Happy Days!
There is cause for great celebration in the Clark household. My youngest daughter graduated last month with a Masters Degree in Social Work and, hallelujah, got a real job this month. I am doubly proud and thankful that in an era of double digit unemployment she has joined the ranks of the adult employed, and by so doing, has given me a pay raise by exiting my health plan.
For me, an end to supporting her. For her, just the beginning. Like many apprentices, she starts at the bottom – little pay and long hours. Even with a Masters degree that took six years of college and a 40 hour per week internship for six months with no pay and required tens of thousands of dollars of investment, she still cannot practice her craft until she has completed 3000 hours of supervised work under a Clinically Licensed Social Worker. By that time she will be in her late 20’s. After all of that education and training she will probably only command a high five figure income.
If she were in the sales profession that same level of training, education and experience would pay her double or triple or more what she will make as a social worker. If a highly motivated, hungry and self confident, young twenty something were to intern and study under me for three thousand hours I would turn them into a multiple six figure income producer. GUARANTEED…..no doubt about it. But that ain’t going to happen because young twenty something sales people, at least 97% of them, are not willing to even read one book on salesmanship, or take one sales training course or invest one dollar of their own money in sales training education. Most tend to be spoiled, short sighted, with a misguided entitlement mentality. They will spend far more on entertainment and cell phones than they will ever spend on personal growth and development. Companies who hire these young folk are just as stupid and short sighted, unwilling to invest in their growth and erroneously thinking magically that these kids will learn to sell through osmosis. The bigger the company the dumber they behave.
Truth is, selling, like anything else, takes about 10,000 hours of practice and rehearsal to become world class and ascend to the ranks of the multiple six figure or even seven figure income levels. There is no short cut. As Zig Ziglar said, “the elevator to the top is broken, you have to take the stairs one step at a time”. Those who think otherwise are either lazy or misguided fools.