confessions of a serial entrepreneur
TRANSCRIPT
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of a
SerialEntrepreneur
C onf essions
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M A R K B R U N O
of a
SerialEntrepreneur
Published By Zion Publicationswww.zionpublications.com
C on f ession s
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To my lovely wife Jane, my son Nicollo and mydaughter Daniella, thanks for all the love and
support.
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Introduction 1
Build A Credible Bridge 7
Create Value 13
Choose the Right Market 21
Build A System 29
Don’t Trust the Bookkeeper 39
You Must Own Or Control 43
Stick With What You Know 49
A word On Negotiation 51
Begin With An Exit 55
Don’t Risk It All 59
Opportunity Search 63
Networking 65Know Yourself 69
Know Your Enemy 73
Focus 77
A Word On Mindset 81
Energy 87
Putting It All Together 93
Acknowledgements 97
ContentsConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur
Copyright © Mark Bruno 2009
Cover Art And Layout Copyright © Zion Publications 2009
First Edition, First Impression, 2009
ISBN 978-0-9814290-4-5
____________________________________________
Contact information:
Mark Bruno
Email: [email protected]
____________________________________________
Published by Zion Publications
Cover Design, Layout and Typesetting by Zion Publications
Contact information:
Zion Publications
Fax: +27 86 567 ZION (9466)Email: [email protected]
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Bryanston, 2021, Gauteng South Africa
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“Raise up a child in the way he
should go, and he will not depart
from it when he is old”
Proverbs 22:6
The world today is in the midst of what is for many, a terrifying economic
downturn. Thousands of highly and not so
highly qualified men and women are faced
with the difficulty of having to provide for
their families in an environment where the
traditional sources of income are evaporating
at an alarming rate.
The answer for many of us, is to apply our
energy into new areas; to forge opportunities
out of an old and shifting economy. To do
this takes courage, creativity and action.
I have been described as a serial
entrepreneur. An individual, who for the
Introduction
1
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For every star salesman and beauty
queen who succeeds, there are at least two
or three shy, normal people who have made
it as successful entrepreneurs.
The key to succeeding in any business,
is to build a proper foundation and to take
the steps necessary to ensure that you survive
the start up phase. If you lay the wrong
foundations you will fail.
I have laid out in this book, what I believe
to be the key elements of surviving. I havelaced it with many personal experiences,
both good and bad, to try and give you an
understanding of the internal game. As
well as those aspects not normally taught in
business school.
I have attempted to give you tips and
processes that I have used successfully
several times.
I have made it my process to build and
sell businesses because I do not consider
myself a great manager. I, like many of
you, am what I would consider an internal
personality. I love the intellectual challenges
Introduction
3
past 25 years, has made his living continually
going from the pan into the fire and back out
again.
I began this journey long ago because
my self esteem would not allow me tobelieve that I could ever be hired by anyone;
and since I didn’t figure I could get a job, I
had to create one.
Having successfully created one, I
realised I didn’t even want to have myself
as a boss, so I sold and started over. The
journey continues.
I started this book because I wanted to
give insight to new entrepreneurs that would
help them to overcome the many hurdles
that face anyone starting out in the world of
business alone.
Many people are afraid to strike out ina new business venture because they believe
that it takes a certain type of personality, or
look, and lots of money to begin a business.
Although the right type of approach is
necessary, what it takes to really make it is
often misunderstood.
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As a wise man once said to me “there is
no such thing as absentee ownership”. This
is so true. To own a business is in some
ways to be a slave to the business. Not in
a bad way like a servant, but in a good waylike a parent. Parents have the responsibility
of training their children up in the way they
should go. Business owners have the same
burden for their business. If you turn over
the responsibility of raising your children to
someone else you are likely to end up with
very confused children. If you turn over the
raising of your business to a third party, your
business model will in all likelihood end up
in the same condition.
If you are convinced of starting out in
this world alone, I support you. I offer you
the following as my view on the importantissues you need to be aware of, and to employ
in your activities.
It is my sincere wish that you prosper in
your efforts and that what I have written here
can help you along the way.
Good luck and happy hunting.
Introduction
5
but have difficulty relating to people at the
superficial level that is so often required.
I am not a great salesman, nor was I
blessed with the consistency of huge capital
that allowed me to make mistakes. I amprobably like many of you. I struggle to take
the steps and I work very hard through the
process.
I have learned to really enjoy certain
aspects of the game and I would highly
recommend that you do the same. Learn to
enjoy the process and you will be 80% there.
The other 20% is what I hope to offer you.
Just for the record, I do not believe that
being an entrepreneur means creating lots of
businesses that I turn over to other people to
run.
I myself have never been able to do this.To be honest I have never seen anyone do it.
The issue of “entitlement” too often creeps
into the minds of those you have trusted, and
before long they believe they are responsible
for all the success and you no longer deserve
to own it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure
out what happens next.
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“Let everyman praise the bridge
that carries him over troubled
waters”
English Proverb
About 15 years ago I sold a business I
had developed and found myself with a lot
of time on my hands. Of course I was bored,
so I spent a lot of time at lunch. One of the
people I spent a lot of time with was a very
well known speaker with an international
clientele. Occasionally, he would meet a
speaker overseas he really liked and would
agree to promote them to the local market.
On one such occasion, he asked if, because
I had so much time, I would be willing to
act as host to this overseas speaker that was
coming to town. I agreed. The speaker in
question was actually not very remarkable.
Build a CredibleBridge
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Once again the speaker recorded the
current situation on the overhead projector,
this time on the left. When he had finished
writing, calmly and gently he asked the
young man to draw him a credible bridgefrom where he was to where he wanted to
be. Needless to say he couldn’t.
Of course my purpose for telling this
story is not to discourage anyone, or put up
false barriers to success such as educational or
capital savings requirements. My purpose is
to point out one of the most important things
you can learn when starting a business. If
you cannot build a credible bridge between
where you are and where you want to be; in
other words if you can’t see a clear path to
the money, DON’T START. This probably
sounds like common sense to most of you,but I assure you the streets of entrepreneur
hell are paved with the bodies of people who
couldn’t do this simple thing. And I don’t
mean just theoretically see it either. I mean
a real business plan with detailed analysis of
what you need to get done. How the business
will roll out and be managed. How the sales
Build a Credible Bridge
9
In fact today I can’t even recall his name, but
he did show me one thing that changed my
life. One night at one of his shows, he asked
a young man sitting in the front row onto
the stage. While on the stage he asked theyoung man what his goals were. Of course
the pressure of standing in front of several
hundred people must have had something
to do with his answer, but nonetheless, his
answer was as follows:
“Within five years I want to have a
plane, a yacht, a Rolls Royce and a seven
figure annual salary. “
With great courtesy the speaker wrote
each of the goals on the right side of the
overhead projector. After a few minutes he
asked the young man to describe where he
was in his life. Was he working now? Did hehave any savings? Did he have an education
or special training? Was there anything that
separated him from the crowd? The answers
were pretty predictable. The young man
wasn’t working, had no savings, education
or other special skill. In fact nothing to set
him apart from the crowd.
