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Kindle Notes & Highlights
To be a truly successful entrepreneur, there can never be any doubt in your mind that you will accomplish your goals, even if you must occasionally alter your plans to hit the same targets. Your success is as much a matter of your willpower as it is of the skills you will develop on your journey.
Even though your attitude is focused on winning, you should not be emotionally attached to the outcome of any one transaction or activity.
Your job is to make logic out of chaos: to tell people how to act quickly to solve problems but not dwell on the confusion and problems themselves.
When there is energy and activity, it shows the entrepreneurs are doing everything they can to make sure their products and services are getting as much exposure as possible, and in the greatest variety of ways possible.
Another type of business structure derived in Japan is called keiretsu.
A keiretsu group's synergy delivers extra power and profits because the businesses proactively work together towards mutual success.
So being too abrasive towards your apparent competition could have side effects that prove to be detrimental when it comes time to working together, and it could even hurt your broader reputation.
Remember that he is your opponent or competitor, not a personal enemy.
Ultimately, burning bridges can harm your bottom line and your morale. Certainly, be very aggressive in your market but draw the line at unacceptabl...
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The idea behind leverage is that as you amplify your success and money, the resources you control become even more of a draw to vendors as well as potential employees, partners, customers and investors. This means that each dollar at a larger company should go farther than the same dollar at a smaller company. The more resources you have, the more attractive you are to the business world.
Kaizen follows three principles: 1) process and results; 2) systemic thinking (the big picture); and 3) non-blaming, because to blame is counterproductive and wasteful in practice.
The Toyota Way has been called “a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work.” If you are not striving for constant improvements within your company, your business is not evolving, and neither are your employees.
Seiri (Tidiness): Unused and unneeded items are cleared out (this applies to your contact management system, too).
Seiton (Orderliness): “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Seiton focuses on the need for an orderly workplace to promote workflow. Conversely, seitan is a vegetarian meat substitute, and satan is…well, forget it.
Seiso (Cleanliness): Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean and neat daily. The key point is that maintaining cleanliness should be part of everyday work—not an occasional activity initiated just when things get too messy.
Seiketsu (Standardization): When the first three are set in place, they are then standardized. Create the rules, and then regulate them. Since it is easy to fall into old habits, this sets easy-to-f...
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Shitsuke (Sustenance): This refers to educating and maintaining standards. Once the previous 4S's have been established, they become the new way to operate. Mai...
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Mix up your marketplace by constantly finding and creating alternative products and services to differentiate yourself from your competitors. This fundamental business strategy could create extra profit margin for your business while baffling the competitors.
Many people try to establish deal leverage or try to get an underhanded credit float by paying bills late. This approach will backfire, is a waste of time, and proves you are not paying attention to the critical tasks your time requires. There is no reason to upset vendors and force them to hold you in disdain for paying them late.
If you can manage each individual transaction without a significant increase in fixed costs, you can end up with a company that possibly has high fixed costs but low marginal costs—in other words, a scalable operation.
When you are purchasing from a vendor for the first time, and you believe your account is or will be one of their largest or best, then it's appropriate to ask for what's called most favored nation (MFN) status in your contracts. MFN will ensure that other customers (possibly including your competitors) are not getting better pricing, and that if they do in the future, you would be entitled to the same.
The most important source of data for you to gather and input is your personal network of contacts which includes the people you have met or solicited within your immediate business community. But this is a relatively low volume of contacts to work with compared to the broader community of those who you have yet to meet.
