Brian Tracy! Get Rich Your Way
9. Learn From The Best
“Start imagining what the desired outcome would be.
Review these images in your mind,
sketching out details
and improvements.
You practice them over and over again
until they become your reality.” – Maxwell Maltz
There are only two ways to learn what you need to learn to become rich.
You can learn from your own mistakes and experiences,
or you can learn from the mistakes
and experiences of others.
The second method,
learning from the mistakes and experiences of others,
is the cheapest and easiest of all.
It is the least used.
However, you can grow
and progress much faster in financial success
by systematically studying
and imitating successful people
who have come before you.
In this chapter,
you will learn what other self-made millionaires did to become rich.
You’ll learn what the most successful businesses have done to rise
to the top of their industries.
You will learn the strategies,
techniques and methods used by the most successful organizations
and individuals to achieve goals far beyond the ordinary.
“It’s no longer about interrupting,
pitching,
and closing.
It is about listening,
diagnosing,
and prescribing.” –Mark Roberge
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IMPLETE THE BEST OF YOUR WORK
One of the most powerful personal development techniques
is called “stereotyping”.
This method requires finding successful people,
studying their ways of thinking and functioning,
and then imitating them.
Top achievers in everything from the arts to music,
including sports and business,
all start by learning
from the best in their fields.
The principle is that if you want to be a winner in any area of your life,
start walking, talking,
and acting like other successful people.
So soon they will start to think
and feel like successful people
and achieve the same results as those people.
You will begin to believe that you were born
to win and that nothing can stop you.
By and by this belief will become your reality.
“The two most powerful things in existence:
a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.” – Kenneth Langone
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QUALIFICATIONS OF EXCELLENT PEOPLE
A few years ago,
the Gallup Institute (public opinion poll) interviewed 1,500 people,
both men and women,
listed in a book titled Who’s Who in America.
This book is often referred to as the “Social Book”.
It covers all of the most admired,
respected,
and respected people in the United States.
Gallup researchers cross-interviewed this class
of top Americans and asked them,
among others,
“Why do you feel you have achieved such great success in your career?
the course of life?”
By combining the results of these interviews,
they analyzed and found five qualities
that top leaders put up to explain
why they outperformed those in the same position efforts in the same field.
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Common sense is normal
The first quality is that they all agree it’s common sense.
The interviewees said over
and over again that common sense
is their fundamental quality and secret to success.
The researchers then asked them,
“What do you mean by ‘common sense’?”.
The most accurate definition they accept is
“Common sense is the ability to have experiences,
to comment on these experiences
and then draw from those experiences general principles
and relevant guiding principles.”
can be applied to subsequent experiences.”
In other words,
common sense is the ability to learn from experience
and to develop the wisdom that accompanies learning.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle once said,
“Wisdom is the equal measure of experience plus judgment.”
People who seem to have a high degree of common sense are those
who not only have had different experiences,
but who have taken the time to review those experiences
and learn from them on a deeper level.
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Don’t learn from mistakes
There are many people who have many years of experience,
but they never take the time to sit down
and consider their experiences.
They are too busy to comment on
and evaluate those experiences
so that they can derive general principles
and rules that they can apply to the future.
In the 21st century,
the secret to success is knowledge
and ability to apply.
Aristotle’s words can be paraphrased as,
Today’s wisdom is primarily a combination of knowledge plus experience
and the ability to judge.
Gaining wisdom today requires first learning
what you need to know about your field to excel.
Wisdom requires applying information to each subsequent experience,
receiving feedback,
and then commenting on what you have learned.
Wisdom constantly requires replenishing your stock of knowledge
and experience so that you can improve your productivity
and do your job even better next time.
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Intelligence is the act of intelligence
The second quality of the top Americans found in the study saving is intelligence.
Almost all of those interviewees said
that they achieved high rank
because of their intelligence.
The researchers then showed that many of them did not have a college degree
and some did not finish high school.
Of those who go on to college,
many are not good students.
Many of the compositions listed in
Who’s Who in America are average or below average.
Hence there are two definitions of intelligence.
The first definition is the intelligence that most people act on.
It is the “intelligence quotient” or IQ.
Most people estimate their IQ based on their academic performance in school.
Ordinary people do not have a good level of learning,
often think they have a below average IQ.
This belief can affect them for the rest of their lives.
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Your qualifications do not define your future
The reality is that there are many people
who do not have a good academic background,
but they become very successful in their adult life.
Several studies have shown that successful business owners often
share the same characteristics
as children with attention deficit disorder.
They are curious,
impatient,
active and uninterested in trivia or details of the subject
or later life and details of work.
However, they are very smart.
Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard University has noticed
what he calls “Double Intelligence”.
These are different types of intelligence,
such as,
visual spatial intelligence,
sensory
or physical intelligence,
and musical intelligence,
none of which are measured in school.
