"Go Big! or Go Home!"

This is an expression I learned yesterday from my new boss. He says it is from his extreme skiing days. He was using it in reference to our sales goals in our weekly sale meeinting. I can apprciate what he is trying to do. I think it is working too. I like the new format where there is praise and applause for meeting goals and setting new and challenging ones. In previous companies, where I sold for myself, and not as part of a team, there was not as much of this. I never thought of myself as "extreme" even though I had my good months. My May of '02 I sold 13.5 homes by myself. There were other months where I exceeded goal, both personal and company. This striving is all apart of sales and sales managers. You come to expect it.

It does apply to other parts of life too. Go for the gusto! Gung ho! etc. It has always been my way of motivating myself and those who I taught. Goal-setting was a valid part of the annual parent conference that I always tried to hold with the child there. Realistic goals were set and interim objectives to meet those goals. In most cases it worked and we saw it happening or we re-met and reset goals. Success and feelings of accomplishment were what we wanted to keep the momentum going. Negative talk and thinking were not tolerated. I see this happening now more at our workplace and meetings. This is a good thing. Even comments about "goals" being unrealistic for the month are not tolerated outloud. The assumption is that they will be made up the next month and adjusted for in the quarter or year end.

Tomorrow we are going to the semi or quarterly progress meetings at the Mission Inn for a luncheon. I expect this to happen from the coporate level down. Sucess breeds success! Fortunately, I can feel proud. Our community, as of yesterday, was sold out. We have two deposits to convert to a sale and a reservation before our new release of ten more homesites. There is a good "team work" feeling about it too. Lainie, Mike and I have worked hard to get to this point. And I am confident we can maintain it; even with Solaris coming next month with a lower price point and smaller product. We have our niche in the market, "still under $400.K. The challenge now is just keeping all these buyers/customers in escrow and happy and also keeping our "internal customers" happy. We need all the support we can get from our "intra-team-mates" too. I am committed to doing my best and I think my team-mates are too. This July I am looking forward to taking classes that will help me become a "CSP" Certified Sales Professional. It has been a goal of mine to be certified in sales just the way I was certified in teaching as a Mentor and master teacher for so many years. I can do it again. Bob