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No sooner had he dropped my hand from
the limp and half hearted hand shake, that he
turned the egg timer to five minutes and told
me I had five minutes to prove to him that I
belonged there. Needless to say I was a bitoverwhelmed, but I jumped in nonetheless.
After listening to my pitch for about 35
minutes, he looked over at me and said “I
like you. You came prepared and you didn’t
waste my time. Now I am going to give you
the greatest advice of your life. Whenever
you find yourself in the offices of someone
from whom you are seeking money. MAKE
SURE THAT THE ONLY THING YOU
NEED IS THE MONEY.” At then he bid
me good day and told me I would hear from
him. The next day I received a call telling
me that my numbers and my informationhad checked out and they would do the
underwriting. The company was listed 9
months later, but not with that underwriter.
New York was just too expensive. I found
someone in California to do it. The point
of the story is that a credible bridge makes
it easy for you to prove that you only need
Build a Credible Bridge
11
team will be organised, how many sales calls
they are going to have to make and what your
expected closing rate is. Real detail. Down
to the smallest cost and the simplest activity.
It is not uncommon when I write a businessplan to have over 100 pages of numbers that
represent my three year plan.
There are lots of reasons for doing this,
not the least of which, is making sure you
have thought it through and can build a
credible bridge. If you have built the bridge,
everything else comes easier. Including the
investors you will need.
When I was in my twenties I made my
way to New York City, to pitch the listing
of a company I had helped develop. I had
never been to Wall Street before and I
must admit I was a little intimidated. I hadan appointment on Broad Street (next to
Wall Street) to meet an investment banker
and try and convince him that he should
underwrite this listing I was proposing. At
precisely 2:30 I was ushered into the offices
of this powerful financial god. I noticed as
I entered he kept an egg timer on his desk.
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“The great personal fortunes
in this country weren’t built of
a portfolio of fifty companies.
They were built by someone who
identified on wonderful business”
Warren Buffet
I love Warren Buffet. His light-hearted
approach to such a difficult business is awe
inspiring. I began studying the works of
Warren Buffet, and those who wrote about
him, around five years ago. His approach
to value fascinated me. Not only was I
fascinated, I was challenged. Much like the
bible, the Warren Buffet books I read only
hinted of what was underneath it all. The
idea of value investing was much deeper
than simply finding a brand monopoly
and putting the money down. I became
Create Value
13
the money. And, I can absolutely guarantee
you. Every time you look for money, if all
you need is money, you will get it. There
is far more money around than well thought
out deals.
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2. Have fitness of purpose- The end result
must fit the purpose for which it was
made. Using the above example, paper
is fit for the purpose it was created.
3. It must involve moving something
from a disorganised state to an
organised one (entropy)- I must admit
this was a very hard concept to grasp. I
am not really sure I do now. However
I have personal experience that I
think will help. “If you want to makemoney, do something that results in the
concentration of a fragmented market”.
I have always believed this and have
used that maxim successfully many
times.
Let me give you an example. I havealways been amazed at how easy it seems
to get a power plant financed. It seems as
though anyone with a location and a license
can get financing. Just for fun I decided to
apply the above formula to electricity, which
is the end product produced by a power
plant.
Create Value
15
obsessed with trying to discover a scientific
view of value creation; one that laid out the
parameters of value and made it possible for
me to replicate.
After lots of false starts, I found a workthat pretty much answered the questions I
had (I wish someone could do the same with
the bible for me). The book was called the
“Origin Of Wealth” by Eric Beinhocker. I
highly recommend this book to any of you
who like scientific backup to basic economic
questions like, what is wealth and how is it
created? There is a great deal within the book
that I need not cover. What was important to
me was his definition of value.
According to Beinhocker, for something
to have value it must:
1. Be the result of an irreversible
process- The example given in the book
is great. One of the reasons why paper
has value is because as much as it cost
you to make the tree into paper, imagine
what it would cost to turn the paper into
a tree.
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3. It must involve moving something
from a disorganised state to an
organised one-
This is a little harder to see but
still present. The currents that resultin the electricity are certainly in a
disorganised state. The potential to
generate electricity is there but must be
directed, organised and captured before
it can have value. The process therefore
of directing the flow onto the blades can
be seen as organising the disorganised
state in order to perform work. Again
we meet the criteria.
Now I am sure that there are those of
you out there that may want to challenge the
above premise. Perhaps Mr. Beinhockerhimself, who right now must be wondering
how I came to those conclusions from what
he wrote. Scientifically correct or not, agree
or disagree, there is some good stuff there.
Throughout the years that I have done
business development, there has always been
the niggling fear of “what if it doesn’t work”.
Create Value
17
1. It must be the result of an irreversible
process-
The process of converting the
movement of water into electricity is not
very complicated. A turbine is placedin the way of flowing water which
turns the blades of the turbine thus
transferring energy from the flowing
water to the turbine. The overall energy
of the flowing water is reduced by this
activity, if only a small amount.
So is the process reversible?
Could the reduction of flow of the
water resulting from the conversion be
reversed? The answer is a theoretical
yes, but it would cost much more to do
so than it did to create the conversion
in the first place. Thus the process isirreversible.
2. It must have fitness of purpose-
Not much to say here. Electricity
is a perfect fit for the purpose it was
intended.
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(the Canary Wharf developers) had just
filed for bankruptcy. The Canary Wharf
was a ghost town. You couldn’t give space
away. Anyway, Mr. Swart had me looking
at condominiums in the area to buy as aninvestment, he was talking about taking head
leases on empty buildings. I thought he had
lost his mind. One day I challenged him. Had
he not noticed that Olympia and York were
bankrupt, that the area was a ghost town.
How could he believe there was ever going
to be money made there. A kind man, but
not one to suffer fools, he walked me over to
the main Canary Wharf building. The tallest
(and most expensive) building in England.
He told me to look up and tell him what I
saw. Not wanting to look stupid I began to
describe the building. “Well” I said “I see
glass and metal…”. “No” he said “you’ve
missed it”. “What I see is over a billion US
dollars invested. This complex will never
fail. There is too much value created”. In
the end he was right. The property slump
passed and Canary Wharf became a huge
success. I don’t know if he ever bought the
Create Value
19
I mean, I know I have built a credible bridge
and all my research says it should work, but
life has a way of beating you. Some things
just can’t be predicted. That is where value
comes in. If, in the process of building abusiness, you are focusing on the creation
of value, and not making money,; if it does
fail, your money should still be in the value
you created. It doesn’t mean you can never
lose money. It just means that if you plan
well and don’t go too far out on a limb, you
should never lose the value.
This point was driven home to me by a
great man by the name of Cornelius Swart.
Mr. Swart was a very successful business
developer that I had the pleasure of travelling
the world with. A man of many talents,
his greatest talent was being able to create
value, and to see it where others did not.
Back in the 1990’s Mr. Swart and I were
involved in the development of a gym group
that looked to expand into England. One
day while looking for locations we found
ourselves at the Canary Wharf complex in
London. At the time Olympia and York
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“Good execution isn’t enough. A
bad idea executed perfectly is the
very definition of disaster”
Office of the President of Botswana
That saying was spoken to me by a seniorstaff member of the President of Botswana
while visiting the Botswana equivalent of the
White House. His purpose was to describe
the culture of “DO THE RIGHT THINGS”
that the new president had hoped to instil in
his cabinet.
