Self Help Movie: The Pursuit of Happyness

I am working in an organization that provides tremendous sales training and product training to the sales staffs. I've attended one of these sessions as an observant, personally I don't think such training will works as selling is an art, and not something like history which you can put the contents in the text book and get the readers to learn it by reading or listening at the class.

Selling is something live and it is all about passion. For an example, if one is taking the sales career as a job instead of a passion, no matter what training courses he or she attended, the improvement would be insignificant or none at all.

The fundamental requirement to qualify a person in sales would be if he or she is thinking about the business or sales improvement at non-working hour. A good sales person will not be able to stop thinking on business at the moment he or she wake up in the morning until he fall asleep, no matter it is on work days or holidays. Unconsciously his or her mind will think of business or something related to his day time sales career at all time.

Ask yourself, are you one as describe as above? If yes, congratulations! You will definitely succeed in your sales career or business.

Selling is something live, thus I believe sales training is not a good option to improve sales. Coaching and self initiative are the best option to improve the selling skill.

'The Pursuit of Happyness' could be a very good learning tool for sales staffs. 'The Pursuit of Happyness' is inspired by a true story. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a bright and talented self-employed salesman. Struggling to make ends meet. When Gardner lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm, he and his son endure many hardships, including being homeless and living in shelters, in pursuit of his dream of a better life.

I am inspired by the sales approach and the never give up attitude of Chris Gardner in the movie. Despite the situation turned from bad to worse,  Chris Gardner is making changes and blame nobody.

"I got to learn to do things fast as I have less time compared to others." Being efficient and proper time management is mandatory during he and his son are homeless and need to line up at the entrance of shelter before 5:00pm.

Get the movie and I believe 'The Pursuit of Happyness' is able to inspired you in many aspects.

Read also:
1. The art of selling an inkjet coder
2. RE: Do you know you pay a lot to and fro from work? 
3. Is work from home doable?

Bangkok International Airport

Folks, be warned and be really careful, check the items you bought and give back what does not belong to you even when the shop assistants claimed it is free. I believe the duty free shop assistant would also get involved in such scam. Read on below.

My department secretary informed that her cousin was detained in Bangkok for stealing a box of cigarettes in a duty-free shop in Bangkok International Airport.

He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put a packet of smokes into his bag and he thought it was a free pack.

He was arrested for shop-lifting and the Thai Police extortion price was MYR30,000 for his release. He spent two nights in jail and paid MYR50 for an air-cond cell, 200-300 baht for each visitor, and RM11,000 for his final release.

The Police shared the money in front of his eyes. On top of that, he was charged in court and fined MYR 2,000 by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to his plane.

His passport was stamped "Thief". While there, his relatives requested help from the Malaysian Embassy and was told that they are helpless, as Malaysians are victimised similarly daily and letters and phone-calls to the Thai Authorities are ignored.

He shared a cell with a Singaporean the first  night who paid MYR 60,000 for his release.

The second night was an Indian national who paid USD70,000.

Mind you this is not in a shag downtown Bangkok but in a duty free shop in the Bangkok International Airport .

Duped by credit card scam upon check in at hotel

You arrive at your hotel and check in at the front desk. When checking in, you give the front desk your credit card (for all the charges for your room). You get to your room and settle in. Someone calls the front desk and asked for (example) Room 620 (which happens to be your room).

Your phone rings in your room. You answer and the person on the other end says the following, ' This is the front desk. When checking in, we came across a problem with your credit card information. Please re-read me your credit card number and verify the last 3 digits number at the reverse side of your credit card.'

Not thinking anything you might give this person your information, since the call seems to come from the front desk. But actually, it is a scam of someone calling from outside the hotel/ front desk. They ask for a random room number. Then, ask you for credit card information and address information. Sounding so professional that you do think you are talking to the front desk.

If you ever encounter this problem on your vacation, tell the caller that you will be down at the front desk to clear up any problems. Then, go to the front desk and ask if there was a problem. If there was none, inform the manager of the hotel that someone called to scam you of your credit card information acting like a front desk employee.