You Can Be a Peak Performer!
10 Steps to Unlimited Success
Which Anyone Can Take
Published by Dan Sherman at Smashwords
Dan Sherman
http://www.danshermancoaching.com
Copyright 2010 by Peak Performance Media. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book. Peak Performance Media and the author make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose and shall in no event be liable for any loss or profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.
The information presented herein represents the views of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate at which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinions based on new conditions. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided here, the author cannot assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, or omissions. Any perceived slights against individuals or organizations are unintentional.
Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Peak Performance Media is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Contents
Foreword: Now It's Your Turn
Introduction: You Can Be a Peak Performer!
One: Peak Performers Take Risks
Two: Peak Performers Start Where They Are
Three: Peak Performers Turn Mistakes Into Learning Opportunities
Four: Peak Performers Love Their Failures
Five: Peak Performers Go Boldly Into The Unknown
Six: Peak Performers Trust Their Intuition
Seven: Peak Performers Accept Themselves…So They Don’t Fear Rejection
Eight: Peak Performers Give Themselves All The Approval They Need
Nine: Peak Performers Count On The Security Inside Them
Ten: Peak Performers Laugh All The Way To The Bank
Conclusion: Take Action!
Bonus Chapters
One: The Peak Performer’s Quiz
Two: How to Create a Successful Online Business
Foreword
Now It's Your Turn
I know how you feel. I know what it’s like to want to succeed so bad that you can taste it on your tongue and feel it in your bones. I know that you work in a job you don't like, or wish to create a new business that you've always dreamed about and make it a huge success. I know that you wish you could spend more time with your family and have more financial security.
I
get it. I've been there. It's frustrating to say the least. You keep
asking yourself, "Why are so many other people so successful and
not me? What do those people have that is different or better then
what I have to offer that makes them excel? When is it my turn?"
I
have some great news for you. Your time is now, and you are going to
do it and you are going to get everything you've always wanted in
life and business. Want to know how I know? Because you're about to
be let in on the secrets of how successful people become successful.
All you have to do is keep reading.
See,
what Dan has written here is exactly what you need to finally break
through and become a member of the super-secret society of
ultra-successful people who get everything they want. The truth, as
you will find out in this book, is that there are certain
characteristics that make some people successful. Dan has collected
countless stories from some of the world's most famous and rich
individuals that will teach you how they did it and more importantly,
how you're going to do it as well.
Isn't that what you've always wanted? Sure it is. Let's face it, we
all want to work less and make more money. We all want to go into the
office every day and work on things that we are passionate about and
that are fun. Up until now, you've been told that you need to be a
cog in the machine. You should wake up, have some coffee, and head
into work, do your job, come home, have dinner, go to sleep.... wash,
rinse, repeat... for the rest of your lives.
Wrong.
Too many people don't believe they can be the next Richard Branson or
Oprah Winfrey. Society wrongly convinces us that only a very small
few lucky ones can live their dreams, and get rich and be famous, and
unfortunately we accept it without much resistance. Again, wrong!
It's only until you realize that ANYONE can do it that you finally
can begin the journey into the next amazing phase of the life you
always wanted to live.
Afraid
of risk? The biggest risk you can take is to not give it a try. Peak
performers, as you will find out from reading this book, figured out
that the number one thing that stops success is fear of failure. Peak
performers figured out that in order to live the life they've always
wanted, on their terms, they have to take chances. Peak performers
don't make excuses about not having enough business experience, or
money or connections.
Enough! Now is the time to get inspired and
get motivated and get to work! If you do, you may find the inner peak
performer inside you and dramatically change your life for the
better.
Read
through the inspirational and awe-inspiring stories from the peak
performers mentioned in this book and then answer the 40 questions at
the end and decide for yourself. Do you have what it takes? Of course
you do. The stories from this book prove that anyone can do it. Now
it's your turn.
Jim Kukral
Introduction
You Can Be A Peak Performer!
Have you ever read about successful people and wondered how they did it? What were their secrets of success? Have you ever wished you could apply those secrets to your life?
Now you can. In this book you’ll find the secrets of peak performers. You’ll learn about how many of the most successful people in America started with little but desire to become the best in their chosen field of endeavor.
You’ll discover from their stories that peak performance is absolutely within your grasp. No matter who you are, if you apply the strategies outlined in this book, you will become a peak performer and enjoy the success and rewards that come with that distinction.
Just by picking up this book, you've indicated that you are not like the majority of people who are satisfied with mediocre lives. You want it all – and I encourage you to go after it. Let me reveal the strategies of peak performers which you can put into play the very day you read about them. Let me inspire you with their stories, as well as stories from my career as I have applied the principles of peak performance.
It doesn’t matter what you’ve done until this moment, for each new day offers an opportunity to begin building your dreams. Now is the time for you to take that first step to becoming a peak performer.
