I was interviewing a top producing sales person this afternoon named Shane in Texas. Shane is as plain-spoken as he is talented. He has been in the top 10% of the sales force month in and month out since he started with his current employer. He wins sales contests with such regularity that I'm imagining his manager racking his brains to come up with a contest that someone other than Shane will win. Since I'm in the business of seeking out hidden talent, coming across a guy as talented as Shane isn't necessarily surprising to me. What did set me back was his salt-of-the-earth demeanor and humble nature. When I asked him what his secret to success was, he laughed and said, "It's no real secret. I just realized that there's no sense in making this business hard." He went on to explain that he quickly figured out the few key factors that make the difference in his business and he day in and day out pulls those levers. While self-help books are screaming at us to "think outside the box", Shane has sized up that box and figured out its dimensions and made himself the master of that box. Don't misunderstand. I don't think he lacks creativity. He simply refuses to be distracted by anything that would take him away from flawlessly executing the fundamentals of his business. Brilliant!