A while back, I was listening to a fun episode of the James Altucher podcast.
James was interviewing the world’s most successful gambler, Billy Walters, who has won hundreds of millions of dollars by betting on sports. For the past 36 years straight, Walters has had a winning gambling record.
There’s apparently glamour associated with sports betting, which I wasn’t aware of. As a result, much of Walters’s story focuses on that.
But what I found curious is that, even before Walters became a successful betting pro, he was an unsuccessful betting amateur. He used to bet and lose millions of dollars of his own money, which he earned as a first-rate car salesman.
How do you make millions of dollars selling cars, back in the 1970s, in Kentucky?
Walters managed it because, as he said, “I did things that most people weren’t doing in those days.”
“Like what?” James Altucher immediately asked.
Walters obliged:
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Well, every customer I sold a car to had a criss-cross directory. I got the identification of all of their neighbors. I would contact them either directly or I would send them a postcard and introduce myself and point out to them that I’d sold Mr. Smith his car, and who I was, and we were running a sale, and I would encourage them to come down.
Every customer I sold a car to, I turned into a referral source. I paid them a referral fee, a substantial referral fee.
I stayed in touch with them. I created personal relationships with them.
I would go to the local newspaper each day. People would have their cars, and they’re listed. ‘For sale, take over the payments.’ Well, they weren’t going to start walking. They wanted to sell their car because they could no longer afford it. So I would bring them in, sell them a less expensive car, take their car in trade and then reduce their payments.
When there was nothing else going on, I would just pick up the phone and start calling people with the same prefix as the area of Louisville I was working in. I would just cold call people.
And sometimes they’d slam the phone on me, but sometimes they’d get into an easy conversation. I would introduce myself, tell them that we’re running this sale, tell them where we are located, and as a result, I sold a lot of cars and made a lot of money.
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This brought to mind something I read in The Big Con, all about the world of con artists back in 1930s and 40s.
A top roper — a con man who had to go out into the world and bring in the marks — was asked what it takes to be a first-rate con man. He replied:
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I couldn’t say what you must have to be a good roper, but I can tell you some of the traits you better not have. Never permit yourself to be bored. If you gander around you will always find some mark you can trim. But some heel-grifters think it is smartly sophisticated to appear languid or condescendingly wise. That is really stupid. Tie into any mark. He may have it in the jug.
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I’m sure you don’t want to be a con man. And you probably don’t want to be a car salesman.
But you might be a copywriter, or designer, or coach, or you have another business that depends on a steady flow of client leads.
Cold calling works, as a last resort.
But Billy Walters above gave you four other great recommendations to keep you from being bored, long before you have to resort to cold calling.
And the bigger point is:
The trick to winning this game, that game, and pretty much every game, is to stay busy. Not to put on a stupid air of appearing languid or condescendingly wise.
And if you’re staying busy, you might as well do things that are known to work.
Maybe you’ve heard that having your own email newsletter works wonders for business.
Maybe you’ve even heard that doing it daily is better than doing it weekly or monthly.
But did you know that daily emailing can also keep you from being and looking bored, ever again?
In case you don’t have a regular email newsletter, or you’re not writing daily, and and you want a simple system for how to write effective emails, keeping you busy day in and day out, then take a look here: