問，問，問！

Ask, ask and ask

Markita Andrews is probably the greatest saleswoman in the world today. She earned more than eighty thousand dollars by selling Girl Scout cookies when she was only seven years old.

Markita is no smarter than thousands of other people. The difference is that Markita has discovered the secret of selling: ask, ask, and ask! Many people fail before they even begin because they fail to ask for what they want. The fear of rejection leads many of us to reject ourselves and our dreams long before anyone else reject us—no matter what we’re selling.

Everyone is selling something. “You’re selling yourself every day—to your teacher, to your boss, to new people you meet,” said Markita. “I see selling everywhere I look. Selling is part of the world.”

It takes courage to ask for what you want. The more you ask, the easier and more fun it gets.

Once, on live TV, the producer decided to give Markita her toughest selling challenge. Markita was asked to sell Girl Scout cookies to another guest on the show. “Would you like to invest in one dozen or two dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies?” she asked.

“Girl Scout cookies? I don’t buy Girl Scout cookies!” the guest replied. “I’m a warden. I put 2,000 criminals to bed every night.”

Unruffled, Markita quickly said, “Mister, if you take some of these cookies, maybe you won’t be so mean and angry. And, Mister, I think it would be a good idea for you to take some of these cookies back for every one of your 2,000 prisoners, too.” Markita asked.

The warden wrote a check.

【助讀詞匯】

◇producer n. 生產者，制作人

◇warden n. 監護人，看守人

◇unruffled adj. 沉著的，不慌不忙的

【參考譯文】

問，問，問！

瑪珂塔·安德魯斯也許是當今世界上最厲害的銷售員。當她只有7歲的時候，她就通過賣女童子軍餅干掙了八千多美元。

瑪珂塔并不比其他萬萬千千的人聰明。但是她有一點不同，她發現了銷售的秘密：問，問，問！很多人甚至在還沒有開始前就失敗了，因為他們沒有提出他們想要什么東西。我們當中許多人因為害怕被拒絕，所以在別人拒絕自己之前就先否定了自己，否定了自己的夢想——無論自己銷售的是什么。

每個人都在銷售。“每天你都在銷售自己——向老師，向你的老板，向每個新結識的人，”瑪珂塔說，“隨便往哪看我都能看見銷售。銷售是這個世界的一部分。”

提出自己想要什么是需要勇氣的。你問得越多，得到自己所要的東西就越容易，其過程也就越有趣。

在一次直播的電視節目中，制作人決定給瑪珂塔一次高難度的銷售挑戰。要求她向另一位出席的嘉賓推銷女童子軍餅干。她問：“你有興趣投資一二來十盒女童子軍餅干嗎？”

“女童子軍餅干？我才不買女童子軍餅干！”那位嘉賓回答說：“我是個監獄看守，每晚我負責讓兩千名犯人上床就寢。”

很快鎮定的瑪珂塔就做出了回答：“先生，如果你買下些餅干，也許你就不會這樣刻薄、生氣了。而且，先生，我覺得買些餅干帶給你管的兩千個犯人也不錯。”

最后，這位監獄看守給她寫了張支票。

【人生啟迪】

我們不難發現那些成功人士并不比普通人聰明，條件環境可能還差一些。但是他們勤奮執著，不折不撓。1941年，英國首相丘吉爾發表了他生命中的最后一次演講，他只重復了一句話，那就是永不言棄。