Why? Improve Your Position

Improve your position.  This mantra for success is something people forget every day.  When you get up in the morning and keep doing the same thing, you end up in the same position at the end of every day.

Fear.  When you think about it, the real root cause of doing the same thing every day is the fear of the unknown.  Fear of leaving your comfort zone.  Fear of not making that next car payment.  Fear of missing time with your friends, fear of losing time with your co-workers.

There is always that one person though.  That one person that takes a little time away from the group.  There is always that one person that moves out and up.  That person that you watch and wonder why it wasn't you.

The secret?  Improve your position.

There is more to it though.  In order to improve your position, you need to define "improve".  How do you know what improvement is if you don't have a destination?  The key is to create a vision or destination that is a very clear vision of where you are going.  When you have that vision you can improve your position.

In simple terms, if you want to go to the park at the end of the block, and your neighbor asks you to watch the game, are you getting closer to the park?  If you want that new car, and your friend calls with tickets to the concert that cost $100, does the concert get you closer to the new car.

These are obvious examples.  The most difficult involve an overload of information.  The secret to speed in improving your position is filtering out the chaff or useless information.

Simple decisions can hold you back if you don't pay attention, or pay too much attention to the chaff instead of the important points.

Living life with a purpose means having a "mission" in everything you do.  Even on vacation you can have a "mission" or "purpose".  It might only be to "relax".   Everyone needs to recharge from time to time, and that means different things to different people.  For me it means turning off the office and work in the front of the brain and letting the back 90% do it's job.   For other people it is just to get the family "off their back".

How can you improve your position while on vacation?  The reality is that you can always practice cutting through the chaff, even while traveling.  Always listening will bombard you with a lot of useless information, and it might just get you that great idea or solve the problem you have been having at the office.

Every time you get a call, ask yourself, "Does this improve my position or put me into a position where I can improve my position?"  If it doesn't, learn to say "no" if you want to move ahead.

Quick Tips To Help Your Success

I became an entrepreneur because I did not want to be a dentist like my father, but I wanted some of the parts of his lifestyle. I learned very early on that working on Saturday and taking a weekday off was a lot more fun. I did that throughout my high school and college life, which explains my grades. 

School is just an extension of society designed to help you work within the confines of the ”standard” workweek. Very few schools teach entrepreneurism the way entrepreneurs teach it. If you take a look at most of the very high achieving entrepreneurs, you'll notice they didn't finish college. At some point they broke away from the norm and have stayed away ever since.

If you want to become a real entrepreneur, Remember some basic rules. 

1. Be careful who you listen to. Do they live the life you want to live? Do they do the work you want to do? Only take away the information that is relevant. As a side rule, I generally like to make sure they are making more money than I am if it is an area of business.  Yes the coach has a coach (or three).

2. There is never "good enough".  You can always to better, and should.  This doesn't mean have regret, it just means stay relevant by staying on top of your game.

3. Be accountable somehow. Self starting is a very rare discipline that takes a lot of time to learn. The whole point of vision books, vision boards and goal sheets is to keep you looking towards your destination. The problem is if the destination isn't important enough to have your break away from your comfort zone and your pack, you will never break away. If you make yourself accountable either through a coach, mentor or competitive friend you are much more likely to achieve your goals. 

To lose 30 pounds last year, I made a big painful bet with my business partner.  I didn't lose a single pound on my own, but the minute we made the wager we both started shedding pounds.

What Are The Real Keys To Success?

As you know, I have been trying to fine tune the "formula for success" so that more people can create a lifestyle that they want, not just one they settle for.

I want to help you find a better way to live your life that fits you.  You can't be me and I can't be you, but we are both human and so the rules must be similar.

Recently I found the book was worth adding to my reading list for my clients and sharing with you.

The book is Cal Newport's "Be So Good They Can't Ignore You".  Cal Newton argues that chasing your dreams is a waste of time.  I agree.  You can have all the passion in the world for something but if the world doesn't it want it that way from you, you will go broke.

Like many people there are several things that I am passionate about.  I accept that those passions will not provide me sufficient income to maintain the lifestyle I expect. Instead those passions are my hobbies.

What he says to do is act like Steve Jobs at Apple.  Steve created a bunch of products and saw what worked and what didn't and he kept fine tuning based on the feedback of the market.  Remember the Newton?  Even the original iPhone (or should we call it the "Classic" now?) wasn't really much to speak up.  The bugs weren't worked out until the iPhone 3G.

Do the same thing in life.  Pursue a bunch of things and when you find one you like and that the market keeps asking your for, become great at it.

One of the aspects I really enjoy about blogging is the feedback from the market. It doesn't matter how many people comment on my blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed. When they do, I always appreciate it and try to respond in kind.

The metric that I really like however for blogs are the number of reads, and the number of reposts. It's very easy to see what people want to hear about from me when I look at those metrics. When I write about flying airplanes the scores are dismal. When I write about building a business or real estate empire the graph shoots off the page. There is no question what people want me to write about.

If you are at a crossroads, or stuck on a plateu, keep visiting this blog, or check out our new jumpstart program opening in March.

Should You Quit And Follow Your Passion?

Quitting everything and going after your dream is the subject of dozens of books.  As a business owner and industry leader many other business owners wanted to duplicate my success and would ask me how to do it.  

To be truthful, I have told many people that they had to find their own dream and pursue it.  They couldn’t be me, my dreams, mission and goals are mine and mine alone.  Many people have paid me for advice, and until now, I was overlooking two pieces of key information in the formula.

I have to give credit where credit is due, because I have been taking this for granted instead of making sure everyone understood these keys to success. Cal Newport in his book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, pointed out something that was right there all along and I was glancing over it.  

There is a bit of irony here since I am taking a hosting and interviewing class right now from Marki Costello, and just about everyone in the class will glance right past the “bombshells” and go for the “safe” route.   This is exactly what happens in business.  As entrepreneurs we get caught up in our mission and forget to listen to the market.

Some time ago another entrepreneur friend told me “You have to keep a lot of irons in the fire, and go with the ones that get hot.”   At the time it didn’t make much sense, and it is still not advice I would give everyone, but Cal Newport puts it a better way that makes sense to me, and is worth passing on.

The First Key

The foundation of any endeavor that requires financial success as part of the grade has to first pass the test of the market.  Simply put, you must do something people will pay you for.  It doesn’t matter how good you are, if there isn’t a market need, and you can’t convince people that they have one, you can be the greatest, and still be broke.

