I have a strong opinion on what I believe to be the world’s best profession, but before I share that with you, I have to tell you a funny story about something I uncovered while doing my research to back up my claims.

I did a some searching on Google to try to find some reputable sources on the world’s best profession. I was hoping to find an article in the New York Times or maybe Fortune Magazine, but I came across a website that had a discussion about this topic and asked readers to vote.

As you can imagine, the list included jobs like surgeons, teachers, film makers, and firemen. But the world’s greatest profession according to the people…. Ninjas. I would have never guessed!

Sure being a ninja sounds really neat, but you work long hours, it’s high risk, and you don’t really get to work with a lot of friendly people. It must pay really well.

Anyway, I had to laugh and share that with you.

In all seriousness, I believe that the best profession in the world is sales. Many people will argue with me, and I can think of plenty of reasons myself to argue with this claim. I remember starting out my career in college doing door-to-door sales, being yelled at for ignoring “no solicitation” signs at attorneys offices, walking through Chicago in the freezing cold just to make a buck, and having an angry boss that just created an incredibly stressful environment. I thought I was going to lose all my hair by the time I turned 23 years old.

One day a friend was in town for an interview and had a couple hours to kill after his meeting, so I met him for lunch and he joined me while I hit the streets to cold call. He couldn’t believe that someone with a college degree would choose this career path, and he had to see for himself what it was like. Needless to say, he was done following me after a couple calls and told me I was crazy.

Here’s what he didn’t know that I knew… most people cannot hack it in sales, even though it presents what in my opinion is the best opportunities that a job can offer. If you can whether what I considered to be “sales boot-camp,” life gets a heck of a lot better.

About a year later, I was the most senior sales person in the office, which doesn’t go to say much about the company. However, I had a track record in a job that most people fail at, and recruiters were clamoring to get me to take another job. I was very selective about my next move, and it was a smart one.

If you read the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, that was me. I worked from home, figured out a way to automate my business and prove my success, and lived a pretty good life. I never did figure out how to avoid the occasional sales meetings and conference calls, but things were good. Some weeks I worked really hard to make sure I hit my goals, but most of the time I was busy with my own entrepreneurial ventures.

The funny thing was those same friends that wondered why I ever ended up in sales wanted me to help them get enter the world’s best profession.

Ending up in sales was an easy decision for me once I realized what sales really was. When I first was introduced to the sales profession, my initial thought was a used car guy or retailer that talked a lot. That is sales, but it’s entirely different than business-to-business sales - though I believe that any kind of sales experience can give you some incredibly valuable skills.

But sales is nothing more than uncovering people’s needs by listening, and delivering a solution based upon those needs. Once you earn their business and exceed their expectations, you have opportunities to ask who else would benefit from your service as a consultant.

That’s sales in a nutshell, but there are typically a number of other skills and duties a sales person is involved with, including:

1. Analyzing and creating business plans to identify opportunities to bring in more revenue
2. Working with or developing/implementing a marketing plan
3. Building relationships and mastering the art of communication
4. Reporting to senior management about the health of “their business”
5. Handling objections and understanding needs based questions
6. Understanding profit margins and other finances

There are more, but the point is the sales job is one of the only jobs that allows you to see all parts of the business. By being in sales, you can often be promoted to a number of other departments in your company. More importantly, it gives you the experience and the skills necessary to run your own business.

That’s why many corporate executives and the world’s wealthiest people have sales experience. It is a skill that you need to succeed in any business and in life in general.

Beyond that, there are some really great benefits to being in what I consider the world’s greatest profession.

1. Job Security: When the outlook is bad, companies need their sales people to keep the profits coming in. When things are great, companies invest in growing their sales force, which leads to promotional opportunities as well.
2. High Income Potential: One of the things I love the most about sales is you determine your paycheck. The job is a lot more interesting when you can make more money the smarter you work. It allows for creativity and huge bonus checks.
3. Great Benefits: I never left the country until my sales job earned me a spot in our President’s Club meeting in Rome. I’ve traveled all over the world with an expense account.
4. Spend Other People’s Money: I’ve entertained clients at world class restaurants and done some crazy thing that would probably not be approved of these days. I’ve had nice cars and stayed at 5 star hotels, but none of it at my expense.
5. Work Your Own Hours and Pace: Typically getting ramped up in sales takes time and hard work. You have to develop some solid relationships with people, which does not happen overnight. But once you establish yourself, the job can be pretty relaxing.

I could go on, but to be honest, none of that really interested me. I come from a very humble background and it takes very little to please me. For me, the reason I got into sales was to learn how to become a business owner. I did, however, enjoyed the flexible schedule, but mostly because it allowed me to build my business while being paid a salary.

So for those considering a career change or thinking about their future, I highly recommend considering sales. It takes a special kind of commitment, drive and determination to make it, but if you can find the right motivators, you can succeed.

My friends initially laughed if I told them it was the world’s best profession, but it didn’t take them long to understand why.

Personally, I think it’s important to have really big expectations and long-term goals, but only when thinking about the long term outlook of life. Thinking about your $13 million yacht when you’re first step is to get out of debt and afford your mortgage may motivate you and keep you focused, but it probably won’t help you succeed.

While dreaming big and thinking about the future, think about tomorrow. That doesn’t mean not to set the bar high. In fact, if you’re not pushing yourself, your selling yourself short of discovering what you can accomplish.

Raise your expectations, and along with that raise your accountability, but put a plan in place to get to the next step in your life.

If you need to pay off your credit card debt, only wishing for that yacht is not going to get you there. In the short-term, its important to have realistic dreams - like what it will feel like to finally be debt free, or what it will feel like to finally make that six-figure income.

Have a long-term vision, but also have short-term goals that are obtainable. If you dream too big, then it’s just a dream. If you set the goal too high, then there’s no feeling of being accomplished. Make it achievable, but make it a bit of a challenge to reach.

What do you think?

I just read an interesting ebook on how to sell photos online that makes a lot of sense. Basically there are website that sell royalty-free stock photos for a couple bucks. Bloggers are familiar with these sites, as they are great depots to make websites more aesthetically pleasing. And with the millions of blogs out there, I can only imagine the traffic these stock photo sites get.

At any rate, you can sign up for these stock photo sites, submit your photos to be sold, and then you’ll earn a royalty fee every time someone downloads one of your images. According to the ebook I read, The Camera Dollar Income System, some photos receive 500,000 downloads.

I don’t know how much 20% will earn you, but I believe $1 a piece is a conservative rate. That would mean 500,000 X $0.20 = $100,000 off of one photo!

My guess, as I have not uploaded any photos yet, is that this is not the norm. The best strategy might be to carry your digital camera with you, snap lots of pictures, and upload as many as possible. You might get a winner, or you might make a few bucks off each picture. Either way, it seems like a nice way for anamateur to build a passive income stream.

I downloaded the The Camera Dollar Income System not because I’m into photography, but just out of curiosity if this was a legitimate revenue option. Based on what I read and the websites they recommend to join, I’d say it most certainly is.

I did find the guide helpful because it details what pictures you can legally take and sell, which ones you could get sued for, and how to copyright your photos. There are thing I would have never eventhought of. Some buildings, for example, can’t be photographed.

There’s a lot of ways to sell your photos offline for bigger profits. You can sell photos to real estate agents, car dealers, insurance firms, and a whole list of others. These can bring in bigger bucks for you, but seem to have a one-time fee versus an ongoing royalty income.

Pretty interesting stuff that I’m inclined to try out. If you have any experience on selling photos online, please comment below. I’m going to give it a shot and post my results later on.