Came on this in yesterday's Washington Post, an article about a recent (20 years ago) college grad, Jim Garland, who started out "working for a medical supplies company selling badges that
measure radiation emitted from X-ray machines.
"It was all cold calls,"
Garland recalled. "That's where I cut my teeth:
getting used to people saying 'no' and slamming a door in your face. It's a
wake-up call. But it taught me the law of averages. For every 100 doors I
knocked on, I sold to about 10 offices."
Interesting story of how he moved on to setting up a business to detail cars, then to detail boats, and now to detail corporate jets.
And it all started with gritting his teeth and making cold calls to fulfill the law of averages.