I have been in the direct sales business for over 20 years. Most of that time, I was in the field and building a team of sales consultants with a particular company. I absolutely loved the company I represented and the women I got to work with.
Every month I would host a sales meeting in my home and women would travel, sometimes over an hour to be there on a weeknight. I always did my best to give them something of value that would help them strengthen their business. Occasionally throughout the year I would travel to other areas where I had sales consultants and hold meetings for them as well. One particular meeting, which was about 3 hours away from my home will forever be etched in my memory.
At this particular meeting, there were many women that I had never met before. They would join me on my team conference calls and such, but I had never met them face to face. The meeting was being held in an area I had previously lived and was in the home of one of my sales consultants. Women once again traveled from around the region to be able to be there to hear me speak. It was very important to me to make it worth their time.
There were about 20 people at this particular meeting and so I had them go around the room and introduce themselves and share a major accomplishment from the previous week. It was something I liked to do as an exercise to provide them each with a little recognition. I had done this many times before.
And so it began - each person introduced themselves and shared their accomplishment. Of course everyone shared something that related to their business, which was normal. Until we got to one particular woman. Her name was Susan and I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life. She shared with us that her accomplishment was getting herself to the meeting that night. You see, she told us the she has an incredible fear of bridges and had never crossed the Mid-Hudson Bridge for that very reason. Unfortunately, there was no way of getting to our meeting location that didn't involve crossing the Hudson River. She looked right at me and said that her accomplishment was crossing that bridge that very night to finally be able to meet me in person. Everyone was silent and I was speechless. What do you say to something like that? I am not sure exactly what I said to her but I am pretty sure it involved lots of hugs and applause.
I realized many things that night, and one of them was that I can't measure someone else's success. Only they have the power to do that. Susan's success had nothing to do with how great her last party was, or if she had sponsored someone. Her success was overcoming something that has no measurement. The honor was all mine in meeting this woman, and for that I am forever grateful.
Lesson Learned: Never define your personal success by the success of others.
Be Great!
LeeAnne
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