| By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. Since 1993, I have been building an online business with my two admirable partners, Sandi Hunter and George Kosch... and we've each made a tidy fortune. There are reasons why this has happened... and you're going to learn them here, now... because you have been deluding yourself as to your chances for success, and it pains the three of us just how unrealistic you have been, are today and, unless you heed this wake-up call, you will continue to be... and wouldn't that gall you? Well, then let's dig in to what you must do...and the crucial word you must tattoo on your heart, mind, and spirit. ... And to set just the right mood, listen as the force known as Jennifer Hudson show you how to pour yourself -- everything that's in you -- into the demanding journey each of us must make to achieve success. Chances are, you've been stinting on the essential ingredient that makes it all possible... and that ingredient is YOU... and if you are not willing to make that commitment... that investment... that contract with yourself, then you cannot achieve success... and you are not worthy of the name entrepreneur. Now... go to any search engine. Find "And I am telling you..." (released 2008). Turn up the sound to maximum decibels and strip yourself. You are going to encounter a force of nature... and let every note uplift you as you focus at last on what you must do... at once... and EVERY day! Okay, the crucial word is out of the bag... and that essential word is EVERY! Your business, whatever it is, is as demanding, as necessitous, as all-absorbing, as exciting as a new born baby... and you must approach it in the same way as a new child... with never-ceasing focus, with constant application, with a prayer in your pocket, a song in your heart and a "nothing's going to stop me" attitude, fueled by planning, tempered by all the realities of any business, and an unstoppable desire to soar. Is this a lot to ask? If you answer yes, then you better keep your day job, because you'll need all this -- and more. Now ask yourself whether you approach the job of building your empire with this unblinking determination and joyful perseverance? If not, bail now... for you are the problem that cannot, with such an outlook, be solved. Excuses, self-delusions, fatuities, absurdities. Each day I sit in our interactive Live Business Center and listen to a never-ending stream of "reasons" posted by people -- people who say they want an online business and online success. Here are just a few of what these implausible, unlikely, indeed cannot be seen in any way, shape, or form as business builders and profit makers say... as to why they cannot start today, followed by a jaw-dropping saga of previous missteps, errors, miscalculations and horrors great and small. They tell me these things, as they would tell you if you gave them half a chance, so that their auditor will feel sorry for them and allow them to stand before the world as a poor thing whose failures somehow sanctify them and are worthy of empathy, understanding, and, if the world was just, a pension that would absolve them from any further effort at all, ever. Oh, yes, and a hammock, two margaritas, and a Jimmy Buffet parrot hat. This is, of course, ridiculous. People succeed in business because they master the well-known and proven essentials for success... the first of which is constant focus, then assiduous application, and just plain hard work. Then you must master what seems a never-ending list of precise tasks which are of the essence and absolutely required for success, especially on line. These include (and not a single one is negotiable or can be thrust aside as insignificant)... ... a clear understanding that the business world doesn't care whether you live or die; it has no interest in your turbulent, unsatisfying memoirs, so important to you, so trivial to everyone else. Business -- and every successful business person knows this -- cares about one thing and one thing only: what have you got for the customer that is superior to what is available elsewhere... and at a price they can afford, and cheerfully do? It doesn't matter whether you are a "nice" person; it doesn't matter how hard you have thought you worked. It doesn't matter that you feel you deserve success. All this... and all the other astonishing misperceptions you utter you may actually believe. Business is about value for customers and the way you identify these customers and make the best possible case; the case that makes you rich IF and ONLY IF you master the essential list creation and marketing tasks which must be done EVERY day, EVERY day, EVERY day... and no amount of self-justification and special pleading will change this fundamental reality. You must know what your business demands of you... get on with the crucial business of doing each and every necessary task, promptly, thoroughly, correctly. And none of this is negotiable, not a single thing. Business waits for no one... and it will never, ever wait for you... whatever jejune responses you may feel justified in offering. In short, as Don Corleone and his "God Father" henchmen said, "Nothing personal"... it's just the way it is... and you'd better get that through your head right now... before you start justifying not doing this, avoiding that, and all the myriad of excuses of which you are the past master. And this is where I advise you, yet again and in the strongest possible way, that you succeed to the extent that you do your online business EVERY day... without fail... without cavil... without regret... and do it always with pride, energy, enthusiasm, and a clear understanding that you are a very fortunate person indeed to have this chance which can so orchestrated deliver so much and so happily. How much do you need today? In the early days of Worldprofit, Inc., our online company, George Kosch, our technical wizard, would tape a twenty dollar bill to the top of his computer and announce just how many of these we needed on any given day to keep the doors open and make a profit. That was our focus for the day... first paying expenses... then making the profit for which we were in business in the first place. Some days were easy; there were even days (wonderful days!) that we'd achieve our objective even before we'd finished the arduous task of going through the email. But there were also days, long, long days, when we had to work late to achieve the objective... because we had an immutable company policy that we would never charge the next day with covering the deficiencies of the last. And so we stayed late, worked hard, and, holding our noses, made deals to bring in the cash we had to have. And here's the clincher: we did it gratefully because each action, every deal built the company and our clientele... and so appreciably moved us to our goal. Is this how you approach your business? Because if not, you need to reassess just what your are doing... and just how you are doing it and you need to do this NOW... and EVERY day until you profit. This is what entrepreneurs do... this is what you must do. Now turn on Jennifer Hudson again and listen to the pulsating sound that should be the current of your business day. And listen, now with a new ear, to her words and make them yours "I'm not livin' without you. I don't wanna be free I'm stayin' I'm stayin'" Now you, too, can soar. |
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