Born to Sell?

Born to Sell?

fiction
edward w Pritchard?

Are some people born to sell and by default some people not born to sell? It's an interesting question that young people face as the pace of change in the job market indiscriminately roars along. Once in America workers found a cherished profession to serve as a backbone of  their security and integrity, supporting a productive fulfilled life. Now in many areas of employment a few years of high stress wages leave half of the workers sucked of enthusiasm for life and unable to adapt for the rest of their lives to the fickle economy and job market. Loss of personal integrity, self esteem and joie de vivre cause social, family and economic problems

Assuming the job market is an impersonal economic force, not directed by the will of God in matching employees and vocations, what is the significance to individuals of the rapid pace of change in the job market under our current economic system? God's only role these days in the job market is to be burdened through his churches to pick up the pieces caused by un and under employment,
and stresses to the family and community of widespread macro economic problems.

It is impolite to say this.  It seems to this observer that most of the job fields that today's young people spend thousands of dollars to educate themselves for won't be able to support all the people who have chosen to educate themselves in said job field. More and more college students borrow money to find a lucrative and self fulfilling job that will soon be obsolete or over crowed with incoming workers. No one can accurately predict beyond a few years which job fields will become obsolete or saturated in workers because of changes in technology or taste among consumers in the market place. Because of the rapid pace of change in aggregate the job market runs undirected to human motivation. Yet these aggregate college students are the individuals we love and cherish most. Who will shelter them from a hostile marketplace, what invisible hands will guide and shelter them?

Employers no longer feel paternalistic in any way toward their workers. Most workers are just a factor of production to companies. Valued when scarce and abused by the marketplace when common. Today's employee must expect several job and career changes that are impossible in advance to predict or foresee. By temperament most employees are not up to this challenge.

At some time in their career most people end up for a while as a salesman. Cars sales, insurance or water softeners sales provide temporary high stress wages to many job seekers, Most of us fail at these difficult job, we fail when our small circle of contacts is exhausted. We fail because we do not have the temperament and psychological skills and the achievement drive to sell. Are people born to sell or is it a skill that can be learned?

Any one can sell for a while. However, day to day and Friday to Friday meeting it is hardly a career to wish on someone. It's easy to train to be a mediocre salesman. It's more difficult to stay properly motivated to sell. To sell and face the rejection of the day to day job takes grit. Grit cannot be acquired, it is inside those who have it. They did nothing to deserve or acquire it. It was given to themselves. Some temperaments are more helpful than others in acquiring material success and comforts. Other temperaments are better suited to other purposes.

Our temperament is divine in origin, mysterious and sacred. What temperament would we order at birth if we could?