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Thursday, September 9, 2010

"Expect to get dinged here and there as you pursue your goal, but like wine that gets better with age, you get better when you have failed a time or two and learned from the experience."



Boy, can I identify with this quote by Gary Ryan Blair that recently popped up in my e-mails from Motivation in a Minute. Yes, I do feel like a good wine that has become better with age. I recall early in my career not applying for positions because I couldn’t handle the rejection if I wasn’t called in for an interview!

Well, it took many years and many friends telling me “You were made for this job” before I actually applied and was selected for some pretty good positions. When the current recession rolled around and my employer “downsized” its most senior staff to reduce payroll costs, those self doubts surfaced again. Who was going to hire a guy in his mid-50s when cash-strapped companies had candidates half my age willing to work at half the salary I was earning?

That was when Alan, who was let go from his position after whistle-blowing on his employer for false accounting practices, asked me to join him in starting a home-based Watkins business. I was skeptical at first. Who would be interested in buying spices, liniments, body care and cleaning products from us when companies with million-dollar ad campaigns were pushing similar products on prime-time television? Unlike Alan, who grew up in the mid-West with parents who used many Watkins products, I was raised in a small Arizona town, where there were no Watkins distributors going door-to-door.

“So Watkins is like Tupperware, Amway and Mary Kay?” I asked Alan, recalling three companies I knew that sold products through local representatives ringing door bells. I couldn’t believe Alan expected me to have doors slammed in my face by people more concerned with keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table than spicing up their dinners.

That’s when I saw the salesman side of Alan come out. “If you can show people a better product for less money than the one they now use every day, they will buy it, particularly if it’s only $10 to $15. Besides, Watkins’ best product is its business opportunity.”

To make a long story short (or to keep it from getting too much longer), I bought into this “business opportunity” and am so glad I did. Sure, I felt those old feelings of rejection at first when people would walk by our Watkins booth and not even stop to taste FREE FOOD samples! And then there was the first person I called who inquired about the Watkins business opportunity and never answered my follow-up voicemail messages after I mailed her a full information packet.

These are the little dings that Gary Ryan Blair was referring to that we all encounter on the way toward our goals. I certainly have learned from these experiences by increasing my knowledge about the product line, and improving the manner in which I approach a person with the Watkins business opportunity.



It has been a very good first year of our Watkins business. We were named the sixth most successful new Associates in the entire company (2009)! As we are about to begin the 2010 holiday season – the busiest time of the year for all of us who wear the Watkins label – we would like to pause briefly for a glass of wine to celebrate our own Watkins success. Care to join us? You too can share in the good harvest by calling us toll-free at 888-881-7372. Let us explain how this is the perfect time to launch your own Watkins business.



David Gurzenski
Co-manager of the Big Bear Country Store

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