Standard IQ tests measure only two dimensions of intellectual functioning,
verbal language, and math.
What Dr. Gardner found was
that a person could be a genius (say, Mozart) in terms
of musical intelligence,
but poor in college subjects.
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Intelligence is highly paid
The intelligence that is highly paid in America today
is “social intelligence” defined
as the ability to work adaptively
with different types of people
and “business intelligence” defined
as the ability to see sees opportunities
to create products and services that people lack
and need and that can be sold at a profit.
These two types of intelligence have never been tested in school.
You can be a genius in either
or both of these intelligences,
but if you have a low level,
you may consider yourself less intelligent than others.
This is absolutely not true.
The reality is that the full range
of intelligence cannot be measured
by a standardized IQ test.
The best definition of intelligence
I’ve come up with is that intelligence is a way of acting.
If you act smart in a given situation,
by this definition you are a smart person.
If you act foolishly in a particular situation,
by this definition you are stupid.
It has nothing to do with the level you get in school.
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Smart action
If you agree that those who act intelligently are quick-witted,
and those who act unintelligently are not quick-witted,
then the next logical question is
“What is the smart way to act?”
It goes like this:
Smart acting is when you act in a way consistent
with achieving self-determined,
self-proclaimed goals.
Every time you take an action
that moves you toward accomplishing something
that’s important to you,
you’re acting smart.
It is your choice of what you really want that will determine
whether your actions are smart or not.
Every time you do something that doesn’t move you,
toward something important
to you or even worse,
something that takes you somewhere else,
you’re behaving unintelligently.
Consistent with everything else,
you are smart to the extent that you take the steps back
and forth as one that leads you to the success of your goals.
If your goals are to be happy,
healthy,
wealthy,
and have a wonderful family life,
the most important thing you can do is move yourself toward any one of these,
as defined by the government.
You are a quick-witted way of acting.
That is very smart.
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Do your job well
The third quality of outstanding people found in the survey is proficiency.
Proficiency is defined
as “the ability to do a job extremely well”.
You have mastery when you are recognized
as one of the top performers in your field,
capable of achieving the results required in your position.
All of the people in the study reached an outstanding level in their field
only after they decided to
become really good at what they were doing.
They became successful only
after they were fully committed
to being personally excellent in their profession.
Unfortunately,
most people fail to grasp this simple matter.
You will never find anyone
who becomes successful in any field
by performing averagely or mediocrity.
Even performing above average is not enough.
Only your determination to excel will propel you to the top of your field.
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Determined to be excellent
The people who really become successful,
they start on the road to soar thanks to their own dedication
to “becoming excellent” at whatever they are doing.
They are determined to become elite.
As I wrote at the beginning,
there has been much research done over the years
on the subject of “mastery”.
The bottom line of the studies is that mastering takes 5 to 7 years
and 10,000 hours of application to get you into the top 10% of your field.
This seems to be the case with success in business
or success in business equivalent
to studying neurosurgery
or practicing law.
There are no shortcuts to mastering your field.
Based on thousands of interviews,
it takes about 2 years of working in a certain field
for you to know if this is the right career for you.
In terms of businesses,
it takes about 2 years of loss
before a business starts making more money
than it costs to keep the business open.
You need to have 2 more years to determine
if you have the desire
and ability to reach the top of your field.
In the business,
in the 3rd and 4th years you will earn enough money
to pay the debts you have to take on for the first 2 years.
After 4 years,
if you’re in the right field or profession,
you start to rise above your peers,
like stronger athletes running in a marathon.
After 4 years you will have enough experience to make more
and more effective decisions
and achieve better and better results.
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The next seven years of great achievements
By about five or seven,
if you’ve put all your heart into doing your job
in the best way possible
and continuously improving your knowledge and skills,
you’ll break through to the top.
You will be in the top 10%
and begin to enjoy results
and rewards many times greater than the average person in your field.
When you’re in the top 1 or 2% in your field or industry,
you’ll earn 20 to 30 times more than someone
who’s shuffling around at an average level of performance.
Sometimes in my seminars,
when I explain these principles and the number
of years it takes to become a master,
people complain and argue with me,
saying,
“That’s too long!”
But when I show them what’s stopping them on a certain path
to advancement,
I just want to say,
“Time will pass anyway.”
How old will you be in 5 to 7 years?
You will actually age 5 to 7 years old.
Anyway,
time will pass.
The only question is,
“Will you be at the top of your field in 5 to 7 years,
with all the rewards that come with great success,
or are you still running after that group of people along the way?”
with other average achievers?”
But time will pass anyway.
Whatever field you’re in,
make sure it’s the right one for you,
then put your whole heart into becoming a master at what you do.
It doesn’t matter if it takes 5, 6 or 7 years.
The most important thing is
that sometime in the future you will reach the peak.
When you do,
all the suffering and sacrifices you made to get there will disappear.
What remains is a feeling of great pride,
personal competence, and self-esteem.
It’s worth your effort to be excellent at what you do.
As Frank Sinatra said,
“Excellent success is the best act of revenge”.
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Take charge of your life
The fourth quality of top Gallup research is self-reliance
or self-responsibility.
Leaders have always believed in themselves
as the main creative force in their lives.
They see themselves as the person
who bears the greatest responsibility for their own success.
They see themselves as fully responsible
for setting goals to achieve them that are important to them.
The leaders refused to forgive them.
When they make a mistake,
they quickly admit it,
correct it,
and do it again.
They don’t expect others to do it for them.
They don’t like to blame
or become angry at others
for making them uncomfortable.
They do not criticize
or blame others.
They always believe in themselves as the main actors
in the stage play of their own lives.
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Extraordinary step to mastery
Taking personal responsibility for yourself,
for everything you are now,
and for everything you will become is an extraordinary step toward mastery
and high achievement.
Many people ruin their lives by constantly reminding themselves
of unhappy experiences
that have happened in the past
They are still angry at their parents, brothers,
unlucky marriages, bad bosses,
and bad investment experiences.
They cannot ignore them.
They keep talking about the past over
and over to themselves or to others.
Therefore, they actually put their foot in the brake
to stop their own ability.
They restrain themselves.
One of the hallmarks of exceptional people is that they let the past slip away.
They don’t get confused about
what they can’t change or do nothing about.
And this status will include all past events.
The best way to deal with the past is to learn from it,
develop more wisdom
and understanding,
and then make progress for the rest of your life.
If you are still angry at someone who harmed you,
practice the spiritual principle of forgiveness
and letting the other person go.
Whenever you think of someone in the past
that you still have grievances against,
say right away,
“I forgive that person for everything.”
Then, work hard on your own goals
so that there is no time left to think about
what the person did or did not do
or what might have happened before.
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Let go of negative emotions
The best way to avoid or let go of any negative emotions is
to simply repeat the affirmation,
“I am responsible!
I am responsible!
I am responsible!”
Since your conscious mind can only store one thought at a time,
positive or negative,
you can use the law of substitution
that can cancel out negative emotions by saying quickly,
“I responsible!”.
Because the most negative emotions hold you back
from taking root from some blame,
whenever you say “I am responsible!”
You pull the latch to close that blame
and push yourself into the driver’s seat of your life’s car.
You feel more empowered right away
and in control of your emotions and circumstances.
As long as you blame anyone else
for anything that makes you unhappy,
you’re setting yourself up for a victim.
If that person is a parent you are angry with,
you are making yourself both a child and a victim.
When you blame or criticize,
you make yourself weak while making others (in your mind) strong.
In fact, you let others control your emotions from afar.
As soon as you think about them,
wherever they are,
you become angry
and unhappy right away.
You fall into the trap of digging at your feet
and ruining your future
by not letting the unpleasant experiences
that happened in the past go away.
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Complete the work
The fifth quality of excellence in all research,
including top performance studies,
is “results-oriented.”
Results oriented is the determination
that top achievers constantly have to think about results.
They focus on pursuing a single goal to get it done well,
quickly, and reliably.
Results-oriented people set clear goals,
targets,
and priorities.
They focus on what’s relevant and important,
and they stick with the work until it’s done.
As a result,
they produce more than the average person
who fails to cultivate these attitudes.
In the final analysis,
the results are of the utmost importance.
You will always be rewarded for the quality
and quantity of the results you achieve in your job
or position.
Always ask yourself,
“What results do people expect from me?”
Of all the outcomes people expect from you,
which one is the most important?
How can you organize your life so that you will achieve more
and more of the most important outcomes
that define your success and income?
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THINK LIKE A CHAMPION
In our own training programs,
we train business owners
and executives to think about the “hourly pace”.
This is almost always a surprise.
The vast majority of business owners
and executives think about how much money
they make each month or year.
But the greats, high achievers,
successful business owners
and brilliant executives,
think about how much they make every hour.
Therefore, they use their time much better than the average person
and achieve far greater results than the people around them.
The law of 3 duties applies to your job,
which means that there are 3 things you do at work that account
for more than 90% of your results.
Your ability to identify these three tasks is key to peak performance
and maximum results.
Here’s the exercise for you:
Make a list of everything you do
for work over the course of a week or a month.
Review this list, asking,
“If I were to do only one thing on this list,
which activity would add the greatest value
to myself and my business?”
The most important thing you do at your workplace
will probably go off this list.
Then you ask the second question,
“If I just could do more than one thing on this list throughout the day,
what activity would it be?
