When I decided to take this job selling advertising for the Community Paper on commission, I told myself that this was a way I could talk to strangers.

After two+ years of living in an 8x8 room with myself and my two housemates, I developed an appreciation for things small interactions I had before taken for granted.

I imagined that my new job selling ads would give me an in — an excuse to begin a conversation with businesses owners, and anyone else I had the courage to approach. 

I would be like an undercover sleuth/ street beat journalist asking the questions I wanted answers to under the guise of selling advertising.

I discovered people were busy.  Conversations were short and superficial. If corporate owned, the person who made decisions was never on site or accessible. 

I learned I can approach and chit chatting with strangers but it’s exhausting

Sales  was not about conversations. It was about persistence: visiting, making calls, sending emails, until you get a no. It’s  about keeping going in the face of indifference,  hostility  and the stuff of life that makes it hard for us to pay attention to anything that is not right in front of us.

I learned it takes lots of nos to get to one yes. 

Perseverance in the face of constant rejection is useful, but only if it’s in the pursuit of something that really matters

Although I need money, it has never been what matters most to me.

What mattered most -- real connection -- was incidental to the job