THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE AGES

Once upon a time there was a great king who ruled over all the lands. He was a fair and just king and he was loved by all. The king was very wise and always sought council on subjects he didn’t know about. He surrounded himself with the greatest minds in his kingdom.

One day the king summoned all his wise men to his chambers. When they were all gathered he made a royal decree. “I want you to gather all the knowledge of the ages for me” The wise men were astonished to be given such an enormous task, but the king simply looked at them and said, “Come on boys, you can do it for me can’t you?” So all the wise men went to their chambers and stayed there for 7 years recording what they believed to be the knowledge of the ages.

Finally they reported to the king that they were ready to present their work to him. The king was on his throne and the people of the land were gathered to see the knowledge of the ages. The wise men loaded 100 books each 100 pages onto a golden wagon. The wagon was pulled by 10 of the finest white horses in the kingdom. The wise men stopped the wagon in front of the throne and the wisest of all came forward and said to the king. “Here your majesty is all the knowledge of the ages as you asked us to compile”.

The king looked at the beautiful books and said, “This is good, however it seems to be a little lengthy. I fear no one will read all of this. Go back to your chambers and see what you can do to make it a little less bulky”

The wise men once again locked themselves into their chambers to obey the king’s request. 5 years later they repeated the ceremony of presenting the knowledge of the ages to the king. This time there were only 10 books each with 100 pages. The king was pleased, but again said it was a little bulky and requested they try again.

This time the wise men only took 3 years, and when they came out they presented the king with only 1 book of 100 pages. The king was impressed, but again asked them to streamline it a little more.

In 6 months the wise men presented only 10 pages to the king. These were not bound in a book but placed on a golden pillow. The king held the pages up, placed them back on the pillow and once again sent the wise men back to their chambers to make it less complicated.

2 hours later, one wise man walked up to the king with small scrap of paper folded in his hand. He bowed before the great king and handed him the paper. The king slowly unfolded the paper and read it. A big smile appeared across his face and he shouted for all to hear, “THIS IS TRULY THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE AGES”. The king had the wise man post the paper on the castle door for all to see.

The paper had only 5 words written on it;

THERE AIN’T NO FREE LUNCH

I KNOW IT WAS a long way to go for a simple message, but I wanted you to remember it. There ain’t no free lunch. You need to put in the effort to gain the rewards. The saying, the only place reward comes before work is in the dictionary, is true. You don’t go to the bank and ask for your interest payments before you make deposits do you? Do you expect to warm yourself in front of your fireplace before you cut wood and start the fire? These examples sound absurd don’t they?

Sales is a fun, exciting, and extremely rewarding career. It isn’t an easy, lazy, and laid back career.

 “THE COMMON DENOMINATOR OF SUCCESS FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER BEEN SUCCESSFUL – LIES IN THE FACT THAT THEY FORMED THE HABIT OF DOING THINGS THAT FAILURES DON’T LIKE TO DO”

Albert Gray

We are in week one of 2011. Make this your year of HARD WORK AND SUCCESS.

Lorin