Spoken in the words of business
development this converts to, CHOOSE
THE RIGHT MARKET. The right market
can go a long way to overcoming a bad
business plan or even poor execution. In
fact choose the perfect market and there isn’t
much you can do to stop success. Far be it
Choose the RightMarket
21
condos or not. But I can tell you one thing I
know for sure. If he did, he made a fortune
on them.
As long as you focus on the creation
of value, you can’t go wrong. Not only areyou spending your money wisely, you are
aligning yourself with a universal principal.
The value of money goes up and down, but
value lasts forever.
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This type of play offers a lot of
advantages. To begin with, you are not
creating anything new. It is much easier
to take over someone else’s market space
(assuming they are weak and the market innot cohesive) than it is to create a new space.
Just make sure there are no big dogs ruling
the market, and that the market will benefit
from a big dog being created. Generally
customers in this type of market are already
buyers and don’t have any real preference.
There is no strong brand ruling the territory.
I used this strategy in the early 1990’s to
create an international gym business. At the
time in South Africa, the gym business was
made up of one fairly large player and lots
of small players. I took over as chairman
in a young and dynamic group that had
3 gyms. Although small, we built good
systems (see later chapter) that enabled us
to scale the operation and went about buying
up all the individual players. Because the
group had better operating dynamics and
sales synergies, the purchases became self
funding. In three years we went from 3
Choose the Right Market
23
for me to try and pass judgement on one of
the most successful companies ever, and the
progenitor of the richest man in the world
(well maybe not this year), but Microsoft
did and still does a lot of things wrong. BillGates said so in his book. What Bill Gates
did right was choose the right market. A
market ignored by many computer giants
such as IBM. No matter what Microsoft did
wrong, the market was still going to grow at
a phenomenal rate. All they had to do was
keep up and the market would do the rest.
I am sure that if I really tried I could
try and sound very intelligent and technical
when offering advice on what constitutes a
good market, but I won’t. What I am going
to offer is examples of markets that worked
for me.
Fragmented markets- I like this one
the best. If you can find a market that has
a lot of little players selling every day, that
offers advantages from consolidation and
hasn’t been fully absorbed, then you’re
really in business.
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Ch h R h kC f f S l E
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Tandon opened a new factory to pump out
these drives. Then one day I remember
being at one of the Tandon warehouses’
and seeing mountains of unsold inventory.
It didn’t take long for that to translate intocatastrophic reductions of our sales. The
law of economics won out. When big money
starts being made in a market, competition
enters. Not only competing on a product
level, but also introducing new technology
to compete with. As quick as the market
expanded, it contracted. I sold the business
to a Chinese manufacturer that intended to
make floppy drives for the Chinese market.
China was still in the Stone Age back then. I
was lucky to get out with my shirt.
A Market You Love- I do really
believe that the very best type of business
development is one in which you are able
to combine your hobby or passion with
making money. When, in my life I have
found people working at what they love, I
am always envious. The drive to succeed
seems so much stronger because they really
love the process and don’t want to lose the
Choose the Right Market
25
gyms to 36 and were expanding into Europe
when I exited.
Fast growing markets- If you can’t
find a market to consolidate, look for one
that is growing off the hook. Demand inexcess of supply in the market is a good way
to look like a genius. Almost anything you
do wrong will be overlooked as long as your
customers need more of what you supply
than they can find. Just be cautioned that
what goes up must come down. These types
of markets often collapse without warning.
In 1984 I was a partner in a company that
was building components that went into what
was then called floppy disk drives. IBM had
just entered the PC market and demand for
peripheral devices like floppy disk was huge.
Our little factory was running 7 days a week,
24 hours a day. I thought it would never end.
Our big customer at the time was Tandon
Magnetics. Juggy Tandon was the creator
and patent holder to a double-sided floppy
disk (in other words high density storage),
and virtually owned the periphery storage
industry. Every day it seemed as though
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However having said that, Coca Cola
was a start up once and so was IBM. If you
are lucky enough to identify an unexploited
potential consumer monopoly and are
looking for a partner, please do not hesitateto contact me.
Choose the Right Market
27
day to day experience. This type of market
may not have any of the fundamentals, but I
would not tell anyone not to go for it. There
is more to a business than just creating
monetary value, sometimes the value youcreate can be in other peoples’ lives.
A COMMENT
I would be remiss at this time if I didn’t
at least address the published ideas of Warren Buffet towards markets. Mr Buffet
has written often that he looks for stable
growth in some sort of consumer monopoly.
And I have to agree that the best market to
have is a 100 year old stable growth market
that consistently produces a 25% Return on
Capital Employed.
The problem is that for entrepreneurs
these types of market rarely exist. As
business developers we are forced to enter
markets where we have the resources to do
so. Unfortunately that is rarely stable.
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“Differentiate-Select- Amplify”
The Origin of Wealth
I mentioned earlier the Eric Beinhocker
book “ The Origin of Wealth”. Well here
again Mr. Beinhocker has something to addto our growth. The formula above is given
in his book as the way to create wealth.
Differentiate- Make sure people don’t
confuse you with others in the marketplace.
In other words, make sure they have a
definable choice to make.
Select- This goes back to choosing the
right market in the first place. Select the
path of least resistance.
Build a System
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know that in ancient Rome they didn’t allow
their prefects to stay away from Rome for
more than a couple of years. After being
outside of Rome for a while, they made them
come back for a few years. They didn’t wantthem to forget what being a Roman meant.
Rome took its systems very seriously. The
proof of the pudding in Rome’s case, was
the fact that they were one of the largest
and certainly longest lasting empires of all
time. Britain was pretty much the same
under Victoria. Being British in those dayshad a very certain meaning. It helped them
conquer and control three quarters of the
world.
Today we tend to call this Branding, but
it is pretty much the same thing. A system
of delivery giving the customer a consistent
product.
Now, as to how. Well this can be very
problematic. To be honest, I really struggled
with this over the years. I knew I had to do
it, but I wasn’t very sure how. Well, I still
struggle, but I have settled on a methodology.
In every instance, I try and find an applicable
Build a System
31
Amplify- To amplify you have to have
systems.
Systems make a business scalable and
able to grow without coming apart at theseams. Lots of entrepreneurs like to wing it.
Wing it and you die. You will never survive
growth and it is doubtful if you are creating
value without systems. In fact a lot of the
value you create should revolve around
systems.
I am pretty sure that most of you haveheard this before. Anyone who has read
“Rich Dad Poor Dad” has read about the
need for systems.
Maybe it was just me but I found two
things missing from Mr. Kiyosaki’s books
relating to systems. The first was why, and
the second was how.
The why I think is obvious now. One
of the best things you can do to create value
in a business is to codify the processes of
doing your business. This gives the business
sustainability and scalability. It allows you
to take what you have and repeat it. Did you
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structure and the processes to do what you
say. ISO helps you prove that. Just don’t do
what so many do, download a system from
the internet that means nothing to you. In
the end you will not use it and the value willbe lost. Having a framework to build on
can be helpful, but make sure the heart of the
system is yours and that it reflects the culture
and objectives of your organisation.
Build a System
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ISO (international standards association)
standard that I can implement.