Once you’ve chosen your #2 task,
apply this question again until you’ve identified the top three.
If you want to reach the top of your field,
double your income,
and become one of the most successful people in your business,
from now on focus on those three tasks
or three activities in this all day.
That simple formula will make it possible
for you to increase your contributions
and your earnings faster than anything else you can do.
By becoming highly results-oriented,
dedicate yourself to doing more
and less of the things that contribute to the greatest value
and doing them better and better.
This is one of the most important parts of getting rich your way.
“It is not your customer’s job to remember you,
it is your obligation and responsibility to make sure
they don’t have the chance to forget you.” – Patricia Fripp
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FOLLOW THE LEADERS
We mentioned earlier that modeling
or imitating the attitudes of others
who have already achieved certain goals
you want to achieve is one of the smartest
and fastest ways you can hit the gas
to increase your speed for your life.
As Albert Schweitzer once said,
“You have to teach people in school by example
so that they won’t have to learn from others.”
The world around you is full of people
whose role models are worth emulating.
Dr. David McClelland of Harvard University, in his book,
The Achieving Society,
concludes that your choice of “reference groups,”
people with whom you associate and befriend,
have a very special influence on everything you do in life.
Your ability to choose someone you respect and admire,
and then spend time with them,
can have a greater impact on your success than any other factor.
“The most important adage and the only adage is,
the customer comes first,
whatever the business,
the customer comes first.” – Kerry Stokes
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QUALIFICATIONS OF LEADERS
Successful business owners and entrepreneurs have certain qualities
that you can incorporate into your own attitudes
as a result of inquiry and practice.
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Vision
The first quality of outstanding people seems to be
that they have a clear vision of the ideal future
they want to create for themselves and their families.
In 3,300 leadership quality studies led by James Cribben,
searching for the qualities most common in outstanding people,
he found “vision” to be a quality
that appeared in every study saved back to 600 BC.
The leaders have a vision,
and the people who are not at the top have no vision.
Every act of creating a vision for your life begins to make you a leader
both to yourself and to others.
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Imagine your ideal future
One way to develop a vision for yourself
and your work is to practice “idealization”.
Plan ahead 3 to 5 years of your life
and imagine your life being ideal in every way.
What does it look like?
Imagine your job or career is ideal in every way.
What you will do?
How much money will you earn?
Imagine your financial situation is ideal.
How much money will you have in the bank?
What is your net worth?
Imagine your family situation is perfect in every way.
What kind of lifestyle will you have?
How much money will you spend for your family?
Imagine how good your health is in every way.
How much will you weigh?
How will you be able to figure?
What will you do differently today?
In the film, South Pacific has the lyrics,
“You start having dreams if you want to make dreams come true”.
Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich,
says, “Whatsoever the human mind can conceive and believe in,
it can achieve.”
All the top people let themselves dream,
and then they go to work to make those dreams come true.
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Anticipate for the future
In building a business or career,
take a moment to think about what it will look like in the future
if it turns out well.
If you want your business to be the best in your industry,
describe how it will look from the outside
when you achieve that goal.
When I created strategic plans for companies,
we began to imagine the company as the company
that would be at the top of the industry five years into the future.
We then walked around the table and asked,
“What would other people think of us
if we were the best company in this business?”
We usually get 20 or 30 different ideal descriptions
that cover every aspect of the business.
We then asked,
“Which descriptions are more important than any other?”
We then prioritized the ideal descriptions
and discussed specific activities we can take now
to start creating our ideal future.
You can do this for yourself,
for your business,
and for any work in life.
It is a powerful exercise that often changes the entire direction of your life.
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Develop a sense of duty
The leaders have a sense of duty.
They are passionate about what they do
and are absolutely determined to do it well.
Top people envision what their business will look like when it excels at it.
They view their goals and targets as a reality long
before they actually happen.
One of the most powerful techniques you can perform
is called “recalling from the future”.
With this technique,
you plan 3 to 5 years in advance
and imagine that your life
and work are perfect in every way.
From a future vantage point,
you look back at the present and ask,
“What will it take for me to get
from where I started today to where
I want to be in the future?”
Usually this exercise gives you a clear idea
of the activities you need to do next.
By recalling from the future,
you can immediately see the things you will start doing
or stop doing immediately.
You see things that will need to change one way or another.
You will see the things you need to do more or less.
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Believe in your dreams
Once upon a time,
an unknown film director named George Lucas had a vision
of a futuristic space adventure film
unlike any that had ever been made.
He spent month after month going from studio
to studio trying to get support
and support for his ideas. But that idea is too radical.
Time and time again he was rejected.
However, George Lucas still refused to give up.
He persisted and he eventually made enough money to make Star Wars,
which became one of the most successful films in history.
Star Wars has become the era
of the biggest box office hits earning more than $100 million each.
