I recently attended a meeting of the local chapter of the National Speakers Association. The guest speaker was from out-of-state and talked mainly about sales and marketing. (OF COURSE he was from out-of-town. Certainly nobody LOCAL could possibly know anything about those topics.)

In the course of his presentation, he made several statements like, "NEVER put your calendar on your website. NEVER post your fees. Why would anyone do such a thing?"

After he was done, I was asked to do a short interview with him. Before starting, I said to the audience, "My calendar is on my website, and my keynote speaking fee is posted there, too. I’ve been a member of NSA for 21 years and I’ll match my pre-tax income with anybody in the association." The audience got a good laugh.

My point wasn’t to pump me up or even to embarrass our guest speaker. It was simply to point out there are many roads to the top of the mountain.

Too often gurus and experts talk to us in absolutes. We hear or read things like, "Sales is a numbers game." or "The only way to succeed is by making 20 cold calls a day." or "Never call on Monday morning or Friday afternoon."  These aren’t always true and are biased at best. They might work for you, but not necessarily for me.

So whenever you hear someone throw a blanket truism at you, take it with a grain of salt. There are always exceptions.