the Southwestern Company Sales Blog
How do you regain perspective when you are in a sales slump? When I was selling as a student with 
Southwestern, I had attitude adjustments made from within and from without. Last week, I was taken by a touching story from the Olympics . It reminded me how we can get perspective when we’ve lost it.
Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada’s first Olympic gold medal on home soil recently in the men’s moguls ski competition. Canada had failed to medal when it hosted both the ’76 and ’88 Olympics. When he won, the nation went crazy. The back story I found as compelling as the actual race.
Bilodeau credited much of his success and all of his sports inspiration to his older brother, Frederic, who has spent his life challenged by cerebral palsy. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age 10 and doctors told him he would lose the ability to walk. Although he spends most of his time in a wheelchair, Frederic still walks — and skis.
Alex and Frederic are best friends, and the young Olympian adores his older brother. Frederic was there to cheer on his younger brother, and during the final of the men’s moguls, cameras showed Frederic cheering enthusiastically for his brother, jumping out of his seat and waving his arms in the air as soon as Alexandre crossed the line at the end of his gold-medal run. (OK, Canadians, heres is a bonus report just for you):
Alex calls his older brother his inspiration.
His brother has helped him keep things in perspective all these years, especially when he was disappointed by an 11th-place finish at the Torino Olympics in 2006.
“Even if it’s raining, I’ll take it, I’ll go train,” Bilodeau said. “He doesn’t have that chance, and he’s having a smile every morning he wakes up.”
Alex said whenever he was upset and unmotivated to get up and ski, he thought of his brother, who, although suffering from this disease, never complained: “He is the happiest guy in the world. Frederic wakes up every day with a big smile and goes to bed with a big smile. He puts everything in my life in perspective.”
How do you maintain your perspective when sales disappointment strikes? What questions do you ask yourself? How do you get unstuck? Share a thought!
Soooo true! In my summers, when I hit a moments of frustration I think of some of the students I graduated H.S. with that are couragously serving in the military. They are gone for a year at a time, not three months. The worst case senario for them is that they don’t come back, the worse case senario for me is that I hear alot of “no’s”. That helps keep things in perspective for me.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Excellent example, Grayson. There are many who have a much tougher plight than we do, both in business and in life! Keeping this in mind during our trials is the challenge.
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I like this story alot
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:19 am
Daniel: glad you liked it. The Olympics are chock-full of great, inspirational stories. I am an avid Olympics-watcher.
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Great story Lee! It’s been interesting following all the great stories from the Olympics since so many of them involve people who overcame obstacles to take home the gold. It reminds me that the past doesn’t dictate the future and if the mind can conceive it, then a person can achieve it.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Jake: thanks for the insight. Yes, there are many parallels between sports and the bookfield–the Olympics are a great source of blogs!
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I love Olympians, they always have the best motivation.
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It is way too easy to get lost in the day to day activities that consume our lives. Stories like this are incredibly uplifting and it reading it definitely reminded me when I saw it to count my blessings instead of finding things to be unhappy about. Great post Lee.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:42 am
Thanks for the comment, Aaron. Man, the Olympics were absolutely filled with feel-good stories. This was one of my favorites.
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Lee, found an interesting post on a psychology blog about self talk and thought you might enjoy it!
http://shrinktalk.net/?p=770#more-770
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Thanks, Nici! I will check it out. Thanks for sharing.
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Is there any way to go back through the Southwestern archives and find some of the amazing stories of students overcoming great obstacles to acheive their summer goals? I suppose most of them are passed on by word of mouth, but I was thinking we could make our own “NBC Southwestern Olympic Special” like they do at the end of every games.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 4:29 am
good idea, Sydney! we had thought of doing a compilation of great stories from alums at one point…
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Hooray for comments, right Lee??
Absolutely loved this story. One of my favorites from the Olympics!
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