What's So Funny?

SalesManUp


What’s So Funny ?


A sense of humor… is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. - Hugh Sidney


Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing. - Mark Twain


One of the greatest skills that a salesperson should keep in their briefcase is a good sense of humor. The first and foremost application of this skill is being able to laugh at yourself. Yes, we have bills to pay, mouths to feed,and quotas to meet;  but we cannot be serious all of the time. Just look at nature, and little children. They love to play. The other morning during my walk,  I saw two squirrels scampering after each other, playing tag up an oak tree , running round and round like the stripes on a barber shop pole.  It made me chuckle just to watch them.


Once we get married and have children, and establish a household ; and begin to accumulate “stuff”;  somewhere along along the way, we become like Peter Pan. No, not the peanut butter. I mean we become like the character “ Peter Pan” who lives in Neverland. The best rendition of this story, I think, was played by Robin Williams in the movie “Hook”. As a successful lawyer in his adult life, he returns to London to honor his adopted mother Wendy. While he is speaking at Wendy’s honorarium that evening, dread Pirate Captain Hook ( played by Dustin Hoffman ) kidnaps Peter Panning’s children, and takes them to Never Land. Peter must find his children, and with the help of some fairy dust ( from Pixie, Julia Roberts ) and JetBlue, he flies to Neverland. ( ok … JetBlue does not service Never Land). Once he arrives in Neverland, and ends up reconnecting with the lost boys he had known eons ago, it is discovered that Peter has forgotten. He has forgotten how to  fly, to PLAY , to laugh, to have fun, to crow; and even to use his imagination. He grew up to become a boring adult, living a dull life. A life so serious, that there was never any time for laughter or fun.


Good humor is usually self-deprecating or simply about the off- the-wall realities of life. It never seeks to put another person down to obtain a laugh. We all have our sarcastic moments, but to stay there is not a healthy practice. I have found that the use of humor usually relaxes people, including myself. It breaks up  tense and stressful situations, and turns them into enjoyable relaxing meetings. Noah Webster defines humor as “ that quality of the imagination which gives to ideas a wild or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations…”


At one point in my sales career, I represented a lightweight concrete company in the central Florida market. Although we had a corporate office not far from Orlando, each account executive operated mainly out of their home office. Since the product we manufactured was a structural element, they paired each salesperson with a structural engineer, who made sure that the sales reps didn’t promise something that might not be structurally sound( now who would do that ?). My partnering engineer was a Vietnam vet and head of his local Harley biker club - a man’s man to say the least. One day, while working in my home office, I was leaving the engineer a voicemail, when in the midst of my message, my wife walked into my office wearing her bathing suit. We had just installed a pool, and she came into my office to tell me something. At that moment, my mind disengaged from my voice mail and redirected onto my wife, standing there in her bathing suit. Then, as if observing someone else, I suddenly found myself closing out the call to the engineer by saying, “ Bye, I love you ! “ Waking up , as if hit with a bolt of lightning, I corrected, “ No, no, no, that was an accident. Sorry…” and I hung up. When arriving at the home office later that day, I discovered that the engineer had forwarded my voicemail  to the entire company. When listening to my message, the President commented in his thick German accent, “ Well, Neal must really love his work ! “ Truth is funnier than fiction.


Learning to laugh at ourselves and find humor within day to day life  is an invaluable skill that will build strong relationships; help us to enjoy the journey, and  hopefully leave a smile on our client’s faces. Laughter is good medicine for the soul.


A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- Proverbs 17:22 ( NIV Bible )