By Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender

A man named Nick has jut landed a job selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Starting as a trainee, Nick goes through the usual sales training exercises and activities. The last two days of training involve being sent to a test neighborhood to practice his door-to-door craft. Lots of sales trainees have visited this same neighborhood, so they leave the office with a warning: No one will buy a vacuum cleaner from you, so just practice greeting customers and getting your foot in the door — but no one warned Nick.

Nick hit the streets not knowing he wouldn’t be able to sell a vacuum cleaner in this neighborhood if his life depended on it. He didn’t know it was a cold market, so he unleashed what he learned in sales training and sold a record number of vacuum cleaners: There’s power in intelligent ignorance.

Nick didn’t let history or what they weren’t supposed to do dictate their actions — and neither can you. Never let assumptions or people who say “That can’t be done,” or “We’ve done that before and it didn’t work,” stop you from trying new and innovative things for your life and your business.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.