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Do You Have Fleas?

By Will Turner

One of our client’s business cards has a quote on it. It says, “A dog in the hunt don’t know he’s got fleas!” This particular entrepreneur obviously wants to stay focused on what’s important. Shall we dissect what it really means?

To me, the obvious message is that if you’re so busy moving forward, if you’re so busy doing what you should be doing; the little things just don’t matter. Particularly the little annoying things. And it’s these annoying things that can really distract you and get you off course.

Do you have fleas? Do you have some petty things that are bothering you that are taking you away from your purpose? Things that are taking you away from what’s really important?

Let’s dig down deeper. A dog that’s not whole-heartedly “in the hunt” will get distracted by the fleas. He will stop on the sidelines and start scratching. Have you ever seen a fox hunt and watched the hounds? I’ve only seen snippets of these events on TV or in the movies, but I’ve always noticed that the dogs are on the run. Nose to the ground, they are determined to complete their mission. Their rapt attention is on the fox. They seem oblivious to everything else around them; they’re certainly not thinking about any pesky fleas.

Whether it comes from instinct, training, the heat of the moment, or breeding; good hunting dogs know that when they’re hunting, nothing else matters. And they live for the hunt!

The problems begin when the dogs have finished hunting and are just lying around. That’s because fleas will spread and multiply if given the opportunity. In fact, when the dogs are idle, the fleas have a field day jumping from one dog to the next.

The parallels to people in the workplace are amazing. Whether you’re talking about salespeople, managers or administrative assistants; there are usually some people in every group that are suffering from flea infestation. They sit around and complain about this or that.

They focus on those nagging fleas and they spread them around to anyone and everyone they can. They complain because someone is making more money than they are, that customers don’t understand, that the competition is too tough or that the boss is a jerk. Recognize anyone?

It’s easy to get infested and sit around scratching and spreading. Let’s face it, if we’re getting chewed up, we’re miserable and we’re looking for company. Last week, I had a colleague who said something that really bothered me. It was just one of those pesky, “it’s not fair…I’m entitled to…” comments. My gut reaction was to be annoyed with their presumption. It really soured my mood because I didn’t agree with them and I didn’t like the fact that they were spreading fleas. But then I realized that if I let their issue sidetrack me and put me in a foul mood, I’d be scratching my own fleas all day. I felt better when I could simply let it go and focus on the fox instead of the fleas.

I’m not saying that annoyances don’t happen or that we can make ourselves immune to them. Lord knows I can’t. But what would happen if for today or for this week, you just got in the hunt. I mean really got in the hunt. If you did, you wouldn’t give those darned fleas a chance!

Will Turner is the Founder and President of Dancing Elephants Achievement Group, an international sales training and consulting company. Will is a sales expert with 25 years of sales, marketing and sales management experience. Will created the Sales Magnetism program and co-authored Six Secrets of Sales Magnets. He can be reached at or 804-254-4122.