Lets face it, money does matter.  In a way it should right?  Society rewards us with money for solving their problems, not ours.  When you solve your problems you relieve a little stress, when you solve societies problems you are rewarded with money and power.  That isn’t selling out, that is being real.

The Second Key

Cal Newport also points out that you might get lucky and find that your dream is also financially rewarding, but that is rarely the case.  When you explore the lives of people we call “successful” in both life and financial rewards, he noted that they did several different things, and went with one that worked and became the best at that "thing".

The two keys together provide and an interesting insight, that was sitting right in front of me.  I had been skipping right over it all along, and yet it is exactly why my residential technology business did well in California, and only average to boring in Texas.  The market wasn’t as willing to pay for the technology in Texas no matter how good I (an my company) was.  In California I had both the market and the skills, in Texas, it was mostly just idle skills.

Instead of looking at it as putting many irons in the fire at once, I think this is more like putting an iron in the fire, branding the cow, and seeing if anyone will buy the brand.  If not, get another iron and try again.  If they do, get really good at making that brand better. 

This is why truly successful people can have many successful ventures.  Richard Branson comes to mind here.  Once one Iron got hot and everyone liked the brand, he built it up and used that to buy the next iron.  While we all know the brands that stuck, records, airlines and cell phones, I am sure there are just as many or more that didn’t take and we never heard of.

Looking back over my successes and not so much successes, it is clear that success is much more a simple formula than I ever gave credit for.  Pilot? I got pretty good at it, and people pay for it. Both keys here.  Business developer and consultant? Yes people pay well for what I have learned and my knowledge in their business. Both keys here  Actor? people are starting to buy it, so I’ll probably do more, have a market that will pay, only have some skills and have a plan to improve them. Athlete?  Clearly a market, but I never got the skills to a salable level.  Musician? Ditto.  

At the end of the day, Cal Newport is right.  Trying to become a Rockstar just ended in misery, I was in love with the dream, not the product and process so I never attained the skill level needed for my brand to sell.   Practicing chords and notes made me nuts.   In business, flying and acting, for whatever reason I don’t have any problem pushing to new limits every time I go to work.  I like building the skills and thus obtained the second key.

If you have been chasing your passion and it feels like you are chasing your tail, Cal’s book might help you get on the right track.  

What Is The Value Of An Idea? How Do You Sell It?

Just about every conference I go to where there are serial entrepreneurs and business owner the question about the "Value of an Idea" pops up in one form or another.  It usually isn't that direct.

Normally it starts out with someone approaching me and telling me their great idea.  They will spend several minutes elaborating on how this idea can be monetized and how they are going to get rich.  At some point the conversation turns and they say something like this, "So what do you think?  Do you want to take this and run with it?"

To begin with my answer is always a resounding "No".  The funny ones are the people who come back year after year.  Sometimes they are worried I will "steal" their idea.  One guy wanted me to sign an NDA before telling me anything.  Obviously I have no idea what his great idea was.

When this happened last week it occurred to me that all these people are really asking is "What is the value of my idea?"  They are also indirectly asking if it is good enough for me.

I have a couple of simple rules that I live by, mostly because I figured out doing otherwise meant I ended up working for free for someone else.  The first rule of course is "follow the money".  Anytime I see something crazy on the news or in politics, it is easy to follow the money to find the real issue.  Most people won't do the homework though.

The second rule is that I don't take financial or business advice from anyone making less than I do.  In fact, I use 5x as a rule.  All of my coaches make at least five times the money I make.  Yes the coach has a coach.  In one area the coach makes less than I do overall, but makes several times what I make in that specific area, which passes the litmus test.

So how does this relate to the value of an idea?  Basically if your track record is that of Sam Ginn, then I'll listen, and maybe want to get involved.  The first time I met Mr. Ginn, I wasn't following that rule and it cost me.  Instead I listened to me. The same was true when I met Sandy Lerner.  Two strikes is all I needed.

For everyone else, until you have proven that YOU can add value to an idea, it is just that, an idea.  Nothing more than electrons in your brain moving around in a way that only you can truly understand it.  Even if you have a working product, it may not have any more value yet.

The value of an idea has two main variables.  First is the number of people it solves a problem for.  The bigger that number, the bigger the potential value.  Second is a factor on which you are able to execute.  If your ability to execute on your idea is zero, and you know how to deliver clean water to everyone, guess what?  The value of your idea is zero.

Last year a friend of mine presented a nice little office product.  It was something he wanted and felt the world needed.  I looked at it for several days, talked about it with other potential users and asked if they would buy it.  The answer was no across the board.  The problem it solved wasn't a pain point with any of us, so the idea, while nice, needed to compete on price alone with existing products.  How fun is that?

Occasionally someone gets lucky and sees the value of an idea and buys it or rents it from the person who had the idea.  Bill Gates saw the value of PC-DOS and bought it, making himself among the richest in the world.   Ever hear of Seattle Computer Products?  Didn't think so, they created QDOS and later PC-DOS which is what Bill Gates bought to create MS-DOS.

To Seattle Computer Products, PC-DOS was a necessity for them.  They didn't see the real value.  What they did though was have a working product that someone could buy, and Bill Gates did.  Even PC-DOS was more than an idea when Microsoft took it over.

The genius of Microsoft was asking IBM for a very small cut of the PC sales at IBM in exchange for MS-DOS.  I am amazed at how many times people ask me to take over their idea and give them 50%.   50% of an idea that has no value is still $0.  The value isn't the idea, it is the execution.  The idea is simply the starting point.

That is why Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Sam Ginn and Sandy Lerner can all give me advice anytime.  They know how to execute.  The value is 99.995% in the execution.

So what is the value of an idea? Nothing.  Absolutely nothing until you build it to prove it works to solve a problem or convince someone else of its ability to solve a problem.  Even then the value is still very close to .005% until you execute.

While it is true you can't execute without an idea, the idea doesn't solve a problem for one person without exection.  Solving problems is where the money is hiding.

The Carrot and Stick For Higher Personal Performance and Success

I've been bouncing around the ideas of Activity - Reward and Carrot - Stick for business and personal success.  This will be about personal success, because your business can't succeed if you aren't a success yourself.

To start I want to talk about "being" for a moment.  In the Zen sense of it all "being" is just that.  Basically meditating or doing something without effort or thought.  When you do that you are just "being".

The problem is that most people don't have any ingrained survival skills any more when they are just "being".  When a cat is "being" and it runs across a mouse, it will catch the mouse, and if it is hungry it will eat everything but the head.  It saves the head as a gift for it's master.  The cat is simply "being" a cat.

A buddhist monk can just be walking the monastery, growing food, preparing meals and meditating because they have trained to exist in this mode of being.  Most of the rest of us haven't trained to survive and therefore succeed in any mode of being.

Socialization and industrialization has conditioned our ability to survive out of our "being".  When we are hungry, we don't kill the next bird that fly's by and eat it do we?  Leave a former Navy Seal alone on the street hungry, and he will.  Why?  Because he was conditioned back to a different level of survival and to him, being hungry simply means time to gather food.  The bird is just food.

In order to succeed while you are just "being", you must first have a vision of who you want to be, where that person is going, what it took to get there, and then "become" the person who makes the journey from where you are today to the person you are "being" and therefore become.

Imagine a woman, broke, lonely and working at a dead end job barely able to make her rent.  After going to a big self help conference she decides to set some huge goals and shoot for the stars.  She decides that she is going to make $5 Million dollars this year.  She goes home reads the books, thinks about making $5 Million a year, maybe even prays to make $5 Million a year.  At the end of the day she keeps her same job, and at the end of the year, she gives up feeling that she failed because she wasn't making $5 Million for the year.

What went wrong?  Aren't we supposed to "Think and Grow Rich"?  The answer is a little more than just thinking about making $5 Million a year.  Before you can be someone who makes $5 Million per year, you have to be that person who made $24,000 per year who then made $5 Million per year.  "Being" a lottery winner or trust fund baby only works if you get lucky, and this isn't about luck or are born into a wealthy family, and this isn't about that either.

You can't pick your parents and you can't fix the lotto.

What I mean is this.  If you want to make $5 Million per year, you have to find out about people who make $5 Million per year.  They all did something to get where our woman wants to go.  One of those people made the money in a way that she would find tolerable.  Now she must "be" that person until it becomes part of her "being".

Before you can make the decision of who you will be, you need to know the sacrifices they made to get there.  You have to be ready to make similar sacrifices.  There are stories of many famous actors who finished great colleges or theater programs only to end up sleeping in their cars before their big break.  If you want to be the next Brad Pitt, are you willing to sleep in your car?  I know that "being" Brad Pitt isn't for me, and likewise this is where most people just walk away from big goals.  They aren't willing to take the sticks and thorns of the path less traveled.

You will need to know what sacrifices they endured, what sticks they were hit with, which ones they respected and avoided.   You should also know the little rewards they gave themselves on their own journey to the goal to keep moving when the journey appeared hopeless.

When you accept the sticks and carrots of the journey as your own life, then you can become someone on the journey.  Only then are you "being" the person who WILL make $5 Million per year instead of the failure who didn't make $5 Million per year.

Setting goals that you don't reach is a downward spin you need to stay out of.  You can only do that by understanding and accepting the real costs of your goals and "being" the person that pays the price to make the journey and achieve the goals.

"Being" is easier when you know what the carrots and sticks are and are willing to take them both anytime they happen.

How Are The Best Pilots Made? Are They Really Fearless?

With the recent accidents in the aviation industry, a lot of my business clients and actor friends have been asking the same question, "How?".  Occasionally I'll get "Why?".  No one has ever asked what the key to success is when things go wrong as a pilot.  The real keys of success are universal and simple.

Without being part of the accident investigation team, it is really tough to answer about any of these incidents directly with any authority.  That said, there are some common threads in pilots, business owners, realtors and actors that can help identify the best among any of those groups.

One of the biggest debates in pilot circles is of course the military v. civilian trained pilots.  At the end of the day it really depends on the kind of flying you want to do.  There are military trained pilots who have never flown a single engine airplane who would be dangerous doing it and there are civilian pilots who have never been in a spin or supersonic or even upside down who would be equally dangerous doing any of those things.

Either of them could be trained to accomplish the tasks over time.  Recently I went out for a flight review in a small airplane and the 20 year old flight instructor asked a great question.  She said "Why do all of you airline guys fly like this?" referring to my quick adjustments to the flight profile.

The explanation I gave fits the Asiana Airlines accident at SFO.  Think about it like comparing a bus to a skate board.  When a bus gets moving it is very hard to stop.  A skateboard is easy.  When you are flying an airplane that is well north of 100,000 pounds at landing, and up to 1 Million pounds like the new Airbus 380, the same rules apply.  If it begins to decend faster than you intend and you don't correct quickly, it builds momentum in a direction you don't want it to go.  Imagine that bus now going down hill and you have to stop it.  It needs a lot more brakes, and the faster it gets going the harder it is to stop.  You can always jump in front of a skateboard and stop it with one foot.

And, oh by the way, brakes on the bus can fail, that is why there are "runaway truck ramps" along steep mountain roads.

You can always treat the skateboard like the bus by correcting quickly and aggressively.  It might not be the most comfortable ride for people who aren't used to it, but is is safe.  That is basically what I was doing.  You can't ever treat the bus like a skateboard or it will simply run you over.

The other reason is that big jets don't just get power like a car or a bus.  If you are fast and let off the gas, it takes several seconds for those big engines to slow down.  On the flip side if you are slow, which is usually more dangerous that being fast and you need to add power, it may not happen for several seconds.

This also might explain a little bit about the Southwest Accident at La Guardia.  We know they got off the path, and instead of acting quickly and decisively to stop the approach and try again they tried to "save it".  That extra half second might have allowed enough momentum to build that the situation became unrecoverable.

So what is the common thread and who are better pilots?

What I have found in 30 years of flying both military and civilian is the exact same thing that I have found in business.  The successful pilots (and business owners) have learned to push the envelope and even go outside of it a little and then live to tell about it. (If you don't know what it means to push the envelope, read the last paragraph and come back.)

More importantly when they live to tell about it, they gained some respect for that corner of the envelope, and they didn't become afraid of it.  That is what separates the great from the good from the average from the marginally safe.  The great took a risk, went over the limit and learned to respect the limit without becoming fearful.  More importantly they keep doing it along different edges of the envelope and continue to build respect for the envelope.  If you have respect you have understanding.  Knowledge of the actual numbers isn't required when you have a true understanding.

