Living in 21 century dictates that we don’t have time, we need to be in a rush, or we won’t succeed. I have no spare minute to learn, I need to be taught. Business coaches, mentors, influencers, all those money-sucking I’m-your-only-chance advisors, they promise to save your precious time, pump your business and make you rich. And later they sell you something as simple as life itself. But you paid for it, so now it’s the Wisdom of the Wise.
The truth is, all you need to learn something new is to be a keen observer. Just keep your eyes - and your mind - open, and absorb what you see. This sounds obvious, but... have you ever really experienced it? The quiet moment of happiness and realizing that life has just given you one of it’s precious little lessons. A moment of your own.

Well, you can call me an entrepreneur. Though I don’t consider myself one. I had never imagined myself to operate a company or some business. I just wanted to be a coffee roaster. You know, all those specialty beans revealing their beautiful heavenly flavors to me, like some mix of sorcery and science that only the Chosen ones can achieve. Those struggling farmers from developing countries proud and happy to build fair-direct-trade relationships with me, spreading coffee knowledge amongst those in need. But it turned out, back then, that to work in such a progressive innovative specialty coffee business I had to... open one. So I started from scratch. And now, some years later, I don’t roast coffee any more. Well, maybe sometimes, just for fun. Instead, I have a bunch of people doing it for me. Well yes, you can call me an entrepreneur.
And yes, I travel a lot. More than 20 countries, and counting... And you know what? Traveling is all about learning. So many people, tribes, nations, all the diversity of oceans, seas, volcanoes, mountains, jungles, rivers. Giving you the knowledge you can implement into everything: self-awareness, relationships, family, business.
These days me and my wife stay in Indonesia. Gorgeous place. Endless mosaic of landscapes, people and emotions. But this is not a National Geographic episode, so let me get to the point.

As a human being, you have an ambition to be considered as an intellectual, social and highly evolved creature that deserves respect and dignity. But for thousands of Indonesian street vendors you’re none but a walking-talking purse. And believe me, they know exactly how to crack you open. At first, acting reflectively, I tried to avoid them. Come on, if you ever been to South-East Asia, you know exactly what I’m talking about. But later on, responding to my curious, always-learning nature, I took a closer look at their tactics and strategies, and you know what - I was charmed and deeply fascinated by
what I’ve discovered. So fascinated that I’ve got an idea to incorporate some of their techniques to my sales department daily workflow.
This is what I’ve found out.
They know you perfectly. Your reactions, your impulses, your so-complicated-and-unique human nature. And they make use of this knowledge. And what impressed me the most - none of them has PhD in psychology, and the majority of them are rural residents with basic education, but their sales skills...they come from the experience and the life itself.
Here are some examples from my travel diary.

