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Let’s talk about the dirty word that is “sales.” You say you’re in sales? Great, well, what the fuck does that even mean? Because in my book, there are two very different types of people in this game. First, there’s the classic car salesman (and no, they don’t have to be selling cars or even be men), the kind of person who is out there selling something they didn’t lift a single finger to create, some product they had no impact on. They’re hustling, pitching, pushing, making the pitch sound sweet as a fucking pie. But, if you ask me, they’re just glorified car salesmen.

These people are everywhere, and it’s like there are more of them every year. The world’s full of folks pushing products that they don’t give a damn about. I mean, look at all the crap we’re surrounded by; most of it needs a hell of a sales job just to make us think we need it! These jobs are what I call bullshit jobs. They exist to fill a company’s “need” to move products. The goal? Getting us to part with our money for something we never needed in the first place. And look, maybe there’s a skill to it, but let’s call it what it is: a job built around talking people into buying crap… End of story.

Then there’s a whole other side to sales, the real deal: the self-seller. This is someone who isn’t pushing some soulless product they picked up from some manufacturer. They’re selling themselves, their talent, and their hard-earned expertise. Think of a top-notch engineer who opens a consulting business. They’re not just selling a service; they’re selling knowledge, skill, insight, and years of work. That’s not a pitch for something they don’t care about; it’s their life’s work. These self-sellers are in a whole different league because they’re putting themselves out there, not some pointless product off an assembly line.

And let me tell you, there’s a reason consulting is such a competitive field. Not everyone’s a natural self-seller. In fact, 99.9% of brilliant engineers can’t sell shit, so only the amount that Lysol doesn’t kill might actually become successful businesspeople. It takes guts and, yeah, a little charm to sell your own work, to stand by something you created. There’s no one else to blame if it doesn’t sell, and there’s no one else to thank if it does. It’s all on you.

The big difference here? Passion… These self-sellers love what they do. They’re in it because they built something they’re proud of, something they’re invested in. The car salesman types? They’re in it for the commission, the thrill of the game, or just because they need a paycheck. They don’t care about the product; they just care about the payout. And let’s be real, there’s a sucker born every fucking minute, and this type of salesman is preying on them like vultures circling fresh roadkill. They thrive on desperation and naivety, cashing in on people who don’t know better or are too trusting to realize they’re being sold a bill of goods. It’s not passion; it’s predatory.

The bullshit salespeople read bullshit books loaded with buzzwords and catchy titles like The Challenger Sale, Never Split the Difference, How to Get to Yes (or whatever fuck it’s called), or even classics like Rich Dad Poor Dad. Throw in The 10X Rule, Crushing It, or Start with Why (do you see the trend in naming?), the whole lot of them are basically glorified instruction manuals for wannabe con artists. But here’s the kicker: I highly recommend reading them. Why? Because if you want to detect bullshit, you’ve got to understand it. The goal isn’t to avoid these books; it’s to dive into them with your eyes wide open, knowing full well you’re swimming in a pool of marketing gimmicks. That’s peak self-awareness: knowing it’s bullshit while still figuring out how the game is played. It’s like learning how a magician does their tricks; you’re not there to fall for it, but to see through it. Basically, expect the bullshit but never accept it.

In contrast, the self-sellers who sell their actual skills and expertise don’t waste time with these nonsense guides. They dig into books that teach them how people think, how we make decisions, and how we’re wired. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman, Fooled by Randomness by Taleb, or A Random Walk Down Wall Street, these aren’t books full of tricks to “get to yes”; they’re about understanding real, unvarnished truths about people and the world. They help a self-seller get better, not just blindly “close more sales.”

So, here’s the big question: Why are there so damn many glorified car salesmen out there, anyway? Why do so many people spend their lives in jobs that are just talking up crap no one really needs? David Graeber, God rest his cynical soul, had a term for this: “bullshit jobs.” Jobs that exist because, somewhere along the line, the market decided we need an army of people talking us into spending money on stuff. That’s it. Their jobs add nothing and create nothing. Just people paid to convince other people to hand over cash. So, here’s to the real salespeople, the self-sellers. They’re the ones selling something real, something they believe in, something they’ve poured their blood, sweat, and tears into. They’ve got skin in the game, and that’s what makes their work worthwhile. Every pitch, every deal, every client, they’re not just selling a product, they’re putting a piece of themselves on the line. And maybe that’s the lesson here: if you’re gonna be in sales, make it count. Sell something you’re truly invested in. Because in a world drowning in nonsense and empty pitches, the ones with skin in the game rise above the noise. They’re not just another loud voice in the bullshit brigade; they’re the ones who make sales matter.