Life Lesson

The Question Of Who To Help

Garth Beyer

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A lot of mentors and even people you pass on the street have a goal to help as many people as possible. Is this right?

We’ve seen what mass production does – it kills the personal touch, the emotional labor, and devalues the process and product. Would it be better to help the smaller pool of people who truly want to be helped than forcing our assistance on people who don’t?

I can’t help but think back to one of George Carlin’s skits. He gets told to “have a nice day” so often that for once he just wants to be miserable, he doesn’t want to have a nice day, he’s had too many in a row, he wants someone else to have a nice day. Think about it.

Not everyone wants to be helped, some are content, some want to help themselves, and then you have those that are trying to help as many other people too and then you bump heads with them.

I can picture it now “help me help you helping me to help you help me, so long as I can help myself help you help you.”

I’d rather just have a miserable day than try to sort that out. That’s why you don’t see a bus driving off its route asking passengers to board who don’t, want, wish, or need to go anywhere.

That’s why I write for those who are searching for a bit of help and I sure as heck don’t go putting people in the position to need my help. No. Here when you need me.

The only responsibility we have is to show others that we’re here.

 

Stay Positive & “Have A Nice Day” Is Too Cliche’

Garth E. Beyer

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You Don’t Have To Be An Extrovert, But…

Garth Beyer

Every now and then I question whether I know more than my dad or not. It seems that I tell him new things, correct him, and remind him of what he said a week earlier quite often. This makes it difficult to pay attention and listen to him when he talks to me about a topic (as if he knows more than me).

And yet, I do listen and pay attention for one reason: I may be 20, but I’m not young enough to know everything. (HT Oscar Wilde)

Aside from a handful of small lessons I’ve learned from my dad over the last week, I want to share the largest one, and it’s this: talk.

Talk to whoever is around you, talk to who you are dealing with, talk to who you’re buying from, talk to who you’re sitting by. Hell, talk to yourself. Get in the habit of talking.

I’ve decided to quit using the word negotiation or any spinoff of it. Just as fine print is dying, so are negotiations. Sure, one can make a sale by going back and forth, but it’s the most unpleasant, unfulfilling, and frustrating interaction in the sales world. Naturally, I want to say my dad is a great negotiator, but he’s not. He’s a great talker.

Just this morning he got my motorcycle insurance lowered by nearly $200. I asked how and he responded, “I talked a lot.”

I am sure this guy has saved more money talking than others have scamming, saving, or negotiating.

 

Stay Positive & A Lesson Worth Passing On

Garth E. Beyer

 

Getting More Giving More

Garth Beyer

When you want more, you need to give more (from the heart, of course).

The trouble people have is not the math of this. The trouble they have is believing that they can give more, that they can overdeliver, and blow expectations.

That inability is not an actual inability, it’s a mindset.

And anyone has the ability to change their mindset.

 

Stay Positive & There’s Always Room For Improvement

Garth E. Beyer

Sellers Need A Lesson

Garth Beyer

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I went to purchase a motorcycle over the weekend. While I wasn’t as knowledgable as the salesman at the motorsports store, I knew as much about the specific bike that I wanted as he did. Because I researched it and knew as much as him, he couldn’t upsell it.

The flaw with knowledge equilibrium between salesperson and customer is that the only connection remaining is price. There is nothing he can say to make me purchase the product other than giving me a number I want.

The catch is that if a customers knows more, they will pay less.

Dealers of all kinds need to spend the morning before work reviewing what has been posted online. The beauty about information when it comes to selling is that if the motorcycle salesman were to know as much as me, but told me they just read something about the bike online earlier that morning, I would certainly be more interested.

At the most simple form, it just shows the salesperson cares about the product, not just about selling it to anyone without half a mind to research before making a purchase.*

 

Stay Positive & Consider Buying Privately

Garth E. Beyer

*The internet is now the salesman. While there are still people with that title, their duties are much different. They are there to make a connection, show they care (about the product and you), and be the liaison of trust.

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Hoarders

Garth Beyer

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I have a great idea for a television show. It’s going to center on the life of hoarders.

Not any hoarders though. A special kind of hoarders, the worst kind, actually. (Yes, I’m well aware there is a show called hoarders that is centered on the life of hoarders.)

See, the type of hoarders who pose in the current television show and keep everything they touch, they are fighting the psychological battle of either holding on to the past or the concern of needing something for the future.

The type of hoarders I want to film are those who keep all of their art to themselves.

Those who have composed hundreds of songs but stick the sheets of music in the attic.

The types of hoarders that have 14 manuscripts tucked in the back of a drawer, telling themselves they need to be edited again before they are brought to a publisher.

The hoarder whose basement is filled with incredible knickknacks that no one will ever see. Or the hoarder who has a room filled with colorful handmade glassware, not for sale.

These are the hoarders with the serious problems. It’s one thing to be attached to a material item, it’s another to refuse letting anyone be attached to your material item, your art.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Be A Selfish Artist

Garth E. Beyer

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Success Isn’t Fashionable

Garth Beyer

Success is always late. It shows up in the after hours. It arrives after the party. It reveals itself when you’re run down and ready to call it quits. It shows up to those who stay up late but aren’t night owls.

Success will show up, but always long after you think it will.

 

Stay Positive & Success Isn’t Fashionable, Thus Never Fashionably Late

Garth E. Beyer