My Sales Concussion

Lately, a great deal of attention has been cast upon concussions, and rightly so. Modern-day gladiators, I mean, NFL football players are especially susceptible to getting their bell rung.

I was told once that a concussion occurs when the brain slams against the skull and gets bruised. In my lifetime, I have had exactly two concussions. The first happened in my senior year of high school while I was playing soccer. I headed a ball and shortly thereafter found myself on the bench watching the grass go back and forth, back and forth...just before I fell over backwards and passed out.

Then (the year was 1978), like now, the initial treatment for a concussion includes keeping the patient awake in order to avoid falling into a coma. That night, every hour on the hour, my mom came into my room and asked me how I was feeling. My response was exactly the same, hour after hour: “I’m feeling better, but do you remember an hour ago when you asked me how I was and I told you that I was fine? Well, I wasn’t. But I am now.”

The second concussion I received was a Sales Concussion.

I began my sales career in June, 1982. Three months later, my manager, Al Pulito, asked me how I thought things were going. I told him things were going great and that I felt very confident. A year later, at my review, he asked me again and my response was very similar to the one that I gave my mom that night every hour on the hour: “Do you remember a year ago when I told you how well things were going for me? Well, I really thought I knew it all, but I didn’t. Fortunately, I do now!”

I am still recovering from my Sales Concussion. Year after year, I am fortunate to be smarter and more confident than the previous year. Of course, there is still the risk that I will slip into a coma (i.e., upper management), but with any luck the healing will continue for a long time to come.