Taking Responsibility Will Change Your Life and Attitude
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The Difference Between Winners and Losers
I think one of the biggest differences between winners and losers is that the winners take 100% responsibility for their results, while the losers take none.
Common Complaints
“Our leads suck, our prices are too high to sell to anyone, everyone wants to get three estimates, and everything I want to buy costs too much.”
What Do These Statements Have in Common?
Besides complaining, what do all of these statements have in common? You aren’t taking responsibility. All you’re really saying is, “It’s not my fault.” Now, before you start justifying these excuses, look around and see—are there others selling more with the same leads and prices? Is there anyone else making more money than you at your company? If so, then you have no excuse.
The Reality of Equal Circumstances
Keep in mind that all the leads suck equally, and the problems that happen to you happen to everyone else.
Take Responsibility and Find Success
Now, if everyone else in your entire company wasn’t selling because the prices were too high, then maybe you'd be right and should look for another job. But if one person is succeeding, you can too. You just need to find out what they’re doing that you aren’t. When you take responsibility, your statements change to:
“How can I get better at selling the leads I’m getting?”
“How can I learn to build value so that customers will pay our prices?”
“How can I get better at selling to customers so they don’t feel the need to get three estimates?”
“How can I sell more so I can make enough money to buy the things I want?”
The First Step to Success: Take Responsibility
The first step to making more money in sales and being successful is to take 100% responsibility for everything happening in your sales and personal life.
Stop Blaming and Complaining
Stop blaming and complaining. The point is, until you take responsibility and stop blaming something or somebody, you’ll never do anything to change the real cause—yourself. If you don’t take responsibility for your situation, you’ll never change. Why should you? After all, if it’s not your fault, there’s no reason to change. That’s the biggest limitation of not taking responsibility. Until you do, you won’t even try to change because it never occurs to you that you are the reason for your results and your life. Nothing else. The sad part is that by not taking responsibility, you’re giving up control but still bearing the consequences. You end up paying the price without having any control—twice as bad.
The Benefits of Taking Responsibility
Improved Attitude
Besides changing your life, taking responsibility has the added benefit of improving your attitude.
Eliminate Negativity
One way your attitude improves when you take responsibility is that you eliminate a lot of the negativity in your life. If you think about all the negativity and complaints in your life, they all have one thing in common: you’re blaming somebody or something else. Think about something you’re upset about, and I guarantee it involves blaming someone or something. That’s why you can’t be negative without the word “blame.” So, by taking responsibility, there’s no blame, and it’s very hard to stay negative. It’s not that things cost too much—it’s that you don’t make enough money!
Gain a Sense of Control
Another reason taking responsibility improves your attitude is that it makes you feel in control of your life, rather than feeling like a victim.
The Victim Mentality vs. Taking Control
It may be hard to digest, but you really are in control of your life. If you’re in sales, you are 100% in control of whether you make money or not.
The Victim Mentality
The opposite of taking responsibility is what I call a victim mentality. “Woe is me, everything bad always happens to me.” When you take a closer look at someone with this mindset, you’ll see a person who isn’t taking responsibility, and because of that, they aren’t doing anything to change. They feel like a victim and are very negative. That’s not a great trait for a salesperson.
I’m sure you see people like that around you. If something bad happens, it always happens to them. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean they don’t have good intentions. Everyone generally has good intentions. Everyone wants to do well and succeed.
Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
Unfortunately, good intentions mean nothing. It’s taking responsibility and action that mean everything.
Taking Action in Sales
Overcoming Excuses
I’ve had salespeople tell me things like, “It’s not my fault that my car broke down, and I can’t work.” You already know the next part of this conversation. The reality is, it is their fault. If it happened to me, I’d just rent a car for $50 and not miss a chance to make $1,000. It’s harsh, but whose fault is it that they have no credit or savings to handle this situation? Until you adjust your mindset to accept that it’s your responsibility and your fault when bad things happen, you won’t be able to change yourself to get the good things you desire. It may be hard for some people to do that, but to me, they are all variations of “It’s not my fault my girlfriend got pregnant.”
How Taking Responsibility Improves Your Attitude
Control Over Your Life
Taking responsibility also helps your attitude by giving you a feeling of control.
Positive Outlook Through Control
I believe people are positive to the extent that they feel in control of their lives. People who feel 100% in control of their lives tend to have a positive outlook because they believe that even though they may not have the outcome they want right now, they can change it and control it. People who don’t take responsibility feel like they have no control over their lives. When you feel like you have no control, that you’re just drifting whichever way the waves and winds take you, and that you can’t control any of the bad things that happen, you become very frustrated.
If I felt that way, I’d be negative too.
A Powerful Lesson from Brian Tracy
One thing I learned from Brian Tracy that has helped me immensely is this: as a sales manager or salesperson, when things start falling apart and I begin to feel stressed, the number one thing I tell myself over and over is “I am responsible.” This gives me back my sense of control and removes the “poor me” victim mentality. Try it—it works.