For those of you who don’t know about
ISO, let me help you out. According to
the ISO website, the ISO standards areestablished to “ help a company manage their
processes or activities , so that its products
or services meet the objectives they have set
for themselves…”
In short ISO provides a framework
for setting standards, measuring activity,
reporting information and improving. If youhave nowhere else to turn, or don’t know
where to start, find an ISO standard that will
apply to your business. Since ISO standards
are intended to be generic , like ISO 9000-
2000, I guarantee you will find something
that works for you. Trust me, it is a great
place to start when building a system.
I do want to issue a warning however.
Make sure that you implement a system you
intend to use. Lots of companies I have come
across implement an ISO standard because
it helps them get business. People doing
business with you, like to know you have the
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“From birth to age 18, a girl
needs good parents, from 18 to 35
she needs good looks, from 35 to
55 she needs a good personality,
and from 55 on she needs cash.”
Sophie Tucker
At least a woman can rely on good
parents, good looks and good personality.
Businesses don’t have those things. THEY
NEED CASH FROM DAY ONE. To ensure
success you will have to manage your cash
as diligently as you do the heartbeat of adying patient. Make a mistake with the cash
and you will die.
Just as an example, consider a seller
of materials who has a 20% mark up on her
product. A mistake that cost the company
$100 requires the capital and effort to affect
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the bank”, the third person says “I tell the
employees they have to wait”. Looking a
bit uncomfortable, the business man turned
to me. “What do you have to say?”. My
answer was “I never let it happen.” This wasthe answer he was looking for.
Now I don’t tell the story to show how
smart I am. I tell the story to illustrate a
truth. Payroll isn’t just missed. If you miss
any payment it means you did not plan
well enough. Especially bills you know
are coming, like payroll. You have to planahead.
I make it a policy to set up a spread
sheet predicting daily cash in the bank six
months ahead of time. I update it with every
event that is likely to change it. Sales that
weren’t made for example, or extra cost. It
is amazing how accurate this can be and how
it helps you to avoid trouble. Creditors will
wait a few days to be paid if you absolutely
positively pay them on the day you promise.
They are in business after all. However,
tell a creditor they will be paid Friday, and
Friday comes and goes without payment and
g
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$500 in additional sales just to get even. That
is a lot of effort. I will tell you the same thing
I tell my son about his soccer, preventing the
other team from making a goal is as good
as making one yourself. You never want towork from a deficit.
Long ago I was sitting in the board
room of a very successful international
businessman. I had been working on a
development with three brothers and was
looking to put the growing business into a
larger structure where it would have thecapital and support necessary to reach it’s
potential. All of the individuals on my side
of the table were young and aggressive.
The businessman was older, very wealthy
and a little nervous of getting into business
with us. As a way of testing our metal he
posed a question to everyone at the table.
“It’s payday” he begins “you don’t have the
money for payroll. What do you do?.” Each
person is called on in turn to give an answer.
Starting with the youngest member in his
early twenties. “Borrow on my house” he
replies. The next person says “borrow from
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“You cannot delegate responsi-
bility, only authority. In the end
the buck stops with you”
One of my business school
professors
At the risk of sounding like a
traditionalist, I strongly recommend
that anyone who hopes to make it as an
entrepreneur take a bookkeeping class. Not
accounting, bookkeeping. Why you may
ask, I hate the numbers. Because as I said
earlier, the numbers are what determinesyour future.
I have a relative of mine who built up
a thriving business over 30 years of his life.
Everything was great. He had big sales,
showed a big profit and had a woman he
trusted with his life doing the books.
Don’t Trust theBookkeeper
39
you have trouble on your hands. You have
to plan for profit just like everything else. If
sales aren’t what you planned, you have to
cut cost. Either that or grab the salesperson
and instruct them on what needs to be done.Adjustments to the sales mix, pricing and
sales promotions are all there to help you over
the hurdle. Just don’t let it sneak up on you.
This attention to the detail as to what actually
makes up the profit and loss statement is
what makes the difference between success
and failure. Neither success nor failure justhappen. It takes time and effort to fail, just
like it takes time and effort to succeed.
Take my advice, pay attention to the
money. In the end it is the only measurement
of success or failure that matters.
right market in the first place. Select the
path of least resistance.
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bookkeeping savvy boss, I credit cash and
debit assets. When the boss looks at the
Profit and Loss statements he will still see
a profit, even though the hard earned money
has been stolen. Why? Because instead of debiting an expense which would have shown
as money spent, I debit an asset. Everything
still balances. No harm no foul. Who will
know? Well eventually the bankruptcy
court. And don’t assume that your auditor
will pick it up. Auditors are there to verify
your accounts. If you put the numbers downin the wrong way, they are likely to verify
the error, not find it. I don’t mean this as a
slight to auditors, but fixing entry mistakes
is not how most of them view their job. As
long as the balance sheet balances their job
is done.
In the end it is YOUR money. You must
know how it is accounted for and be able to
pick up problems. In my relative’s case, his
fear of not knowing how to keep the books
caused him to delegate the guarding of the
chickens to the fox. She ate him alive.
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The one thing he couldn’t understand
was where was all the cash going. I mean he
showed a profit, but the cash never seemed
to be there in the amounts he figured should
be there. Every month he looked at thefinancials and saw a profit. What could be
wrong, he figured, there was a profit. Sooner
or later the cash had to show up. WRONG !!!
His trusted bookkeeper of 20 years had been
forging his signature to cover the gambling
problem he never knew she had. Over one
million dollars had disappeared. He neversaw it coming. In the end it cost him his
business and over 30 years of his life.
Had he understood the in’s and out’s of
bookkeeping hell, he would have understood
that debits and credits just need to balance
for the accounting equation to work. They
don’t have to be in the right place. Let me
give you an example.
In accounting you increase expenses by
way of a debit. You also increase assets.
You also decrease cash by way of credit.
So if I am a clever bookkeeper and I want
to steal some cash and hide it from my not
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“There are no such things as
comrades, only rivals”
Alexander the Great
Let me take this opportunity to
recommend a great book to you. It’s called“How to Get Rich” by Felix Dennis. This is
one of those few ‘get rich’ books written by
someone who was rich BEFORE he wrote
the book. It is full of wisdom and practical
advice. One of the things he talks about in
this book is making sure you keep as much
of your business as you can. I agree whole
heartedly. But I would like to add one point.
Make SURE you own or control. If you
don’t, you’re in for a battle.
Owning or controlling means that the
final say as to how and when money gets
spent is yours. It means that there will
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own business, even if it is with someone
else. No one ever started a business to be in
someone else’s shadow. Think about it. All
the things that make you successful will tear
you apart. One or more of you is going toget tired of looking in the mirror and seeing
someone else’s face. Or worse, worry that
the girlfriend thinks all this success is due
to another person. Don’t think it won’t
happen. You could be the best of friends or
even blood relatives, put enough success on
the table and knives will be drawn. Divorceis always messy. Better not to start.
Having said that if you are bound and
determined to get into partnership let me
offer some advice.
1. Make sure each of you knows what
you expect from the other party.
