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Tag: Success Resources

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Success Takes More than Skill

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Two hamburger joints open back in ’67 … we’ll call one Bob’s Burger Shack. Great hamburgers! The other shop is McDonalds. The rest is history, yes?

Were Mickey D’s burgers really that much better than Bob’s? I mean, really … how hard is it to get a burger right? Even Ray Croc himself admitted this to eager business school students he lectured in his lifetime. He’d ask them, ‘How many people in here can make a better hamburger than McDonalds?’ Everyone would raise their hand because everybody’s made a tasty burger before, at least tasty by their own standards. But then he’d ask, ‘How many people make more money than McDonalds?’ Naturally, all hands dropped.

It’s a simple yet eloquent demonstration that it doesn’t matter whether you have a better idea, a better product, or a better service. In business, the only thing that matters is getting that product, idea, or service out to as many people as possible, and/or at as much profit as possible.

It’s the learning curve of the entrepreneur—amassing the skills necessary to take what you have to offer to a mass audience profitably, which anybody can learn how to do, but it also takes a nerve and determination that most people just don’t show when it comes to taking control of their financial future. That kind of moxie can be the rope that saves you instead of binds you in stagnation after a big failure.

Few people have the kind of moxie that Karl Eller has. He’s a legend in Arizona but a giant in business period. He started out in billboard advertising; was one of the founders of the NBA Phoenix Suns basketball team; president of Columbia Pictures at one point, which he helped merge into Coca-Cola—amazingly successful businessman.

But he had a major setback, to say the least. He built another company called Circle K—a kind of convenience store—into the second largest chain in the U.S. during the 80s. Under his leadership, the company grew from something like $750 million in sales to $3.4 billion!

Then the company filed bankruptcy in the 90s, due in part to just a bad turn in business. He was forced to leave with $100 million in personal debt! Can you imagine being $100 million in debt? Not your company … you, personally???

Instead of declaring bankruptcy, though, Eller dug himself out by going back into what he knew well: outdoor advertising. Eller built another media company and merged with Clear Channel Communications for a then-record $1.15 billion!

And he did this when most people are retiring.

His track record is elegant proof that the question isn’t what type of business you want to go into—or at least that’s not the essential question. You’re going to find your niche, and you’re going to be better at that particular field of interest than others—whether we’re talking about burgers or billboards.

The essence of success in business, I believe, is the intangible quality that means having integrity no matter what the situation—win or loss—not being afraid to take risks, and your ability to bounce back after tremendous setbacks.

What do you think? What do you consider to be some of the intangible qualities of business success? The millionaire Mind community wants to hear from you!!!

Facing the Consequences

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One of the most impactful words in our language is consequences—this concept that action means something because it creates reactions, results: consequences. When we think of “facing the consequences,” that usually means something “bad.”

Likewise, inaction has consequences in that if we don’t do certain things that can also affect our lives, and sometimes with the greatest negative consequences.

However, there can be good consequences when we face up to the choices and decisions that we’ve been putting off. Every change in life happens when our mind collides with a new idea and goes off in a different direction. Once that happens, there are an infinite number of possible consequences that can happen.

In this sense, it’s pretty elegant but simple proof that you don’t necessarily have to be super smart to create the possibilities you want—though education, intelligence, and wisdom can’t hurt. You don’t have to be super-certain—though confidence and courage help more often than hinder.

Successful people are successful because they do more things that increase the probabilities that they will achieve the success they want. The probabilities say that if you try enough things in the right ways, eventually you’ll try the right thing at the right time with the right result for you.

One of the things I’ve found with regard to new ideas is that smart people continually move themselves within a stream—where they are connecting with the right people and events serendipitously, simply because of a decision they may have made years ago that brought them to that spot. At some point that person said, “Yes, I think I’ll try this and commit to it.”

They’re in a flow where the people, and the situations, and the ideas are colliding and pin-balling back and forth. The downside to that is it can be over-whelming sometimes, causing paralysis because all these ideas sound good but—jack of all trades, master of none.

The upside is that you can never tell which idea is going to be the one you need at that time. You only know that if you increase the number of ideas, the likelihood or probability that you’ll get the right idea at the right time goes up dramatically.

And sometimes all you need is one new idea to change the whole course of your life. One small change in the ingredients can change your whole world, or maybe impact the world. We’re seeing proof positive of that across a whole region of the globe today.

Bernard Baruch, one of the wealthiest men in America back in the day, started off penniless. When asked what was the key to becoming wealthy he said, “The starting point to becoming wealthy is to decide to become wealthy.” Look at his consequences.

The average self made millionaire goes broke two or three times throughout the course of his or her lifetime, which means there’s hope for all of us. Most Americans start off broke but like it so much they keep going back to it throughout their lives. Break the cycle.

What were some of the most powerful consequences of a decision that you made in your life? What other possibilities opened up for you? Share your experiences with the Millionaire Mind community. We want to hear from you!

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Poor Receivers Don’t Get Rich

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Receiving the Keys

What kind of receiver are you? If you’re reading this, chances are you consider yourself a giver of sorts. You might even beat yourself up a little bit for thinking you don’t give enough. Then again, there are those who think they’re givers but really aren’t.

The point is we tend to focus on giving as “goodness”; of feeling good or intending good. But what kind of receiver are you? Do you take compliments bashfully? Do you say, “Aw, it was really nothing”? Do you tell them to stop teasing you, or that you weren’t fishing for a compliment?

One of the big reasons most people don’t reach their full potential, financially or otherwise, is that they are very, very poor receivers. ‘You’re not worthy’ because of the way you look, or what you do, or how much money you have, or don’t have.

You’re worthy because the Great Spirit, or Universe, or God, or whatever you want to call a higher power, has put you on the earth at this time. There’s nothing else to think about! Since you’re as worthy as the next person, you’re as deserving to receive as anyone else. Anything else that your mind says around that is made up, non-supportive crappola!

And then there’s that phrase that a lot of people heard when they were young, and we still hear it: “It’s better to give than to receive.” Of course it is, isn’t it?

I’m sorry, but let’s just call that what it is: bad math! If both have to be there for the other to exist, how on earth could one be better than the other? How is that possible? Somebody enlighten me please!

By the way, the original buysoma.net intention of that ‘better to give’ statement actually translates more correctly into ‘It’s better to be in a position to give than in a position where you need to receive’.

In other words it’s better to be rich! Some people will read that and get that little twinge of guilt—How can I so selfishly justify wanting to be rich? Fine, I understand, I was there too, so let’s try this from another angle.

How does it feel to give, especially when that person didn’t ask you for anything yet you knew they were in need? Most people say it feels great, yes? It’s especially the grateful receivers that make us feel even better about our giving, yes?

But if you’re not willing to receive, you’re ripping off those people from the other side of the equation who want to give. And we’re proving that both giving and receiving are great. Two birds with one stone. If you’re in a position to give, that’s wealth—whether it’s money, time or kindness.

So here’s your practice. No more returning compliments for a specific time! If someone gives you a compliment, you’re not allowed to give them a compliment at that time because it dishonors them (of course use your better judgment, but you get the point!).  Returning a compliment because you think you have to robs them of the full joy of giving you the compliment. And it robs you of receiving.

The key is to recognize that whether you’re “worthy” or not is a feeling, not a fact. It’s a story that you made up and now you own. Disown that! Receive with the same joy that you give.

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