"Happyness"

One recurring attribute of people who have happiness (or inner peace and contentment) is the attribute of being grateful and appreciative for what is all around them. This is an attribute that all of us could well cultivate, for it changes how we feel. Our upsets tend to melt in the face of gratefulness. This is completely contrary to the current media emphasis on what is wrong. That emphasis is unhappy, so why would I want to limit myself to just the problems?

I just finished watching Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness" and highly recommend everyone in sales watch this film. It humbled me. It reminded me what a privilege it is to be in the position I'm in at Allstate.

A lot of people would love to be in my shoes and have the things that I have. I have a great family, friends and I still have my health. I live in a great town, with excellent people and have a nice home.

But the thing that struck me the most about this film was the opportunity I have that most people do not have. I have the opportunity to make millions of dollars. Literally; millions of dollars. That's an opportunity most Americans don't have and may never have.

The scene in "Pursuit of Happyness" that kind of brought it all home, so to speak was Will Smith's (Chris Gardner) first day as an intern with Dean Witter...and he's narrating the scene by explaining what was set before him: OPPORTUNITY "Compete with twenty other guys for one position, over a six-month period by telemarketing financial prospects in San Francisco's financial district." It wasn't the daunting circumstances he was under that impressed me. It wasn't the fact that he did it alone, with no support from home. It was that he was doing it all for nothing...no pay. But he saw that, as an opportunity. Do we?

He had to generate $800,000 in commission during that six-months (for someone else) and do it all for FREE just to get his opportunity. I doubt anyone in Allstate would have taken a position with the company under those circumstances, but I bet there are still people in America today who would. It's all about perception.

Oh, by-the-way, he was homeless, sleeping in shelters at night with his son, and trying to make ends meet, all while trying to be the best of a class of twenty, just to get an opportunity to make some money at some future date. Unbelievable!

I have the opportunity he worked so hard to achieve and I've taken it for granted most of my 12-years as an agent.

Sure our job isn't easy, but nothing worth having really comes easy anyway...does it? It's not easy, but my friend, it's a lot easier than most jobs our grandparents did...and it pays very well when we do it well.

What more could you ask for in life? I suspect if I went to work one day, and my opportunity was taken away from me, I'd learn very fast to appreciate the days I worked at Allstate.

It's easy to assume the worst and quite the opposite to assume the best as we trudge through this world we all live in. I'm tired of being so critical and negative, so jaded and discontented. We have be given a lot of opportunity as agents in this profession...I'm going to start making the most of it.