Furthermore, luck is a sum of many disparate, usually not thought of as connected, parts. This would include not just how smart you are, but also your capacity to plan efficiently and effectively, Taking it a step even further, understand how to leverage to create exponential value and the importance of viewing the world through an 80/20 lens.

Since Vivek’s post, I have taken a considerable amount of time to reflect on what Vivek said before posting my own point of view. Mark Suster also recently wrote an insightful response, which is in contrast to Vivek’s, which inspired me to think much harder about this topic.

With the backdrop of the two posts above, here’s my point of view: I firmly believe entrepreneurship is 20% nature and 80% nurture.

It’s certainly agreeable that we are born with certain physical characteristics based on genetics – eyes, nose, arms, legs, etc. But the argument I struggle with in regard to if 80% of our inclination to become entrepreneurs comes from nature is: what about the theory of the tabula rasa – the blank slate? In addition, how do you explain the inner critic which resides in all of us?

I believe genetics simply provides us the blank slate, our minds are just barely hardwired when we’re born – free and open to interpretation of all which the world surrounds us with. Over time our mind starts to fill in or write on that blank slate based on the stimuli we acquire through experiences, both good and bad. As the frequency of experiences in our lives increases, there is a parallel influx of stimuli being presented to and processed by our brain. Thus, the more stimuli we are exposed to and react upon, the more “writing” that is placed on our slate.

This writing becomes the map which directs our brain muscle and formation, with an end goal of developing a baseline we can use for structuring our thoughts/reactions/interpretations toward an ever growing amount of stimuli. Said another way, these stimuli are presented to us through each experience we have in our daily lives and can be actions as simple as playing a sport, eating a certain food, reading a book or driving a car. Eventually, as time passes, our reactions to stimuli build upon one another, like a pyramid, forming a solid map for how our brain should hardwire itself. Eventually we end up with a solid conceptual framework which we leverage to interpret stimuli throughout the rest of our life.

An analogy: weightlifters drink protein shakes after every gym session because protein is the underlying nutrient to replenish the tears that the muscle has experienced from the stress of lifting weights. During our developmental years the muscle in our brain seeks direction on how to interpret the world – a baseline per se. Think of the writing being placed on the slate as a replenishing nutrient which our mind necessitates and seeks to absorb whenever possible. Over time, as those nutrients (stimuli) increase in frequency, our mind becomes stronger and stronger toward a certain interpretation of the world.

This leads to my point: once past your developmental years, which are a culmination of hundreds of thousands of experiences and stimuli, only then do you have a structure and framework for interpreting the world. Once you’re capable of interpreting the world, you are then able to form scalable mental thought patterns and a purpose for why you do what you do.

Said another way: nature simply provides the slate to write upon. Nurture throughout our developmental years is what actually writes on that slate, forms our personality and viewpoints of the world, and ultimately whether we’re going to be the next billionaire entrepreneur, award winning violinist or multinational expatriate.

As mentioned in previous posts, the supposed “secret” to selling is actually not a secret at all. Based on my experience, there are three skills you must embrace to become a top-tier sales Jedi in today’s hypercompetitive marketplace:

1) Understand selling is just a numbers game

One day you’ll sell $11K in three hours of work and the next you’ll struggle to sell $1K over the span of an entire day. But in the aggregate, remaining steadfastly focused on your goals will pay off, with a gradual climb toward long-term success.

2) Understand the 80/20 rule

As mentioned in post #2 of this series, memorize the 20% that makes 80% of the difference until it’s instinctive. This is imperative; your long-term viability as a sales professional depends on it.

3) Develop the ability to quickly identify, hone and leverage the triggers of your target consumer

Of the above three skills, point #3 will catapult you the furthest and fastest. Triggers become significantly more apparent as the frequency of sales presentations increase.

Nordstrom is the ideal environment for scaling sales trigger understanding because a sales rep executes roughly 20 presentations/day during the week and more than 40/day on the weekend. Retail is a fast-paced and transaction-oriented environment. Therefore, within a very short amount of time you’re blessed with the benefit of executing hundreds transactions and obtaining large swaths of customer feedback. These are crucial in facilitating your understanding of the wants, needs and ultimately the triggers of your target consumer.

The downside of this type of sales environment is the very “short leash” you’re given. If you don’t produce the boot will arrive on the horizon very fast. You are expected to ramp up sales significantly faster than in other sales contexts.

For instance, on the other side of the pendulum reside enterprise sales. In the beginning, these are long, drawn out and sporadic transactions (2 – 6 month sales cycle). Every opportunity to identify and hone sales triggers must be cherished. In this environment, you are given a longer lead time to “figure it out,” but even then your “leash” is only as long as the market allows – which isn’t more than four months.

This is not rocket science folks- just simple mathematics.

However, it does require a highly skilled salesperson to recognize the 20% which does in fact make 80% of the difference. So then, how do you recognize this 20% sooner rather then later? Well, to be truthful, it can be complicated in certain industries, but overall it boils down to a few things:

• Time – The longer you spend understanding your customer, both in person and through your own independent research, the more successful you will be in every stage of the sales process.
• Energy – It is contagious. If you’re high energy, your customer will be as well. High energy = high engagement, high engagement = more likely sale. High energy can easily tip the odds of a sale in your favor
• Persistence – On average, it takes 5 “no’s” to get a “yes.” Don’t simply take the first “no” as the customers only answer in the sales process and leave (as 99% of sales people do). Instead, expect and embrace the “no,” because the sooner you get all 5 out of the way, the sooner you’re going to make the sale.
• Enthusiasm – Believe in yourself, your product and the process by which you make the sale. If you don’t, you’re mediocre at best at the sales profession.

Leveraging each of the above points to learn about your target consumer is a crucial first step in understanding their purchasing triggers in both short and long-term contexts.

Next, take what you’ve learned from your customer (constructive feedback) and immerse yourself in their purchasing mentality. Devote a considerable amount of time and energy toward understanding every one of their tastes/habits/likes/dislikes. This is not meant to be an overnight exercise- the more time you spend reflecting, the easier it will be for you to identify with your customer.

Once a salesperson understands their target consumers purchasing mentality, they can then begin the process of honing their presentation into a few concise, actionable and repeatable steps. Over time, this makes all the difference in the world between selling just the industry average and selling in excess of 200% more then the next closest sales representative.