If you leave the envelope and don't get understanding, you have to go do it again until you do or you learn to fear the edge instead of respecting the edge.  Fear is a paralyzing emotion which is dangerous in flying and in business.  Doing nothing when you go over the edge will almost always be catastrophic.

How does this apply to business?

The housing market is one of the greatest examples in business.  How many people do you know that used to be "real estate investors"?  If you talk about buying homes to create rentals, the fear mongers will crawl out of every corner in the room and call you on the phone at the same time.

They will tell you horror stories of bad tenants, crashing markets and the like. Instead of respecting the need to prescreen tenants, or do market research and buy right, they tell you to stay away from real estate investing and be afraid.

If you want to start a business, people will tell you about the countless hours you will have to work for free, they'll say things like "four out of five businesses fail in the first year".  Again, fear has taken over their perspective.

When you learn to respect the rules of the game and not fear them, you will find success.  I only said success was simple, I didn't say it was easy.


The Envelope -

The phrase "outside the envelope" comes from charts and graphs that engineers use to plot an aircrafts performance.  Many times these charts look like an envelope back turned at an angle.  

Flying the numbers "inside" the envelope will keep the airplane flying safely in 99.99% of all situations.  Many people never even get close to the minimum or maximum capability any more.  In Flying for example, when I learned to fly as a civilian and again in military pilot training, spins were required.  Spins are outside of the envelope.

The Importance Of "The Mind" When It Comes To Success

Earlier this year, I ended up face to face with some deeper challenges both in business and in my personal life.  I hit a road block and it looked like I might be hitting a peak in my business.  Eventually I figured out that the road block was in my mind.  Quite simply, I had become comfortable with where I was.

The bad news is customers could see it, and that isn't good for business.

Once I dug in and found the source of this belief and why I wanted to stay comfortable, I was able to remove it and move on.

Last weekend I took a workshop from another coach whose business is strictly actors.  The key difference was that I wasn't teaching, and my wife paid attention.  You see, I learned a long time agot that teaching her was a mistake.  She doesn't want to learn from me.

That lesson has been a tough one overall in fact.  Trying to teach people who don't want the lesson is a total waste of time, and just irritates people.  Thankfully I have accomplished the first step of the twelve step program for being addicted to trying to help.  If you don't ask, I won't likely offer help unless you are paying me to do it.  Then I feel obligated until you say "Stop".

For the rest of the month, I will be sharing some insights and information that hasn't made it into any of my books yet.  All of the information will be focused on "the mind" and how it can be a key to our success, or the road block that keeps us in our comfort zone.

If you are interested, come back at least once a week, and let me know what you think.

The Price Of Instant Gratification - Letting Your Goals Slip Away

As a business owner and coach, I have heard one saying over and over.  "Anything that doesn't move your towards your goals moves you away from them."

This week I spent some time thinking about that exact phrase and how to use it for my customers.  How can I illustrate this point.  At the end of the day I can't.  The saying over simplifies the truth, and ignores another truth.

Success is simple, doing it is hard.

The saying "Anything that doesn't move your towards your goals moves you away from them" is on the "doing" side of the success formula, not the simple side.

Why am I saying this?  What is the bigger truth?  I am glad you asked.

To expand the thought, I posted this on Facebook:

We spent last night grilling on the beach at Lake Tahoe talking about goals and achievements. I realized that the saying "Anything that doesn't move your towards your goals moves you away from them" isn't quite right.

I think that anything that doesn't move you towards your goals allows one of several things to happen:

1. You lose focus on the goals and lose sight of them, you might forget they ever existed- what happened to your childhood dreams.
2. Another obstacle is placed in the way - you might be trying to get a license and the government adds new rules.
3. Your action really does do something that moves you farther from your goal - You buy a new car when you are trying to buy a house and now you can't get the home loan.

The next day off you have, look at your goals, and how you are achieving them, and then take a real break. Things become more clear when you take a break and let your mind do the heavy lifting.

After posting this on Facebook, I realized that the cost of instant gratification was built right into number three.  When you buy or do something now, you give up or delay the ability to do something bigger later.  Buying that car now might prevent you from getting the house.  If home prices rise faster than your income, the car might be the reason you never get a house.

A Big Secret Of Success

One of the biggest secrets of success I have learned from personal experience and working with a host of very successful people is keeping the big goals in your sights.  That means that you 

Again Success is Simple, Doing It is Hard.

If you want a book to read about the high cost of success, I recommend the book BOYD.  Not because I am a retired military pilot, but because John Boyd chose success, and the book is a well written story of both his success and the cost of it.  For Col John Boyd, doing "it" was just what he did, it was hard on him because of the price he paid.

It is far easier to do the things that "pop up" or "need to get done" than it is to do what is really needed to move towards your goals.  Gary Keller in his new book The ONE Thing,  illustrated the difficulty of achieving team goals, and his trials of success.  At the end he figured out if you just set one goal, it was far easier for the team to achieve the one goal than it was to achieve two or more.

The same is true for you, especially in the beginning.  Set ONE goal for the day, get it done, then do the little things and the pop ups.  Over time you will learn to set a much bigger goal and then do ONE thing for the day that moves you towards the goal.  

Success doesn't require that you are always focused on the goal and doing nothing but moving towards the goal.  While that might help, the price might be too high for most mortals. I agree with Gary Keller if you could just do one big thing every day that moves you towards your one big goal, you will move ahead far faster than you ever imagined.

Doing it is Hard because it means you have to say "no" to a lot of other little things that you might not want to say no too.  That trip to the ice cream shop with your kids, a night at the ball park, the list of things you learn to say no too is never ending.

When you make a decision to reach a goal, look at other people who got there before your, or did something similar.  You will find they are great at saying "no".  When other people describe their early years you will read things like "he was driven" or "she was always working".  

When you are doing your one thing in life, nothing else matters simply because you know what you are doing matters more.  If not, maybe you aren't doing the right thing to begin with.

Find something worth doing and it will be easier to say "no" more often.  Find something worth doing that solves a problem for the world and they will eagerly wait with money in hand.

Who Do You See In Your Mirror? Survivor, Dreamer or Visionary

What mode are you in, survivor, dreamer or visionary?  As children we see a world with no limits, and try anything.  We'll eat food off the floor, stick our hands on a hot pan, and jump into a pool having no idea how to swim.  Somewhere along the lines we learn fear.

