The Mercenary, the Pirate, and the Corsair
What your company’s logo really says about your legitimacy.
When you choose sales as a career, you choose to live like a mercenary.
Not in the cynical sense - but in the classical one.
A mercenary is a professional who sells courage, craft, and strategy to those who can give them a mission worth fighting for.
And money, of course.
They don’t serve ideology.
They serve purpose - and they expect to be rewarded for results.
The politics of legitimacy
History draws a thin line between Mercenary, Pirate, and Corsair.
All sailed the same seas, fought the same battles, and risked the same storms.
The difference was in the flag they sailed under.
A Pirate acted for themselves.
A Corsair acted under a “lettre de marque” - official permission from the crown to plunder in the name of the king.
Same action, different narrative.
And if you think about it, that’s exactly like sales: the job is the same - navigate, pursue, convince, win - whether you’re doing it under a start-up flag, a global brand, or your own name.
Only the story that surrounds you changes.
When, like me, you’ve had the privilege of spending part of your childhood under the shadow of the beautiful walls of Saint-Malo, the corsair city of Brittany, you grow up with that distinction carved into your imagination.
There, you don’t learn it from a book - you feel it in the salt air.
You’re taught that legitimacy is often nothing more than courage blessed by authority.
From sea to sales
Every salesperson/Rep starts as a mercenary.
You sell your skill, your energy, your conviction.
Then, depending on whose flag you choose, the world decides what to call you.
Work for a challenger brand, and you’re a pirate - bold, unpredictable, sometimes feared.
Join a Fortune 500 giant, and suddenly you’re a corsair - respectable, disciplined, armed with corporate legitimacy.
Go independent, and you’re back to pirate again, even if your ethics and results haven’t changed.
That’s why so many people dream of joining big logos.
They’re not just chasing safety or salary - they’re chasing legitimacy.
The brand becomes their “lettre de marque”.
The weight of the flag
But the flag is not just a story. It is also ballast and cannons.
A corsair sails with a fleet’s supply lines. A pirate repairs his hull with driftwood and luck.
The mechanics are the same, but the reach is not.
A global campaign needs the crown’s warehouses.
An independent pivot needs nothing but wind - and risks sinking with the next squall.
The dream of legitimacy is not just about the letter.
It is about the depth it gives your keel, the storms it lets you weather.
A flag is protection, but also timber and powder.
Choose your flag not for the prestige of its colors, but for the weight it lets you carry.
The trap of borrowed identity
In my career, I’ve seen the same story repeat itself.
People at every level talking trash - or being told to talk trash - about the competition.
Then the wind changes, the company downsizes, and guess where those same people find refuge?
Inside the very organizations they once ridiculed.
That’s when you understand something essential:
You’re the captain of your own ship.
The company you work for can give you a flag, not an identity.
It can give you a temporary protection, not purpose.
It has to attract you and retain you as a corsair - someone trusted to explore, to fight smart, to act with independence and pride.
Because when the tide turns - and it always does - the letter of marque expires.
What remains is your seamanship, not your sponsor.
The seamanship of refusal
There is a fourth skill: knowing which commission to refuse.
The letter of marque gives permission. It does not give judgment.
Plunder an enemy fleet, and ports welcome you.
Plunder the grain ships, and the same ports close - parchment or no parchment.
The sea remembers your wake, not your flag.
The mechanics are the same: navigate, pursue, convince, win.
The cargo is not. Some treasure is ballast in disguise.
Your reputation is the only vessel that follows you between fleets.
A captain who chases every commission soon finds no harbor will have him.
The letter of marque that matters most is the one you write yourself —
in the fine print, in the contracts you decline.
The real allegiance
Being a professional in sales isn’t about blind loyalty to a logo.
It’s about mastering your craft so deeply that your legitimacy travels with you.
You can be pirate or corsair - the sea doesn’t care.
But the shoreline does. The villages you trade with. The crews you lead.
They remember whether your cannons were aimed at their enemies - or at any ship that floated.
Master your craft, but also know this:
The finest captain chooses which treasure is worth the voyage.
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