I am convinced that most
relationships, including marriages,
end because the parties were not clear
on what they were exchanging. Put
another way you thought you were
marrying Cinderella and she thought
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be only one marketing strategy. It means
engineers that never want to finish a project
will finish or lose their jobs.
I am sure there are millions of people
who will argue that this type of leadershipstyle is archaic. That in order to succeed it
takes a team of people all leading together.
BULLOCKS. The Roman empire was
not built by teams of people leading together.
Napoleon was not known for his democratic
ilk. Oh I am sure there are those among you
who will say, sure but where are they now.We all know where they are. That is the
point. EVERYONE knows who Napoleon
was, but I am pretty sure only a few can tell
me the name of his chief of staff or three of
his staff general’s names.
Democracy in business does not work. I
will agree that an enlightened and ingenious
despot is better than a Hitler, but Hitler still
conquered all of Europe.
While we are at it, let’s talk a little about
partnerships. In short, they don’t work.
Let’s face it, it takes a certain amount of
ego to break from the crowd and start your
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knows what needs to happen and has a
measuring stick to see how effective the
partnership is. In addition to all this, it
alleviates a lot of the jealousy that will
arise. The end is known before you getthere so everyone can keep their eye on
the ball.
3. Put a time limit on the relationship.
Although it may not seem logical
to limit something in the beginning,
especially when all the hope in the worldis present, but believe me this is mission
critical. If you limit the relationship
upfront you give it a chance to take
form. You can always move or even
remove the time limits later, but upfront
it is important that everyone know there
is only so much time to get things done.
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she was marrying Prince Charming.
When she turns out to be more like the
wicked step mother and he more like
the mouse, things turn ugly. Every
failed business partnership I have hadhas been the result of not taking enough
time to discuss what is really expected
from me, or me from them. If your part
of the bargain is to bring money, make
sure you state exactly how much that
is. Most importantly, make sure you
have it. Sure as we are sitting here if you fail to make clear what you and they
are bringing to the table there will be a
dispute. Someone is always bound to be
disappointed. Especially when there is
money on the table.
2. Determine the end state that
represents completion.
It is very important that you begin
by knowing where you are going and
what the end looks like. This helps
you focus your attention and relieves
the relationship of pressure. Everyone
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“Be sure the business you buy can
be run by an idiot, because sure
enough one day it will be”
Warren Buffet
If you haven’t noticed I am a bigWarren Buffet fan. Who wouldn’t be.
Warren always talks about staying within
your circle of competency. I read it but I
didn’t understand it. That is until I got into a
development that was heavily dependent on
software engineers.
Now I knew from past experience thatmost engineers are like arists. They never
see the painting as finished. Their superior
intelligence and creativity keeps seeing more
and more to improve. This may be true, but
enough has to be enough sometime. The
problem is that if you are not an expert, or
Stick with what You Know
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“Kid, there is no such thing as a
good deal, it’s a good deal or its
no deal”.
Tony Sannucci
Starting from when I was 12 years old myfather used to insist that during the summer
holidays I spend time working for some of
his friends. He did this to expose me to other
successful people who might be able to teach
me a thing or two. One of the greatest was
a man by the name of Tony Sannucci. Tony
was a Sicilian ( like me) who had grownup in a poor part of Buffalo New York. A
genius when it came to business, he was one
of the best negotiators I ever met. One day
while sitting in his office I listened to him
negotiate a movie distribution deal for one
of his friends. I was amazed to see him in
A Word onNegotiation
51
able to finish what they started, you could be
in for a long hard ride.
I was involved in a software banking
solution company once. Among the
many mistakes I made (like not owning orcontrolling) was not being able to finish
what someone else started. Software
engineers are very expensive and they are
highly intelligent and creative. So creative
sometimes, that they cannot give a straight
answer or an accurate timeline. And because
I did not have a clue as to what needed to bedone or how, I just had to take it. The end
result was an overdue and way over budget
development. Not to mention a few new
holes in my stomach.
At least I can say I now understand
what old Warren was saying. You only can
afford to delegate duties that you are able
to perform yourself, otherwise you are not
delegating you are abdicating. And when
you abdicate you lose.
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detail. One of the big mistakes I see people
make in negotiation is that they never get
down to detail. Now it could take a whole
book on its own to discuss the timing of
negotiations, the strategy of location etc. Iam not suggesting that everything take place
at one time. There is a negotiating strategy
called nibbling, that makes a point of leaving
some details for later discussion, with the
hopes that the other side will develop an
emotional attachment to the deal that will
force them to give up little concessions laterin the detail phase. What I am suggesting is
that whatever you do, make sure you cover the
details. The little foxes spoil the garden and
untied details ruin otherwise good deals. Do
whatever you think will help you, but make
sure you do it with intent, don’t leave things
out because you forgot, or were worried the
other side might object. Whatever you leave
undecided on a table, is likely to be picked
up by the other side, whether you wanted
them to have it or not. Make sure the table is
clean before you get up from it.
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action. He spoke so loud that he had to hold
the mouth piece of the phone about eight
inches from his head. When everything was
done I asked him “Did you get a good deal
Tony”. He looked at me kind of confusedwith his coal black eyes and told me “Kid,
there is no such thing as a good deal, it’s a
good deal or its no deal.” Words to live by.
The cold fact is that in every transaction
you are acting for yourself. You are not there
for the guy across the table. Let him or her
negotiate for themselves. Most of all makesure the end result improves your position.
Understand fully upfront what you get and
what it will cost .
Now don’t misunderstand me. I firmly
believe that a good deal is one that will be
implemented. If you squeeze a guy too hard
he will do anything to get free, includingchewing his leg off. The problem is that
in chewing his own leg off, he often takes
yours with him. A good deal, is one where
everyone is equally unhappy and equally
enriched.
I would be remiss in talking about
negotiation if I didn’t mention attention to
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“Affairs are easier of entrance
than of exit; and it is but common
prudence to see our way out before
we venture in.”
Aesop
Intelligent business people always plan
their exit. Not only does it give you a very
precise goal it helps motivate you.
The other day I was visiting a very
wealthy friend of mine at his offices. As
we sat talking, he called my attention to
a program he had recently had created forhim. The program told him the day he could
afford to die based on his current investment
portfolio, insurance and wealth attainment
goals. I was amazed. This little program
allowed him to put in various interest
rate scenarios, stock and property market
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will have to fit the profile and be sitting in
the proper position to motivate action.
To do this effectively you need to apply
your strategic mind. You need to understand
the market you are in, to understand whatmakes for value, and most importantly
understand what makes you valuable to the
leaders in the market. Try to understand
what the big guys would want to do, but
can’t for some reason. Then do it.
A great example of this is Pixar and
Disney. Now it is no secret that Disney isa world leader in animation and has been
producing successful animation films for
a very long time. So why on earth would
Disney pay $7.4 billion for an animation
studio?
This is the question a lot of people asked,
not the least I am sure Disney’s board. The
answer lies in the way Pixar was positioned
relative to Disney.
Disney had many years as a classic
animation studio. Beginning in a time when
cartoons where drawn one frame at a time.
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assumptions etc. and literally print out a
date at which he could die having achieved
all of his goals. He obviously made light of
it, but the principal was deadly serious. He
had planned his exit.Now for most business people planning
your exit may not be quite so detailed. This
particular man is particularly bright and
focused. However let’s not lose the lesson.
