Entrepreneurship: February 2008 Archives

Cold calling is probably one of the most difficult and nerve wracking things to do, but it is probably one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur could have.  There are so many things to learn, connections to be made, and information to be gained when cold calling.

Cold calling takes so many forms.  You can cold call your competitors posing as a potential customer, gaining heaps of valuable information.  You can cold call an industry expert or knowledgeable individual for advice.  You can cold call a potential customer hoping to get a meeting.

Here's a fun story: The summer after my freshman year of college I had an internship with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network--Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance being their biggest business.  I was trained and titled as a "Financial Representative" and expected to meet with and sell to prospective clients.  The only problem was getting in front of them. 

The most intuitive solution is to start calling within your circle of people you know.  After you've exhausted this list (read: refuse to call friends and family to sling life insurance), you have to move on to the next best thing: a phone book. 

Armed with a script and telephone I boldly called my voicemail until I worked up the courage to call someone real.  I was sweating, literally.  My heart was pounding, I stumbled across my words, and skipped over parts of the script.  I'm sure I sounded like a complete idiot.

But I learned some valuable lessons: phone skills, asking for a meeting, asking for advice, asking for something the other person is reluctant to give, getting past gate keepers, and being calm, cool, and collected.

The most important lesson I learned: getting past "no", gracefully hanging up, and dialing again...all without sweating.

Cold calling for life insurance makes every other kind of cold call seem trivial.  Cold call competitor's businesses for information.  Cold call alumni for advice.  Cold call your voicemail for practice.  Just cold call.

You will mess up.  You will look like an idiot.  You will get 'no'.  You might get yelled at.  You might feel bad for a while.  You wont die.  You will learn.  You will be thankful.

Is entrepreneurship simply a game of playing the odds and eventually succeeding? Or, is entrepreneurship learning from failure in order succeed?

Some would say it is both, but these questions are really irrelevant in the light of failure.

Acceptance of the possibility of failure is a must, as is acceptance of failure itself. 

Acceptance of the prospect of success is a must, as is acceptance of success itself.

Whether you believe success in entrepreneurship is luck or education, or both, you must accept failure to succeed.  If you believe it is luck, then you accept failure and roll the dice again.  If you believe it is education, then you learn from your failures and try again.

Whether you believe success will come by luck or learning, you will always face failure.  Not accepting failure, either way, is what causes your suffering.

Blindly rolling the dice until success is failing blindly.  Those who fail to see success, fail to succeed.