Happy Labor Day, SalesBEASTs.
Updated: 2 days ago
The Fight That Defines Us
Happy Labor Day, SalesBEASTs.
I'm Richard Zimcic, a coach and trainer with SalesBEAST. If you have been around here a while, you know some Mondays belong to me and some belong to Jayne, who is the sharpest coach I know and the only person who can make a salad sound like a dare. Today is mine, and I'm writing it the way I think best: early, with a cup of coffee, looking out at the water before anyone else is up.
I fish. Anybody who fishes will tell you the truth nobody puts on a postcard: most days, nothing happens. You check the tide, you rig the line, you run out before sunrise, and you sit there for hours while the water gives you exactly nothing. Then you clean the boat, go home, and do it again. That is not a hobby. That is labor. And it is the best teacher I have ever had.
So on a day built to honor work, I want to tell you about my favorite fishing story. It isn't mine. It belongs to Ernest Hemingway, and it's called The Old Man and the Sea.
Eighty Four Days of Nothing
Santiago is an old fisherman who hasn't caught a thing in eighty four days. Think about that, my friend. Eighty four mornings of rowing out, setting lines, and coming home empty while the whole village decides he's finished. Most people would have sold the boat by day thirty.
He doesn't. On day eighty five he rows farther out than anyone else is willing to go, and he hooks a marlin so big it tows his little boat out to sea. For days he holds that line. His hands are torn up, his back is screaming, the sun gives him no mercy, and he still won't let go. Not because he's sure he'll win. Because letting go isn't who he is.
I have held a rod for a lot of hours and never for anything like that. But I know the feeling in the forearms when you've been fighting something longer than you thought you could. Every one of you knows it too. You just call it the last week of the quarter.
When the Sharks Come
Here's the part people forget. Santiago lands that marlin, lashes it to the side of the boat, and starts for home. Then the sharks come. By the time he reaches shore, all that's left is the skeleton.
If you only measure the result, he lost. But the whole village sees those bones on the beach and knows exactly what that old man did out there. The proof of the fight is still there. Some deals are like that. You do everything right, you work the account for months, and something you can't control takes it from you at the dock. That doesn't erase the work. It proves it.
Victory isn't always what you bring home. Sometimes it's the proof you left behind that says: I gave everything I had, and I did not quit.
Who Labor Day Is For
Today is for the calloused hands that built the skyline. The nurses on their third night shift in a row. The truckers on endless highways, the teachers who refuse to give up on one more kid, the line cooks, the linemen, the folks who fix what everyone else breaks. And yes, the sales reps burning up phone lines for families who will never see the calls they made. All of you are Santiago. All of you have had your eighty four days.
Your Day Eighty Five Plan
Take today off for real. Rest is part of the work. Santiago slept in the bow between fights. Put the phone down and be with your people.
Count your bones. Write down three things you fought for this year, win or lose. That list is your proof.
Thank someone who works hard. A text, a call, a handshake. Someone in your life has been grinding in silence. Tell them you see it.
Pick your day eighty five. Tomorrow, before the inbox gets you, decide on the one call or the one account you're going to row out farther for. Then go.
If you're firing up the grill today, Jayne put together some recipes worth your time. I keep telling her the steak plate would be better with elk. She keeps telling me to go hunt one. Visit Jayne's Kitchen.
Before you go
Share this with someone who's been grinding in silence, someone who needs to know their fight is seen. Like it, follow SalesBEAST, and drop a comment telling me who you're thanking today. I read every one.
That's Beast Mode.
Richard
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