"Be so happy that, when other people look at you, they become happy too." — Anonymous
Forgive me if I posted a true story below before, but this quote above reminded me of it.
During my tenure as a pharma rep we went through a couple of mergers with bigger companies. The second one doubled our sales rep size and I was now a partner to one salesman of the acquiring company. Let’s call him Sam (not his real name), from the first moment I met him I knew it would be a challenge to work with him. He had a very gruff appearance, sour look on his face, and his attitude matched his appearance. He was NOT a happy guy.
As for me, I was an eternal optimist, seeing life as the glass is half full. Sam, was the polar opposite, everything was wrong, he hated his district manager, hated his job, disliked the changes in our industry, and hated that he had to work with me, at least at first.
Over the next several weeks and months, we were forced to work together, plan together, and so we often started our workdays with a cup of coffee at the local Denny’s. It was during these meetings that I got to know him very well; deep down he had the heart of a Teddy bear. His gruff exterior masked a man who just needed to know he was appreciated and had value. He was in fact an excellent salesperson. He had a great way of engaging our clients and they knew they could trust him. It was a delight to see him in action, and I told him so. It was as if he was a different person, when “the lights came on”.
However, when he wasn’t in front of a client, he was depressed, anxious, always worried about something. In contrast, I was always upbeat; I would display to him a positive attitude, sympathetic to his concerns, but showing him my glass half-full view on life.
One day, out of the blue, while we were waiting to see one of our doctors, Sam asked me, “Why are you always so damn happy?” I smiled and replied, “Well, I am a man of faith, and I know that no matter what happens in this life, I’ll be ok”. He then replied, “I want THAT! How do I get that?” I explained to him my faith journey and he wanted to know more about it. I’ll sum up what happened next by saying that over time he decided to become a man of faith as well.
People are watching you, looking at how you handle “this life”. Will you demonstrate love and hope or anger and despair? My hope is you show the love of your Creator to those who need to see it.
John 13:35 & 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
TSK
Forgive me if I posted a true story below before, but this quote above reminded me of it.
During my tenure as a pharma rep we went through a couple of mergers with bigger companies. The second one doubled our sales rep size and I was now a partner to one salesman of the acquiring company. Let’s call him Sam (not his real name), from the first moment I met him I knew it would be a challenge to work with him. He had a very gruff appearance, sour look on his face, and his attitude matched his appearance. He was NOT a happy guy.
As for me, I was an eternal optimist, seeing life as the glass is half full. Sam, was the polar opposite, everything was wrong, he hated his district manager, hated his job, disliked the changes in our industry, and hated that he had to work with me, at least at first.
Over the next several weeks and months, we were forced to work together, plan together, and so we often started our workdays with a cup of coffee at the local Denny’s. It was during these meetings that I got to know him very well; deep down he had the heart of a Teddy bear. His gruff exterior masked a man who just needed to know he was appreciated and had value. He was in fact an excellent salesperson. He had a great way of engaging our clients and they knew they could trust him. It was a delight to see him in action, and I told him so. It was as if he was a different person, when “the lights came on”.
However, when he wasn’t in front of a client, he was depressed, anxious, always worried about something. In contrast, I was always upbeat; I would display to him a positive attitude, sympathetic to his concerns, but showing him my glass half-full view on life.
One day, out of the blue, while we were waiting to see one of our doctors, Sam asked me, “Why are you always so damn happy?” I smiled and replied, “Well, I am a man of faith, and I know that no matter what happens in this life, I’ll be ok”. He then replied, “I want THAT! How do I get that?” I explained to him my faith journey and he wanted to know more about it. I’ll sum up what happened next by saying that over time he decided to become a man of faith as well.
People are watching you, looking at how you handle “this life”. Will you demonstrate love and hope or anger and despair? My hope is you show the love of your Creator to those who need to see it.
John 13:35 & 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
TSK
