WEEK     JOB: TRADE-SHOW SALESPERSON

LOCATION: ATLANTA, GEORGIA

AS THE ONEWEEKJOB.COM website was passed around the Internet, I received more offers from around the world. I was invited to be a counselor in Israel, an English teacher in China, a panchakarma assistant (whatever that is) in India, a shrimper in Mexico, a promoter of male grooming products in London. I’d also received various offers throughout the United States, but I was uncertain if my monthly sponsorship money could cover out-of-country travel costs.

Then a friend’s dad offered me a position with his innovation technology company. The company was presenting its latest product, the FIFO bottle, at a trade show of food-equipment manufacturers in Atlanta and offered to pay for me and Ian to fly there. I thought it’d be a great opportunity to accept some of the other offers I’d received in the area.

One-Week Job was now international.

The trade show was absolutely massive—even with a great parking spot we had a fifteen-minute walk to our booth in the Georgia World Congress Center. My boss for the week was named Ian. With his furrowed brow and serious tone, Ian appeared stern, but this first impression was quickly overturned once he cracked a joke. While we were setting up our booth, Ian explained the FIFO bottle to me. “It’s sauce dispensing reinvented,” he said, holding one up to show me. It looked like any red ketchup squeeze bottle, except that it had an opening on both ends. “The FIFO bottle is based on the first-in, first-out (FIFO) concept,” he said, then unscrewed the cap on one end of the bottle. “When you refill the bottle, the sauce goes in one end, but when the sauce is dispensed, it comes out the other end—meaning the sauce that has been in here the longest comes out first.” In a traditional one-sided bottle, the sauce on the bottom is never entirely used up before the bottle gets refilled. He handed me the bottle. “Plus, when you take off both caps, it makes it easier to clean.”

The FIFO bottle is one of those things that’s so simple and such a good idea that you wonder how it could not have been invented earlier. Today every Subway fast-food restaurant in the world uses them.

I quickly learned that trade-show life can be tedious. You’re on your feet for long consecutive days, saying the same thing over and over again—and each time you say it, you must show as much energy and interest as you did the first time, because for the potential customer it is the first time.

Salespeople are often negatively stereotyped. The perception is that they are always trying to sell you something you don’t need. During my week with the FIFO crew, I found that it wasn’t about selling people something they didn’t need. Rather, it was about finding the people who would genuinely benefit from the product and connecting with them. That was the idea, but with my limited knowledge I could only do so much. I knew enough about the FIFO bottle to get people interested and highlight its benefits, but when I got more serious questions (such as price or location of distributors), I had to pass them on to a more knowledgeable co-worker.

Ian had been an entrepreneur his whole professional career. Before he developed the FIFO bottle, he invented Table Shox, a successful product for preventing wobbly tables. As an entrepreneur, Ian earned his money through innovation and perseverance. He had been able to identify unmet needs and apply the capital and know-how to turn those needs into profit. In turn, he spent his wealth on the good things in life: a fantastic house on the water, a boat to explore the coast, and the free time to enjoy it all with his family. If there’s a secret to living well, Ian had come close to finding it: Work hard, don’t take things too seriously, and have fun.

There’s a lot of risk involved in being an entrepreneur, yet Ian continually pushed through that to find success. I asked him, “What is the number one challenge of being an entrepreneur?”

Immediately he responded, “Fear. It’s real simple. If you’re afraid to fail, you fail. And we all have fear, but you can’t let that fear paralyze you.”

“How do you overcome that fear?” I asked.

“There’s one line in a famous book that I always remember—‘What would you do if you weren’t afraid?’” He paused, as if expecting a response. “As soon as you put that fear aside, compartmentalize it, then you can move forward.

“I’ve met so many people who have ideas, but very few who have executed those ideas,” he continued. “If you’re a glass-half-empty-type person, frankly, it’s not a good idea to be an entrepreneur. But for people who want to go down this path, I think it’s really important that they study what’s out there. Read lots—read magazines that you’d never pick up at a newsstand, read biographies of people who have done really well, read psychology on how you do well, ask people questions—find out how to get into that mind space, not only the creative aspect, but having the inner fortitude to take those creations to the next level.”

I admire the freedom that Ian had created for himself. He was able to control the projects he takes on and was ultimately responsible for their successes and failures. His simple definition of success—“doing what you want to do.”

After meeting Ian, I wanted to learn more about being an entrepreneur. Also, I enjoy hilarious T-shirts, which is why I accepted my next one-week job.