Ultimately, his company Lucasfilms generated billions
of dollars in sales of the 3-episode Star Wars movie,
the Star Wars movie, and other box office hits around the world.
He has no problem raising capital for his projects.
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Completely optimist
In addition to a broad vision and a sense of mission,
one quality of successful leaders and businesses is
that they have a high level of optimism.
Because of this optimism,
they have “unrealistic expectations” of success.
They absolutely believe that sooner or later,
one way or another,
they will be successful at what they do.
Optimists seem to have two notable qualities.
First, because they have unrealistic expectations of success,
they try more things.
If something doesn’t work,
they try something else and then try another thing.
They are much more willing to fail than the average person
in order to achieve the success they believe is absolutely certain.
The law of probability says that the more things you try,
the more likely it is to make you successful.
Almost all successful people try and fail countless times
before they finally develop the knowledge and experience
that makes it possible for them to try and succeed.
They use the law of probability for themselves.
As Phil Knight of Nike once said,
“You only get it last time.”
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The iron quality of success
The second quality that true optimists possess
is that they are persistent.
They never give up.
They keep trying other new things
and if that doesn’t work,
they try something else.
Furthermore, they use the law of probability for themselves.
If you try more things and you persevere,
chances are you will eventually try the right thing at the right time
and make a breakthrough.
Colonel Harland Sanders rose to prominence
at the age of 65 by selling his recipes,
which included the secret to mixing herbs
and spices to make fried chicken.
He called more than 1,000 restaurants to share his recipe with them,
and he was turned down 1,000 times.
But he kept calling,
living around with his old car and pots
and pans around him.
He never gave up.
Finally, after traveling up
and down the Atlantic coast for months,
he found a restaurant owner
who agreed to pay 5 cents for each chicken dish his way.
Soon he found another restaurant and then another.
The remaining events are history.
Kentucky Fried Chicken has become one of the most successful franchises
in history
with more than 7,000 outlets around the world.
Harland Sanders has become a multi-millionaire
and is one of the most famous
and popular figures in business around the world.
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Know inside and outside the business
An important quality of successful business owners
who have become millionaires is that they research
every detail of the business.
They constantly survey the information again and again
to find the remarkable factors
that can lead to great success.
Bright people
The founder of the first consumer store monopoly,
Mac’s Milk Stores,
found that large grocery stores were only open during standard business hours,
from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. After 6 p.m.,
it’s almost impossible to choose between two pints of milk
or one pound of butter.
They saw that there was a market opportunity in this situation,
so they began their detailed study
by interviewing shoppers exiting grocery stores
at the 5 o’clock rush
and asking what did the shopper buy?
They found that 80% of shoppers mentioned 346 items,
and 90% of those purchases represented about 700 items.
Based on this information,
they open a consumable store with overtime hours
of operation from 7pm to 11pm.
They stock only 700 of the most popular items,
popular brands and popular sizes of those brands.
The remaining events have become history.
Within a few years,
there were thousands of consumer stores opening everywhere,
generating billions of dollars in sales.
As a result, many people
who have gone into the consumer goods business have become millionaires.
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Look for opportunities everywhere
Successful business owners and entrepreneurs seem
to be very good at finding market opportunities in the form
of products
and services that people need and want,
but aren’t currently available.
They then design, manufacture,
or acquire the right to distribute a new
or better product
or service to serve that market need.
They look for a need and satisfy it.
William Kelly saw a growing need for secretaries
who could control office equipment.
He has begun hiring
and training these people for businesses
to work on a temporary basis.
His company, Kelly Services,
now has offices throughout the United States providing employees
of all kinds to businesses everywhere.
William Kelly,
from a small office in Detroit,
became a multi-millionaire.
He found the need and satisfied it.
Tom Golisano, an accountant based in Rochester,
New York finds that his clients are small business owners
who need help keeping up with payroll updates
and constantly changing employment laws.
He opened the Paychex business to handle the payroll needs of his clients
and built it into one of the most successful companies in the country.
Currently,
Tom Golisano is ranked by Forbes magazine
as one of the richest people in America
with a net worth of more than 1 billion dollars.
He found the need and satisfied it.
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought
or measured with money,
and that is sincerity and integrity.” – Don Alden Adams
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FIND OUT YOUR “DIAMOND FIELD”
There are countless opportunities
for you to find or create a new business,
and most of them are right under your feet.
How do you develop your ability
to follow in the footsteps of the leaders
and find opportunities you can take advantage
of to get rich in America?
There is one step you can take.
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Step 1. Collect information
First, start gathering information about people
and businesses in your area of interest.
Subscribe to all the magazines
and trade journals in that field.
Apply for promotional material of companies,
research, compare and analyze it.
Talk to employees, customers,
and other business people about industry leaders
and successful companies in your area of interest.
