Many times as a young-expiring entrepreneur individuals within the community are reluctant to take you serious or give you proper respect.
There are negative ways and positive ways that you can handle these situations when they arise and how you respond may be the difference in progression and success or delayed movement.
As a professional it is important to have a certain level of humbleness but at the same time you don’t want to ever become anybodies push over. You have to demand respect by carrying yourself in a dignified manner, speaking with confidence and authority and also by showing other businessmen/women that you know exactly what you’re talking about.
I will never forget when I was working as an investment coordinator performing capital raising services for multi-million dollar oil and gas development projects.
The company that I was working for was dealing with some of the largest, wealthiest and most successful investors in the country. This was definitely the big leagues, I mean if I told you some of the prospects we were dealing with you would recognize their names immediately due to their national notoriety.
At the time I was only 22 years old and I was working in an office around people who were at least 45 or older. Guys who had been around the block and had very successful careers in finance, banking, sales, public relations, marketing, insurance, real estate and many other business areas.
So naturally many of them felt that I was out of my league due to my age and lack of comparable experience, but I must have been there for a reason, I mean I got hired by the CEO directly!
Anyway I was having trouble putting deals together when working with clients. I was letting them boss me around in meetings and on calls, I wasn’t being aggressive enough and I was really letting my age show in my work abilities.
One day my boss called me into his office and said,” you’re being way too nice with these prospects and you’re not earning their respect.”
He went on to explain how executives only have a couple of minutes to speak because their obviously very busy. They want to conduct business with somebody who is going to grab their attention and respect immediately by getting straight to the point without the fluff. Money isn’t an issue, but they only want to invest their money with a person who is just as successful or elite as they are.
Later I began to act more professional when dealing with clients, I lost the nice crap and started coming across as a guy who was just as busy as they were, who didn’t have time to jack around, but just wanted to get together quickly to talk business, put a deal together, and go on to the next project.
When I begun to carry myself in this manner I got much more respect from co-workers and clients, my age no longer was an issue and most importantly I was able to accumulate some great clients for the firm.
Don’t worry about your age, your level of experience, or how others may perceive you. Just go out there, get the job done and always carry yourself as the person that you really are; which is a successful entrepreneur!
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