Very early in my sales career, just after I left UMass/Amherst, my older brother Andy gave me some sales advice on a number of subjects: Work hard for 18 months and sacrifice everything else, kill your television, study the craft of sales, and dump the girlfriend. I listened to almost everything he said, except for the suggestion that I "dump the girlfriend." Instead, I married her. Cynthia Garrett and I wed on October somethingerother, 1983, and she moved her stuff into my small $230 a month apartment in Worcester, Massachusetts.

As a theater major, Cynthia's job opportunities were minimal, and for the first six months, we lived off of my $18,500 compensation. That next spring, she went to work in the box office of the Cape Cod Melody Tent. Rising like a meteor, she was the Tent's General Manager by the time the next summer ended. But initially, we were two starving kids learning to live together. We were happy, but Cynthia hated the small apartment more and more each day.

The apartment was on the second floor of a rock-solid apartment complex. It was clean and cheap, but by NO means was it glamorous. My new wife wanted out from the moment she moved in. Me? I loved it. It was all I needed at the time and we made the best of things for the first couple of months. Winter soon followed.

Returning to the office one day, I came home to a rude awakening: My desk was gone. See, I'd had it in the living room for the 18 months prior to getting married and it looked fine to me. However, my wife had not only a different opinion but an ulterior motive. Looking for a home for my briefcase, I called out to her and asked where my desk went. Coming around the corner, she took my hand and we walked to the back end of the apartment where she opened the door to the unheated walk in closet and voila, there was my desk all set up.

What in the name of redecorating was she doing? "You know that this 'room' is unheated," I said. "Yes I do," she replied. "My thinking is that a salesman can only sell if he is out of the office and who wants to be working in a cold office. Further, the only way we are getting out of this stinking apartment is if you increase your income and that means you need to sell more."

With that, she turned and left me there to figure out how to run a line back there for some light. Funny how motivation comes from different sources.

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