From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
Dear friend,
Persuasion.
This simple word will make some people feel sick in their stomach. It has a bad connotation. A really bad one. When you think of persuasion and it’s logical extension – a persuader, you think of someone evil. That salesman who is simply not leaving you alone. Wall Street brokers and so on.
But persuasion is a part of life. Virtually everything we do is persuasion.
I have a book next to my bed. It’s called “To sell is human” by Daniel Pink. And this book made me realize something. Like it or not, to succeed in life, you are in the persuasion game.
If you have children, you have to persuade them to clean their room. If you have a significant other, to be politically correct, you need to persuade that person to act in your best interest. If you are an entrepreneur, you need to persuade your employees to work hard, your investors to put in the money, your banker to give you a loan and of course … your clients to buy from me.
The thing is that … persuasion is like the air we breathe. We can’t live without it and a world without persuasion is a utopia. We are human beings. Imperfect by nature. We do not want to do what others tell us to do even if it’s in our best interest.
If we would be rational and goal oriented, like a computer, we would all be rich, good looking and happy. But we are not. We are our biggest enemy. And this is where persuasion comes in (uh, I love this word).
First we need to persuade ourselves to be our best. This means doing something productive instead of going on the path of least resistance. Second, we need to persuade those around us to act in our best interest. Without persuasion, there would be no love, no romance, no happiness, nothing. Then we need to earn our living, no matter if this means selling stocks by the phone or selling our ideas to someone else.
It’s our primary skill for surviving in this world. And it’s a skill that should be taught in elementary school next to math and English. The thing now is that persuasion is also dark and evil in nature, like everything else. It can be used for good or for bad. For happiness or for sorrow.
But that’s a choice, a choice you get to make.
Because the truth is that everything in this life is a double edged sword. Absolutely everything. And if we were to use only what is good, whatever good may mean, we would starve to death really fast.
So what’s my call to action?
Develop your persuasion skills. You can survive without cooking, without math, without even reading. But you can’t survive without persuasion. And even if you decide to go “Walden” style on everyone and spend your next two years in a cabin in the woods, you would still need to persuade yourself. And guess what?
You are the hardest sell anyone can make.