From door-to-door sales to a leadership role at FlixBus: what have you learned?

I'm stuck.Oops!What is, oh!Old memories.I can see where the vacuum question is going.

So, from door-to-door sales to a top management position at FlixBus.

What have you learned about leadership that no manual could teach you?

My first truly serious job with a paid contract was with Vorwerk Folletto, a company that sells door-to-door.

Mainly, vacuum cleaners.Now it also has other products.

At the time, it was a vacuum cleaner, although if I just called it a vacuum cleaner they would have kill me because they are cleaning systems, blah blah blah blah blah.

I recruited people, even though it was a rather unconventional process,anyone who wanted to do it, could do it. So it wasn't like we chose people and then taught them how to sell door to door.

So you taught them how the vacuum cleaner worked. It wasn't complicated, but mostly, you taught them sales techniques, because you can imagine that having someone knock on your door is not exactly the most favorable situation to make a sale.

By doing the right things, for every 100 doors I knocked on, I would probably have found 95 no and those 5 yes.

And so we worked for those five yeses.Each no was not a personal attack or it didn't mean that I wasn't capable of doing my job.

It was part of the process of getting to a yes.What is important is to continue believing in what you do.

This was a great lesson in perseverance from a certain point of view.

It was also real-world experience, from another point of view.

Because when I told you that you don't chose people, I meant that you really find them.

Anyone who wants to sell Folletto, to be a salesperson, from a graduate who can't find another job, to someone who has never had a real job in their life, or who only finished middle school, struggles to express themselves properly or is a bit rough around the edges, with all due respect.

So you meet all kinds of people, and you still have to find the key to build a relationship, because, as I said, they have to trust you, trust what you say, because you are, in fact, their guide throughout their door-to-door journey.

And if there is no trust, no relationship, they will just give up after the third, or fourth "no"?

When I started studying, I never expected to become a door-to-door Folletto instructor.

In fact, it was very useful because you have learned that you can learn something from every context,from every situation,you can learn something from it.

There is never a context that is completely lost or useless,completely outside your career path.

And I think one of these is the topic of perseverance, whether you have it or not. And the ability to recognize what sets you apart from others.

We are currently in a period where we constantly talk about inclusivity and inclusion like it's a mantra, but we're just creating more categories.

True inclusion also means accepting even the fool who thinks inclusion isn't a good idea.

That's your opinion.You can try to get him to change it, but it's fine either way, let's not make a big deal out of it.

Some people do, some people don't, you're good, you're bad.

Otherwise, we are contradicting what we are doing.

And so, in fact, we must live, we must multiply our experiences.

So, I was with Folletto for five years, which is not an insignificant period of my life.

Although my role had nothing to do with what I ended up doing in HR, it turned out to be an incredible lesson, and I don't think I would be here if I hadn't had that specific experience, in Folletto.

And then there's also the bit of luck you need to be in the right place at the right time,because we believe that we deserve everything we have and sometimes we forget how much of it is just being lucky enough to be in the right situation.

It's up to you.But without luck, you won't get anywhere.