(continued from Part 1)
The Better Solution
Giving up isn't just my type of thing. Especially when I could create my own job and thus my own future.
And there is always a better way to solve a problem, even if it seems hopeless.
Always.
So the quest for a better way to get a well-paying job without any degree began. Every goal setting class teaches you to first have a clear definition of what you want, and boy did I have that definition:
I wanted an above average salary, being able to work according to my own schedule (So it would help working on my own business on the side), doing something in sales or marketing while at the same time also being involved in strategic decisions for the long-term growth of a business.
Pretty tough job.
This might sound a little over the top or plain unrealistic, I know.
But it was exactly what I had learned everything about during the last years in all those books and tapes, and now it was time to give all this knowledge a field test out in reality.
If these qualities really would bring real-world results, I would definitely be ready to start my next business and make no more silly mistakes such as those I made in the past!
At first I also would not have believed that there would be a position giving me all those demands that I had, so I would also be happy if only part of my wishes would be fulfilled.
After all, there is no formal job description that would even come close to what I actually wanted to do.
This dream job of mine didn't exist. Period.
Therefore it was clear that I could also not take the traditional approach of finding a job - looking for job offers and applying with my CV.
Instead, it was time for something different.
Since it was a determination to really bring value and effort into my new job I wanted to acquire, I also decided it should start with effort and determination.
So I looked for my low hanging fruit where I could get a foot in the door and created a list of places where it could potentially be possible to create my own job.
On the list were companies where I could be referred to easily or where it would be easy for me to reach the owner directly.
And then I decided to set up a sort of “marketing plan” to advertise my person to these key people who could put me in a position as I wanted to.
The tactic I used is based on the “top 100” strategy by author Chett Holmes which you can learn about in my article about sales leadership (See, I told you it would pay off to self-educate!).
The lowest hanging fruit was a relative of mine who was running a company with around 130 employees.
Their industry and products weren't something exciting, but I knew him and the business and therefore was sure I could contribute something important to it.
As already mentioned, if only a part of my wishlist was fulfilled it would be great.
So I spent the next months studying all I could find about the business - their annual revenue, their current problems, their challenges.
It even involved pretending to be a customer and asking people on the phone about what the company can do, good or bad and so forth.
After some time, I had quite a picture of what was happening inside the business and started to sort out tactics and methods from my books that would help the business grow and expand.
Based on these findings, I started to create a report of what I would recommend to improve the business and how problems could be handled, based really on data and real-life examples of how others solved problems rather than on my own opinion. Hopefully this would also create my own job as a byproduct, or so I had hoped.
And then I sent the report to the CEO and owner asking for nothing in return.
Well, nothing happened.
Not even a response.
Another failed idea I assumed.
So I went back to my data and created another report, even better this time with more data.
Again no response.
Persistence doesn't always work, remember from Part 1?
Back to the data I went, gathering even more value, put it all in a .pdf file and send it one more time.
At least a thank you email came back this time.
It took quite some time to break through.
I would like to tell you about my brilliant strategy and how smart I was, but actually it was just an excruciating amount of work which I did not expect anything in return. But this is what makes it interesting - anybody could have done it.
Just nobody did it except me.
For around 10-months I kept sending my ideas and experiences to the CEO with the effort to improve every time and really put tailor-made suggestions for his business into it.
10 months of constant, valuable work without a cent earned from it!
But with every report, the contact started getting better.
The communication began. He even told me that he also had some ideas which were similar to mine, but he has no real time to implement them.
It was really hard not to start shouting “Then hire ME! I will do it!!” on the phone and to remain silent while i slowly observed how it all came closer together to my goal. But still I did not really have high hopes for creating my own job since so many attempts failed before.
After several months and numerous reports later, he finally gave me the call I have been waiting for sooo long: “You know what, I took a look at what you sent me. Come into my office tomorrow after the business hours. I think we should talk.”
BAM!
That was it! The moment I have been working for such a long time finally seemed within reach.
10 months of nearly ridiculous effort to put together various marketing strategies, sales strategies and overall performance improvements for the business finally paid off. Even though my first attempts were ignored, I just kept sending more and more value and information, all for free and without asking for anything in return.
It seems like this constant effort, just as Chett Holmes says about his Top 100 strategy which I wrote about in another article, lets your target have respect for you sooner or later because of the persistency you market to them. Creating your own job will be worth it.
Even if you get rejected several times but just keep on providing value and keep on pushing, sooner or later that targeted person will become interested in what you have to say.
Guess how many people will do that?
No one.
Guess what kind of impression you then make to really try to help the business owner with their business without asking for anything in return?
Business owners get bombarded every day with people wanting all kinds of things from them. The magic in my approach was to serve them and do something for them, without asking for anything.
That was the real secret.
Nothing special about my skills - everybody can learn them.
Nothing special about my personality - I often made mistakes.
Nothing special about the approach - everyone is capable of doing it.
Just simple effort, discipline and providing value for free at the beginning.
Ultimately, I was offered a job that really did provide me with all I could wish for.
I truly did create my own job!
Every single thing on my wishlist was provided. It was incredible, and never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to happen this perfectly.
High salary, high position, participation in strategic decisions and in charge of a small team that I would build up to bring the suggested ideas into reality.
No formal job description ever would have granted me this level of autonomy and freedom to work, never!
