Been reading through this subforum, and it seems like the general undercurrent is to keep plugging away as an employee until you can get out and do whatever. There are a few unabashed entrepreneurs who post like they can't help but starting new businesses, but lots of people are just looking for little side hustles or passive income.
My question is this: does a hard anti-consumerism bent make a person a worse salesperson? My wife worked in a high end gift shop for awhile, and when I'd go visit her, I was actually horrified by people who would drop in on a whim because they were bored and buy a $500 coffee table bowl or some crap. I personally hate talking with salespeople of any kind and would always prefer online shopping or finding what I want in an empty store with no one trying to upsell me on shit I don't want.
This extends to my career. I'm an ophthalmologist who could pretty easily get heavily into cosmetic procedures (Botox and fillers and eyelid surgeries and even selling dubious creams), but I feel that most all of it is a waste of money which makes it hard for me to sell it to my patients. I assumed as a doctor, I'd be fixing what is broken, and not breeding insecurity in people to separate them from their money.
So how do those of you in sales square these ideas? When you think the vast majority of what people buy is wasteful or nonsense, how do you convince them to buy it?