Some kids learn fear early.  Their parents are quick to stop any action which has any risk.  Kids who are raised alone tend to have more protective parents.  younger kids of larger families tend to get more leeway as parents realize, the kids will eventually figure out the hot stove hurts and they'll quit touching it.

As we become adults the same things happen to us.  Our bosses tell us to toe the line.  Banks say they'll take our homes if we don't make the payments.  In extreme cases you might lose your job and not be able to eat.  This is how people end up in survival mode.

Sadly I meet more and more people in survival mode every day.  Some of it is likely my environment so my evidence is strictly anecdotal.  There are all kinds of studies to measure where people are mentally like the index of "consumer confidence".  I haven't seen a "visionary scale" where we measure how many people are in each of the three categories I mentioned.

A visionary is someone like Richard Branson,  Bill Gates or even actors like John Travolta, Henry Winkler or Tom Cruise.  No matter what happens they are always looking forward.  They see more possibilities and are rewarded for it.

At the other end of the spectrum are the people in survival mode.  Survivors are people who worry about getting work tomorrow, or feeding themselves or their family tonight.  They aren't looking at next month or vacation next year.  They are just struggling to survive.

For generations, prophets and success coaches alike have said that it all starts in your head.  If you are worried about putting food on the table tonight, the best you will be able to do is put food on the table.  If you are worried about changing the world, food will happen because it has to happen as you put your efforts into changing the world.

Once you hit survival mode, you enter a very difficult place that usually takes some major event to break you out of that mode of thinking.  Sometimes bankruptcy can shake you loose, yet some people have gone bankrupt multiple times.  As a business owner who has had successful businesses and not so successful businesses, I can tell you that explaining to your family that you are broke can be very motivating. 

I can also tell you it can be very depressing.  I have personally known people who took their own lives when they hit bottom.  When you hit the bottom you only have two places to go, up or out.  Out should never be an option, we should always have somewhere to turn.  Sadly not everyone does.

In the middle are dreamers.  They are doing ok, think big and maybe even talk big but never seem to move forward.  They are always looking at what other people are doing, and trying to emulate their success, all the while staying put.

If you think you are a visionary, ask yourself this, How much better off are you this year then you were last year?  True visionary are much better off.  If you are about the same or only a little better off, you are closer to being a dreamer.  If you answered that you are a little worse of, or definitely worse off, you have slipped into survival mode. 

If you are truly in a visionary position now, you have already done this and know where you are going.  If your are a dreamer, you might have done this but haven't really focused on it.  If you are in survival mode, you haven't even thought about it.

What is "IT"?

"IT" is your vision.  Your vision can't be complicated, and it must be clear.  Last year I had a dozen goals or "things" on my vision board.  One of my personal coaches said to reduce it to three because twelve things where simply too much to focus on every day.  He said my vision board was too cluttered and therefore my mind was getting cluttered.  He was right, I had stalled and fallen back to "dreamer" mode.  It was the same advice I had been giving clients.

I learned as an instructor pilot in the military, it is always easier to see what other people can do to move forward and make great leaps of progress than it is to see what you are doing wrong or what you can do to get ahead.  Using that philosophy, I hire coaches just like people hire me.  The key is to listen to them.

When I trimmed my list down to three major objectives, I hit the first one in just a couple of months and took it off the list.  Then I added another.  I will probably only get six or seven of my original twelve goals completed, but the reality is that a couple of the goals probably weren't that important anyway, and I'll forget what they were when it is time to add them back to the list.  More importantly, I probably wouldn't get more than two done had I not trimmed the list to focus on no more than three at a time.

Spend time asking yourself how you are doing right now compared to last week, last month and last year.  If you are worried about putting food on the table tomorrow, make that your goal, and as soon as you have it figured out, don't relax and don't let up.  Take time to create your three major goals for the year and spend 15 minutes each day thinking about them until you can say you are better off and have accomplished them.  Then do it again with three new goals or objectives.

Always move forward even if the steps are very small and slow.

Put your mind to work while you sleep and get out of survival mode.  It won't happen tonight, and it won't happen tomorrow, but it will happen.  If you are in dreamer mode, pick one big dream, and give it everything you have.  You'll get there.  It might take a year, or it might take ten.  In the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never, never, never ever give up."

As I write this I am thirty pounds lighter than I was a year ago.  One goal done....Next.

Are You Your Biggest Road Block?

When I meet successful people and then later talk to people who want to be successful, there is one major difference that jumps out every time.  Simply put, the people that want to be successful are their own road block.

The argument is always the same. Those who want to be successful, have a list of reasons of why they aren't the success they want to be.  It is really an amazing phenomenon.  When Og Mandino wrote "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he covered it.  When "The Secret" came out, it hit this issue head on.  Napolean Hill talked about it in his series "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Laws of Success".

So if so many people that study success so clearly see the problem, why do people still fight it?  Why do they argue when they ask for advice?

The sad truth is that somewhere in their life, someone convinced them that something was true.  If you aren't seeing the success that you want in your life, maybe you fit in this group and don't understand it or don't yet see it.  You might even see this in other people without realizing that you have the same issues in your mind.

Be Good To Yourself.

Somewhere in your past someone might have convinced you that you wouldn't ever make it.  Maybe someone told you something like "You'll never amount to much" or "With grades like that you'll just be a janitor".  These words at a young age become seeds that grow in our minds.  When success is getting close, we make excuses to make sure we live up the the expectations set by others.

Here is the key, stop trying to live up to their expectations, and live up to yours.  In Og Mandino's follow up to "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he wrote 10 vows  that he believed people should live by in order to be successful.

Recently I said that success was a simple two step process.  First was to define your own success, and second was to get there.  The process is easy, the execution is what separates the successful from the rest.

The first vow in the second part of "The Greatest Salesman In The World" was to never belittle yourself.  In simple terms, never say anything bad about you to yourself.  Never do it.  When you do, you just add water and food to the seeds that someone else planted.  Never look in the mirror and say "I am fat", or "I am stupid" or "I am lazy".

A guy asked me one day about why I was so "driven".  Yes I work alot by most people's standards, but I have fun in all of my work, so to me it isn't really work.  I answered with a question.  I asked him why he wasn't.  His reply said it all for both of us.  He said "I am just lazy I guess."  After a moment of silence, he said "That's it isn't it?"

He waited for me to reply.  Eventually, I said "If you believe that is the problem, then yes, that is the problem."