Because this was a job that didn't exist before.
I created that job!
My official position was called strategic sales, and the ideas I had gathered from years of reading and researching really helped to make the business millions later on.
And keep in mind I had no previous experience in this industry, I had no degree until that point because I was still doing my MBA on the weekends and had nothing to prove my capabilities until that point!
But what I had to offer was discipline, effort, and the will to work hard.
Combined with constant new learning and trying new ideas, it got me the ultimate job of my dreams. A job that I created on my own.
How far will you go?
In retrospect, there are some criteria to make this strategy work I am pretty sure without them this approach might have failed despite all efforts and value provided:
First of all, it has to be a small or middle-sized company. The business of my relative was privately held with him being the full owner. I am not sure if this tactic would work as well with a Fortune 500 company listed on the stock exchange - although the payoff there could even be much bigger. You can give it a try but I have no prediction how it will work out because there are many more gatekeepers and people on the way up. And to make this strategy work, you need to have direct contact with the decision maker which brings me to the next point.
You need direct contact to the person in charge, ideally the owner. Never, ever send such reports to a gatekeeper like a secretary. Such people are not business people, even if your ideas are brilliant they could not evaluate them and would just consider it as “another marketing spam”. The person you send your ideas and reports to absolutely has to be the one who makes the decisions and has an understanding of everything in the business.
My ideas worked because sales and marketing can be improved in similar fashions for most businesses. I knew how to set up systematic processes for sales teams as well as online marketing because this kind of predictable success fascinated me, and this was exactly what this company was missing. Also all of these facts and data were missing in my failed businesses - so it was a very personal issue which I put a lot of effort into to make it better the next time. It might be more difficult to do the same if you want to be employed as an architect for example, but if you get creative there sure is also a way to provide value if you are willing to put in the necessary workload.
Value, value, value. Business owners are smart. They will smell a cheap report that is poorly constructed for their business from miles away. You don't need fancy graphics and a Powerpoint presentation, but make sure that you really understand the challenges of the business and only send a suggestion if you could solve the issue.
Never, ever pretend to be capable of doing something you cannot do! If you start the relationship with a lie and it gets uncovered later on, your entire effort could be futile.
Don't expect anything in return. I was dead broke at that time working a job that I hated every day just to pay my bills. But still, I kept putting in report after report, learning more and more along the way until finally my message came through. And 10 months of working for something with an unsure outcome without earning a dime for it could be considered crazy for some people. And to a certain degree, it also is. But I think exactly this is the way to create your own dream job yourself - going a road where nobody else is willing to go. And no, it probably won't work right from the start. You will need persistence to get your message through. Be prepared to try again even if all fails and gets rejected. Because it likely will.
The new job you want to create has to be of value to the business. As sales and marketing are my passion, it wasn't that hard to find a business which could use these services. But your passion could be web-design, improving product quality or innovation. Whatever it is, find a way to package it into the solution that the business you are targeting will need and is willing to pay for. The more information about the business you can gather, the better. Your future is at stake so you better really find a way to present why your talents are the perfect solution for the business.
All these criteria were essential for me to create my own job, and probably will be for you too.
Even though it was a relative of mine owning the business, we were never close in contact. In fact I never even dreamed about working in his business because it was clear to me that those doors would be closed to me.
After all he knew I was working in sales for years and it was never considered to go selling for his company, even when they were looking for new salespeople all over the country.
I saw this person maybe once a year and he usually remained very distant. So this was by far not an easy task - but still it was the lowest hanging fruit for me.
Also the first reports of mine were plainly ignored, so it really wasn't anything else than using the strategy to any business owner in the area. Being part of the same blood line just made him the lowest hanging fruit possible, and that's why I choose this business to “create my own job”.
What if you do not have a distant relative owning a business?
Well, have you ever heard of someone owning a business?
Do you happen to have any form of personal contact to any business owner?
Could you get the personal email or phone number of someone owning a business?
Could you be referred to a business owner?
There are plenty of businesses out there.
Search for the one where you could get a foot in the door the easiest.
If you now wonder where to start to create the job of your dreams, start with becoming a valuable person if you have not become so yet. This process unfortunately also means having to put lots of work, possibly even years with an unsure outcome into it first without receiving a dime for it.
But without these years first, I would have never been able to provide enough value for my current boss to even consider offering me the job I am having right now. Which is the job I actually created on my own.
It also would never have been even a possibility to talk about how to improve his business had I not spent years before learning everything I could about sales, marketing and business success.
That will mean sit down, read the book.
Listen to the tapes.
Go to seminars.
Watch videos.
Today.
Improve as a person, grow and transform.
If everything you did so far failed miserably like it did for me - then there is probably a lot to learn you don't understand yet.
Hey, if it were easy everybody would do it!
But if becoming an entrepreneur is not your type of thing or you just need a new path in your career to pursue your long-term goals as I did, then this is a viable tactic to create a job that exactly matches your talents and personality.
Now it is up to you. How far will you go?
How much effort is the creation of the ultimate dream job worth to you - even if it is just a dream currently?
Whatever your passion is, I recommend becoming an expert on it right now and to read and absorb every material out there to really be one of the best in what you do.
With enough time, and enough persistence, sooner or later a business owner will understand your worth - and offer you everything you will be asking for.
Keep Your Dream Alive!