I spoke with a company today who is in the process of providing training to their sales team.  Margins have been shrinking in this industry for years due the commoditization of the product and increased competition. This trend was exacerbated by the recession and many sales reps have seen their incomes drop anywhere from 30% to 50% in the last few years.   The management team decided to spend a bundle on training to help the sales team learn to position their products as value generation tools and not commodities. During the first weekly session one of the reps opted out of the rest of the training.

Management in relaying the story to me wasn’t surprised. They didn't want to expend resources on a person who wasn't receptive so they were glad to see him go. Leave the training I mean, not the company. The rep is on 100% commission so he is sleeping in the bed he made for himself. However, let’s examine this further.  Why isn’t he worried about his dwindling income? Why isn’t he afraid of losing his position?  Why isn’t he afraid of trying to find another job in the midst of record unemployment?
Why isn't his company worried about how this attitude will manifest itself with customers and other employees? What's the value of the lost opportunities he will fail to develop as he continues instead to sell the old fashion way by quoting and hoping?

Even if he didn’t plan to learn anything, why wasn’t it easier to just go with the flow? He certainly could have sat there during each session, feigning interest and day dreaming about his next yard project as millions of sales reps have done before him. Had he chosen this more frequented path, he would not have called attention to himself and at least maintained the illusion of a team player, a committed employee. He might have actually learned something too, albeit by accident. But he chose to renounce the training rather than participate apparently without fear of reprisal.
Is this just total disregard for his employer, his job, his family, himself? Or is this what happens when there are no conditions of employment?

I didn't plan to be an entrepreneur. I came by it accidentally. When I read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins in 2000 or so, I didn't imagine myself driving a bus...ever. I saw myself sitting in the seat behind the driver suggesting great places to go and great routes to get there.

I was to go into business with a partner who had started and run several companies before. I would corral all of his great ideas and turn them into marketing and sales strategies that would deliver profitable revenue. But in an ironic twist of fate, he dropped out and because I am biologically programmed not to quit anything I start, I became an entrepreneur. 

The hardest part, as most entrepreneurs find out, was putting together a team that could execute all my great ideas. This part took nearly five years as I struggled to find my identity as an owner and lock on to a company culture that could provide sustainable value to our clients, cultivate great professionals and drive business results at the same time.