NOTICE: This article has almost nothing to do with selling roofs.
I love Zig Ziglar.
I may be butchering his quote, but I love Zig’s saying, “Some people learn from other people’s mistakes; the rest of us have to be those other people.”
Writing about selling roofs has been eye opening. People write and call me from all over the country looking for advice. They also leave comments here on the website and on Facebook.
I do my best to answer each and every question as honestly and openly as possible. I don’t hold anything back. You get the brutal, honest truth here.
You Never Know Everything
Hey, I realize I don’t know everything about selling roofs. I reach out to my friends in the business when I get really tough questions.
Besides, if you ever get to the point where you think you know everything, you’ve stopped growing as a person… and probably have become extremely annoying to the people around you… kinda like a teenager, huh?
Teenagers are great. I love their passion and enthusiasm. They dream big and don’t let reality get in the way of their thinking. Their highs are very high and their lows are equally as low.
Teenagers haven’t experienced enough of life to understand that things can be extremely difficult. They talk big. Saying you’re going to do something and actually doing it are two completely different things.
Teenage Dreams
My family traveled America singing Gospel Music when I was a kid.
By the time I became a teenager, I wanted to be a Christian Rock Star. I wrote several songs and started playing with my musician friends from church.
The band started strong but dwindled down to just a few guys. We needed a bass player. So, I went and sold my baseball card collection to buy an Ovation bass guitar.
I wasn’t that good at bass, actually, I was terrible. However, the other guys were amazingly talented. I was barely a better singer than the other guys; so, I played bass and sang lead vocals.
The Christian Rock Days
Our band played gigs all over Oklahoma in the late 80’s. We competed in a talent competition that submitted the winner’s video tapes to the popular national T.V. talent show “Star Search.”
There was no guarantee that you would get on the national show if you won, but winning your category would at least get you seen by somebody who could make a decision.
Luckily, our band won our category. Unfortunately, we were the only band in the category that year. Actually, it was the 1st year they allowed bands to compete. I don’t know if our tapes ever got sent in for review, but it made me feel good to know they could’ve been.
I met several young people in the talent show who did go on to make it in the entertainment business… amazing singers, dancers and musicians. One guy was a regular on the Mickey Mouse club for a little while.
Teenage Failure
My band never made it.
We got as far as earning a regular spot playing Frontier City amusement park in OKC before I finally gave up and went on to college. When I say “made it”, I mean we never got signed to a recording contract. We never went on tour. We never sold T-Shirts and Posters. We never made it.
That was a big blow to my ego. One that took me many years to get over. When you give your all to see something do well and then it falls apart… well, it knocks the wind out of you.
I should have known it wasn’t going to work out when the charter bus at camp ran over my bass guitar. Oh, it still played, but it was a pathetic mess held together by duct tape, furniture staples and wood glue… kinda like my dream of making it in the music business. Pathetic.
Fact is, it took a lot of years to get over not making it.
Does anybody else know the feeling?
Sometimes things don’t work out like you want them to. It happens to all of us at one point or another in life. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, be thankful.
Dream A New Dream
If that’s where you’re at today… wondering how you’re going to get over not making it… I want to encourage you to dream a new dream.
Find something new to dream about and go for it. Life is a series of accomplishments and failures.
I’ve failed at everything from becoming a musician to running my own roofing company… and several other ventures in between.
Failure is a part of life… at least it has been in my life. If you’ve never failed at anything, Congratulations! I’m sincerely happy for you, but the rest of us have to deal with devastating defeats every once in awhile.
Failure is More Valuable than Success
I’ve come to learn that failure is more valuable than success because I never really learn anything when things work out perfectly… which is rare.
Adversity is a great teacher. There’s lessons you can only learn while getting punched right in the throat, having life spit in your eye and kick you hard in the groin. You never forget those lessons… never. ever. forget.
If you’re afraid of failure, you’ll never know the joy of success.
You can spend your whole life playing it safe because that one dream of yours never worked out or you can go out and dream another dream.
So what if you’ve been knocked down or even knocked out a few times. Maybe you’ve got black eyes, bad credit and and a few busted relationships. Join the human race!
Your story sounds like everybody else I know. Nobody gets a free pass forever. Sooner or later we all get knocked out. As long as you keep getting up, you’re still in the game.
Only you can decide when it’s over… and it ain’t over until you quit trying.
C’mon! Get up!
Let’s do this thing.
Peace,
Mike
P.S. I would like to hear about the adversity in your life… past or present. Contact me by subscribing to the 101 Sales Tips newsletter now.
Mike Coday
Mike started selling roofs in '95 while working as a youth pastor at a small church in North Texas. A decade later he transitioned to speaking at industry conferences and training outside sales teams. Today, he works exclusively as the premier consultant to roofing company owners who are driven for growth.
Download this FREE special report now to make more money selling roofs.
Download the FREE Special Report