Attend seminars presented by experts in your chosen field.
Ask the experts questions at recess.
Ask them for advice
and recommendations on what to do and what to read.
Start gathering mass information about your chosen field,
and then watch it over and over again.
Become an expert.
The competence of an expert is of great value.
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Step 2. Consider yourself successful
Start visualizing yourself being successful in that business.
Create a clear picture in your mind of how you will look,
walk, dress,
talk,
act and live as the success you have planned for the future.
Combine your visualization with action.
Do positive and constructive work every day
that will move you towards your goal of success in this area.
Psychologists have discovered that you can act on
how you believe in your ability
to succeed by pretending
that you are already successful in what you want.
The more you walk,
talk,
and act like you’ve succeeded,
the more you feel it,
believe it,
and it quickly becomes part of your personality.
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Step 3. Always keep an eye on the search
Look for money-making opportunities everywhere.
Opportunities exist in almost every job. For example,
Jerry Gordon got his start as a cook at the Kentucky fried chicken monopoly.
He saw a need for electric motor-powered flour sifters
because they used to sifting flour by hand.
He started making them in his garage in his spare time.
Within a year,
he was able to sell 12 of these flour sifters
to Colonel Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken millionaire).
Sanders was so impressed that he lent Gordon $10,000 to start his own business.
Jerry Gordon
continue to become a millionaire manufacturing food processing equipment
to save time and money for fast food processing businesses.
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Look into your sights
In business and production there is a concept known as “theory of sights”.
What this concept means is that each person can see opportunities
for improvement in his or her sights.
You look into the line of sight, right where you are.
You can almost always see a reason
to improve on what you’re doing.
You can get valuable ideas from common problems.
The Coffeematic founder tracks work time wasted
by employees having to go down the street for coffee breaks.
He showed business owners how a coffee filter would pay these people
to save time working in their businesses.
He did not assemble machines for any great purpose
and made money off the coffee and coffee filters he provided.
Now the Coffeematic
or something similar is available
in almost any office around the world.
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Start small and use customer financing
You don’t need a lot of money to get started.
You can start small and raise capital from clients.
Daniel K. Ludwig started with very little money,
but had a great idea.
He found that if he could enter into a long-term charter
with the oil company to carry their oil
by tanker,
then he could take the lease to the bank for a loan.
New design and construction of oil tankers.
Chartering fees were guaranteed
by the big oil companies to pay
for bank loans and generated huge profits.
He then repeats this process over and over again,
signing a charter with an oil company,
borrowing money from a bank to design a new oil tanker,
and then repaying the loan with his earnings.
Within a few years,
he became a billionaire and one of the richest men in the world
by working with other people’s money.
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Looking for common solutions
Look for solutions that can be simulated for other customers.
Find something you can do over
and over again for others.
Finding problems and solutions
for a large number of customers.
Always ask,
“Is there a market for this idea?
Is the market big enough?
Release the iron hunter to catch the perch.
Look for the largest markets
instead of the smallest markets.
Xerox Company started with a solution to create multiple copies
of documents without using carbon paper.
The company developed a patent on photocopying technology
and transformed the business world.
Then the Xerox solution evolved to be applied to every company.
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Definitely can be sold
Look for a solution to a product or service
that can be sold by ordinary business people.
Always ask the following questions:
“Who will sell these products or services?”
and “How will they sell it?”
Remember, since you’re only looking for
the average business person,
it should be a product
or service that can be sold by the average business person.
If a product
or service requires a highly qualified person to sell or assemble,
it is unlikely to succeed.
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Use word of mouth advertising
Finding a solution to a problem actually works
and can advertise itself orally.
Up to 84% of sales in the US are in one way
or another determined by word of mouth advertising.
If you find a solution,
say a light bulb that has a lifespan of 50,000 hours,
and you get word-of-mouth advertising for this product,
that could be your marketing strategy.
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Look for profitable products and services
Look for solutions to problems
that have the most beneficial price capital relationship
(cost-performance).
You should at least earn 3:1.
This means that if the product costs $1,
you should be able to sell it in the marketplace for as little as $3.
Better in production to earn profit plus capital equal
to 1 capital 3 profit
or 1 capital 4 profit
or even 1 capital 9 profit.
Many manufactured products,
especially imported products,
have to earn as much as 1 capital
and 9 profits when retailing.
This return on capital helps you afford the product
through the startup stages,
earn enough profit to grow your business
and generate enough additional profit
to introduce new products
and services in the future.
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BECOME A NEW EMPLOYEE
Another way to “follow the leader” in any industry
for you is to spend some time off
or even full time in your chosen field.
You can gain experience
by starting a part-time job in the field
you’re thinking of getting into.
You can find knowledgeable colleagues
who have years of experience in that field
and learn from them.
