‘Lache pas la Pataet’

Translated – Don’t let go of the potato.

I was honored to have Christmas morning brunch with one of my good friend’s mother. A feisty 84 year old true Cajun with wisdom to tell 10 stories at once and tie them all together in a nice bow. I had the pleasure of watching her make home-made Beignets while she shared many life experiences and life lessons. I thought it appropriate to share ‘Lache pas la pataet’ as a new twist on new years resolutions. 

In the early 1800’s when the French were escorted out of Nova Scotia and settling into new land in what is now known as South Louisiana times were hard. There were no creature comforts we enjoy today. Work was laborious in the rice fields, harvesting sugar cane, gathering fish, crab, and crawfish, from the wetlands and bayous. Imagine daylight to dark sharecropping (working for the man) and barely having enough to cloth your family. There was always a fire in the stove or the hearth if you were lucky enough to have a fireplace. Off to the side of the fire was always a potato. If you were hungry, you always had a hot potato to grab. Take a moment and imagine hands of leathery callus from picking cotton, hoeing the field, carrying the wheel barrel, or holding the reins of the borrowed plow mule. These hands were tough as steel, hard as a rock and like a hot pad in your kitchen drawer next to the stove. The potato was near 375 degrees and even to those hands after a bit the heat would travel through the well- worn insulation of calluses and burn light up the numbed nerves. When it got too hot in one hand, the potato was tossed to the other hand and back and forth until it was cool enough to eat. If you let go of the potato, it was no longer a well-deserved snack at the end of a long hard day. Most of the homes had rough wooden floors or were dirt and the hot potato would be uneatable. Here is a link to the song if you want to hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx0Xd0I7Y8o

‘Lache pas la pataet’ translated into the toughness of never giving up. Never compromising one’s commitment to enjoy the fruits of labor. In our sales world we call it Commitment! The single greatest asset anyone in sales can attain. It is the cause of success in Sales, Sales Management and Sales Leadership. Your Commitment to do whatever it takes to be successful as long as it is moral and ethical. Commitment is not conditional. It is not part time. It is not only when it’s easy. Commitment is just that…total absolute unwavering Commitment to do what is necessary to succeed.

When you set your goals this year make them Mandatory! Make them unconditional! Make them Absolute. To hell with – don’t burn your bridges! I say burn them and don’t give yourself an out. Forget plan B. Forget safety zones! Forget what if’s. Go for broke! Those are the kind of goals that cause a quantum leap! And finally, ‘Lache pas la pataet’

If you want help setting these kinds of goals we will give you the template for a quantum leap. Just email us and ask.

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Author: Rocky LaGrone

Rocky LaGrone is a seasoned sales development expert with over 25 years in sales development and training working with well over 1,000 companies of all sizes in various industries.

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