Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Take All the Help You Can Get

The best way to become great at anything is to learn everything you can from anywhere that you can. I have been fortunate enough to have had a number of mentors in my career—people who took the time to teach me, foster me, and help me move forward. Often, these were older and more experienced people. My point is that these people took the time to help a young man who wanted to learn.

From Bill Davison, president of Maine Electronics, I learned how to organize an entire status presentation over a single weekend so that I would be able to face a hostile team from our largest customer on a cold Monday morning in January.

From Joe Bugel, the engineer—who they used to call “the methodizer”—on my programs, I learned the gentle art of office politics, especially when he told me that I needn’t worry about the upcoming layoff because I did not make enough money to make a difference—and he was right.

From Lou Cardillo, I learned how to deal with buyers no matter how hard and tough they were, and Lou was one of the toughest but with a proverbial heart of gold.

From Art Branstine, I learned how to develop and complete a huge annual proposal for the Minuteman program at Rockwell. He worked with me every evening in the pre-computer days with legal-sized graph sheets until I got it right. It’s an experience I will never forget, nor do I ever want to repeat, and caused me to become the only PCB sales manager ever who had no interest in quoting and would not even allow prints in my office.

And from Presbyterian Pastor John Gable, I learned the art of conflict resolution in a calm and peaceful manner where everyone would walk away feeling like they won.

From my father, I learned to get along with everybody—good, difficult, and even obnoxious. My father got along with everyone to the point that they all loved him in the end.

And from my mother, I learned how to talk to anybody. She could strike up and hold a conversation with everyone from Billy Shufeldt, the little brat across the street, to Mike Landry, the would-be Hells Angel with the Harley next door, to my college professors. At the ripe old age of 91, she still talks to everyone she meets. And everyone is fine with her as long as they talk. My sister and I like to say that she would get along fine with Charles Manson as long as he talked with her.

Those are some of the people who have helped me along the way. Now, who are yours? Reflect on your life for a minute, and remember all of the people along the way who took enough of an interest in you to share some of their knowledge and experience.

No matter who you are—regardless if you are the type of person whose theme song is, “I did it my way,” or not—we’ve all had people help us along the way, and we should appreciate that. Even today, I am always looking for people who can inspire me to be better and smarter and to grow.

When I want inspiration, I read a biography of someone I admire. Teddy Roosevelt is always a great inspiration to me, so I love reading anything about old Teddy. When I want to do a case study in business, I’ll watch an episode of “Undercover Boss” or “The Profit.” Sometimes, I’ll stop by QVC for a few minutes and watch the pros do their hard selling. Those people know how to sell!

And speaking about knowing how to sell, no one was better at it than Ron Popeil. He’s a master at the hard sell. He started at the Wisconsin State Fair before his Pocket Fisherman made him famous. I lived in Wisconsin for a while, and for me, the highlight of attending that State Fair was to watch salespeople pushing mops, pots and pans, and tomato-slicing knives that could also cut through shoes, tin cans, etc. Strangely enough, I always walked away learning something.

The lesson here is to stop, look, listen, and learn. You can learn something from anybody if you are willing to take the time to do it. Notice that I didn’t even mention traditional tools for learning, such as books, videos, and seminars. If you are serious about your career and being the best salesperson and person you can be, then you will be wise to learn everything you can from anybody you can anywhere that you can. And don’t forget YouTube and Ted Talks, both of which are fantastic sources to learn everything about anything.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.