How Knocking on Doors Helped Me in Startup World
“Hey we got in, pack our bags and leave. We are going to Shanghai…”
This is exactly what I said when we just got notified we got accepted into Chinaccelerator, one of the most reputable accelerator from SOSV based in Shanghai.
How this happened, that is another story on its own but it is the context of the quote that brings me to this topic: when opportunity comes knocking you take it just like how I did few years back knocking on peoples door.
I graduated with a chemistry degree, no experience and nothing related to what I am doing today. So how am I steering the ship of a frontier VR company today?
One word: Tenacity.
I couldn’t code, I don’t know the game of technology so to say. But what drove me to my startup was the countless experience of wearing a suit in the middle of scorching July, going straight into different businesses and trying to sell them services on the spot.
“Get out, I don’t want to see any salespeople.”
“I am not interested, please don’t come back again.”
I faced rejections, objections, and even doors slammed on my face as I try to earn that extra commission (by the way there was no secured base pay 9–5ers see so either I sell or I’m left starving). Through times like this I often question my abilities even to some extent my future. I remember slaving the hours away until my shoes had holes in them while sitting in my car staring at the lead list I had and wondering, “Am I meant to do this? Maybe sales isn’t for me.”
Then something hit me on the back of my head like a baseball bat, if I cannot even amount to something like this how will I ever succeed in what I want to pursue later on?
I went back inside the store that the owner told me to piss off and I started figuring out how to be personable. Soon enough I managed to close my first few leads and 2 years after I was awarded top producer in my firm.
The mentality of an entrepreneur is, “Never look back, always think ahead and always improve yourself.” But often times we tend to forget where we came from and had I just drove back to my office and resigned after staring at my $90 paycheque I would not have made it to today.
I want to end this short story with one key takeaway, sales is not just sales but it trains your mind. Through sales I managed to gain the mental strength, quick thinking, how to talk and deal with different people that allowed me to sell, to date, not just a product but an idea.
Often times startups fail because people give up right at the moment when there is a slimmer of light coming in, my word of advice is: if things are coming to you easy it means you are not trying, and if you are not trying you will never grow and learn.
So when things don’t go well, stick it through. I learned how to deal with the toughest times through sales and I believe whenever an opportunity comes knocking you take it and you hold onto it like a drowning man struggling to grab that last breath of air. Talk to people, get rejected, make mistakes, and I can tell you one thing… you will develop the skill for life that no other tangible skills can accomplish whether you are in a startup or a corporate environment.
Cheers,