In any business it is best to understand that
things will change. Even Bill Gates in his
book “Business @ the Speed of Thought”indicates that he does not expect Microsoft
to last forever. It is prudent then to plan for
an exit.
What this means in practical terms, is
that building a business cannot be only about
more sales and higher profits. If you really
want to get the most from your business
you will have to spend time and effort
positioning it. Position is always relative
to some fixed point. In this case, the fixed
point is that vehicle you have chosen to exit
on. Whether that vehicle is a company to
sell to, or a market to list on, your business
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“In a fight between you and the
world, back the world”
Paul Dirn
I know that doesn’t sound very positive.
Society is permeated with heroic storiesof Generals who ordered the boats they
arrived in burned so that the army would be
motivated to fight and having nowhere else
to go, bravely defeat the enemy.
Bulldust I say. Life is a long term game.
The most important thing you need to do to
be able to win at life, is to first survive. If you watch predators in the wild they always
go for the weakest animal and they always
back off when counter attacked. Why is
that? Because a lion with a three inch hole
in its stomach from an angry buffalo isn’t
likely to win the battle of survival. Predators
Don’t Risk it All
59
Pixar grew up in an era of computer
animation and was quite frankly way ahead
of Disney in this area.
Pixar learned to piggy back on the
strengths of Disney by using the Disneydistribution system and genius in character
product marketing to build its own brand.
Disney in the end realised that they were
earning a lot of money off of characters that
could only be created with the expertise
of Pixar and acted to exploit that situation
as well as guarantee that Pixar couldn’t goanywhere else.
Did Pixar plan from the beginning to be
bought out by Disney. Only a few people
could know that for sure. What I do know
is that Pixar was co-founded and driven by a
business genius by the name of Steven Jobs.
It would take a particular type of genius,like Steven Jobs, to arrange that a giant like
Disney become dependent on Pixar. Steven
Jobs, by the way, is now the single largest
shareholder in Disney. Did he plan it that
way? You be the judge.
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This is the best, really the only, reason to
share your business with others. To provide
capital to hedge your bets, so that if it goes
bad you are not wiped out.
It is said that no plan survives contactwith the enemy. In business I would say that
no plan survives contact with the competition.
No matter how perfect your planning, no
matter how good your market, stuff happens
and businesses fail. Just be sure you don’t
fail with it.
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can’t afford to get hurt and neither can
entrepreneurs.
Too many people do not understand the
difference between risk and uncertainty. You
see risk is the probability of a specific rate of return where uncertainty is the probability of
an event at all. You can measure risk and you
can hedge against it. There is almost nothing
you can do to ensure against uncertainty.
Business development is often not
only risky but uncertain. That is why it is
important not to risk it all. Look at yourbusiness as any investment. Forget what
you have already spent, and instead focus
on what the return is, on each investment
you make within your business.
I really want to express this strongly.
Business is at best risky. Don’t go so far in
that there is no coming back.In my travels I have seen dozens of
broken families and suicidal entrepreneurs
because they risked everything on the toss of
a dice. If you only lose what you can afford
to lose, you always have the chance to fight
another day.
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“Just take the order”
Joseph P. Bruno
My father was a great entrepreneur.
Over his lifetime he made and lost more
money than some small countries. I alwayswanted to be like him so I spent a lot of time
watching. My father had one major rule that
dictated the starting of a business; take the
order. What that meant was that the only
criteria he had to spend the energy and the
money to start a business, was whether or not
he knew someone who wanted to buy whatthe business produced. It really didn’t matter
what industry or product it was. If someone
he knew was buying a lot of something, he
was going to supply it.
I know that may not sound very much
like the industry analysis you would expect
OpportunitySearch
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“Play Golf”
Donald Trump
I myself do not play golf and I have
found this to be a great handicap (pardon the
pun). I tried. My father was a great golfer.He had a company that manufactured clubs
and even started his own tournament. I took
golf lessons for a little while. After a week
the pro called my father and suggested I take
up tennis. That is the last time I had a club
in my hand.
If you don’t play golf you need tofind another method of arranging social
interaction with other business people. This
interaction is key to being able to get where
you want to go. No matter how smart you
are or how great your idea, at some point it
is a human being who says yes or no to your
Networking
65
to hear from an MBA, but I can assure you
that it makes for a much smoother take off.
Having a buyer in the pocket allows you to
define your product, work out the logistics
of delivery and set the limits of productioncost all in one go. It also guarantees market
penetration. And of course if one person
is buying it is much easier to sell to other
people.
Now don’t take this to mean that
this is the only way to decide what to
develop. There are lots of good ways tolook for a business to develop. If you have
accumulated capital and have made a science
of the activity the world is your oyster. At
that point development becomes a matter
of trends in the economy and identification
of unexploited markets. It is only that I
have assumed that most people reading thisbook would not consider themselves expert
entrepreneurs. For those people it is best to
take the easiest and surest route so as to have
the opportunity to accumulate capital and
expertise. If you are one of these people,
take my advice; start with an order.
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Networking
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and let it happen. Just understand that all
relationships demand energy. If you hope
to get anything out of them you are going to
have to invest in them.
67
funding or your contract. It is always much
easier for people to say yes to someone they
know.
Now I recognise that there are people
reading this who consider themselves as anti-social, or shy, or a maverick that doesn’t fit
it. I understand this, in fact I am one of you.
Nonetheless, no matter how hard you find it
to network, it is critical to your success.
If you find it hard to make contact
yourself, or to develop the characteristics of
a networker, befriend one. I said befriend,not make a partner of them. I have a couple
of really good friends who are excellent
networkers. I find it much more sincere
and a lot easier to put my energy into them.
They in exchange, connect me across a wide
range of personalities and power bases.
You don’t have to be a used car salesmanto connect. Be yourself. Find people you
relate to and put energy into them. If you exert
the effort, over time you will find others you
connect with and your network will grow. It
doesn’t have to be some sort of “singles bar”
manic drive to meet and connect. Be sincere
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“Know yourself, know your enemy;100 battles, 100 victories”
Sun Tsu
Military strategist like Clauswitz like to
call it Morale. Alexander Leighton definesmorale as “the capacity of a group of people
to pull together persistently and consistently
in pursuit of a common purpose”.
Morale is what defines how quick and
how far an army can travel and still maintain
the will to win.
Morale defines at what point in thebattle the desire to be done with all the pain
is greater than the will to live.
Morale determines who will win and
who will lose.
In business we fight a battle every
day. None more than the entrepreneur who
Know Yourself
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I just want to say that just keeping a
Know Yourself
depends on the accomplishment of his or her
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I just want to say that just keeping a
winning attitude or staying positive isn’t
enough. Just like simply moving the enemy
isn’t enough. A good warrior shapes the
enemy into a configuration they know theycan defeat. A good business person shapes
his or her own personality to fit the end state
that represents victory in the environment
they are in. An old friend used to say “the
right horse for the right course”. It doesn’t
do any good to become Napoleon if victory
is represented by an end state that Napoleoncould never achieve.
