It is recommended that you watch this scene before reading so that you know what's being discussed.

The scene is from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, a movie about real estate salesmen who are currently down on their luck. Alec Baldwin's character is sent to give them a motivational speech, to light a fire under them.

It's been said a lot that there are two types of people in the world, and there two ways to react to the scene: people either get motivated and excited and yell "OH YEAH, let's sell some fucking real estate!" or they get offended and say "How dare he act like that!"

If you're part of the latter group, stay a little. I have something to tell you.

Let's talk about something important.

And put that coffee down.

A B C

Always
Be
Closing

I have several years worth of experience in sales jobs. The ones where what I make is totally dependent on the commissions from my sales. It's not even a guarantee that I will make anything, let alone survive a month if I fail at what I do.

ABC is something that is a well known phrase in sales gigs, and bosses repeat it in meetings to ad nauseam.

Even though it's used in sales, it's something that has to do with all life. At least as long as you want to get something done with it.

In sales, when we make the sale, it's called "closing". Closing is the final statement we make to seal the deal. Closing is what we always aim at, every day of every month of every year. As salespeople, our existence and survival is completely dependent on our ability to close. We learn from day one that in order to get paid, in order to afford food for the next month, we need to close.

Either we close, or we hit the bricks.

Being a salesperson is something that very few ever consider doing with their lives. It is, after all, a lot cozier to know what you make certain guaranteed pay per month, and if you can just avoid the surveillance of your supervisor, you can even avoid actually doing anything, and still get paid.

I ended up in sales because I sucked at school. Plain and simple. I have no formal degree of any kind, and in Finland that basically means that you are either collecting unemployment benefits, or you prostitute yourself in the sales business. I chose to whore myself out in the sales business.

It is indeed a tough racket, just like Alec Baldwin's character in the scene says,but I'm also happy that I was brave enough to make the jump, back in the day.

I watched the movie Glengarry Glen Ross almost a decade ago when I started in sales, and this scene by Alec Baldwin helped me get it. I credit it to this scene and my experiences in the sales business as to why I differ a lot from other "millenials". It's also the reason why I was able to buy an Audi with cash, without taking out a loan for it. Without a degree.

What ABC means, at its core, is that you should always be moving towards your goals. It doesn't just a technique in sales. It encompasses all of life. In the perfect sales pitch, there are no unnecessary words. Only what needs to be said is said. Every single thing said and done is said and done to move the conversation towards closing the deal.

And just like in sales, in life you don't get what you don't take. Implementing ABC to your life means that everything you do you do to get to a goal. There are no wasted motions. This is not to say that I succeed in "ABC" all day, every day. Not even close, but it doesn't take away from the philosophy.

There's a lot of talk about "millenials" these days, and I hate to say that I find the talk to be warranted. Things are wanted for free; respect is wanted for free; a living is wanted for free; value is wanted for free.

Alec Baldwin's character plays the role of a messenger with a message that no one wants to hear these days:

People will only value you if you're valuable.

Think of Alec Baldwin as the person you are attracted to. For some of you women out there, this may even be the case.

What the character is telling the salesmen in the scene that they have to produce to work there. They have to bring something to the table, and they entitled to nothing.

If you want to work here, close!
Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you, go home and play with your kids!

One of the most frequent topics on the internet has long since been "Why do nice guys always finish last" when the discussion is about men trying to get together with women.

The reason for this is very simple: being a nice, in and of itself, doesn't bring anything to the table. It's not rare to be nice, and it requires little to no effort to be nice. Nice guys are not scarce, and nice guys are often nice because that's all they have to offer. Nice guys bring up the fact that they are nice because they have nothing else to bring up.

They believe in what society teaches us about relationships: if you're nice enough for long enough, if you're a good guy, a good person and smile a lot, nice things will happen to you.

Anybody who has spent a day in his life knows this to be bullshit.

The sexy secretary you have your eyes on? She only eats nothing but salad and drinks water and goes to the gym seven days a week. She's probably studying to be a doctor. She wants a man who can offer her things. What are you offering her? Being nice? That's not going to cut it. You need to provide her value. You need to give her a reason to be attracted to you and share her value with you.

