on twitter at www.twitter.com/goforno• Was featured on ‘Idol Chat’ a TV Guide Channel show where she was interviewed on how even idol rejects can be successful failures
