The Secret of getting ahead...

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

The secret of getting started is

breaking your complex overwhelming tasks

into small manageable tasks,

and then starting on the first one.

Mark Twain

Why Entrepreneurs Choose Loudmouths as Mentors

Here's an interesting article from Entrepreneur Magazine that explores the concept of why entrepreneurs tend to choose (wrongly) the loudest guy as a mentor.

And then they go on to give some suggestions on how to choose a mentor the right way:

First, recognize that you’re your only savior; everyone else is there merely to supply data, offer up some wisdom and, maybe, hold your hand.

Second, put yourself in a situation where you can get access to many mentors. You can do a load of legwork or sign up for a service where mentorship (and a boatload of mentors to choose from) is the core of the program.

Finally, ask questions. Don’t grill a potential mentor; after all, you’re looking for free help. Instead, have a conversation and learn about what the person has actually done – how they’ve succeeded and how they’ve failed. Make sure they have real accomplishments and real failures (you learn more from failures than successes) and can communicate what they learned in a way that works for you. If hubris is what you hear, try somewhere else.

Be selective. Find someone with both good advice based on things they’ve actually done plus the ability to communicate they way that works best for you. You’ll be much happier and, quite likely, more successful yourself.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is 

living a few years of your life 

like most people won’t, 

so you can spend the rest of your life 

like most people can’t.

Anonymous

This was true for me, but it is not a guarantee.  There are no guarantees.  And in my case, the success did not come on the first attempt.  So, serial entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed.  As always, persistence pays.

Simple Marketing Plan

 Jay Conrad Levinson's 7 sentence simple marketing plan:

1) What is the purpose of your marketing? (What action do you want them to take?

2) What is the main competitive advantage you stress to achieve that action/purpose? (What main benefit do you offer that your competitors do not?)

3) Who is your target audience?

4) Which marketing “weapons” will you use to achieve that action/purpose? (Expressed as a list.)

5) For your market niche, what do you stand for?

6) What is your identity, your personality?

7) What is your marketing budget? (as a percentage of your projected gross sales)

He is very strong on the point that “The Number 1 marketing mistake small businesses make is NOT creating a simple marketing plan… and failing to COMMIT to their plan.”

Unexpected innovation

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do 

doesn't mean it's useless.
  

Thomas A. Edison

Poor vs. Successful: A Difference of Approach to Life

This just in, from an email by Perry Marshall:

If you ever deal with poor people, or do social work, or
spend time in the "inner city" one of the biggest things
you'll discover is how poor people live in the perpetual
present. Sort of like your house cat. For a cat, tomorrow
doesn't seem to exist. Only today, only now.

That's how poor people think.

Successful people think about the future. Some days, they
almost live in the future.

Those who sell the future find ways to tie the present to
the future and are constantly looking forward.

Those who successfully sell, sell much more than just the
"thing." They also sell the idea, the experience, the
future outcome.

Quotes

Management is doing things right;

leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

We think in generalities,

but we live in detail.

Alfred North Whitehead

A Man's Right to Exist for Himself

Zappos!

Their success in business speaks for itself, the culture is incredible. Take a look at their Core Values and consider how you can apply them to your world.

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

(Thanks, Keith!)

Testing Google Voice

Check out the new, free Google Voice,
and see how it can help you.

Click here:
https://www.google.com/voice

The Entrepreneur

Documentary of an extraordinary entrepreneur. If you are a business owner, or want to be, this is a MUST see video. Watch it through to the end to learn the secret of success.

Mentor - Protégé Meeting Feedback Form

The meetings are all about success for the Protégé. The mentor is there to serve the needs of the Protégé. To help your mentor meet your needs and to assure Continuous Improvement, a feedback loop is essential.

After each meeting, the Protégé has the opportunity to communicate to assure that the needs of the Protégé are being met, and how the mentor can improve.

Please do not hold back. Both of us want to see you succeed, and enjoy the process as much as possible.

Here is a sample feedback form:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Protégé name:

Date of meeting:

1. Overall score for the meeting: (1-10, 1=lowest; 10=highest) __

2. Considering the entire mentor - Protégé process, what comes to your mind as the most important suggestion for improvement, or problem, or complaint?

3. Other suggestions for improvement:

4. I feel that I am making progress with my goals.

(yes, no, don't know)

5. Other feedback:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample Agenda for Mentor - Protégé Meetings

The agenda for the meeting is created by the Protégé and emailed to the mentor at least 2 days before the meeting so that the mentor has time to review the agenda and prepare effectively for the meeting.

The agenda is an opportunity for the Protégé to think clearly and organize their thoughts into priority sequence and budget their time accordingly. Visualize how you want the meeting to progress and how much time each topic should take. This may present a challenge at first but you will get better as you become more familiar with the process.

Here's a simple sample agenda:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A G E N D A

Protégé name:

Meeting Date:

Meeting Time:

Review progress since last meeting: (xx minutes)

1.

2.

3.

New Topics to be discussed: (xx minutes)

1.

2.

3.

Meeting Summary: (xx minutes)

1. what I learned in this meeting

2. who does what by when

3. reading assignments

4. etc.

