Geez Snowboy, you really brought out the emotions on this question. What a variety of responses and opinions..good job!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I had a HUGE ego when I was a young salesman. As a top-level athlete all my life, I approached my sales career as a 'game.' My super-competitive nature caused me to be a ruthless, 'take-no-prisoners,' 'no one is going to beat me' attitude. In my mind I had to sell everyone that came into our store, and I had to be top salesperson in every company I worked for.
It worked for many years and made me a lot of money, but it made me no friends with my co-workers and I didn't build a solid referral business of past customers. I always had to work harder (instead of smarter) to find new customers on a consistent basis.
In my early 50's I hired my first personal coach. He totally changed my attitude (and my life) by teaching me how to take a good, true look at myself. He taught me how to dismiss my EGO and concentrate my talents on what I could do to help my customers, my co-workers, my friends, and my family. He taught me how to concentrate on how I could add real value to other people's lives, not just mine.
I discovered that by helping others get what they want and need, I would automatically get what I wanted. I'm in my late 50's now and I basically no longer have an EGO. Believe me, I still have an abundance of self confidence and self esteem because I know what I can do. But it's much more satisfying to concentrate my talents and efforts on helping other people attain their goals, and understand their thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and actions, and how they affect their professional, and personal, lives.
Once you forget about yourself and just making sales to earn money, and concentrate your talents and emotions on sincerely helping others, you experience a 'shift' in your personality and your self worth. When you help others, more abundance flows into your own life. When you help others, countless opportunities appear to you that you never noticed before. When you help others, your own life takes on new meaning and your 'awareness' of your 'self' expands. I could go on and on...
Great question to throw out there Keith...you're the man!
p.s. I thought Terri's answers were very insightful and deep also.
