Worked Hard, Reaped Little
God bless you! I sold books the summer of '06. I have to say that I learned a lot about myself and gained a lot of "character" as they like to put it. But looking back at the experience almost 3 years later I can tell you that if I had to do it all over again, there's not a chance in Hell I would do it. I worked my ass off 70+ hrs a week for 13 weeks and was given just over $30 dollars at the end. I was told that I spent too much money. I didn't eat enough pb&j or didn't cut enough corners. They had the nerve after paying me 30 bucks for a whole summer’s worth of work and a respectable amount of units sold to ask me to come back for a second summer! Another thing that really bugged me was that after Sales School it was stressed to us that we were now homeless and it was up to us to find a place to live for the summer! After a few hours of rejection I was getting pretty worried and desperate. The sales script that was given to ask for a place to stay was not working and my two other roommates were not having any luck either. We ended up staying at the dirtiest hotel on earth for a night, then a bug infested shit house for a couple weeks before finding a really nice place for the last 2/3 of the summer (the one positive of the summer). One girl did come back for the next summer and I got the whole "you were right…I was wrong" call when she came back after another shitty summer. I will admit that the SW company has a great business model in place. They take on almost no risk at all by hiring independent contractors but make enough money for all upper level management to drive their Beamers and Benzes. I will say that there are some really good people in the organization however and I came away from my one summer with a few really good friendships. It takes a special type of person in a good to great territory to really be successful. I think there are plenty of other opportunities out there that will reap similar benefits without all the risk.
Received: January 24, 2009
