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CHAPTER 1 / FORGET JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU WERE EVER TOLD ABOUT POSITIVE THINKINGNO B.S. Guide to Succeeding in Business by Breaking All the Rules 23listened to motivational speeches, watched motivational videos, and got pumped up. Then, ten feet tall and bulletproof, they made a last stop at The Egg Castle for a last injection of caffeine. If you wanted to see %u201cmotivation,%u201d you had to be at The Egg Castle at 10 a.m.%u2014but be careful not to get trampled as all the super motivated salespeople rushed out to conquer the world. If you listened, you heard things like %u201cToday%u2019s my million-dollar day%u201d%u2026%u201cI%u2019m gonna hit it right out of the park today.%u201dNow here%u2019s what%u2019s fascinating. In that same shopping center, there was a restaurant and tavern called The Dry Dock. There, happy hour started every day at 4 p.m. For you teetotalers, %u201chappy hour%u201d (sometimes called %u201cattitude adjustment hour%u201d) involves two drinks for the price of one and free food. Any place there are two drinks for the price of one and free food, you%u2019ll find plenty of insurance salespeople. So, at 4 p.m.%u2014whoosh!%u2014all these reps returned to the roost. But as changed men and women. Gone was all the %u201cmotivation.%u201d Now they shuffled their feet, slumped their shoulders, looked at the ground, and said things like %u201cCan%u2019t sell life insurance in this town. Everybody%u2019s getting laid off,%u201d %u201cI never get the good leads,%u201d and so on.So here%u2019s the million dollar question: Where%u2019d all that supercharged %u201cmotivation%u201d go?It was an illusion in the first place.It was what I call %u201cmotivation without foundation,%u201d which can only lead to frustration. To disappointment, disillusionment, and ultimately cynicism. While both self-motivation and motivation matter, they are fragile and temporary without a solid foundation of practical know-how and, in selling, a system for getting appointments and favorable interest from well-qualified prospects. A motivational exercise made popular for a while was %u201cthe firewalk%u201d: seminar attendees pumped up and made to feel invincible, validating that confidence by walking barefoot across hot coals and not getting burned. In reality, this is an ancient carny trick. It has no staying power. There%u2019s no real difference between it and magician David Blaine%u2019s amazing anti-gravity demonstration%u2014it%u2019s only a