I have made this mistake many, many
times. I spent so many years shaping my
personality to fit an American, confrontational
style of business, that when I started to do
business in much more subtle environments,
I was considered a thug. This process taughtme to prepare for each situation. Much like
a method actor preparing for a part. Don’t
ever give up your unique identity, but you
must shape your strengths to survive in the
environment you are in.
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depends on the accomplishment of his or her
goals for a paycheck.
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses,
your passions, your failings and limits,
helps you to shape yourself in the midst of a battle.
For those of you who are not military
people, shaping is a battle concept. Military
planners use things such as bombardment,
strategic withdrawal and propaganda to
move (or shape) the enemy into a weaker
position.In an individual’s case we must
constantly be shaping ourselves into a
winning posture. Some people call it a
winning attitude. Some call it positive
thinking. I call it war. The enemy, who may
be my competitors, a jealous brother-in-law,
or just the randomness of life, is constantlytrying to shape my position. To combat this
I must actively shape my own attitude.
How you achieve this is a personal
choice. There are literally thousands of good
books on how to stay positive etc.
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Know yourself know your enemy (your
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“No battle can take place in theabsence of an enemy”
Unknown
As important as it is to understand
yourself and your limits, it is just as importantto understand the enemy and their limits. The
above war maxim highlights that business
like war, does not take place in a vacuum.
Business is competitive. Companies vie
with all their might and strength to ensure
that the battle is theirs. It is the foolishness
of high thinkers to try and convince theaverage person that life and business is not
about competition. Never forget that every
action has a re-action. Every action you
take to please the customer will be matched
and exceeded by your competitor. Your
responsibility is to understand the competitor
Know Your Enemy
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Know yourself, know your enemy (your
environment or market), 100 battles, 100
victories.
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enemy’s strengths and weaknesses as well
Know Your Enemy
and position yourself relative to them and the
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enemy s strengths and weaknesses, as well
as some scenario planning as to how the
enemy will act in battle.
The battle is yours to win or lose.
Remember what Sun Tsu said, “Knowyourself and know your enemy; 100 battles,
100 victories”.
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and position yourself relative to them and the
customer. If you can use your knowledge of
the competitor to shape them into a weaker
position, you will have a better chance of
winning. Winning ensures survival, survivalis your goal. You will never sell a business
that does not survive to be sold.
To do this you will have to commit
the time and resources into getting to know
your competition. By knowing, I do not
mean from a distance. I mean up close and
personal. This may entail getting to know theCEO or the Head of Marketing personally.
Whatever you need to do, I suggest you
do it. It will serve you to know what the
competition is planning, or having a personal
understanding of how they will react to your
moves. Remember what I said, you cannot
AFFORD to lose money. Before you startthat new sales push or promotion, figure out
how the competition will react and prepare.
How they react is as important as how the
customer reacts. Business is a battle for
the mind of the customer. A well prepared
battle plan always includes an analysis of the
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F
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“A laser beam without focus is just a really expensive flashlight”
Mark Bruno
Laser is an acronym for light
amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation.
Although not scientifically the same
thing as a flashlight, without focus the end
result is pretty much the same thing. The
ability of a laser to cut flesh in surgery or
steel in a factory, is the result of the ability
to focus the energy of the beam on a minute
space. This focused energy then exerts a
tremendous amount of light energy onto a
small space, resulting in the cutting we are
all so familiar with.
Life is very much like a piece of steel;
a flat sub-straight waiting for someone to
apply energy to it so as to give it form.
Focus
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focused. I cannot and will not have the energy
Focus
As a young man I was strongly
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gy
in this lifetime to accomplish everything I
want. I have to focus.
A wise man once said “you can have
ANYTHING you want, you just can’t have
EVERYTHING you want”.
This I believe is one of the major failures
of entrepreneurs. Especially really smart
ones. God in his wisdom has created some
people to have the vision to see what others
don’t. Perhaps it is his way of advancing
society. The problem is that gift alwayscomes with responsibility. Just being able
to visualise something does not mean you
will have the time or the resources to build
it. You need to learn to choose. I find this
my single biggest weakness and one I have
struggled to control. Unless I limit the
options of my life I exhaust myself runningbetween them.
The bible says that a wise man considers
whether or not he has the materials to
complete the building before he begins
(paraphrased from proverbs). This is very
sound wisdom. Make sure you finish what
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y g g y
influenced by a book written in 1938 by
Napoleon Hill. That famous book is called
“Think and Grow Rich”. I studied that book
for years. I even took passages from it and
pasted them to the walls of my room. The
bad news for me was that the book could
not penetrate me. I constantly repeated the
words of the book. Visualised the concepts
and told myself to believe. It didn’t seem to
work. It was only much later that I decided to
look at Napoleon Hills work from a differentperspective. What if I took every chapter in
the book and put the word Focused in front of
it. The chapters would now read something
like this:
Focused Desire
Focused FaithFocused Auto-Suggestion
And so on and so forth. This proved to
be a key for me understanding a universal
truth. In order for all that faith, desire and
suggestion to have meaning, it has to be
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A Word onyou start. More importantly, make sure you
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“Mindset- A fixed mental attitudeor disposition that predetermines
a person’s responses to and
interpretations of situations”.
Wikipedia
I am often asked by young entrepreneurs
what the proper mindset is to ensure their
success. This is obviously a difficult
question to answer. By definition, a mindset
is a fixed mental attitude or disposition. I
think that this mindset changes according
to circumstances and thus cannot really bedefined.
When asked this question, if I find
myself, as I am now, not discussing mindset
but Will.
Napoleon Hill said “anything you can
conceive and believe you can achieve”. I
A Word onMindset
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y p y y
stay focused on what you started or else
you will turn a very expensive laser into a
flashlight.
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Unlike a lot of other books of this nature,
A Word on Mindset
believe this. Every great structure, business
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this book seemed to take both a scientific
and practical approach to the concept of will.
To me, one of the most important things
pointed out in the book, is the true function
of will in our lives.
I quote, “The true function of the will
is not to act against the personality to force
the accomplishments of one’s purpose. The
will has a directive and regulatory function;
it balances and constructively utilizes all the
other activities and energies of the humanbeing without repressing any of them”.
This was freeing to me. As I said earlier,
I always struggled with the concept of will,
or willpower. The use of will to accomplish
goals just seemed to take too much energy. I
always saw will as the energy that moved the
car. Not as the energy that steered it.If I take this example a little further,
imagine how much energy you would expect
to exert pushing a car up a hill. Now imagine
how little energy you would have to spend
steering it.
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or institution began as an illusion in the mind
of its creator. Even this world in which we
live began as a thought form in the mind of
God.
Credendo Vides- Believing is seeing.
All creation is an act of will. No matter
what other aspects you bring to the creative
process, if you do not bring a dedicated will,
you will not complete it.
But what is this thing we call will. Well
we all think we know what will power is,and we talk about having free will and the
will to live, but what is “will” really?
I have always been challenged by the
concept of will. To believe that my life is
really just an act of my own will puts me under
a lot of pressure. To think that willpower
is some sort of power that allows me toreach my goals by way of, out powering
my adversaries and my own failings, is just
exhausting.
Some time ago I came across a book
entitled “The Act Of Will” by Roberto
Assagioli M.D.
