V i r g i l ’ s V i e w s

Rose Mary Rumbley, Dallas historian, humorist, and entertainer, noticed this epitaph in an old cemetery in the Southeast: “If you are not enthusiastic about life, drop dead.”  This inscription coincides with Emerson’s opinion that “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  (A senior citizen might argue that staying alive is a great achievement and worthy of enthusiasm.)

Salespersons on their daily round of calls strive to stay motivated and enthusiastic.  They try to heed the warning of their sales manager that “If you are not ‘fired’ with enthusiasm, you will be ‘fired’ with enthusiasm.”

How can discouraged salespersons rejected by a surly prospect remain enthusiastic?  They merely have to recall a principle from a long-ago sales course  i.e.   “Act enthusiastic, and you will be enthusiastic.”   (Yes, ‘act enthusiastically’ is probably better grammar.)

Some may carp that pretending is insincere, but people pretend almost daily.  We may pretend that we are happy to see someone when we are not, but courtesy and good order require a pretense.  Or, we feign good cheer on arriving at work in the morning.  In fact, repeated use of false enthusiasm may show us how to use the real kind.

In order to do anything well the first requirement is desire, maybe even compulsion, to act as illustrated  in the following incident.

One Sunday morning a couple stopped at a church and asked the minister to marry them.   He replied “I’d be glad to do it at the end of our regular service.  Please come in, and I will call you then.”

At the end of the service he announced, “Now, all of you who want to get married, please come forward.”  One man and 16 women strode to the front.   These motivated for marriage had the same desire for accomplishment as the successful salesperson making the rounds of his territory.”

Observers throughout history have commented on the importance of desire in carrying out a task.  About 500 BC Confucius  advised:  “Choose the job you love,  and you will never work a day in your life.”  A recent radio commercial repeated these words.  Presumably the Internet was correct when it ascribed them to Confucius.   The modern writer of the commercial merely borrowed the text.

 The much more modern Tom Peters agrees with the adage when he says “Do what you want, and the money will follow.”