He realized that the only thing that separated us was our beliefs in ourselves.  If you believe that you are lazy because someone told you that you were, you will become lazy.  If you don't believe them and work to prove them wrong, you will.

It is funny how many times I talk with people who can name a person they want to be like, and in the same sentence say they want to hang out with a group of people.  When I ask them if their ideal person or role model hangs out in that group the answer is always "no".

TV shows us people living "the life" and not working.  What they don't show is the hundreds or thousands of hours of work that they put into becoming the best at what they did.  Malcolm Gladwell did an excellent piece of research when he wrote "Outliers".  He not only covered the importance of being the best at what you do, he found the alignment of the stars that allowed certain people to catapult way out of the norm.

Being the best is half of the equation, being in the right place at the right time and seeing the potential in the future is the rest.  Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates couldn't have become what they did five years earlier or five years later.  Their drive to excellence would have made them a big success, but only the right timing allowed them to create Apple and Microsoft when they did.  In fact, if Bill Gates was just a week later in his meeting with IBM, we might not have ever seen the PC as we know it today.

As you move to make 2013 your best year ever, look at yourself in a positive light.  Take the negative words out of your vocabulary and bury them in the yard.  Don't be fat, be a plump 200 pounds working to 175.  Don't complain about your skin, be the person spending a few minutes each day getting better skin every day.

Start listening to how you think about yourself when you get dressed, look in the mirror, comb your hair and go out into the world.  Stop the negative thoughts, focus on the positive thoughts and you will see a change just around the corner.

Go out and make 2013 your best year ever with a little positive thinking about the most important person in your world, YOU.

When you start making progress, never look back because your feet start to go where you look.  Look forward, keep both feet moving forward, and you life can only go forward.

Life is a Beach, keep it fun!

Oh yeah, have fun doing it too.

How to Be A Success? Start At The Beginning

Success is a funny thing, we all talk about success, successful people, successful projects and successful businesses, yet we all define it a little differently don’t we.  Ask any three people to define success, and you will probably get three different answers.  This month, Inc. Magazine’s cover proclaims there are “11 Rules for Success”.

I probably have a different perception and therefore definition of success than you do.  Because I realize we are all unique, I usually suggest three different books to help people decide what their definition is.  When I am hired as a business coach, or if my company is hired as a marketing agency, our first mission is to understand what our customers call successful.  I overlooked this thought process in my first book and am now re-writing the book because of it.

In business, “more business” isn’t truly successful except maybe to financial “analysts” on Wall Street who have never run a business.  Each business and business owner will define success differently.  The IRS simply defines it as more profitable, which isn't a bad start, but how profitable is successful to you?

As a person, you can’t be something you can’t clearly define for yourself.  Therefore it is important for you to have your own clear definition of success.  Only then can you be “successful” in the eyes of the most important person in your life, you.

Success can even have different breakdowns in your life.  For example, you can have family success, financial success and athletic success.  For me athletic success might be an 8 minute mile.  You might want to run a 5 minute mile.  Maybe success is skiing at Northstar 110 days in one year.

We might both say financial success is being a millionaire or a billionaire.  What then defines a millionaire?  Is it one million in assets?  Gary Keller, a founding partner in the Keller Williams Real Estate empire, defines a millionaire as a person making a million dollars per year in income.  He is a little vague on net or gross, but he defines it as income.  So must a billionaire have a billion in income?

Success is like a puzzle, there are a lot of pieces that have to come together just right to complete the picture.  Each of us has a unique picture of success.

Defining success isn't easy.

In the 1930’s, Napolean Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, had one of the first “Success Academies” in the United States and likely the world.  He taught a program based on his intimidatingly thick book, the Laws of Success in 16 Lessons.  The book is 1600 plus pages of wisdom.   I highly recommend it if you want to build a business that you can one day call “successful”.

Mr. Hill used the Rockefellers, Fords, Bells and Edisons as the examples of success.  His definition focused on the being the biggest in whatever field you chose.  Many people don’t equate success this way and have a hard time reading 1600 pages and remembering all of the lessons.  Since we can’t all be the richest man in the world, and might not even want to, many people who read the book only end with a view of success they don’t want.

Is The Greatest Salesman a Success?

A little later, a guy named Og Mandino wrote a series of short and easy to read books, with the most famous being “The Greatest Salesman In The World”.  He narrowed the rules of success down from 16 to just 10, and published a book of just under 150 pages.  A size just about anyone would be able to read.  

Mr. Manadino’s approach is along the lines of a fable.  A story about how the greatest salesman came to be and how we can all be great at something.  The greatest salesman teaches us that success isn’t necessarily money and things.  Something that many people believe today.  

The Humanetics Approach

Another great series of books that are little known for some reason are by Richard Wetherhill. Mr. Wetherhill was the founder of a business and wrote books for his employees to help them and his business succeed.  Today those employees own the business and give away the books at alphapub.com.  

Humanetics is the name Mr. Wetherhill gave to his approach to life and success.  Tower of Babel is probably the best book to start with in this series.  Since the books are all free, short and easy reads, I recommend them all.  If you don’t have a tablet, here is a way to save $100.  Buy the tablet, and download all the books for free.

In fact, the “Laws of Success in 16 Lessons” is also available as a free download if you do some digging.

So Now What is Success?

At the end of the day Success really is a two step process.  First you must define it, so you’ll know it for yourself when you get there.  Second you have to get there.

All of these books and articles offer some great ideas on how to get there, but until you know where you are going, getting there is nearly impossible.  Columbus was a success because he proved the earth was round, not because he missed his goal of sailing west to India.  Finding an entirely new continent was simply a bonus for being right.

Success starts at the beginning because that is where you define it.  

A New Challenge

There aren't too many new books I would suggest you read. People that know me have seen me go through one or two a week. Many of them vey long like "The Laws of Success in 16 Lessons". A Napolean Hill classic which at 1694 pages turns most people away no matter how much they succeed. One of my friends and business parters is an MD. We have both been discussing weight loss, and while reading "The Charge" by Brendon Burchard, we got an idea. We set a weight challenge in line with one of the suggestions for energizing life that Brendon covers in the book. Already I am excited, We set a winners prize or losers prize depending on how you look at it, and set the parameters of the challenge. As an MD, Eric suggested the Paleolithic diet as the healthiest way to accomplish our challenge of 15 lbs each. I have never been excited to think about losing weight. In fact my mentality is always to win, I have never wanted to "lose" anything before. What mountain is standing in front of you, that you are looking around instead of looking up? What can you do to make the rise to the top of that mountain a challenge you look forward too instead of a boring task that needs to be accomplished?

