I had to cold call. I sold accidental life insurance. Real scuzzy product let me tell you. I fuckin' loved it. The thing that I have always been able to do, when selling someone else's product, is separate a customer's rejection from myself. When people are mad at telemarketers, they're never really mad at the person on the phone. They're mad at the representation: the intrusion, the problem with buggy dialers, etc. When they turn you down, they aren't turning you down. They're turning down someone else's product sold by someone else's script. I believe that being able to separate the rejection I was getting on the other end of the phone from me, was what helped me persevere and become a good telemarketer (for the 8-9 months I was one before the contract was pulled from my little telemarketing employer for it being a scuzzy integrity-free place).
accidental life is a great phrase. What would be a life you'd rather live, an "accidental life," or an ""intentional life?" -there's a poem there somewhere ref.