The Desert of Arizona
Partly Cloudy 48 Degrees
Trains are about moving in the direction of the goal. The conductor doesn’t make up the route on the fly. In fact, there are very few chances to deviate from the route.
If trains could make turns, veer off the path, explore new track on a whim, they might not ever make it to the destination.
That’s why they make the passengers get on the platform to board. You can’t board the train from your home, or next to the grocery store. You can try, but the train’s not comin’!
The train is going THAT way.
And you can choose to hop on or not. No one gets upset at the train for doing this. No one talks about the train having such an attitude. No one talks about how rude the train is for not coming to pick them up. No one balks that the train doesn’t shift its schedule around to accomodate its passengers availability.
The train has no emotional attachment to its destination. It doesn’t care what you think about it. Get on, or get off. Either way, it doesn’t affect the train.
The train also doesn’t have emotional baggage. (They charge extra for that.)
Is this sounding familiar?
If you act like a train, your business life with clients will improve. You actually become MORE attractive if you do it right. But if you veer off your route for anyone and anything, you’re gonna end up going in circles.
You’ll work hard, but you’ll get nowhere!
For example, my life used to be littered with client phone calls. One call here, one call there and so on. It’s not the client’s fault, it’s my fault for not setting things up in a way that maximizes my effectiveness.
I truly underestimated how much disruption this causes to productivity. In the end, that’s a disservice to clients if I allow it to continue.
So I fixed it. The solution involves me acting more like a train, if that makes sense. You can the details in the letter if you’re interested.
Is it any surprise that my productivity has soared recently? Of course not.
Ahhh grasshopper… be the train.
Make it obvious that you’re going somewhere. You’re not stopping the train for every person who waves you down. They’ve got to hop on.