Making Big Shifts To Move Forward

Every once in a while we hit a ceiling that we impose upon ourselves and don't even realize it.  Even after coaching people and training for years, someone pointed out I was doing it to myself.

I had been trimming down my business and fine tuning my focus over the past couple of years and still didn't seem to be making a lot of ground.  My book stalled out and I really lost a little motivation to re-do the cover and retile it because it was already selling a little bit.  I do need to get to that.

One of the first things I did to punch through my personal ceiling was to give up coaching business owners so I could focus solely on the marketing aspects of the business.  My coach pointed out that I was still way to broad and that I should focus on just one area.  This goes against all of my thoughts and efforts for my client in online marketing, or so I thought.

Right about the same time my wife started working in Real Estate and of course my business took over her online marketing campaign.  As one guy interestingly noted, "No one has figured out how to get listings online." and he is right.  Listings are the name of the game in Real Estate.  The science of selling a house of known quality is much better than helping people find their next home.  Buyers can look at 50 or 100 homes before buying if they even buy at all.  This was challenging to say the least.

Even ghost writing for my wife got a little sketchy since I didn't have a real estate license.  In order to correct this, I decided last fall to go back to school so I could take the test in California.  After I took the test and passed, I joined her as an agent at Keller-Williams.  The intent was to be part time and just help her out but it didn't take long for my coach and I to see that this was the niche I needed to focus on.

I have been buying and selling homes to live in and as investments for nearly 20 years, making money all along the way.  A couple of times only by sheer luck I might add.  It only made sense for me to combine my coaching, leadership, marketing, sales and real estate knowledge and tie it all up on one package.  As a Realtor, I use all of these skills and still get the freedom of self employment I enjoy.  If I need more money, I go work more.  The big difference is the checks take a lot longer in the real estate business.

On paper this might seem like a really big shift, and it hasn't been.  What it has been is the clear path to move through the ceiling I was creating for myself by staying to broad in my efforts, and not following my own advice on focus.

By focusing on a single area, I can already see a difference in my ability to get things done which should eventually lead to more income, and less work.  Isn't that what we all want?

Do You Know Anyone Who Just Wants To Be Comfortable?

Lately it seems like there isn't a day that I don't meet someone who just wants to be "comfortable".  Since it is in my nature to try and help people do better, I stop and listen, some people might even call it a bit nosey.  Without fail there is one common denominator among all of them.

In the Real Estate Office my wife works, there were several brand new agents that just wanted to be "comfortable". The common denominator is so obvious once you see it.  When you see it in yourself, it is almost embarrassing.  At least it was for me when my wife pointed it out. Most people won't say it if I tell them to their face, in fact most would argue the point so I never tell anyone directly anymore.  It just made people mad at me, but let's see if you know anyone like this guy I met a short while ago, we'll call him John.

I met John at breakfast while in Dallas Texas.  My flight wasn't for a couple of hours, and I was in the corner studying for my California Real Estate license.  It turns out, I can't do advertising for my wife or Realtor clients without one and yes I passed.

Anyway, John was talking to an older couple who I assumed to be his parents.  They turned out to be his Aunt and Uncle.  John was going over all the changes at his office and telling them how he was very worried about losing his job.  Does any of this sound familiar?  It is like the common thread of the economy.

His aunt and uncle coddled him a bit while he complained that he just wanted to be "comfortable".  He suddenly got my attention.  After all it was exactly this situation that occurred in the middle east with a group of military troops who were too scared to get out of their comfort zone and go back to civilian life that inspired me to write So, Now What?.

I put my iPad down and listened for a couple more minutes before I nosed it.  I just couldn't help it.  John went on to talk about how he had already been demoted, and how his boss kept trying to get him to do his old job for the new lower pay.  He proudly told them how he told his boss he wasn't going to do the extra work.  We went on to complain about the owner of the company driving a new Mercedes and about how his car needed some work.

After he returned to the "comfort" theme for the third time I nosed in and asked what John did for a living.  He worked an office job that used to require a degree, but computers now made it so easy that they were hifing minimum wage kids off the street to do it.  He was moved to another position but then he was cut back to a lower position.  His company was buying another company that had too many operators and the new software would cut half of the people in his department.

So now I started asking more questions.  Did he have a resume out there?  No.  Had he looked at Monster.com or TheLadders.com? No.  I asked if it would be smart to get a jump on the other guys and have that new job before the other guys are applying for it too? Yes, but he just didn't have any time, and he had the golden handcuffs keeping him at his current job.  I asked if this job was going to help him get to where he wants to be in five years?  This answer was the one I have heard a lot lately, he said "I don't want to go anywhere I just want to be comfortable and get what is mine."

I asked him to tell me about anyone he knew that was "comfortable" and getting what is "theirs".  He couldn't come up with on person, real or fantasy.  So we talked about different people in a "better" or "worse" format.  Sometimes using their life like Charlie Sheen, other times using John as the benchmark and comparing John to the other person. About that time the Aunt and Uncle excused themselves to go get ready to leave.

He made a comment that his life wasn't easy like mine because I was rich and he wasn't. I thought that was odd, so I asked if he thought I was always rich.  He said "yes".  I asked if a repo guy trying to take back your truck while you were living on base sounded "rich".  He looked confused.  I asked if selling your house, furniture and most of your personal belongings to pay off a business loan sounded "rich".  He said "no that sounds like bankrupt."

I explained that twice in my life I have made some big errors and failed to get out of my own way, and they cost me big.  I left home full of myself, joined the military and bought everything I could until the banks called wanting it back.  I also built a good sized business on the "build it and they will come" mentality, and guess what, they didn't.  Twice in my life I was beyond broke and could have easily declared bankruptcy.

John agreed his life wasn't that bad.  The next question to John was "If I can do that twice, and you think of me as 'rich' now, do you think you can get rich from where you are right now if you really wanted to?"  He sheepishly answered "I guess".  I knew that he was at least thinking it through and this would keep him up tonight.

Can you name anyone whose life is always the same?  There are a select few like Warren Buffett who seem to go up forever, and then others like Charlie Sheen or Donald Trump who are a roller coaster and finally those that peak and we never hear from them again, I forget who they are.  The bottom line is you can be lazy and move backwards or you can enjoy life and keep moving forward no matter how low you get.  Nobody stays the same.

