You can build a career around sales. Just like you can build a career solely around accounting, teaching, recruiting, and various other disciplines.

But there’s another route.

Taking sales as an example, the ability to sell is a skill. Various attributes such as empathy, communication skills, strategy, and perseverance combine to create someone who can effectively sell a given product or service.

But salesmen aren’t the only ones who sell.

Business leaders are often the most critical salesmen in the entire company. They’re the ones representing the company (and brand) and they often get the most face time with high-level decision-makers who can make or break a business.

Similarly, anyone who recruits, or oversees, employees need to know how to sell too. They need to be able to sell a vision and keep their teams engaged.

The list goes on, but the core idea remains – a given skill (such as sales) could be the entree, or just a side. It’s valuable either way.

-Brandon