“Dude, this movie has so many great business and sales lessons,” my friend and long-time client Big Chris said, as if he’d just discovered the cure for cancer. “You gotta see it, man.”
Ever since helping Big Chris increases his sales by 393.7% in less than two years, he and I have become great friends.
We bond over our love of sales, business, and music. And we both play the drums.
So three days after Big Chris told me about the movie, I ordered it on iTunes, hunkered down on the sofa with my girlfriend and four bulldogs and we all watched it together. (My bulldogs have since destroyed the sofa BTW. They go through sofas like my crazy aunt Hilda goes through men.)
Well…the movie BLEW MY MIND.
It’s called Whiplash. You may have seen it.
Nominated for a handful of Academy Awards and winning JK Simmons best supporting actor for his role as the instructor from hell, it’s a HELLUAVA flick.
And LOADED with business lessons…
If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a huge favor and watch it right away.
It’s about the relationship between an ambitious young jazz student and his…shall I say…rather abusive instructor.
And there are some HUGE takeaways in it…
1. “Wishing” to accomplish your goals won’t cut it. You must WANT to accomplish your goals the way a drowning man wants oxygen.
2. If you want to do something great, FOCUS on it with everything in you.
3. Hunger must come from within, it can’t be taught. In fact, if you’re not hungry, it’s time to find something that fires you up a heck of a lot more than whatever it is you’re currently doing. Passion is key.
4. Everyone needs a coach or mentor. We all need someone who will point the way and kick us in the ass to help us get there. A good coach brings out the best in us.
5. The two most dangerous words in the English language are “Good Job.” The “every kid gets a trophy” mentality puts a choke-hold on greatness and sets us up for a life of mediocrity. Competition is critical. That’s one of the reasons I created the sales games in Playing for Profits 101 by the way, which you can see here.
6. Work your ass off. Sweat from every pore in your body. Practice ‘til your hands BLEED.
7. Your hard work WILL pay off. I damn near cried during the last ten minutes of the movie. Probably the best drum solo I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a ton of ‘em.
When I was playing of lot of drums in my teens and early twenties, I used to practice my ass off. In fact, breaking so many sticks was the reason I got into the car business—so I could afford new ones.
I grew up poor, and buying new sticks to replace all the ones I’d destroyed wasn’t a luxury I could afford.
Since then, I shifted my focus from drums to business and for almost two-and-a-half decades now have been working my tail off helping dealerships turn their service departments around, and helping entrepreneurs build the businesses of their dreams.
It’s no accident that the clients of mine who become the most successful, are the ones who live by the 7 principles above.
And referring back to #5, if you’d like to fire up some serious completion between the members of your sales team, motivate the hell out of ‘em, and reward ‘em for their hard work in a way that will make ‘em want to work even harder, then read this, it will change everything:
https://chriscollins1.wpengine.com/playing-for-profits-101
Talk soon,
Chris Collins
