I had an interesting coaching session yesterday with a gentleman who has been seeing himself in perpetual “I am learning a lot / I am gaining exposure” mode for the last few years. After a few minutes of conversation with him, and so many repetitions of the word exposure that I felt I needed SPF 60 to protect myself, his exposure sounded like a bad case of “I am not going to get out there and see if I have been exposed enough to make it on my own, I am going to get a little more exposure right here, where it feels comfy”.

So I stopped him on his track with the mighty words of Jim Young, the tyrannical boss from Boiler Room.

“A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close?”

— Jim Young (Ben Affleck) in a tyrannical sales-training session, in Boiler Room (2000)

It seemed adding: “when will you make your first call?” was just enough to spring him into action. Given the observed effect, it seems right to share this (questionably insane) wisdom, for your entertainment and inspiration. And for those of you who need the kick in the boot, on top of the knock on the head, here is the longer video version:

Now, make that call!