Vibrations and Money - Real Story Of How I 100X My Income
You have the right to work, but never to the fruits of your work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world as one established within oneself—without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.” – Gita My First Sales Job On A River… When I was about 21 years old, living in Cambridge, England, I decided to get a job as a ‘river guide’ with Scudamores River Tour company. The job had two parts. The first involved trying to convince random people walking down the street to stop what they were doing and take a boat tour of the famous Cambridge colleges. We would stand on the pavement, wearing straw hats and company sweaters or shirts, holding laminated boards with pictures of the river and colleges. As passersby approached, we’d say: “River Tours?” “Would you like to come on a river tour?” “See the historic colleges,” and so on. We could basically say whatever we wanted, hoping the right people would feel compelled to show interest. If they did, we’d explain the tour, and if they were ready to join, I’d write them a slip with the number of people in their group and my initials. They would then take their slip to the boathouse to pay for their river tour. Not everyone made it to the boathouse, but for each person who did and paid for the tour, we earned a commission. If we didn’t sign up enough people, we’d only be paid minimum wage, which, I recall, was about $3.50 per hour. To Work or Not to Work? This commission-vs-minimum-wage structure meant we could either sit around and still get paid minimum wage, or work hard and earn more if we signed up more people. It was an interesting dichotomy: either do nothing and get paid a little, or work hard and possibly earn more—or end up with just minimum wage if we didn’t succeed. It was a test of faith and belief in the value of work and personal agency. Do we really influence our fate or not? Is extra effort worth it, or should we just sit on a bench, vaguely waving our board to pretend we’re working? The second part of the job involved punting the boat down the river with 9-12 passengers while delivering a (mostly made-up) tour of the famous Cambridge colleges. At first, I couldn’t steer the boat straight and ended up dangerously swerving all over the river, hitting the banks and sometimes other boats. But over time, I got the hang of it. Once I could punt in a straight line while delivering my tour, I found it fun to come up with stories and see how the passengers reacted. That little stretch of river is truly magnificent—an impressive and beautiful slice of the planet filled with culture and history. Spending a couple of hours a day punting down the river became quite magical in its own way. I took the job partly to overcome my inhibitions and fear of talking to strangers. I was a bit too shy and introverted, so I realized the best way to overcome this was by talking to strangers for 4-8 hours a day. When I started the job, I was very disappointed with my results. Most of the people I asked to join a river tour said no. Some ignored me; others had harsher words. Almost everyone said no. But then again, even the best river tour guides got far more no’s than yeses because, as you can imagine, most people walking by didn’t want to be interrupted. Many were locals on their way to work, and tourists may not have been in the mood for a tour right then and there. The job was, after all, a bit like being a door-to-door vacuum salesman—except we were selling tours instead of vacuums.