The Art of the Sale

In his new book, The Art of the Sale, author Phillip Delves Broughton looks at the salesman and American life:

 Broughton explains that successful salespeople exude tenacity even in a challenging situation. "The idea is that in a flat, very democratic society, if you can sell, [and] you can persuade others of your ability, you can essentially rise up," he tells NPR's Scott Simon. "You look at the entrepreneurial heroes — the Donald Trumps or the Steve Jobs — they're all great salesmen in their way and they are difficult and contradictory characters but what really marks them out is their ability to persuade us that whatever they have is worth buying so it's both heroic and oppressing. And again, that's what really drew me in — this story of capitalism — the Willy Loman, the defeated man who has become nothing but a tool of the economy. On the other hand, if you can sell you can really triumph in this essentially flat and democratic society."
"It's a career where you're rejected many, many more times than you are accepted. And a lot of the really good salesmen thrive on that — knowing that at some point there will be a triumph and that triumph is going to be what validates everything they do.
"Like baseball players, hitting .300 would be tremendous in sales. Hitting 1 out of 100 is tremendous in many types of sales. So to really succeed at it, you have to understand the odds, you have to understand that you're going to be told 'no' more than 'yes' and that's very, very hard. That's psychologically hard. It's one of the things that drew me in. Business can often seem sterile about numbers, about spreadsheets, about strategic reports, but sales makes it really human. It cuts to the heart of who we are, what we're willing to do to make a buck, the masks we're willing to adopt and our ability to persuade. One salesman told me that sales is the greatest laboratory there is for studying human nature, and I completely agree. And that's the antithesis of much of what we think about business."

This explains a lot about sales, society and why I have issues fitting in.  I absolutely hate salesmen and selling.  I act accordingly.  That has its drawbacks.