It's everyone's favorite time of year! LS App Time!! The jubilation is overwhelming I know. Attached below is a PS for review. Let me know what you think. Please be brutally honest, and detailed where possible!“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.” Douglas H. Everett
Knock-knock-knock.
Three quick raps on the door and I take a few steps back. A small bead of perspiration trickles down my neck produced this time by the menacing sun overhead and not edgy nerves as in times long past. However, my calm facade cannot belie the fact that knocking on a complete stranger's door is still a little like roulette. You never fully expect a pleasant outcome, and are never fully surprised when you lose; regardless of what may or may not happen, in that moment of wary uncertainty your heart pounds.
"Oh hey, you must be the boss here..." I casually begin as the homeowner cautiously greets me. It's my 3rd year as a pest control door-to-door salesman, and I ask leading questions, offer soft and hard closes, address issues, and assuage any dissonance with a veteran's savvy. Ten minutes later, after a warm, parting handshake, I step out of the shade and back into the scorching sun, only this time, it’s congratulatory rays that beam down, having just acquired our 10,000th client in less than two years.
The past three years of my life have been dedicated to the pursuit of transforming elusive ideas into substantive realities. It is a pursuit that has utilized my firm belief in the tenets of hard work and service to others. So, two years ago, when my boss approached me and shared his vision of a national pest control company, with a clientele of 100,000 customers, I asked, "What can I do to get us there?" Being a “bug-boy”, as we’re commonly referred to, was not a specific aspiration of mine. Yet, I became fully committed to the company. My manager and I were close friends, and I wanted not only to help him fulfill his dream, but was also eager for a new challenge.
That commitment has taken me down demanding roads and taught me invaluable lessons. Recruiting, interviewing, hiring and training a national sales team taught me how to be a leader. When the scrutinizing gaze of thirty salesmen, all susceptible to the emotional roller coaster inherent with the profession, rests upon you daily, one quickly learns to focus their efforts and to stretch their work capacity. The ideal of leading by example morphed from cliché to a bona fide reality- a reality that forged the fearlessness requisite to approach the residences of 15,000 complete strangers, outfitted with naught but a binder and the hope that the homeowner was not a practicing member of the NRA. Each of those door approaches had to be razor-sharp-persuasive with a general affability- I had less than 20-seconds to engage them on some level or have a door slammed in my face. I became adept at overcoming negative sentiments by reading people, instantly analyzing their responses, and directing our conversational flow.
This past summer, in a stroke of pure irony, I contracted West Nile Virus from a mosquito bite. Despite missing two-thirds of the summer in fever-comatose, I was still able to outsell the majority of our sales team. As a trainer and through my own humbling failures, I learned to control human emotions, accept repeated rejection, encourage the demoralized, and correct injurious mental blocks. Above all, I have learned that you can overcome any obstacle with a sense of optimism and hard work.
After 18-months, we realized that despite our best efforts, we were not growing fast enough to hit our benchmarks. The company needed a new way to generate additional sales. We had tried everything we knew; yet we were still falling short, the answer eluding us. Then, late one night, while cramming for a finance exam, I had an epiphany: why strain to reach 50 potential clients a day, when it’s possible to remotely reach 5,000? The only problem was I knew nothing of online sales or website development. After three months of research, seeking advice, and diligent effort, I created
http://www.****.com, an online sales platform. For me, authoring the content for the website served as the most scrupulous writing assignment to date, knowing that the material would be read by scores of thousands of website visitors. The toil, sweat, and tears paid off. It has aptly served as a validating tool, an informational resource, and a sales producer. Today, *** **** Pest Control continues to enjoy goal-achieving growth and is on pace to hit all milestones.
My experience with *** *** PC, along with the development of two independent business plans that have received funding pledges, has aroused my interest in both corporate and intellectual property law. My calling in this life is to help entrepreneurs succeed, to give them the tools, knowledge, and legal expertise they need to elevate paper napkin flashes of innovative brilliance to veritable ventures. Having convened with this group in the past, I know it will be my life’s pleasure to rub elbows with and share in the zeal that these individuals have for their proposed businesses. Thus, it is my hope and great expectation that through the study of law, I will attain a skill set that will complement a dreamer’s fervor with the practical, legal mechanisms to achieve such an elevation.
My personal dream is to be the transformer from Douglas H. Everett’s quote. I know that for my dream to come to full fruition, I need guidance, tutelage, and mentorship from the finest legal minds. I know that the ** School of Law can be that same transformer in my life with its renowned Intellectual Property Certification Program. Over the past 5 years, *** has become my home, and I am indebted to the state for having afforded me the opportunity to attend the **Other State School**. I anxiously look forward to my graduation from *** Law, so I can face new challenges as an attorney, helping the bright business minds that will shape and propel **The state**’s future.
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:47 pm 
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