I finished Unscripted a few months ago and just recently started reading "The Millionaire Fastlane ". I'm very excited to learn more about what it actually takes to take the leap. Let me give you some background.
After university, I was fortunate to land a job at Xerox. I busted my a$$ for two years, cold-calling in -20 degrees Celcius. I'll never forget the first cold call I did. It was a blizzard and I rang the doorbell and even though I didn't know what I was selling and my messaging was all crooked, I had found my first prospect! He never ended up buying a copier from me but I was hooked. Those two years I spent at Xerox were truly the most formative years of my professional career. If you can convince someone to buy a photocopier, imagine how much easier it will be to sell someone something that create any level of emotion. After two years of door to door sales, I was promoted to another division of Xerox and I spent 18 months selling copiers to larger organizations. From there, I went to work at a medical device company. Health care in Canada is publicly-funded and selling to the government wasn't for me. Next up was corporate credit; I spent 3.5 years selling money to entrepreneurs. Man, what an experience... I met so many amazing entrepreneurs and learned so much about their businesses and perhaps the most interesting part of it all was seeing a company's financial statements. I had a first hand look at what kind of businesses actually generate positive cash flow. In hindsight,I realize what I liked most about that job was the interaction with all the entrepreneurs AND the fact I was able to pull in above 200K/yr while working from home in boxers. I took a course on how to buy a business and found it to be an incredibly viable entry-point into entrepreneurship. I found that the majority of entrepreneurs were regular people BUT that they had decided to take a calculated risk in their life to eventually be in control of their own destiny. I found it very energizing to be around entrepreneurs and to hear their stories.
The past 18 months of my life have been much more unpredictable and rocky. I joined a startup that was totally deceptive with regards to how they planned on paying their people, joined a bootstrapped startup where I can say I was totally motivated but the team wasn't up to par so I walked away without investing any capital. During this whole process, I had a second child and we bought a new house to provide more space for my family... I spent the last 10 months working to selling consulting services for a major software company. I couldn't stand sitting in an office all day with little to do. Eventually, I quit and found another job. I quickly realized that my new job appears to be more of the same and far from an organization that appears to have any gusto or real-drive to grow. The last 18 months have been completely destabilizing professionally and personally. On a positive note, marriage counseling seems to be working.
All the while, my dream to own a business and create value for others has not diminished. I am blessed to have a mentor who is an entrepreneur for the past 10 years who has been incredibly helpful. I've also got other wealthy people in my network who have gone out of their way to help me and share their experiences with me. As I write this, I'm waiting for one of them to get back to me about a new opportunity that may be opening in their company. I always thought that for some reason, someone would take me under their wing and show the ways of entrepreneurship. So far, that hasn't happened and I realize that I am essentially waiting for other people to help me accomplish my dreams. Most importantly at 35 years old, I need to take responsibility for myself quick because otherwise my life will pass me by.
I am looking to learn more about people on this forum who have also found themselves stuck in grueling 9-5 that are soul-sucking, dead-end opportunities and how they eventually made the leap into entrepreneurship. I hope I can contribute to the forum and add value to others by sharing my experience in b2b sales. I've spent many years cold-calling, running sales meetings creating proposals, and most importantly winning deals.
After university, I was fortunate to land a job at Xerox. I busted my a$$ for two years, cold-calling in -20 degrees Celcius. I'll never forget the first cold call I did. It was a blizzard and I rang the doorbell and even though I didn't know what I was selling and my messaging was all crooked, I had found my first prospect! He never ended up buying a copier from me but I was hooked. Those two years I spent at Xerox were truly the most formative years of my professional career. If you can convince someone to buy a photocopier, imagine how much easier it will be to sell someone something that create any level of emotion. After two years of door to door sales, I was promoted to another division of Xerox and I spent 18 months selling copiers to larger organizations. From there, I went to work at a medical device company. Health care in Canada is publicly-funded and selling to the government wasn't for me. Next up was corporate credit; I spent 3.5 years selling money to entrepreneurs. Man, what an experience... I met so many amazing entrepreneurs and learned so much about their businesses and perhaps the most interesting part of it all was seeing a company's financial statements. I had a first hand look at what kind of businesses actually generate positive cash flow. In hindsight,I realize what I liked most about that job was the interaction with all the entrepreneurs AND the fact I was able to pull in above 200K/yr while working from home in boxers. I took a course on how to buy a business and found it to be an incredibly viable entry-point into entrepreneurship. I found that the majority of entrepreneurs were regular people BUT that they had decided to take a calculated risk in their life to eventually be in control of their own destiny. I found it very energizing to be around entrepreneurs and to hear their stories.
The past 18 months of my life have been much more unpredictable and rocky. I joined a startup that was totally deceptive with regards to how they planned on paying their people, joined a bootstrapped startup where I can say I was totally motivated but the team wasn't up to par so I walked away without investing any capital. During this whole process, I had a second child and we bought a new house to provide more space for my family... I spent the last 10 months working to selling consulting services for a major software company. I couldn't stand sitting in an office all day with little to do. Eventually, I quit and found another job. I quickly realized that my new job appears to be more of the same and far from an organization that appears to have any gusto or real-drive to grow. The last 18 months have been completely destabilizing professionally and personally. On a positive note, marriage counseling seems to be working.
All the while, my dream to own a business and create value for others has not diminished. I am blessed to have a mentor who is an entrepreneur for the past 10 years who has been incredibly helpful. I've also got other wealthy people in my network who have gone out of their way to help me and share their experiences with me. As I write this, I'm waiting for one of them to get back to me about a new opportunity that may be opening in their company. I always thought that for some reason, someone would take me under their wing and show the ways of entrepreneurship. So far, that hasn't happened and I realize that I am essentially waiting for other people to help me accomplish my dreams. Most importantly at 35 years old, I need to take responsibility for myself quick because otherwise my life will pass me by.
I am looking to learn more about people on this forum who have also found themselves stuck in grueling 9-5 that are soul-sucking, dead-end opportunities and how they eventually made the leap into entrepreneurship. I hope I can contribute to the forum and add value to others by sharing my experience in b2b sales. I've spent many years cold-calling, running sales meetings creating proposals, and most importantly winning deals.
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