By Debra Houston | During my 18-year career at a telecommunications company, I worked for some good managers and some not-so-good. One of the good ones grew up in Alabama. When I left public relations for sales, he hoped I’d work for a New Yorker. “You could learn how to succeed from them,” he said.
Guess what? I worked for a man from Manhattan. He was brash and politically incorrect, but charming in a somewhat menacing way. I told him that cold-calling on businesses made my palms sweat, my heart palpitate, and I’d almost rather give away the product than ask for the sale. Secretaries had threatened me, business owners rudely ignored me, and a security guard had already shown me the door.
My Manhattan guy said: “We’ll go cold-calling together!” He would show me “how it’s done. Just watch me,” he said. Unannounced, we breezed through one building to another making magic. Imagine Jimmy Fallon popping by with a deal you can’t refuse. You wouldn’t throw out that guy. My boss could sell sand to a camel in the middle of the Sahara.
My Alabama boss was right about New Yorkers. And though my Manhattan guy was abrasive at times, he won awards and his sales team consistently placed first. With a heightened awareness that selling is a form of art, I began to respect salespeople of all stripes.
Another fast-talking New Yorker has made the rounds lately, showing America what winning looks like. His name is Trump. He’s rough around the edges, boasts a corpulent amount of combed forward hair, and he’s an equal-opportunity offender.
But enough voters have liked his ideas to make him the “presumptive” Republican nominee. He’s forcing the uptight country club wing of his party to leave its smug comfort zone and “consider” endorsing him. Like my Manhattan boss, Trump is succeeding in spades.
I’ll never like his yellow hair or his big mouth. And he needs to ramp up on that “getting presidential” thing.
If he wants my vote, he’ll end the vulgar and hateful speech, and perhaps, pontificate lucidly on sound conservative ideas. If so, I might see him as a pretty good Manhattan boss. That said, I might vote for him to let him show the world “how it’s done.”
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