Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 10 - "I Admire and Model Rich and Successful People"

This statement, "I admire and model rich and successful people," is one of my business philosophies.  The reason I decided to blog about this today though, is because today (and last night) I was re-inspired about this passion of mine.

As the publisher of the Collegiate Performance Magazine, it is my duty, pleasure, and passion to seek out the youngest, most successful people in the world to first learn from them and then share their knowledge and success stories with the world. 

One successful entrepreneur I have connected with recently is Louis Lautman, the Founder of the Young Entrepreneur Society and the Executive Producer of the The YES Movie.

I mentioned that today (and last night) I was re-inspired and here is why:

I had lunch with Louis today who is a successful author, speaker, entrepreneur and producer.  He has already accomplished much of what I am working to become.  While sitting at lunch, I asked him about how he became a speaker and something beautiful happened.  He told me how!

There is something so powerful about learning what people have done.  If it has worked for them, they must have done something right!  

Bringing it back to our lunch today, he was telling me about how there are so many existing strategies that people are already using to become successful. While telling me his story of becoming a speaker, there is one thing I want to make special mention of.  At his first full time job after graduation in professional sales at 20, he worked in New York for a telecommunications firm.  In the office, a board hung with each salesman's results and their corresponding rank.  Louis noticed that there was a large gap between the top performing salesmen and those coming close after (the Pareto Principle at work).

Instead of only taking the advice that the lower ranked salesmen offered him, he made a conscious effort to seek out those top performing salesmen.  He asked them for their advice, shadowed them on sales calls, and modeled their selling style.  What do you think happened next?  Louis followed in their footsteps, becoming one of the top selling salesmen.

Coincidence?  I think not...

*TIP* - The key is to find out a strategy that worked for someone that has done something similar to what you are doing, and model it!

Last night, while watching The YES Movie, I was also re-inspired.  In this movie, Louis travels around the world and interviews many incredibly successful people.  For that hour and a half last night, I learned from many well-known successful people, I learned about (and from) many successful people I have not heard of, and I was re-motivated to continue my quest for knowledge.

I leave you today with two question that will hopefully inspire you to take action:

 

I told you about some of the successful people I have been learning from.  Who have you learned from lately?

I left lunch today with several names of successful people to research and several books to buy and read.  The next book on my list is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  What's next on your list?

Questions?  Comments?  Blog with me!

Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 3 - Becoming an Entrepreneur

I would like to speak about something that hits close to home for me today, becoming an entrepreneur.

The first thing to realize is that it is a journey.  You will be forced to learn and adapt to many challenging circumstances as you exercise problem solving as you make strategic decisions.

As you prepare for entrepreneurship, begin focusing on the WHAT question.  WHAT is it that you want to pursue?  That is the first question you must answer.  As you are formulating the answer to this question, it is also important to be open and attune to opportunity and be willing to take a risk and run with any that you think are valuable.

The next question that you need to ask yourself is WHY.  WHY do you want to pursue it, and WHY do you think it is valuable?  This is one thing that SCORE (a resource partner with the Small Business Administration of the U.S.) taught me to question.  I sought SCORE's FREE business counseling on a transportation venture years ago where I wanted to provide a service to safely transport students from the University area to the Downtown night club district.  This type of question allowed me to consider if the potential business had a large enough market, was financially feasible, and realistic [which in the case of that venture it was not].

The third question to ask yourself is the HOW.  HOW is determining how you are going to physically convert this idea from an idea into reality, the manifestation of your idea.  The process of manifesting your idea requires you to seek the people that you need to surround yourself with, find the capital to finance it, and the logistics of making it happen.  I would like to make a personal note here and quote myself, "I believe that if you commit to any idea that you are passionate about, think is valuable,  and believe to be realistic, the HOW should not even be a question."

*TIP* One of the best sources of angel funding is from people in your network, like your family, friends, and family and friend's network.

I would like to end this post with a story to reinforce the idea of VALUE.  My first business venture was a commercial carpet cleaning business at age 19.  To begin and try to get my foot in the door at hotels and resorts, I would offer the lowest price in town.  I learned quickly that this is no way to do business.  The value to customers competing on price was nothing more than the lowest price, having little regard for you or your company.  By competing on quality, I was dealing with a much better crowd of people.  The VALUE to them was having a job well done, and for that, they were willing to be loyal and pay a premium for.

Don't take it from me.  Take it from the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh in his PERFORMANCE Interview on Value Innovation - http://www.collegiateperformancemagazine.com/tonyhsieh/entrepreneurial-advice/value-innovation