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car in two directions at once. You have to
A Word on Mindset
Will and willpower is really a matter
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choose the highest and best choice for you
at the time. Choose to steer the path that is
most consistent with your chosen destination.
A path that gets you there in one piece and
ready to compete.
If you always maintain the mindset that
you are the captain of your ship and make
choices that use the least amount of energy
(will), you will get where you are going.
A latin proverb says “a drop of water
makes a hole in the stone, not by its force,but by its constant falling”.
The key to overall success is consistency,
this requires the will to stay on course. The
best mindset to have in any venture is the
one that gets you to the exit.
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of staying on course. Consistently making
decisions in the same direction. This is a
very important concept to understand. To
consistently make decisions in the same
direction, you have to limit yourself.
You cannot do everything you want.
The more options you allow yourself, the
more WILL you will have to apply to stay
on course.
Maybe you are smart enough and wilful
enough for that, but I am not.All aspects of creation are a function of
limitation. Take the book you are reading.
That book is there as a result of limitations.
The pages and print are constrained to a
certain size that allows them to have function
for you. If they were not constrained in their
current form you would not be able to readthem.
I am not trying to limit your vision, or to
stop you from going where you want to go. I
am merely pointing out to you that to create
is an act of will. An act of will is by itself
is an act of constraint. You cannot steer a
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Energy
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“It takes as much energy to wishas it does to plan”.
Eleanor Roosevelt
While we were on the subject of WILL,
I thought that I should mention another of my favourite topics, ENERGY.
I am not what you might consider an
extremely energetic person. My wife can
work circles around me and so can many
others. I have always felt a bit guilty about
this. After all aren’t entrepreneurs supposed
to be these highly energetic, workaholictypes that never stop achieving. If that is so,
I am in big trouble because, to tell you the
truth, it doesn’t take much to wear me out.
So how do I find the energy to do what I
need to do. Read on.
Energy
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the energy in such a way as to give us the
Energy
When I was a kid, I remember my math
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desired output.
If you think about this practically you
have plenty of examples of this in your own
life. What you apply your energy to you will
succeed.
Now if that is true why do we not have
what we think we want? Well the answer
is easy. We have come to believe in our
modern world that energy is a free and ever
increasing resource. This is just not true.
Not even for your body and mind.Each individual is born with a certain
capacity for energy, much like a generator
that is built. The generator has a certain
capacity for output that will not change. If
you push the generator for more power or
run it for too long without a rest, it burns out.
And so will you.The secret lies not in finding ways
to increase your energy, the secret lies in
learning to allocate the energy you have
correctly.
If we look again at the above attributes
box and think about the energy, output
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book had a picture in it that looked something
like this:
>> X + 3 =
The idea of this picture was to show
the attributes of the box and how the output
changed as you changed the input. For
example if I put a 3 as the input for the above
box, the attributes of the box converts theoutput to a 6. If I put a 4 as the input, the
output is 7. So on and so forth.
Life is also pretty much like this. Our
will is made up of several attributes that fit
into the box. I would put the following into
the attribute box of my will.
>>Focus DirectionDrive ResolvePurpose
=
What we put into the box as an input is
energy. The attributes of our will then direct
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do an energy audit before you begin. Figure
h h f fi i i
Energy
equation, we will see a truth that may have
b i d N i h I l k
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out how much of your finite energy capacity
is allocated to things that can change and
how much is allocated to things that can’t
change. Then and only then will you have
a clear view of whether you can finish what
you start. If you make the mistake of thinking
you will just generate more energy, you are
headed for a breakdown.
Remember the use of focus, will and
energy are all choices. Choices you will
have to make. Rather make them up front,so as not to fall down just as you reach the
goal line.
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been missed. Neither you nor I lack energy
to accomplish our goals. Our energy is just
misused.
Take the above attributes box and put
different inputs into the front. Instead of applying the energy with the goal of making
money, apply the energy with the goal of
attracting the opposite sex. The box still
works, however your generator has used a
portion of its allocation toward attracting
the opposite sex and so has less for making
money. This may not be a bad thing, I meanall work and no play makes Johnny a dull
boy. But the truth exists nonetheless. How
many people have you known that were
horrible sales people, but excellent pick up
artist. There is not defect in the attributes
of their will, nor is there a lack of energy.
The problem is a misuse of energy. If thoseindividuals put more energy into sales than
picking up women, they would be rich as
well as good looking and it would take a lot
less effort to achieve their original goal.
If you are going to succeed in building
your business make sure you take the time to
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Putting it AllT
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“That’s my story and I’m stickingto it”
Collin Quinn, Saturday Night Live
What makes a great entrepreneur has
been a hotly contested question for aslong as they have existed. All of us have
a vision of perfection and are driven by the
existence of men like Steven Jobs or Bill
Gates. These men, like shining beacons,
show us what is possible when an individual
combines timing, talent and dedication
toward a focused goal. The search for whatmade them what they are, can be a long one.
Entrepreneurs are complex individuals that
come from all walks of life. Not all of them
fit into the Steven Jobs mould. Some are not
what we would call attractive, or articulate,
or even powerful. Some entrepreneurs are
Together
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My greatest gift in life is to know and
have known some amazing entrepreneurs
Putting it All Together
very simple people, adding value along the
way and working diligently to fill the role
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have known some amazing entrepreneurs.
Some of them scaled the heights to become
billionaires; others have had much less
success. All of them learned a lot along the
way and were kind enough to pass it on to
me.
It is my greatest desire that the path I
have laid out here is of benefit to the reader.
That the experiences I have highlighted add
value to your life and that the wisdom of my
teachers is passed on to you.
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way and working diligently to fill the role
they have been given.
The road of an entrepreneur can be
tough. Much like a missionary, we strive to
convince the unbelieving and to convert the
hostile.
Just like missionaries, some
entrepreneurs fall along the way, losing
all in the pursuit of the inner belief in their
concept.
My purpose in writing this book wasto aid you along the path. To put on paper
the lessons I have learned along the way.
Lessons taught to me by great people and
horrible circumstance. If I have done well, I
will have kept some of you from making the
same mistakes myself, and others like me
have made. Others I will have encouraged tokeep going. Perhaps I have even convinced
some not to begin. I hope so. To begin
means to commit, to commit means to give
up something. Better not to begin, then to
start and not finish, thus giving something
up for nothing.
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Acknowledgements
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There are many people who deserveto be acknowledged in my life and in their
contribution to this work.
First and foremost I have two
beautiful children named Nicollo (yes after
Machiavelli) and Daniella. Thanks to them
for their love and motivation.
I also have what I consider the perfectwife, beautiful, smart, aggressive and
supportive. Thanks to her for allowing me
the down time to actually write something.
To my mother whose grandmother was a
Clemens and has passed on to me, the genes
of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). I long to
be as witty as he was.
To Duane for your insightful critiques.
To Amanda Forrow for insisting I write
this.
To Anita for all your support and help.
Acknowledgements
97
To Kim for adding her editing
expertise
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expertise.
To Mike and Adonnlee Milligan for all
their support and help and for showing all of
us the true purpose of wealth.
To all the individuals who have
contributed so much to my life.
To anyone who reads this. You’re the
reason it was created.
Should you have any comments
or questions you can reach me at
[email protected] luck to all of you.
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