We are not in a current climate where slackers are going to get jobs anymore.
The ones that do will be pros as office politics which he obviously isn’t.
He likes to talk and tell half truths (to put it nicely) so sales would make sense for him, but I don’t think he has the work ethic and his age is going to make it even harder.
The inheritance front loaded him with money; it also led to the total destruction of his work ethic, in the process reducing the intellectual capital he still had left.
He’s going to have to get a job which he thinks is beneath him, which means probabilities are highest he stays unemployed for the foreseeable future.
You're right. Sales is no free ride, you need to put in some serious, serious effort.
The sales people I know (recruiters, brokers, "relationship managers") all have a few common characteristics:
1) they are usually working/lower-middle class and know what it is to do without,
2) the prospect of commission gives them insane drive
3) they have no hard skills
4) if not great comms then at least they have motor mouth and great cold-reading/emotional intelligence, in other words a solid theory of mind which is mostly an innate soft skill only learned to a limited degree
5) they start very young, are always on the hustle and work hard/play hard