From today’s reading...
A kind mouth multiplies friends and appeases enemies,
and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.
Let your acquaintances be many,
but one in a thousand your confidant.”
If I look to the horizon and see dark clouds and tell you to prepare for a bad storm I am not a pessimist. I am a realist and you ignore my advice at your peril.
When I coach my sales training clients I tell them to change their expectations from "everyone is a prospect and will buy from me" to "only a small percentage of people with whom I speak today are ready, willing, and able to buy from me right now, right here, at this very moment."
I get them to change their mindset from prospecting to sorting, sifting, and separating, and it makes all the difference in the world insofar as their ability to withstand the trials and tribulations and constant rejections that come with prospecting.
It may sound like semantics or a minor shift in perception or even pessimistic but small hinges swing big doors. And it's no more pessimistic than pointing at dark clouds and recommending you prepare for rain.
It's just reality.
So it is with today's advice from Sirach.
Welcome everyone but trust few and be not surprised when you are let down, abandoned, and even sabotaged by someone you considered a friend. It's just how people are, and knowing that and acting accordingly is the only way to...
Stay the course.
Keep the faith.
Endure.