The same goes for everything in life: you get value when you provide value. No one gives a dime about the fact that you're a good guy and visit your grandmother a lot. People care about what they can get out of you, what you can do for them. We are all like that, without exceptions.

It takes more than being a nice guy to be successful at anything. It takes brass balls. Whether it's business or relationships.

Wanna know why chicks dig jerks? Because those jerks have brass balls. They have things to offer on top of being jerks. They can be jerks because they have value to offer. It doesn't matter that they're jerks because they bring things to the table.

Do you think a nice but lazy salesman gets hired at the expense of jerk who is the best and most slick sales pitcher in the galaxy? Of course not. No one cares about whether or not he's a jerk, they care about the value they can provide.

So, you're a good listener? Well, so are her girlfriends. If that's the extent of the value you provide, then that is why you always get friendzoned.

When you go to a restaurant to order a stake, do you care whether or not the chef is a nice guy? No, you want that stake to be damn delicious. That is the value that you are paying for. The fact that the chef masturbates with cheese when he's alone at his house is inconsequential.

As long as it doesn't happen at work.

Value in, value out.

To get shit done, you actually need to do shit

It's not only Baldwin's character that is remarkable. All of the characters play a vital role in the story, and they all represent personality types that you will meet in the sales business.

Moss is the guy with the smug smile when asking Blake why he even bothers to "waste his time with a bunch of bums".

His role in the scene is very important: Moss represents the type of person who never takes things seriously, therefore never gets anything done and gets immediately offended when someone calls him out on it. I've seen these people at my line of work so many times.

Moss feels he is entitled to being talked to in a nice, polite manner, even though he himself has failed in his duty to produce anything worth respecting. Moss thinks that respect is a universal human right, rather than something that is earned by busting your ass.

People like Moss seem more and more common these days.

He is thin skinned, tries to find the easy way out, blames others, doesn't take responsibility for his own success. In the movie, Moss is the first one to place the blame on everybody else but himself. It's always the circumstances, the environment, the other people, luck. It never comes down to what he himself chooses to do, the choices that he makes in his life.

It's always somebody else's fault.

Moss is a fictional character in a movie, but real people that are equipped with this attitude seem to reproducing by the hour.

In the movie, Moss plays the person who watches the video and gets his feelings hurt.

Blake is not trying to harm Moss, quite the contrary. Blake is doing Moss, and everybody else in the room, a favor that no one else had had the balls to do before. Blake is brave enough to show the guys some tough love and tell them what it takes to be what they want to be.

See, all of the salesmen are down on their luck. None of them is in a place where they want to be. Yet they are unable to break their habits. Even though it's clear that whatever habits they have at work are hindering their potential to achieve what they want.

Speeches such as the one Baldwin gives here would probably only cause lawsuits because oration such as this would cause too much pain in the general rectum area in 2017.

When Blake yells "I'm here on a mission of mercy", he means it. He is doing this because he wants to help. But tough love can only work if one wants to receive it.

In Conclusion

The world does not give a damn about you.

It doesn't mean that you shouldn't give a damn about other people, but it does mean that you shouldn't expect them to care about you back unless you provide them with a reason.

The speech by Alec Baldwin doesn't mean you need to become a ruthless bastard, but it does work well as a reminder that some are. As a matter of fact, you should be prepared to meet a ton of people Blake if you try to get somewhere in life. People like Blake are sure to get in your way. And trust me when I tell you that they absolutely do not care if you're a nice guy.

A lot of you probably take me for an asshole right now, but what I'd like to say is that I almost find the opposite to be true.

People who feel entitled to value without providing any of it themselves are the real assholes. All they do is take, and never give. The exact same thing they accuse everybody else of. They are first ones to talk about greed - just as soon as they get done talking about how much of the fruit of your hard labour they are entitled to, merely for the virtue of happening to exist.

The real secret is to find a passion, work for it and achieve it. And then being a good person on top of that.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3