Sales Compendium

This is the third and final poem in this short series. For the other two, go and look here and here. Unlike the first two, this poem does not have any obvious connection with the world of rugby. Many years ago, ex-IBMer, Dermot Bradley, used the first verse of this poem to close some of his clever sales training classes, albeit with a little light editing. What follows is a relatively ‘pure’ version. We’ve seen it called either The Set of the Sails or The Winds of Fate. The poet is Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

One ship drives east and another drives west; With the selfsame winds that blow; ‘Tis the set of the sails; And not the gales; Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate; As we voyage along through life; ‘Tis the set of a soul; That decides its goal; And not the calm or the strife.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850 – 1919