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It is time to get paid to learn.
Every night I would take home
a different software manual, and I would read it. Of course the reading was captivating. Peachtree Accounting. Wordstar, Harvard Graphics, PFS, dBASE, Lotus, Accpac … I couldn’t put them down. Every night I would read some after getting home, no matter how late.
not because I was the most knowledgeable about computers, but because they knew I would do whatever it took to get the job done.
Everything I read was public. Anyone could buy the same books and magazines. The same information was available to anyone who wanted it. Turns out most people didn’t want
All things I had read. I expected the ongoing response of: “Oh yeah, I read that too in such-and-such.” That’s not what happened. They hadn’t read it then, and they still haven’t started reading it.
Most people won’t put in the time to get a knowledge advantage.
Of course, my wife hates that I read more than three hours almost every day, but it gives me a level of comfort and confidence in my businesses.
when I come back, they aren’t there. Come to find out the next day, Bill stole my girls. As I would learn later in life, money makes you extremely handsome.
Lesson #1: Always ask yourself how someone could preempt your products or service. How can they put you out of business? Is it price? Is it service? Is it ease of use?
Lesson #2: Always run your business like you are going to be competing with biggest technology companies in your industry—Google, Facebook, Oracle, Microsoft, whomever. They may not be your direct competitors. They may be a vendor. They may be a direct competitor and a vendor. Whatever they may be to your business, if you are in the technology business in any way shape or form, you have to anticipate that you will have to compete with one of them at some point.
I could take the time to read a fiction book, but I don’t. I would rather read websites, newspapers, magazines, looking for ideas and concepts that I can use. I spend time in bookstores because one idea from a book or magazine can make me money.
The edge is getting so jazzed about what you do, you just spent 24 hours straight working on a project and you thought only a couple of hours had passed.
The edge is knowing that you have to be the smartest guy in the room when you have your meeting and you are going to put in the effort to learn whatever you need to learn to get there.
The edge is knowing that people think you’re crazy, and they are right, but you don’t care what they think.
getting paid your age was good, double your age was great.
The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.
The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t.
The thing you do need to do is learn. Learn accounting. Learn finance. Learn statistics. Learn as much as you can about business. Read biographies about businesspeople. You don’t have to focus on one thing, but you have to create a base of knowledge so you are ready when it’s time. You never know when that time will come. But you can be ready when it does. You never know, you might end up in the adventure business!
The greatest obstacle to destiny is debt, both personal and financial. The more people you are obligated to, the harder it is to focus on yourself and figure things out.
Of course, no one wanted to comment on how lucky I was to spend countless hours reading software or Cisco Router manuals, or sitting in my house testing and comparing new technologies,
“Everyone has got the will to win; it’s only those with the will to prepare that do win.”
There are few things more exciting than starting a business and getting things rolling. The fear, the adrenaline, the excitement, the hope that every entrepreneur feels … all are intoxicating.
I have developed a lot of rules that have been almost infallible. Here are a few of them that I use religiously to this day: 1. Everyone is a genius in a bull market
2. Win the battles you are in before you take on new battles
If you are the main engine behind your company, taking on new challenges will only dilute your ability to win the wars you are in and increase the risk of injuring your primary business or core competencies.
Win the battles you are in first, then worry about expansion internationally or into new businesses.
3. You can drown in opportunity
I’m one of the least organized people I know. Today, I have an assistant and others that help me run my life. If you ask me where I’m going to be in three days, I have no idea. I do know that I have a kick-ass assistant who is going to make sure that when I wake up that morning, I know where I’m going and how to get there.
Rule #1: Sweat equity is the best startup capital
started in dorm rooms, tiny offices or garages. There weren’t 100-page-long business plans. In all of my businesses, I started by putting together spreadsheets of my expenses, which allowed me to calculate how much revenue I needed to break even and keep the lights on in my office and my apartment.
Once I could put the idea on paper, I gave the company a name.
I tried to find people to shoot holes in the name.
There are only two reasonable sources of capital for startup entrepreneurs: your own pocket and your customers’ pockets.
When I (hopefully) turn 90 and look back at my life, would I regret having done it, or not having done it?
Success is about making your life a special version of unique that fits who you are—not what other people want you to be.
In the Internet age, one happy customer might make a note in their blog or forward an email. An unhappy customer starts a blog, writes about how unhappy he is, takes out an ad on search engines to let people who are looking for the product know how mad he is, starts an email forwarding chain asking people to boycott the product, does a YouTube video about it and games YouTube to make it one of the Top 10 most-viewed videos
what could one unhappy customer do?
In business, one of the challenges is making sure that your product is the easiest to experience and to sell.
Moral of the story: Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.
get as broad based a business education as you possibly can. Finance, accounting, sales, more sales, even more sales, management, etc.
When I was growing up I was told over and over again, if you can sell, you can always get a job.
If you don’t have a job, or don’t have the job you want, get a job in sales. Every single person on this planet can learn to be a great salesperson. All you have to do is put in the effort and care about your company, your prospects and customers.
Once you excel at selling, getting a job in sports is easy. But then again, if you are good, I’m sure the company you work for is going to do everything they can to keep you.
The more you push someone who has said no, the more likely you are to appear desperate, and that desperation impacts your brand as a salesperson and the brand of the product.
That is what a lazy person is going to do: spend all of two seconds hitting the resend button. A smart, focused and successful salesperson will gear up and do the homework necessary to find their next customer.
Your biggest enemies are your bills. The more you owe, the more you stress. The more you stress over bills, the more difficult it is to focus on your goals. More importantly, if you set your monthly income requirements too high, you eliminate a significant number of opportunities. The cheaper you can live, the greater your options. Remember that.
Once you have found out what you love to do, there is only one goal: to be the best in the world at it.
Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happy. Listen to them. Make them happy. But don’t rely on them to create the future road map for your product or service. That’s your job.
Hire people who you think will love working there.
