Steve Jobs famously said, "The doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person."

On this episode of Open Source Selling, I bridge the gap between thinking and doing and discuss as Jobs points out, that to be a successful account executivea, to become a top performer, you must be "both the thinker and doer in one person."

Thomas Edison once said, "Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think." Is learning how to think really that rare and valuable? Cal Newport seems to agree as he hypothesized in his book, Deep Work, "The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive." 

I believe our ability as account executives, and other sales professionals, to carve out time to think and do what Cal Newport calls Deep Work, will increasingly be at the center of differentiating ourselves and becoming top performers in the field of B2B Sales!

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I discuss the importance of carving time out in your day to think. This sounds simple, but in today's ever connected, "too much to do and never enough time" world, thinking seems to be a dying art even though the importance of it has never been more important. Tom Watson, founder of IBM, said ,"All the problems of the world could be settled easily, if people were only willing to think." As you reflect on the world's greatest innovators, problem solvers, business, education, church, and government leaders most of them were or are some of the greatest thinkers! My experience has been so are the greatest account executives!