How to Lose Like a Winner

I often find sales trainer Tom Reilly's articles very inspirational. He looks at sales from a world view, or life view - meaning sales isn't everything. He puts sales into perspective. Today's article does just that!

Sales is a metaphor for life: You win some, and you lose some. In sales, you work hard for an order, but it may not happen. In life, you work hard to achieve a goal, but it may not happen. That's reality. The question is, "What do you do with that reality?"

Some people fail and choose to learn from it; other people fail and internalize it. Some people that fail re-dedicate themselves to their passions and give it another try. Some people that fail fill themselves with bitterness and resentment.

Learning from failure means treating it as feedback: What did you learn from the experience? Internalizing failure means believing that you are a loser versus seeing it as an outcome of your attempting to accomplish a goal or make a sale. On one hand, it is a learning experience; on the other hand, it is a blow to your self-esteem.

Harboring resentment toward another person - a boss, customer, or someone else - that got in the way of your achieving a goal is like taking poison and hoping the other person gets sick. Laura Hildebrand wrote in her new book, Unbroken, "The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer."

Winning feels good. Losing feels bad. Both, for a while. Then, it is time to get back to work. Feel the joy when you succeed. Feel the disappointment when you fail. Learn from both. Treat both as feedback. Liberate yourself by releasing the grip that resentment has on you, and you can lose like a winner.

Tom Reilly, president of Tom Reilly Training, is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers. Learn more at www.TomReillyTraining.com