Probably the most unifying principle of a new job: hitting walls. Where you don’t even know the right questions to ask, or people to ask to get the job done. And sometimes you don’t even know if you need to be asking questions in the first place.
I’ve discovered my instincts are spot-on when it comes to all the account management stuff associated with Gartner and VMware. Having the strategic discussion, contract negotiations, expectations setting, time management…all this stuff is going well. Finding resources and structuring the discussion has been reasonably easy and accessible.
But hunting new business? Constant minefields with the Analyst Relations team. Constant misfires with prospects who are far more sophisticated than I assume they’ll be, and who often know my product and people better than I do. I keep hitting walls, and I realize that in order to get better…I should start developing a taste for the pain.
After all, if I don’t embrace hitting the wall…the alternative is lack of growth, which isn’t really an alternative at all.
So…embrace the pain, and love the wall. It signals progress.
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