I remember, about 35 years ago, reading two books by Frank Bettger, the baseball player, about how enthusiasm made all the difference in his life. His books made a difference in my life at the time and are still worth reading and rereading.

Probably the most famous of his books is “How I went from failure to success in sales.” Frank died in 1981, but his books and his invaluable ideas live on.

In 1907, he was playing baseball for Johnstown in Pennsylvania for $175 a month. He was young and ambitious, but he was fired for being lazy. He wasn’t really lazy, but he had been trying to control his nervousness by relaxing.

His manager told him, “Whatever you do after you leave here, for God’s sake, wake up and put some life and enthusiasm into your work.”

Frank went to Chester, Pennsylvania, where he played baseball for just $25 a month. Frank commented, “Well, I couldn’t get very excited about that kind of money, but I started acting excited.”

After a few days he was given a trial in New Haven, Connecticut. Nobody knew him in that league, so he decided to establish a reputation for enthusiasm. Once established, he would be forced to live up to his own reputation:

“From the moment I appeared on the field I acted like an electrified man. I acted like I was alive with a million batteries.”

Frank threw the ball hard and fast around the diamond and ran like mad to score for his team. This was all on a hot day when the thermometer read 100 degrees. The act he was putting on worked like magic.

His nervousness now worked for him by fueling his energy. His enthusiasm affected the other players on the field and they became enthusiastic as well. He felt better during the game and after than ever.

The next day, the New Haven newspaper wrote, “This new player, Bettger, has a barrel of enthusiasm. He inspired our guys. Not only did they win the game, but they looked better than at any time this season.”

The newspapers began calling him “Pep” Bettger, the life of the team. Enthusiasm increased his income in ten days from $25 a month to $185 a month. This was a 700% increase.

Bettger insists that he earned the income not because of his skill, which was the same as before, but only because of his enthusiasm. He couldn’t catch or hit any better than before. Two years later he was playing third base for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Another two years later, he injured his arm and was forced to quit baseball. Two years after this, he ended up selling life insurance. He was a miserable failure at this until he took a public speaking course run by the great Dale Carnegie. Carnegie, as his first manager, told him to be more enthusiastic.

Carnegie then went on to give a talk on enthusiasm to his class. He got so excited that he threw a chair against the wall and broke his leg. All of this reminded Frank of his early experiences in the world of baseball.

“That night, I decided to stay in the insurance business and put the same enthusiasm into sales that I had put into baseball.”

During his first sales pitch after this decision, he got so excited that he bumped his fist. She could hardly believe it when his client listened intently and then bought the insurance policy. He doesn’t equate enthusiasm with fist-pumping, but “if fist-pumping is what it takes to wake you up inside, then I’m overwhelmingly for it. I know this: When I force myself to act with enthusiasm, I’m soon excited.”

Frank became a great salesman and a man who has inspired many other salesmen and ordinary citizens to live their lives with enthusiasm.

An enthusiastic salesperson can outsell a non-enthusiastic salesperson who is much more knowledgeable. The enthusiastic person is like a magnet. He or she attracts and inspires others to do what they thought was beyond them.

You can acquire enthusiasm simply and quickly by forcing yourself to act with enthusiasm. It also helps to reread his favorite inspirational passages daily.

Frank himself was inspired by a great quote from Walter Chrysler. When Chrysler was asked to give the secret to success, he listed qualities such as “skill, ability and energy,” but added that the real secret was “enthusiasm.”

“Yeah, more than excitement,” Chrysler said, “I’d say ‘excitement.’ I like to see men get excited. When they get excited, they get customers excited and we do business.”

Enthusiasm can make a big difference. We could all benefit from getting excited about something that currently seems boring to us. We might be surprised at how excited we become and how skilled we become. We were also able to notice that the fire of our enthusiasm quickly spreads to other people.

We could end up in the ‘big leagues’ of whatever we’re excited about and we could have more friends, more fun, and more money!