I Almost Never Have Two Bum Days in a Row.

Some days are really bad. But the next day is usually better.

Years ago, a man in my extended family who had a decent job in construction decided that his growing family needed better opportunities. So he put on a suit and tie and go to work as a salesman for the US Chamber of Commerce.

It was weird to see his instant transition from his former self.

Before, his fingers had always been smashed by hammers. He drove a beater truck, wore khaki shorts and tee shirts with holes in them, and had a blue-collar tongue.

But when he switched to the sales job, he bought a suit coat for the first time, drove a sedan, and said things like “Yes, sir,” and “Yes, ma’am.”

I liked this newer, cleaner version of himself. I was happy for him that he could make more money for his family in this new role.

But one day, he told me something that blew my mind. He said that if he didn’t sell enough memberships, he wouldn’t get paid. As a young teenager, I’d heard of commission-based jobs before, but I never fully connected the dots like that.

“Wait,” I asked. “So if you don’t sell any memberships, you don’t get paid? At all?”

“Nope,” he assured me. “I get zero.”

“So if you go all week without making a sale, you just… don’t get paid on Friday?” I wondered, almost afraid to hear his answer.

“That’s right. If I don’t sell any memberships, I don’t get a check at all.”

This blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that someone would agree to a job like this.

“Have you ever gone without a payday?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “A few times. It’s an awful feeling.”

I was stunned, almost speechless.

Not getting paid on payday? I couldn’t imagine what that conversation was like when he came home with nothing on a Friday afternoon.

What did his wife say? How would she react when he told her there was no money for groceries?

I asked him what that was like and how he could continue on after being through something so awful.

His answer has stuck with me to this day, even 25 years later.

Sometimes I make my rounds and drop in on as many prospective businesses that I can, and nobody bites. I go a whole day without making a sale, and it’s really demoralizing.

But you know what I learned pretty early on? I have a bum day from time to time. But I almost never have two bum days in a row.

I might have a really awful Monday, but then I’ll make a sale on Tuesday, and then I’m right back in business. The trick is not to get too focused on the bum day when you’re in it. So I just go to bed and say, ‘It will be better tomorrow,’ and it almost always is.

I heard this when I was just 13 years old, and at the time, I had no idea that it would apply to me as well when I grew up.

Here I am now, self-employed, which is even more extreme than working a sales job for the Chamber of Commerce. Because I have no employer, I literally write my own paychecks: I sign them both as the recipient and the payee.

It’s just me. If I don’t make a sale, I don’t make any money. It’s literally that simple.

I work on 100% commissions, with no benefits. I don’t even have to pay myself minimum wage!

More than once, I’ve gone home over the years on a Friday night and told my wife, “I’m sorry. I don’t have any money for you.”

There’s no payday, in other words. This is indeed a terrible feeling.

But part of what keeps me going is what he told me about his sales job with a slight variation to fit my situation:

“I almost never have two bum weeks in a row.”

I work in web development and digital marketing. Offering custom solutions takes time and isn’t quite as cut and dry as dropping by a local business, showing them a rate sheet, and saying, “This is how much becoming a member costs. Would you like to join?”

My sales process takes multiple days, and often a week or more. So I can’t just take it one day at a time, but one week at a time.

So when I do complete a whole week without making any sales or being able to send out any invoices, I literally make no money that week.

This has happened to me a few times in the past.

But you know what? I’ve almost never had two bum weeks in a row.

To be precise, January of this year was one of the worst months I’ve had in over a decade and a half in terms of cash flow.

It was miserably bad… pitifully bad… so bad it’s almost too embarrassing to even look at in Quickbooks.

The financials for January were so awful that, if I just looked at the numbers on paper, I might be tempted to ask: “What am I even doing? Why am I putting forth all this effort? It’s not worth being self-employed.”

But I almost never have two bum weeks—or months—in a row. February, the very next month, was a great month. It made up for the pathetic and embarrassing numbers from January.

So here I am, still going today. I’m still here. I’m still working on 100% commissions, only succeeding each time I make a sale.

And I’m okay with it. Because no matter how bad it feels when I have a bum day, I almost never have two bum days in a row.