Image by @Doug88888 via Flickr
A hallmark of being in the right place at the right time is the wisdom of carrying the right stick with which to scare up opportunity. If it’s a 14th Century Nordic cudgel (and you’re more softspoken than you’d like to be), your efforts will be a bit brassier than your game (target) requires, leaving a blushing wound where the smile should have been situated. Similarly, bring a pencil, thin dowel or knitting needle with which to “generate a little productive dialogue” and you’ll wind up creating nothing more than a 30-second memory in your prospect’s mind – as substantial as a carpenter ant’s sneeze. There’s an art to finding a mutual balance point when hunting for what you want – or convincing someone else that her/his needs will undoubtedly be fulfilled by caving to your pitch.
I could be talking about wine sales, or I could be talking about proposing marriage, or I could be talking about training unruly sots to tuck their elbows in at the tavern. The point is that when you have a goal to accomplish, there’s generally a resistance to overcome – an an art to doing so – be it human objection, circumstantial difficulty, chemistry, friction, culture, economy, astronomy (ie: the planets were lined up just so), whatever. There’s simple math all around us: the logic, the beauty, the austerity, the graciousness of natural law – a law upon which the tangible universe all around us relies, and according to which stuff just works. When you weed the garden, your crop thrives. However, when you allow the weeds to propagate, nature is still operating in its wonderfully balancing way. It might not sound right, but think about it; weeds are people too! That garden just may have a weedy destiny, despite the gardener’s intervention. Energy fills voids. Heat from one room seeks to balance the cold room next door. The pause after the logical pitch/proposal creates the empty space for an opposite reaction. Therefore, when he shouts: “SO, YA GONNA MARRY ME OR WHAT??” she responds in kind: “HAIL NO, FOOL!” He must rustle the shrubbery with the energy he wants to receive. Golden Rule stuff. Simple Math.
So the wine salesman says to the restaurateur, “Assuming we can help one another, I’d be honored to see my wine on your list. In addition, I’d be delighted to refer anyone and anyone to your awesome restaurant.” And the restaurateur says to the wine salesman 30 days later, “I hope your check arrived in the mail today. If not, please let me know and I’ll get that sorted right away. By the way, is there any more of that delightful syrah available to us?”
That’s another abstraction of what Simple Math is. Just in case you were going to ask again if I love calculus, I don’t. But if you look at a rose, the math involved in its design really hits the spot for me. Natural law – beautiful.
