“Always be closing.”  The famous sales term never really entered my vocabulary until I started the http://www.squidoo.com/Alternative-MBA.

It feels like a deceitful, slimy idea. Inauthentic. Having an agenda, always on the lookout for the next opportunity.

Watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROhlThs9qY
I felt two conflicting emotions about this idea. On one hand, I’m turned off by dogma and the negative way of motivating people. On the other hand, it’s exciting to change my framework and to think differently about selling, switching up the rules I usually work with. It didn’t take long to formulate my own way of thinking about it and I found, since reality is an illusion, an infinitely more productive and positive way to “always be closing.” I changed the set of constraints around myself and instantly opportunities and ideas opened up.

What if “Always be closing” meant:

Being your best self. Always. Showing your true nature and charisma; the best parts of yourself. Exuding confidence and generosity and gratefulness. Believing you’re truly worth it enough to show it to the rest of the world. Being undaunted by competition and standards and measurements and using every opportunity to let others know you believe in yourself. Looking for the next opportunity that creates meaning or beauty or prosperity.

If you think about what you can offer to others at any given time, “always closing” becomes a valuable tool to help them. To show them through example they have every right to be their best self, to exhibit that self in public, to show it to others.

Dimming our own light to let others shine does no service to the people of the world. Instead, shine brighter and allow others to do the same. If everyone is always closing all the time, showcasing the best of who they are and can be, we’ll all shine brighter.

Looking at it this way, i’m much more likely to “always be closing.”