Last week we spoke about the Optimistic Salesperson who sold shoes to the Natives.
This week with temperatures in the teens (pouring a bowl of ice into a plate) we will talk about the proverbial Salesperson who sold ice to the Eskimos.
How did he do it?
Enrollment.
Again, from the book “The Art of Possibility” Zander writes, “Enrolling is not about forcing, cajoling, tricking, bargaining, pressuring, or guilt-tripping someone into doing something your way. Enrollment is the art and practice of generating a spark of possibility for others to share”.
We have at our fingertips an infinite capacity to light a spark of possibility.
Passion, rather than fear, is the igniting force. Abundance, rather than scarcity, is the context.
So, the practice of Enrollment is about giving yourself as a possibility to others and being ready, in turn, to catch their spark. It is about playing together as partners in a field of light. And the steps to the practice are:
- Imagine that people are an invitation for enrollment.
- Stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and inspired.
- Offer that which lights you up.
- Have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark.
A “no” can so often dampen our fire in the world of the downward spiral.
It can seem like a permanent, implacable barrier that presents us with limited choices: to attack, to manipulate our way around it, or to bow to it in defeat. In other words, a “no” can seem like a door slamming instead of merely an instance of the way things are. Yet were we to take a “no” less personally, and ourselves less seriously, we might hear something else. We might hear someone saying, “I don’t see any new possibility here, so I think I’ll stick with my usual way of doing things.” We might hear within the “no” an invitation to Enroll that person.
So, persevere and enroll those Eskimos. Who knows, they might develop a taste for Ice Tea.