John eventually agreed that 'comfortable" wasn't anything real and he said he had given up on his dreams after college.  After realizing how lame his excuses were and how lazy he sounded, he said he didn't know where to start.  Of course I suggested So, Now What?, and another book that is out of print but you can find online for free as a download called the Secret of the Ages.

The Secret of the Ages is a book I call "the book of the Jedi Mind".  Most people I worked with through the military didn't need this book, they understand the concepts because of how they were trained.  Since John wasn't ever in the military, I thought Secret of the Ages might be a better starting point for him.  So, Now What?  turns out to be lacking a couple of concepts which are explained in Secret of the Ages.  I'll have to work on the changes along with a new title and cover.  Anyone know a better publisher or agent?

I gave John my card and ran off to catch my flight.  Two months ago he sent a short email that said "I think I get it, but I still don't know what to do!".  My response was get So, Now What? and do the worksheets.

Last week I got an email from John that simply read "You were right, it was in my head, and life is great now.  New job, more money and I am having fun."

I never once said it was in his head, but deep down we all know that we are the only ones that can change our lives.  He knew it, all I could do was help him say it out loud.  Do you know anyone that needs to look in the mirror and say it out loud?  If you do, be a good friend and help them do it.  If it is you, get Secret of the Ages and So, Now What? and leave your questions here or drop me a note anytime.

The Best Business Improvement Program Ever? Create a Whiteboard of Success for Under $200.

Last night a good friend of mine lost his job.  He asked me what he should do next.  Of course I said "Read my book."  I knew he already had a copy, so buying the book wasn't a problem.  Buying the book isn't the best business improvement program for $200, but it might be the best one for $15 even if the cover is goofy.  (A free signed copy to anyone with a better cover idea that I use.)

Losing a job can be an amazing experience and opportunity if you look at it the right way.  He did.  He hadn't read the book, but he did skip ahead to the next book which I haven't even written yet.  He just knew what to do because we have worked together for a long time and he knows how I think.  I think everyone should act like they are their own business.

What I am going to give you today is the best trick I have learned in helping people improve both their personal life and business life.  If you hire me to work with you on this it is going to be thousands of dollars, and I am giving it to you free.  Why?  Let's be honest, if it works for you and your business grows, I hope you'll hire me as your virtual Chief Marketing Officer or The Bourquin Group as your online marketing agency and SEO

Who Is Your Perfect Customer? You?

Knowing your customer is critically important for a business to grow and prosper.  I work with my clients and students on this all the time.  In my book, So, Now What, I had dedicated a chapter and worksheet to helping business owners like you figure out exactly who the perfect customer is.  Every once in a while someone approaches me and they show me how they did the work, filled out the worksheet and it didn’t help them in their business.  When that happens, like any good business owner, writer or teacher, I start by looking in the mirror to see what I did wrong.  And in this case, as in most cases, it was something I did wrong.

Not Quite a Theater, a Great Media Room

When Mr. R called and went over everything happening in his business, and I could tell nothing had changed in three months, I went back and re-read the chapter in the book.  Everything looked ok there.  I revisited my notes from past conversations with Mr. R, nothing there.  Finally I looked at Mr. R’s notes on his perfect customer and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.  My wife came running in to ask what was so funny, and even my dogs where worried.  I had her read the information on the guy’s perfect customer.  We both immediately knew what I did wrong in teaching and in the book. 

What Is Your Customer Really Worth?

Lately I have had more than one discussion on the lifetime value of a customer.  While there a few businesses that are one shot programs like wrongful death attorney’s, most other businesses have a long term value and benefit if they can maintain a customer relationship.  Every owner I talked to wanted more customers, and agreed that the customers they have are the most profitable.  So when I wanted to add a customer relationship program to the mix, why do they hesitate?

It is a very interesting phenomenon and attitude among business owners.  All of them will track how many customers are added to their “list” but they rarely track how many leave.  Online marketing is an interesting field because the total list is always a moving target.  If we forget about the existing customers for even a minute, they fall off the list faster than we can hit the refresh key.

So why is it that an owner will spend a small fortune on online advertising and not a penny to engage the existing list and make sure they don’t go anywhere else?  I don’t know.  The Harvard Business School has a pretty cool calculator to estimate the lifetime value of a customer. 

Can You Succeed Without Failure?

Failure.  Just looking at the word can make some people stop reading.  Fear of failure is what stops most people from succeeding.  Failure means you pushed beyond some limit.  The problem is if you don’t fail, you never learn the limits.

I can tell you about failure first hand.  I pushed the limits of USAF pilot training and lost an F-16 job.  I learned quick enough that I was able to get back in the limits and still fly for 15 more years. 

In business if you don’t fail once in a while, you aren’t pushing your business to be it’s absolute best. 

I can spend a lot more time on this but Honda has been kind enough to post a great video on failure I think is worth watching.  Here is the link http://dreams.honda.com/#/video_fa

Is A Business Strategy Important to Building a Business?

Recently I have been working with a couple of business owners who are stuck on the whole strategy thing. These owners want me and my company to take over their internet marketing, you know SEO, pay per click and all of that kind of stuff. The problems is they can't clarify their strategy for us. My rules are pretty simple, no strategy, no marketing. The simple reason is I want to keep clients for a long time.

What I have learned in 20 years of owning and building businesses is that anyone can grab an opportunity, throw money at it and fail. I don't want these clients because I am lazy. Not lazy because their business is too hard to market, but lazy because I don't like chasing down new clients if I lose one.

Before we had the strategy requirement in place, clients would last anywhere from six months to about a year and a half. The few that have been with us over five years all have two things in common. First they have a strategy. While the strategy has changed a little over time, we have been involved with the changes so we could change the marketing to meet the needs of the client and their market.

The clients that we took on who were opportunists and didn't have a strategy would not see the progress they expected and jump on the next opportunity. Every six months we had to completely revamp their marketing. In the world of the internet, consistency is a critical component of success. The first month of any campaign is the most expensive, and we usually lose money getting a client set up. In fact most of the time, you don't see real progress for two or three months.

When a client jumped from opportunity to opportunity it was like getting an entirely new client. None of them would pay the higher fees of the first month, so each time they "re-invented" their business we lost money. The clients with a strategy are all still in business, still clients and still profitable.