At Girl Scouts, I Earned a Mug That Says, "I'm Thumbody!" Today It Reminds Me Why I'm In Sales. At the age of 11, Jean Wright learned something important about herself.
By Jean Wright Edited by Frances Dodds
This story appears in the October 2021 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
My sales career was almost cut short by my parents.
I was 11, a member of the Girl Scouts, and preparing to sell my first Thin Mints. I had just participated in what I would later recognize as my first sales meeting, when our leader moms gave us our mission. "We get a lot of funds from our cookie sale so the troop can plan fun activities," they said. Our goal was to sell at least 50 boxes each, which would make us eligible for the prizes. I did the math in my head. If I went to every house on my street and each neighbor bought at least one box, I would be halfway to my goal. Then I'd venture farther out, knocking on strangers' doors and hoping to win them over.
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But when I handed my parents the permission slip to do this, they promptly handed it back unsigned. "No one from this house is going door to door to ask for money," my dad said, and my mother agreed. They thought it was embarrassing that their child would ask neighbors for money. I pleaded my case: It was for a good cause! And the customers want delicious cookies! Didn't they know that I was fulfilling people's desire to have unlimited quantities of Tagalongs and Do-si-dos?
Finally, they relented, and I hit the streets. Door after door, I found that the product basically sold itself — even to the strangers! — and all I had to do was add some extra charm with my green sash and beanie. The Girl Scouts rewarded me with a mug that had a thumbprinted yellow smiley face on it. It said, I'm thumbody. I felt recognized.
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I went on to have a long career in sales, including at a racetrack, a local Chamber of Commerce, and a TV station. Now when I look back on that first adventure, what I see is a young girl who instinctively understood the most important thing about selling. It isn't about convincing others to part with their dollars, as my parents had seen it. It's about providing a service — bringing them the things they want and need, so that, in the best of situations, any product sells itself as well as the cookies did. That's why I still have that mug, which I keep as a reminder. When I or any colleague lands a sale, we're the thumbody who makes a difference.
