There’s no better day than today to make an idiot of yourself…
Your first cold-call. Your first elevator pitch. Your first customer grilling. Your first interview.
The first run of anything will be bad. Same as anything in life - you are a complete beginner, so you need to expect the results of a complete beginner.
Don’t put it off
You can prepare for an eternity. You can even use the preparation for that big meeting as an excuse to delay it. But don’t procrastinate around it. You are likely going to make countless mistakes, even if you prepared to the nth degree.
Get through the cycles
In fact, the first 5 to 10 cycles will probably be fairly bad. Preparation is nothing like the real thing when it comes to taking a grilling completely out of left field.
Do prepare. Prepare more than you think is required. But also be aware that you need to get through the cycles to gain real-world experience before you can hope for a good performance.
Reverse Priority
If you’ve 10 cold calls to do, phone the worst prospect first. If you are going to make lots of mistakes, it’s better to do it with the least important one. Yes, you can practice with colleagues, but it’s never quite the same as the real thing.
Don’t beat yourself up
So, that first pitch went only fairly badly? I’m impressed.
My first crack at things is normally terrible, so if yours was only bad, well that’s a pretty impressive job done.
The first time at anything will be bad. Prepare, but don’t procrastinate. Sometimes, you just need to suck it up and go make an idiot of yourself. It’s the only way to gain that real-world experience. And there’s no better day to make an idiot of yourself than today.
