Elevator Speech💡

I will begin this post with a very interesting story, Back in 1983, John Sculley was the president of Pepsi. Sculley had dedicated his career to Pepsi and was widely believed to be a serious contender to become PepsiCo’s chairman one day. As a result, Sculley constantly turned down offers from corporate headhunters, trying to lure him away to run other companies. One day, he received a call from the top headhunter in New York, telling him Apple Computers was looking for a CEO. Although Sculley was intrigued by Apple’s rise to become a Fortune 500 company in only six years, he said he wasn’t interested. The headhunter urged him to just meet with Jobs, so he agreed to meet Jobs while there, when he met Jobs, Sculley was shocked by Apple’s headquarters, completely unimpressive. Jobs told Sculley that Apple was going to be the most important computer company in the world, and Sculley was impressed with him. Jobs was fascinated by Pepsi’s marketing. But at the end of the meeting, Sculley reiterated that he wasn’t interested in leaving Pepsi. A few weeks later, Jobs flew to New York and dropped in on the Pepsi president. Sculley still resisted the offer. While intrigued and flattered, Sculley kept declining the job offer. Sculley still refused. So Jobs flew up to New York again and asked Sculley to reconsider one last time. Sculley said thank you, but no thank you. He had invested too many years in Pepsi, and he had a future there. That’s when Jobs looked Sculley in the eyes and said, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

That challenge hit Sculley like a fist in the stomach. After all the meetings, the huge salary offer and the stock options, it was that one sentence that haunted him. It gnawed at Sculley. It wouldn’t let him sleep. It was so powerful, that it finally convinced him to leave Pepsi behind and join Apple.

That question from Steve Jobs is considered one of the best ELEVATOR SPEECHES in history.

So, there is a thing called an ELEVATOR SPEECH. It is a pitch that is brief and powerful enough to change a person’s mind during a short, one-minute ride. In other words, sometimes it doesn’t take long at all to change a person’s mind. One minute is all it takes. Often what changes a person’s mind is not eloquent words……but the desperation in other persons’ eyes or sympathy for that person. But nothing can change a person’s mind more easily than when you tell the truth despite everything. So, have the guts to hear and accept the truth. Most Importantly is to SPEAK LESS AND HEAR & OBSERVE MORE

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