Documents to be reviewed: (emailed at least 2 days prior to the meeting)

1.

2.

3.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System for Effective Mentor - Protégé meetings

You can help our meetings go more effectively and efficiently if you:

Before our meetings:

1. Prepare an agenda for our time together.
Know what you want to cover, and prioritize your needs.
The more time you prepare for our meeting, the more you will get out of it.

2. Email documents, (agenda, reports, financial statements, business plans, etc)
at least 2 days before our meeting.
This allows enough time to review, make notes, and prepare questions.
Bring copies of all documents to our meeting.

3. Bring a notepad and pen. and make copious notes.

4. Visualize how you want our meeting to go.
Breathe, relax, and resolve to be open, honest, and complete.
Have positive expectations, drop defensiveness.

During our meetings:

1. Make notes during our meeting to be sure you get everything right.
Recording our session is perfectly acceptable, as long as it is
for your own personal use and will not be published, broadcast,
or shared in any other way.

2. Sometimes you may feel that I am talking longer than necessary,
and that you have fully got the point and want to move on to the
next topic. Just tell me. No problem.

After our meetings:

1 Take some quiet time to review your notes,
and then summarize the important action items we discussed,
and write your summary in an email to me so that we can be
sure there is a meeting of the minds.

2. Complete and email the meeting feedback form.
These are your meetings and this is the best way to be sure you get what you need.

Other:

1. Thank you for: No smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, no guests, no pets, no food, no gifts.

Connecting the dots

some thoughts about

humble beginnings,

great success,

the public humiliation of failure,

starting over,

the meaning of life, and death,

and connecting the dots,

(all in less than 15 minutes,

from a man who has achieved greatly)

Quotes

It's only work if you'd rather be doing something else.

Scottish Proverb

There is nothing more demoralizing than

a small but adequate income.

Edmund Wilson

The Perfect Predictor of Success

The perfect predictor for success: 

self-discipline, or the ability to delay gratification. 

This little film clip is a gift for everyone!

Click Here

(this is the link to the facebook page)

Save 90% on federal taxes, pay no state tax at all...

The US Virgin islands, is a great place to put your servers if you want to save a ton on taxes. The USVI island of St. Croix, (now also known as "E-commerce Island") has the greatest bandwidth of any place in the western hemisphere except New York City.

Check it out:
E-Commerce Island

Hiring people the most efficient and effective way possible

Here's an email from someone I have worked with recently:

Hello Michael,

Just a note to let you know that I'm using some of the tools you taught me. Specifically the Group Interview -- it's brilliant -- we have benefited greatly from your system for hiring sales people. When I first proposed it our HR consultants they said "that's a bad idea, it's cheesy don't do it". So I bypassed them and laid it out to our Operations Manager, he said that's interesting -- never heard of anybody doing that -- let's give it a try. The first time we used it we landed an outstanding sales rep that has taken our business in new directions. He commented about the group interview and thought that was an interesting twist and really differentiated us from other companies that he interviewed with.

As I speak we are interviewing candidates for sales positions. We had two group interviews this week and have narrowed it down to five individuals. We are going to hire two or them-- just as you suggested!

You may want to consider doing a blog post about it. The concept of the group interview, with the voice message and email follow up is so effective at weeding out people who; don't contribute, don't follow directions, don't care and sound bad on the phone when they leave a message.

Jim Watson, Owner-CEO
Arc-Zone.com

Life at the top

The entrepreneur's absolute priority is to stay at the top of his creation, to remain in control, until his planned liquidity exit. Many business owners start small and soon become inundated with routine and trivial activities, reacting to the random events as they occur instead of creating a business which executes the Plan. The success of the business depends on keeping the entrepreneur from the trivial and this can only be done by creating the Plan, and Delegating the activities of the Plan.

The primary activity of the entrepreneur must be to delegate, and therefore to recruit and provide motivation for others to carry out the Plans of the business. Many inexperienced owners look at new employees as expenses to be avoided, but the astute owner will see great opportunities by recruiting good people and paying them well for helping achieve the goals of the business. Again, Delegation is the primary activity of the entrepreneur. People must be there to execute the delegated activities of the Plan.

The business must provide the entrepreneur with steady, comfortable income as soon as possible in the life of the business. Many new business owners look at their pay as coming last, if at all. When the owner pays himself first, he will be more focused on creating a healthy, consistently productive business. Consider the example of flying in a commercial airliner, with a young child in your custody... you are advised, in the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, to put your oxygen mask on first, and then put a mask on the child. The absolute logic in this approach is that you are of no use to the child if you lose consciousness first. The business is yours, and you must bend it to your will. It must provide your paycheck above all. And so you must create a business which will do this.

The Most Important Thing To Do Right Now

In business, and especially for an entrepreneur, there seems to always be too little time to do too many things. For this reason, Priorities according to a Plan are essential. This assures us that we will be doing The Most Important Thing To Do Right Now. As an aid to thinking about what that Most Important Thing is, for each of us, a new blog has been started on just that subject:

The Most Important Thing
To Do Right Now