How Quitting My Job Made Me Successful in 2007

Part of a series called “The One Thing I Did in 2007” - other posts here and here.

“I changed my mind on you working remotely, I want you to move to New Jersey”.

Those were the words of the President of the company I worked for, at the end of 2006.

For a dyed-in-the-wool Southerner, such as myself, having a mailing address in New Jersey was about as appealing as “Now Open - Britney Spears’ Daycare”.

I resigned my position as Sales Director for an Enterprise Knowledge Management Organization, giving up my six figure base salary, generous expense account, and a Rolodex of the elite in the Federal Government and Life Sciences industries.

The resignation was inspired in part by the fact that with the perks and prestige came a lot of road time away from my family, a really bad diet, a nice beer gut, and enough stress to support several gastric-centric ailments.

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What’s on Your List of Best Sales Books?

Some people live by the training materials their company gives them. What a shame.

The best salespeople believe in continuing education. What titles are on your list of the best sales books out there?

We’ve started the conversation (debate?) with an initial 13 books that you’ll find at 22books.com, a new place for people to share lists like this. In the past, we’ve reviewed a handful of books (and have plans to do more).

It’s important to keep your social, interviewing, presentation, and negotiation skills sharp. You won’t do that by twiddling your thumbs, waiting for your company to train you. And you certainly won’t do it by practicing poor skills sales call after sales call. Be smart and keep up.