«Hi, where are you from?..»
Simple question from a street merchant in Yogyakarta, Central Jawa, isn’t it? But it’s not. That’s a perfect hook. And the second you open your mouth to introduce yourself as a proud citizen of some best country in the world - you’re a catch. Because now it’s a dialogue, and you’re involved into it. You’re no more a passer-by, a stranger - you’re a part of the conversation, and your subconscious social standards will insist on following it up. And the chance of you buying some unnecessary stuff raises exponentially. As I told - they know you. It’s simple. Could you avoid the hook? Just walk away without answering a harmless friendly question, without saying a word? Well technically - yes. But... «Don’t even think about it, you psychopathic unpleasant ignorant», you hear the buzzing voice inside your head. Because this «innocent» street vendor appeals to your very core - your social awareness. You don’t want to act rude. You hear the invitation to the dialogue - you reflect. You’re caught.
«Hey want to buy this one for 200.000? Just 200.000! No? Ok maybe that one for 40.000?» Another trick that makes hundreds of tourists of Ubud, Bali, an easy prey. You’re proposed to buy some trinket for an «enormous» 13 USD, you’re sure to reject this deal, but then the vendor comes with another souvenir for just 3 USD. You feel yourself a bargain-king, and you also feel pity for the poor guy you’ve been so rude to just 30 seconds ago, so you’re definitely in. And you hardly realize that just a couple of minutes before you didn’t need any of the vendor’s stuff. That’s another trick you’ve been taken into. It’s called «the small one follows the big one». And these guys - they mastered it. They make you follow the subconscious patterns even you didn’t know you have. But you definitely have it. Everybody does. And once again - nobody told them to do so. They had to learn it themselves, and now you may call it social evolution as it made them better predators hunting their pray - you.
And here’s another example of the simple genius of Indonesian street merchants. This time - directly from one of the gorgeous and picturesque beaches of Bali. Here you can see dozens of Indonesian rural women that provide «best massage» service. Actually, it’s not that good. It’s oily, hot and exhausting. Anyway. «Want best massage?» No thanks. «Maybe one hour later?» Comes the question. You want the annoying lady to leave, so you answer «Yes», just to make her go and let you enjoy the sunshiiiiine (God save Liam Gallagher). But all of a sudden, an hour later she appears again, implying that you had a deal, and the time had come for the ridiculously good massage. And you know what?
Most of you will fall. And will lie there, covered with sticky oil, trying to figure out what just happened.
But what happened is just your human nature, that forced you to be consistent. You made a deal, - even if it was just an emotional reaction,- and you followed the rules just to show that you’re a reliable person. You’ve been fooled by your own subconscious desire for decency. And by one particular Indonesian massage (and psychology) master.
Do you know Jiu Jitsu? It’s a martial art coming from Japan, I’m a huge fan of it. The main idea is to use strength and power of your opponent against himself. Be quiet, be patient, let your rival show you his weakness and use it against him. Sometimes it looks quite spectacular: much smaller and visually weaker fighter wins a battle without any significant effort, and the big guy falls down as he was defeated by his own body. David vs Goliath as it is. Some days ago I was a grateful eyewitness of such a battle. Not a real one, but still quite intense and merciless. It took place right at the hustle and bustle of Ubud Arts Bazaar, between a local merchant - tiny, piercing eyes - and a middle-aged tourist - tall, gray-haired, probably German. It started unexpectedly, with a simple question from the merchant. «Your price?» - was the question. It referred to a random wooden Shiva sculpture, one of many, that the unlucky German guy was so careless to take a glance at. «Do not get involved» was my next thought, but it was too late. The fight has just started. «50 thousand» - he responded. The merchant didn’t drop a word, but his face became a face of the universal offense itself. He looked humiliated. Like a superb Jiu Jitsu fighter, he was captivating his opponent. «70 thousand», the tourist proceeded. He was on the hook. The merchant kept silence, looking deeply insulted. «100 thousand», the German guy was loosing his patience. The salesman didn’t do anything but waited, letting him go all the way down. Long story short, he bought it for 150.000. 3 times more than he started. And God only knows how far it was from it’s "regular» price, if there’s some. He was defeated by the rival who used three of his weaknesses.
First of all, greed. The poor guy reflected to a simple trick of «free price» and was dragged into the «battle».
Secondly, our very human, very social desire to be considered a «good» person. Nobody wants to hurt any innocent street merchant’s feelings with no reason.
And third, our pursuit of consistency. Everybody subconsciously tends to stand his ground. Even if it’s ridiculously unimportant. I will get this Shiva whatever it takes, as now it’s my final frontier once I started this battle. No more, no less.
One-two-three-ippon. Goliath has fallen.

I could recreate dozens of such episodes these Asian streets are full of. It’s like a kaleidoscope of amusing and thought-provoking stories moving right in front of my eyes.
These guys know how to sell stuff. Moreover, it’s like some kind of sacred knowledge they don’t even fully realize. And that led me to quite a surprising conclusion: there’s no such thing as basic, or common knowledge. Every piece of knowledge becomes one’s basic when there’s a special need for it. These guys can find the keys to your subconscious patterns - and to your wallet - not because they are passionate disciples of Jung or Freud, or Cialdini, but because they need it for living. And this is why my - or your - sales team is not initially that good. Well, they must have these skills too. But there’s no question of survival for them in it. It’s just a job. And vice versa, putting such a sales
genius straight from Indonesian streets into a manager’s chair in your office will do both of you quite bad. In a year or something, this fella will forget all the hunting skills, becoming another salary employee - just like a tiger forgets how to prey after a long time spent in the zoo.
And another conclusion amused me a lot: That’s why the company’s owner is usually such a good sales person for the company’s product! It’s not just cause you love what you do (that’s a tremendously cute theory though), but cause you have bet so much on it. Sometimes, starting your own enterprise, you bet everything on it. And the skills you need to keep it going - all sorts of them, from plumbing to financial accounting - just appear to be there, as now it becomes a question of survival for you. I’ve started some projects from scratch, and I’ve lost some. And every loss - oh God, it was a painful and traumatic experience. But for the people that worked there - even for the most loyal of them - it was no more than inconvenience, as they had to move and look for another job. So I can definitely say that the most essential, vital business skills come from experience (especially negative) and need.

I have to admit, these travel notes changed my attitude towards these street vendors once and for all. Moreover, my little research and the amusing discovery I’ve made are quite challenging - now I have to change the perspective of interaction and cooperation with my sales department.
We’ve already had several zoom meetings discussing these cases and implementing new standards - in some way - to our day-to-day routine. For example, we changed the order in which we make product tasting for our potential customers. Previously, it was «low-to- high» regarding the product’s quality. So usually the last one was the best and - predictably - the most expensive. Now we go the other way, so we meet a customer with the best quality option and then go down to more affordable prices, so it’s «the small one follows the big one» trick. And we realized that we started selling 20-30% more «medium» and «medium-to-high» options then before! It works!
I’m going to leave you here and carry on traveling and wondering around, so definitely - more stories to come...
And to finish with, I’d like to quote Leonardo Da Vinci: «Nature is the source of all true knowledge», adding that for me, the whole world is such a source. All I do is just constantly try not to skip these lessons.