Disagree & Commit

Hey guys, Alberto Riehl  sitting here with Sarah. Hi, Sarah. You’re not gonna talk? No? We’re on a little swing. We’re at a little swing table. We’re in Tulum, one of our favorite places. It’s called … What’s this place called?

Sarah : Nomads.

Nomads. We almost went to a different place called Be Tulum, but we’re at a place called Nomad. It’s Thursday afternoon, we’re at a cool table. You can’t really see how cool it is. It’s on a swing. You can tell we’re swinging a little bit. The table’s better over here. And let’s see if we can get a little bit better here. No, can’t really see it. We’re right on the beach here. See, there’s our view. Show you guys a little bit about this place.

All right. So it’s Thursday. We’re jut kind of hanging out,  day date as we call it, right? Spend a day together. I think that’s something that most business people don’t really talk about, you know? They work their asses off, they become workaholics and all of a sudden, 20 years later, find out their spouse feels she hasn’t been appreciated or maybe he hasn’t been appreciated and everything that was built has to be split up and maybe some nasty court stuff going on. So what’s the point of working your ass off your entire life for that? The Dalai Lama talks about … he has a saying, he says, “I don’t understand Western culture. You work your ass off and neglect your health all your life so you can make all this money, and then you spend the second half of your life spending all your money to get your health back.”

And I was just thinking as we’re hanging out here about how important it is for our wives or our husbands to be happy with us. If we’re in sales, gosh 90% of sales is mindset, and if we’re not in the right mindset, we can’t perform, we can’t perform at our best.

Have you ever not had the wife happy. What do they say? Happy wife, happy life … and try to have a productive day? Right? It’s a long day, everything is hard, everything takes extra energy, and the results are always a lot less. Or, we can put a little bit more time and effort into our relationship, make sure that everything is good at home, and then it just makes everything else so much easier.

And so, I think that’s something that … Man, I don’t know that anybody has ever talked about when it comes to business training or sales training. But it’s a whole lot easier and simpler to kick some ass out in the field and be in a good mood and be sharp and be friendly with people when things are solid at home. So I think a lot of times, people just don’t take the time to do that. Alberto Riehl: Now, one of the things that we were talking about right now is we’re having a great day today, of course, but it’s not always like that. See what this looks like. Look at this place. Nice little … This is really cool. Check out this space right here. Drink some coffee, have some tea, kind of hang out. It’s a little dark.

But we’re reminded of a phrase that we learned. It’s called, “Disagree and commit.” And you know what? I’m not smart enough to come up with it on my own. I actually am stealing it from Jeff Bezos … and you know Jeff Bezos, right? He’s now the wealthiest man in the world. First guy ever to be worth over $100 billion, owner of Amazon. And he talks about something that he does. He calls it “Disagree and commit,” and one of the examples he gives in his book is with his movie studio, right? Amazon now is making these amazing productions, amazing movies, and he trusts; he’s hired some of the best people to do it. And many times, they’ll bring a project to him that they’re excited about, and Jeff Bezos just doesn’t think it’s a good project. He just doesn’t think it’s a good project, but what he does, he disagrees and commits. So, he disagrees that it’s a good project, he doesn’t like it, but he lets his team do what it is that they want to do what they think is best, and not only that, he commits. He disagrees with it, but he commits to it 100%.

So he puts all his money into it, he puts all his energy into it, the time that his needed, his support, everything. So he calls it “Disagree and commit.” And I think that’s something that’s a great philosophy or a great strategy we can use at home, right? Use with our spouse. We actually just did that a second ago as we were talking and sometimes it’s just very stupid things that we can get in little arguments about and can kind of ruin the day or ruin part of the day. And Sarah was actually the first one. She said, “Alberto, you know what? I disagree, but I commit.” And that really made me feel good. She disagrees with me, but at the same time, she’s committing to what I was talking about and supporting what it is that I want to do.

So, anyways, I think that’s something that’s an amazing tool. Now, we’re here in Tulum, which one thing I want to point out, this has been named one of the top beaches in the world. It’s gotten number one beach in the world before. But if you look at it today … Look at it … looks kind of nasty. There’s seaweed everywhere. There’s been storms, there’s been wind, there’s been big waves. Everything looks like seaweed-y out there. Is that a word? Seaweed-y. And that’s one of the things that Sarah and I was talking about is how we all go through our seaweed. Right? I mean, today, again … Today’s an amazing day. We’re getting along great. Everything is wonderful. We’re spending all day by ourselves here. Kids are taken care of. You know what? It’s not always like this.

And we’re talking about the beach and we’re kind of relating to it where … You know, usually we come down here and everything is white; white sand, there’s no seaweed at all. The water is absolutely perfect. It’s turquoise, it’s clear, it’s just gorgeous, it’s sunny. And today’s just one of those days where we got seaweed everywhere, it’s cloudy. I was in the water a second ago, there was seaweed all over my feet and seaweed getting in my shorts. But it’s great to have the understanding that we live in a world that ebbs and flows. And I bet you the next time we’re here, probably about a week or so, this will be back to being the beautiful place that it is. Today, we’re just making the very best of it, having a great time here with what the universe has given us. A lot of times, that’s what we gotta do throughout the day, right?

So anyway, I’m hoping you’re enjoying your day with your family, with your significant other. Take some time to appreciate her or him and man, that just makes sales so much easier. I guarantee you’ll go out and perform a whole lot better. So, this is Alberto Riehl. See you next time.