What a feeling.

Today was one of those amazing days of lows and highs.  All that matters is how the day has ended and it has on an incredible HIGH.  

A little insight to what happened today.  We pay our sales reps bonuses for selling different items.  Recently we have found ourselves in a situation where we have a significant amount of aged or slightly expired inventory.  We paid out on sales for these items as it was a better situation to get something rather than disposing of it and getting nothing.  I personally don’t sell directly to customer as I am the sales manager for my company.  On this one occasion, I had a situation where I could sell a significant amount of product to a customer I know quite well personally.  This customer is one of my reps direct accounts.  However he didn’t make the sale even though he was there a couple of hour before I made the call.  I ended up selling a bunch of product and my company wants to pay this “bonus” out.  

Here is what I was torn about and what I did about this that made me feel so amazing.  I felt initially that we would pay the rep the commission.  I felt this way because it was his customer and I wanted to build some good will with him.  After reflecting upon this for some time (my boss thought I was mad for wanting to pay it to him and wanted me to have it) I decided that perhaps I should keep it as I did make the sale after all…  On the way home today I am talking with my wife about this and she suggested that I donate it to charity.  I was struggling with this all day and I didn’t feel that the he deserved nor did I deserve it.  We continued to talk and all of a sudden I had an epiphany.  We had a request for donations for a women’s shelter and why not donate it to them?  Who could better use this money than a woman’s shelter?  I called up my boss and told him what I wanted to do and he was extremely happy to be able to deliver this message and gift to them.  

What an amazing feeling came over me right at that moment!  It would have been really easy to keep a nice chunk of money but I realized that many more people could benefit from it in a lot better ways than I could have.  One of the reasons that I thought of this was the work we do at the Kwoon with the benevolent society.  It was a way that we can give back to the community that needs our support more than ever.

Ian Repay

UBBT 8 Student Member

Silent River Kung Fu

Discipline…what’s that?

Reflecting back on UBBT 8 as we wind down this year I am thinking about discipline.  When I started on this journey I felt that I had a lot of it.  I started off with an abundance of discipline and I felt like this would not be that difficult.  Wow was I wrong!  I have come to discover that one of my greatest weaknesses is discipline.  I realized that upon reflection that I don’t yet have it.  I have failed myself in this area and I am not happy with my self.  I have also realized that not only do I not have discipline when it comes to my UBBT 8 requirements; I don’t have a level of discipline that is at level in my personal/business life that I am happy with.  I now realize what I need to do. Right now to get that level of discipline the first step is to admit that this is an area of weakness.  Now that I have done this, I have become mindful of it and it is at forefront of my thinking.  To me this is so important that to not only acknowledge the weakness but to always be mindful of it.  

I am going to use this learning to be more proactive and will be the start of my development.  I am going to be mindful of my mental state and work toward changing my thinking and my actions.  I know this will not be easy as this is who I have always been.  However, it is never too late to start or want to start to change. 

Today is the first step on my new (bumpy) path.  Today I am mindful of my weakness and today I going to start to change my life.

Ian Repay

Student Member of UBBT 8

Student of Silent River Kung Fu