Believe In Yourself

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Yes, you can do many things with your cell phone -- one of them is put a picture of an affirmation or of yourself on your home screen. “The people you’re around – the successful people you’re around – people that will help you, people that will mentor you to go to a whole ‘nother level, because inside of us, each one of us, we have a whole ‘nother level that we never tap in to...

Mostly never in our lives do we ever tap into that whole ‘nother level. I think at the end, if you believe in yourself, it doesn’t matter if I believe in you, it doesn’t matter if your friend believes in you; yeah, all that’s important, what really matters at the end, is if you believe in yourself.” From: Sean Luce Behind The Scenes Of The Liquid Fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnZ4nMvLh7k

Sometimes, with some people, I think we fear success as much as we fear failure. The world and the media constantly reaffirms negativity. The lead news story the past three weeks has been around a plane that crashed or didn’t crash with 239 people on board. Some days, especially in sales, it’s tough to overcome that constant bombardment of negativity which also breeds its way into self-doubt. It just takes a little believing in yourself to overcome this negativity. Rejection in sales can be tough, though each “no” puts us one step closer to a “yes.” It comes down to how bad we really want to win and how bad we really want success, no matter what other people think of you or how hopeless the situation looks.

One of my mantras has always been: “Just make the plane.” There was a day when I wanted to “just get off the plane.” I was finishing up a trip with a client in the Washington, D.C., area and had to catch a plane from Baltimore-Washington International airport to Little Rock, Arkansas, through Dallas where I was speaking the following day to the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. One of my rules of thumb for travelling is to try not to catch the last flight. If you do catch the last flight, make sure you have backups in case something happens with planes (and it usually does) you can rent a car or find some way to get to the seminar. You can’t call in sick for a seminar. Up until this trip, it was the only time I had ever worn a full suit with tie on a plane. Normally, I’m pretty casual for flying. For some reason, this day I decided not to change clothes and go on the plane in the suit I was wearing that day.

This was post 9/11 and I had a plane to catch about 4 p.m. The weather was bad and we left the terminal about an hour late. We then sat on the tarmac for an hour or so. I had a pretty decent layover in Dallas before I had to catch a plane to Little Rock where I was supposed to arrive about 10 or 11 p.m., so I felt pretty safe on the layover even though it was a switch in terminals at DFW airport. We left about two hours late. Slim chance now of making the connection.

About an hour out of Dallas, the captain came over the intercom and notified us that there were thunderstorms in the Dallas area and that we were going to have to circle in the air for a while. I knew at this time I was not going to make my connection. My seminar the next day in Little Rock started at 9 a.m. My thoughts now went to when we would arrive in Dallas and driving all night to make that seminar the next morning. It was an all-day seminar and there was going to be 200 or more TV and radio reps from all over Arkansas in attendance. After about an hour of circling the airport, the pilot came over the intercom and said we were running low on fuel and would have to go to Little Rock and refuel before we could proceed to Dallas when the weather cleared. I thought to myself: Ah, this is where I speak the following day -- what a break. Now, I have to find a way to get off the plane once we land. The pilot notified us that we couldn’t debark at the terminal when we refuelled. They would be refuelling somewhere on some strip of the airport tarmac, and then we would get back up in the air. I’m thinking: I’m getting off this plane.

I was in a window seat about 20 rows back. This was a 737-800 with about 200 people on board – totally packed and people were not happy. About 20 minutes after landing in Little Rock, (they didn’t want us moving around as we were on an active runway and not at a terminal), I flagged down a flight attendant and told her I needed to talk with her urgently, as I had an emergency. She told me I could come to the back of the plane and talk to her. I told her I was speaking the next day in Little Rock, and I needed to get off the plane with or without luggage. She said it was impossible as FAA regulations say that nobody can get off the plane without their luggage and we were not at a terminal to open the door. I pleaded with her. She said she would talk to the pilots and I had to go sit back down.

Another 30 minutes went by when the stewardess came back and quietly told me to get my belongings. She took me to the back of the plane and told me the pilots had called the FAA to get clearance for me to debark and checked that I did indeed have a seminar in Little Rock the following day. They opened the back of the plane and dropped the ladder down. They told me to put my coat over my head and proceed down the ladder to the jet refuelling truck which was waiting for me to take me to the terminal. They told me they would send my bags the following day. They also told me not to tell anybody what they did. I didn’t tell anybody for quite a while, though I think the statute of limitations is up on this one. By the time I got to the hotel it was about midnight.

I went on the next day in the suit I had worn the previous day. Took a cab to the local CVS store to get some cosmetics to clean up before the seminar. We started at 9 a.m. sharp and nobody knew what had happened, as I couldn’t tell anybody what happened. Most of my seminar props are in my luggage, so we just used the handouts that were already pre-printed by the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. During our lunch break, I quickly went to the airport and retrieved my luggage. We kicked the seminar back up at 1 p.m. and had a great day of training!
Believe in yourself, even when your situation looks pretty dim.

I have never had a chance to thank those pilots, that flight attendant and her colleagues, and the FAA for that gift. They wanted to make sure the audience had a speaker the following day even if it was against FAA regulations. Thank you.

Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor for the Luce Performance Group International and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com or www.luceperformancegroup.com. Sean’s new book The Liquid Fire can be found on Amazon.com.

As seen on Radio Ink Headlines March 31, 2014

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