If you can be a sales rep, you can be successful

I recently participated at a regional science competition, where I didn’t place at all. It was quite disappointing, but I did walk away learning something. I wasn’t selling myself enough. I wasn’t selling my project. I wasn’t selling the significance. I wasn’t slamming all the important aspects of my project before the judge, so that they would walk away amazed and impressed. I was passive and not active. I didn’t clear up how simpleness and effectiveness could co-exist. And that, unfortunately, was a giant mistake.

So, how do you win presentation competitions? Or in general, how do get what you want in life? How can you earn lots of money? Be successful?

The biggest factor in all of this is definitely social skills and being able to impress others. Even if you’re the smartest person on earth, you’ll get no where unless you can relay your smartness to others and have others be impressed. All successful people, if you ever looked at them, sold themselves in some way. Presidents sell themselves to be the protector and justice fighter for people. Companies sell themselves as the best manufacturers of certain products. Employees have to sell themselves as the best persons available for certain positions.

People have been trained, ever since they were little, to sell themselves. As a child, we may have whined to get a new toy and when that didn’t work, we might have told our parents, “If I get a new soccer ball, I’ll go outside and play every single day and so I will stay healthy with the exercise.” That was our selling point–we tried to let our parents see the light and opportunity for buying that new toy.

As we grow older, this innate trait has to be strengthened. Those who have a talent or work hard to really be able to impress others will go on to succeed quite well.