You can learn from the knowledge and experiences of others
by taking special courses in your field.
You can hire someone,
like a counselor
has the necessary expertise,
then you won’t have to learn it alone.
The principle is “knowledge is power”.
One of the main reasons people fail in business is
because they don’t know the full details
of their particular business to succeed.
On the contrary,
one of the main reasons for business success is
that the business owner learns everything
he needs to know about the business he is about to enter.
“Men are rich only as they give.
He who gives great service gets great rewards.” – Elbert Hubbard
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RENT OR BUY THE KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED
One of the smartest things you can do early in your business is
to interview or hire an expert on a particular aspect of your business.
Be ready to have a sales consultant,
marketing consultant,
advertising consultant
or direct mail sales consultant available at all times.
You can hire whoever you need to get the expertise
you need to succeed.
Hiring their brains is like going to a doctor,
dentist,
lawyer or accountant.
Go to a counselor who has many years of expertise in a particular area
and buy that specialist’s knowledge and experience.
Take successful people to lunch
and ask them questions.
Almost always,
successful people will help others to be successful,
if you ask them.
Pick the people in your field
or community that you admire most
and invite them out to lunch
or at least invite them to coffee.
You have to shell them out when you do this.
A few minutes of being close to successful people is often the cheapest investment
you can make to gain the significant insights you need to succeed in that field.
“Get closer than ever to your customers.
So close that you tell them what they need well
before they realize it themselves.” – Aysa Angel
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ASKING FOR ADVICE
If they are too busy to have coffee or lunch,
ask them for 10 minutes to give you advice on the best ways
to succeed in this business.
When you meet them, say,
“I really admire the success you have had in this area
and I was wondering if you could give me some advice
to help me be as successful as you are.”
Ask,
“What books should I read?”
“What courses should I take?”
“What audio programs should I listen to?”
A few tips from other successful people can save you years of hard work
and many thousands of dollars.
“The more you engage with customers,
the clearer things become
and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” – John Russell
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SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES STUDY
Another way to learn by stereotype is to research another successful company.
You’ll have to be at least as good as your competition
and often better in order to survive and succeed in any industry.
Find a successful company,
preferably the top one,
and you can copy as much of what that company does as you can.
Then try to do better than that company;
aim for better quality in an area that the customer considers important.
How does the company attract customers?
When you research another successful business,
first find out what it does to attract customers.
How does the company promote,
advertise and generate income?
How does the company sell?
What techniques does the company use for sales?
What are the company’s most successful sales methods?
What does it provide?
What kind of warranty or guarantee does it offer?
What kind of after-sales service does it provide to customers?
Who buys the product or service?
What kind of customers does the company sell to?
Who are the customers for this particular product or service?
Detailed surname description based on age,
income,
education,
gender, occupation and financial ability.
How does the company calculate the price?
How much does the company charge for the product
and how do they charge it?
Does the company require immediate payment?
Do they offer monthly payment?
Do I have to pay all in cash?
What payment terms do they give?
What does the company give away?
What is included or added to the company’s product or service?
If you are competing with another company,
you must know everything that company is doing to attract or keep customers.
What is put in the package of that item to give away.
Where is the company consuming?
Where do most of the company’s products or services sell?
What are the best locations for the company’s stores or offices?
What city?
What province?
Where in the city?
Once you’ve gathered all this information
about your potential competitors,
you have to ask yourself,
“What can we do to better quality them?”
12 keys to follow the heads.
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Key 1. Find out everything you can about the top people
and companies in your chosen field.
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Key 2. Imitate everything
and whatever other people are doing successfully.
Remember that competition is one
of the highest forms of honor.
If your competitors are people you admire
because they do something successfully,
obviously,
copy them and use it yourself.
As you begin to come up with successful ideas and methods,
you will inevitably
People also imitate you.
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Key 3. Admire your successful competitors.
Psychologically,
this is very important.
Always think and speak in positive terms
and admire the people and companies
that are at the top of your business
and then find ways to outperform them.
Never criticize your competitors.
Always talk about them in respectful terms.
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Key 4. Look for strategies for success that you can transfer
or adapt from one line of business or business to another.
Perhaps the most famous example of a successful transfer
from one line of business
to another is the case of McDonald’s.
What founder Ray Kroc saw was the ability
to apply the fast-print mill method to mince pies.
He saw the rapid mass production of McDonald’s products in the city
of San Bernardino (Southern California).
He wondered why he couldn’t standardize the process
and repeat it over and over.
That was when the full control of McDonald’s began,
which now has 30,000 franchise stores around the world,
each of which uses a line-manufacturing method applied to the fast food.
Another example of a mode of production
that can be transferred
from one line of business to another is self-service launderettes
and self-service car washes.
Once they are set up and the machine works by inserting coins
and they can be duplicated the same operations over and over again.
