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Second hand re-hashing of other people's experience is the best. Seriously though, Patrick, you take an isolated episode and then extrapolate it into an assert

by eps 13y ago

Second hand re-hashing of other people's experience is the best. Seriously though, Patrick, you take an isolated episode and then extrapolate it into an assertive definitive business "theory". This is the good old armchair athletics. You appear to routinely do this and I personally find it seriously off-putting.

simonw 13y ago
Often the best people to learn something from are not the people with decades of experience, they are the people who have only recently learned the thing themselves. They tend to have a much better feeling for the ideas which newcomers may not understand at all but are so obvious to experts that they wouldn't even think to mention them. I've been learning about sales over the past six months and I've found that the best teachers are people who used to be engineers (like myself) but now do sales. They understand how my brain works. Patrick's advice in this article may not have been "new", but I found it fantastically useful.
hcho 13y ago
>Second hand re-hashing of other people's experience is the best. Didn't you read the bit he talks about selling AR to a hospital?
prawn 13y ago
I think it's worth remembering that this is one guy who started with his bingo cards, was pinching himself through the small-scale success of that as a side-earner, spoke honestly of it on HN to an audience appreciative of anyone sharing figures and experiences so openly regardless of their scale. Consider too how many here would be keen for any earning side project at all. From the cultish following that developed (in the absence of many alternatives), he picked up some consulting work and commenced further pinching and explaining of his efforts. Then, from that consulting to more self-pinching following some success with winning enterprise clients. And again, sharing what he personally learnt. Yes, the jump from "guys, consulting is awesome!" to "no wait, consulting has its issues, wait until I tell you about enterprise sales!" was bemusing to me, but it's a discovery anyone following along saw happen to a real-world person. Some of the writing style (NDA, etc) can be dorky/annoying, but if you remember that this is a kid in a candy shop documenting the wonders of their personal experience, maybe that will help you appreciate it. This isn't his business theory but a series of relatable experiences enough people value to upvote any time he shares more.
mbesto 13y ago
> This is the good old armchair athletics. You appear to routinely do this and I personally find it seriously off-putting. As someone who learned Enterprise sales in the last 3 years, his advice is spot on. Why not contribute to the discussion and refute his claims? You make it sound as if you know something (i.e. something that's putting you off) that he didn't articulate.

by eps 13y ago

simonw 13y ago

Often the best people to learn something from are not the people with decades of experience, they are the people who have only recently learned the thing themselves. They tend to have a much better feeling for the ideas which newcomers may not understand at all but are so obvious to experts that they wouldn't even think to mention them. I've been learning about sales over the past six months and I've found that the best teachers are people who used to be engineers (like myself) but now do sales. They understand how my brain works. Patrick's advice in this article may not have been "new", but I found it fantastically useful.

hcho 13y ago

>Second hand re-hashing of other people's experience is the best. Didn't you read the bit he talks about selling AR to a hospital?

prawn 13y ago

I think it's worth remembering that this is one guy who started with his bingo cards, was pinching himself through the small-scale success of that as a side-earner, spoke honestly of it on HN to an audience appreciative of anyone sharing figures and experiences so openly regardless of their scale. Consider too how many here would be keen for any earning side project at all. From the cultish following that developed (in the absence of many alternatives), he picked up some consulting work and commenced further pinching and explaining of his efforts. Then, from that consulting to more self-pinching following some success with winning enterprise clients. And again, sharing what he personally learnt. Yes, the jump from "guys, consulting is awesome!" to "no wait, consulting has its issues, wait until I tell you about enterprise sales!" was bemusing to me, but it's a discovery anyone following along saw happen to a real-world person. Some of the writing style (NDA, etc) can be dorky/annoying, but if you remember that this is a kid in a candy shop documenting the wonders of their personal experience, maybe that will help you appreciate it. This isn't his business theory but a series of relatable experiences enough people value to upvote any time he shares more.

mbesto 13y ago

> This is the good old armchair athletics. You appear to routinely do this and I personally find it seriously off-putting. As someone who learned Enterprise sales in the last 3 years, his advice is spot on. Why not contribute to the discussion and refute his claims? You make it sound as if you know something (i.e. something that's putting you off) that he didn't articulate.