WHAT SELLING POTATOES TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIFE

During my school years in New Zealand, the school board in my city decided to create a scheme to raise money for a charity. I forget now what that charity was, but I'm certain they did very well from the scheme in the end.

The idea was to have every school pupil in the city, boy, and girl, go door to door selling sacks of potatoes. Before you start wondering how the children managed to carry such a heavy load around the various neighborhoods in my city, the children didn't actually have to carry the sacks from door to door, each child had a sheet of paper to record the name of the customer, their phone number, and the number of sacks they wanted.

It was a brilliant idea because New Zealanders love their potatoes and include potatoes in almost every meal! Being able to order a large amount and have the potatoes delivered to their house was very convenient.

Looking back to that time, at ten years old, there were several key elements to the 'Potatoe Project' that hooked me into the scheme, and that ultimately made me successful.

I NEED COMPETITION

I'm sure many children took the easy way out and simply asked their parents and a few relatives to place orders for the potatoes. Once they had a few orders on their sheet of paper and called it a day. Not me!

I'm a competitor, and I like to compete against anything and anybody. It motivates me.

I had this blank piece of paper and I was going to fill it, and not only that, I was going to fill it with more names and more orders for potatoes than the rest of the kids in my class. It became a game.

There was also a prize for the top 3 sellers in the city, a 30-minute flight around my town in a small Cessna aircraft. Strangely enough, winning the flight wasn't on my mind much, it was more about filling the piece of paper and getting more orders than the rest. I was motivated by the opportunity to prove myself and to fill that blank piece of paper. That's all I seemed to need. 

Lesson learned; 

Give yourself goals; they will serve to motivate you

BEING NICE SEEMED TO WORK!

I had never walked door to door before. It was a totally new experience and I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was that there were people that came to the door and simply wanted to brush me off, no explanations, there was no time for me to begin my sales pitch, just no thank you, and doors closing shut.

But there were the other homes that welcomed me and were happy to buy potatoes from me. 

"What I learned quickly was that there was a small window of opportunity with each door opening where I needed to make an impression, a good one. Get that first moment wrong and my chances of selling potatoes were next to zero." 

The best pitch was the honest one. Be me, smile, and politely explain what I was doing at their doorstep this early on a Saturday morning. New Zealanders like honesty and they really dislike phony people. This approach got them on my side and after that selling potatoes was easy.  

Lesson learned; 

Develop Trust and everything after that is possible

IT WAS MEASURABLE

I keep going back to that piece of paper. I saw potential in the white space, it challenged me. I visualized it being full of names and felt energized.

Years later I was one of the top tennis players in my province. But I wanted to be better, I wanted my record to improve on what I had done the previous season. 

So, to help me do this I designed a small piece of paper that I could keep in my wallet, and take with me everywhere I played. I recorded only 3 things on that piece of paper; the name of my opponent, whether I won (W) or lost (L) the match, and the score.

I often pulled that piece of paper out and analyzed my season. How many consecutive wins had I had? What was the previous score against my next opponent, and could I improve on the last score?

Even today, as I write this article, I have a list of tasks for today which I need to complete. I don't always succeed, sometimes things come along which takes my day in a different direction. If the 'distraction' from my task list is important enough and beneficial to me long-term, I'm ok doing it. But generally, I'm very disciplined at keeping to my task list and successfully completing it each day.

Both my record of sales for sacks of potatoes and my record of tennis matches during the season (I repeated this for many more season after that), proved to be powerful motivators. 

Lesson learned;

Have something that measures your progress and keeps you on point towards your desired outcome

PERSEVERANCE IS REWARDED

I remember coming across another boy on the street out selling potatoes door to door just like me. He had just met another kid in the area who had already started entering customer names on his third sheet of paper. I hadn't even got a quarter of the way down my first sheet of paper! I remember the feeling of despondency I felt. Was I wasting my time?

Turns out that the mysterious other kid on his third page of potato orders may not have even existed.

As you tackle anything difficult or attempt something that nobody has done before there will be lots of people who will want to put you down or even sabotage your efforts. I don't know why but it's just a fact.

It's important to continue doing what you feel is the right thing for you to do, and not listen to what other people are saying. I know that as I walked the streets selling potatoes that day the thought of the other kid on his third sheet of potato orders entered my mind often, but I continued working, I persevered, and perseverance pays off in the end.

Lesson learned; 

Nothing you attempt to do will be easy, you're going to need a degree of perseverance in everything you do

I did make the top three sellers in my city and went on the flight as part of the prize. 

I wasn't able to see the life lessons selling potatoes that day was teaching me until much later, but those lessons have stayed with me even in projects I undertake today.