Another example of a method of transfer from one domain
to another is the case used by book clubs,
for example,
the Literary Guild.
These clubs have now become CD clubs,
fine arts clubs,
classical music clubs,
coin collectors clubs, disc collectors clubs
and tape clubs and video discs and DVDs.
********************
Key 5. Look for regions about each area
where big profits will be made.
Focus on those areas.
Focus on products and services with high added value.
Remember that 20% of sales in any given area will account
for 80% of profits.
Remember Mac’s Milk or 7-Elevens stores (7pm to 11pm),
the way of the consumer store.
Always focus on selling high-margin products
or services in your industry.
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Key 6. Look at what successful small businesses are doing
and then consider the possibility of building a large organization
to do the same at scale.
McDonald’s and Century 21 Real Estate each take a method
that works for one firm
or line of business and then multiply it hundreds
and thousands of times.
Domino’s Pizza takes the way of fast delivery pizza
and multiplies it into thousands of points of consumption.
The most successful franchise stores are prime examples
of copying successful practices
from one industry to another.
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Key 7. Look at what the reputable giants are doing,
and then provide customers with a cheaper alternative.
Large companies have high administrative costs.
Usually you can see what they are doing
and then offer the same
or better product
or service at a lower price and supply it locally.
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Key 8. Find a region where you can use speed
and flexibility to deliver products
or services faster, cheaper,
or better than the major players in that line of business.
One of the big advantages of a smaller company
is that you can move faster.
You can provide additional personalized services.
You can care more about the individual customer.
This constitutes the real value that people are willing to pay for.
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Key 9. Look at the best-selling products in your niche
and find ways to improve them.
You only need 10% better value product
or service to start the path to a successful business.
Robin Cook,
author of the best-selling novel Coma (Comet Head)
he used this method. He sat down to read the last book,
the 100th bestseller on the New York Times fantasy list.
While reading these books,
he came up with a way to write bestsellers.
He wrote the Coma in that way
and it became a bestseller within a day or two.
Robin Cook has now written a series of best-selling books
using the same technique over
and over again.
Many successful authors,
such as Harold Robbins,
Tom Clancy and John Grisham have done the same.
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Key 10. Always follow the leaders.
Don’t go ahead with a new product or service.
Let other, stronger companies go through the initial trial
and error process for you.
Let them take the risk
Large companies can cover the risk of new products
or services while small companies can’t.
When a business, product,
or service proves successful,
you can step in and look for ways to improve it.
********************
Key 11. Remember that no one can patent a good business idea.
Feel free to borrow the opinions of others.
Anytime you see someone with a good business idea,
use it to get you going.
Sometimes using that idea to carry out will have much better results
than the person who originally came up with it.
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Key 12. You get to the top and keep it up
by observing other companies,
especially your competitors,
and then following proven successful methods.
Never stop learning
and applying proven methods of success in any field.
Learn from the experts,
and then do what they do over and over
until you get the same results.
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EASY LEARNING LEARNING
Human efforts in all fields,
you can learn by yourself to succeed.
Gradually you build up a store of knowledge that enables you
to make the right decisions instead of the wrong ones.
You can learn a tenth by observing other people
and businesses closely,
following the best they have to offer.
You have the potential to achieve financial success
in any one of many different areas.
At this point you may not have the best idea for yourself,
but the fastest way to become financially successful is to get in the habit
of always being ready to learn
from the leaders in your field,
learn everything you need to know possible details
about the work you are interested in
and then stay at the top all the time.
Sometimes in the future,
people will study you
and your business practices
to know how to get rich.
Meanwhile,
keep learning and growing every day,
taking advantage of the experience of others
and saving you countless money and time.
Remember not to waste money!
“Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face.
You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers.” – Ross Perot
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PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. Choose a business, line of business
or person that you greatly admire
and start researching the activities
and qualities that are most admirable;
determined to learn the best.
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2. Choose a business that interests you
and start gathering information about
how people and companies have been successful in that field.
Learn from the successes
as well as the failures of others.
********************
3. Choose a role model in the business someone you
especially admire and admire.
Learn everything you can about this person
and practice the thoughts
and actions you think he
or she will think and do.
********************
4. Do your research before you invest your time,
money or emotions in a new business or product;
Find out what potential competitors are doing in this area
to generate sales and profits.
********************
5. Imagine your business
or some aspect of your life
at some point in the future would be great.
What will it look like?
How is it described?
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6. In assessing a business opportunity,
identify the products and services offered in that area
that could be most profitable.
How can you improve them to be the best at that business?
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7. Identify the three most important things you must do at work.
These three tasks or activities account
for most of your contribution;
Organize your time so that you work most of the time in these three areas.
“Use your time to improve yourself through other people’s writing
so that you will easily become what others have worked so hard for.”- Socrates