While the rest of my high school peers were halfway through college I found myself being the youngest inmate in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in NYC at just 20 years old.
This is a level six maximum security Federal Prison.
And inside of it you’ll find everything from doctors and lawyers locked up for tax evasion to drug dealers, rapists and even murderers.
You name the crime and someone in that prison committed it.
But I learned some very valuable lessons there that I couldn't have ever learned anywhere else.
Forget cold calling.
Forget door to door selling.
You wanna find out how good your communication skills are?
Go to prison (just kidding...kinda).
Prison is the ultimate proving ground for finding out whether you have what it takes to effectively influence and persuade others.
You’re constantly teetering on a fine line between forming alliances and gaining enemies.
You need to show strength without overstepping your boundaries.
You need to show respect without being taken for a pushover.
And the stakes are much higher in there.
Screw up and you don’t just lose the sale....you can lose your life.
And there are no trial runs or practices.
You either get it right on the first try or suffer the consequences - whatever they may be.
This is where I discovered something I like to call "dynamic influence".
You see while all those sales scripts and systems I saw on wall street worked they didn't account for certain hidden forces.
These hidden forces can drastically impact your ability to persuade others.
There are many of these hidden forces but the main three are context, environment and situation.
And in prison these three forces are much different than they are anywhere else.
And they're constantly changing.
To adapt I had to develop a very high level of situational awareness.
I needed to know who was around me at all times.
I needed to know where they ranked on the "respect scale".
I needed to know what their true motives and intentions were when speaking to me.
I needed to be able to read body language and I also needed to pay very close attention to the body language I projected or I could give off the wrong impression.
Can you see how different this is then pitching a sale over the phone?
When I got out of prison no one would give a real job.
So I went back to the only thing I ever knew and the only thing I was ever somewhat good at...sales.
After doing sales for a few years I eventually moved up into management and was making a guaranteed six figures per year in corporate America.