The Joy in Business

31 Crazy Calls: The White House Story (Part 1)

• Q. Have you ever thought of reaching out to someone but talked yourself out of it because it was crazy?

  A. Do it anyway!

Can you imagine cold calling the White House and getting the business? If you have ever had a crazy thought to call someone out of the norm, use LinkedIn to connect with someone beyond your realm of possibilities, or seek an outlandish introduction, did you do it? If someone made a crazy suggestion that you contact someone who was in a different stratosphere, would you? That’s how I was invited to speak at the White House at the age of 19, by cold calling the president.

For spring break when I was a college freshman, my mother said she wanted me to come home and learn how to sell. I asked, “Why do I need to learn how to sell? I’m a psychology major.”

She responded, “Because, without sales you have nothing.”

I agreed, came home from the University of Miami, and went to the offices of Baldridge Reading and Study Strategy, Inc., in Greenwich, Connecticut, a speed reading and study skills organization my parents had founded.

When I arrived I asked my mom, “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to make some cold calls.”

“OK, who do you want me to call?”

“Why don’t you start with the Catholic schools. Call the nuns and see whether they are interested in a speed reading program.”

She gave me a list, a phone, and a short script. My first thought was that this was going to be easy because nuns were religious and ...