Wishing you success,
Dan Sherman
One
Peak Performers Take Risks
The Man On The Moon
The day was July 20, 1969. A quarter of a million miles from Earth something fantastic was happening. In the barren vacuum of space, a 39-year-old former test pilot was climbing down the ladder of his spaceship to become the first human to walk on the moon. Only a bubble of oxygen in his helmet separated him from certain death. His lunar lander, dubbed “The Eagle," was untried. No one knew if it would carry him and his co-pilot back to their ship, or falter and leave them there forever, 250.000 miles from the nearest gasp of life-giving air.
Bravely, gamely, Neil Armstrong descended the ladder, touched his boot to the chalky gray surface and said to the billions watching at home, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Then for the next 21 death-defying hours Armstrong and his partner, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, collected rock samples, took photographs and set up scientific instruments.
Back on Earth, a 13-year-old boy sat with a 100 other youngsters in the lodge of a New Jersey summer camp. He stared intently at the small black-and-white television set flickering in the center of the room, watching in awe as Armstrong’s shadowy figure floated on the moon’s surface. This was a momentous event that brought the people of the world together for a brief moment. For the boy, this was a touchstone event that created a new standard of bravery and courage. The event would inspire him to constantly push himself beyond any barrier of fear. And it would teach him that any worthwhile achievement would only come through bold risk taking.
The starry-eyed camper was me. Since that day I’ve studied the peak performers of our time to discover what enables them to do the courageous things they do. I’ve sought to learn what makes them brave enough to forego safety and comfort in pursuit of their passion and dreams. What I’ve learned is that peak performers who get things done are willing to push through fear and take risks. This means they are willing to take bold action despite society’s conditioning to play it safe. Peak performers MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!
You may not be planning a walk in outer space in the near future. But to achieve anything worthwhile in life, you need to develop the qualities that Armstrong displayed, namely resolve and courage. Whether it’s moving up in the company you work for, striking out on your own, seeing more of this world or making an important life change – doing anything new requires taking a risk. This means you need to move from the safety of here to the vast unknown of there – by inching out on the limb of life.
Why don’t more people take risks and become peak performers? I think it comes down to one word, FEAR, and fear plays no favorites. It strikes deep in the hearts of men and women, young and old, married and single. FEAR is a universal phenomenon, an equal opportunity emotion. No one is born into this world fearless. They may act fearless, but fear is a part of our basic wiring and there is no owner’s manual to the human body which describes a way to change our circuitry.
Fear Is Worth Feeling
During the course of our lives we’ll face two kinds of fear: One is productive and can save your life in a crisis, while the other slows you down and keeps you from taking the risks you need to take to succeed.
The first kind of fear is the gut-level reaction you get that keeps you from physical danger. Let’s say you’re strolling through Yellowstone Park and along comes a big bear…and not Yogi Bear, either. He looks at you and suddenly you realize you’re this beast’s dinner. You feel fear. That’s great – you should! That fear starts pumping adrenaline through your body and you do the 100-meter dash out of the wilderness faster than you can say “Roadrunner.” In this case, fear has served you well.
The second kind of fear is psychological, and it occurs when we start predicting the future outcome of an event. When this happens, we experience: False Expectations Appearing Real. This fear occurs when we begin imagining all sorts of terrible results that haven’t happened yet. The fear grips us, paralyzes us and stops us in our tracks. We’ve lost the race even before we leave the starting blocks.
The unfortunate thing about this second kind of fear is that usually the very outcomes we imagine do not happen. If, say, you were to leave your job, you would find the world does not end. If you started a new business and it did not produce a fortune immediately, you would find that you still have your friends and family, your skills and talents and you're ability to make a go of it. Even if the worst possible thing that you can imagine happens, it turns out not to be as bad as you expected.
It is this second fear – the paralyzing kind that stops you from using your personal power to take risks and improve your life – that is the first barrier to push through on your road to peak performance. My suggestion is that you look closely at your fears – the excuses you have for not taking action on your dreams – and see them for what they really are. I believe that these psychological fears are remarkably similar to nightmares.
Let The Sun Shine
We all have nightmares – sometimes they are incredibly real and incredibly scary. But when we wake up in the morning and open the curtains, light pours into the room. At that point, the nightmares vanish and we are left with reality.
Fears act upon you in a similar way. They are real, there’s no doubt. Whenever we begin something new, we are bound to feel fear. It’s scary because we are never sure of the outcome of a new endeavor. But if you cast the light of logic and reason onto your fears and think of the worst possible thing that could happen, you’ll evaporate those fears into a mist you can walk through.
It takes time and practice to do this successfully, but the benefits of risk taking can be so rewarding that it’s well worth the effort. Take Neil Armstrong. His daring feat earned him a place in history and the accolades of people around the world. But it wasn’t his first risk. He had to practice risk taking to make it to that momentous day. He learned to fly early in life, gaining his pilot’s license at sixteen. Then he became a naval air cadet. That training led him to the very risky job of being a naval air pilot in the Korean War. After the war he became a civilian research pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics – the precursor to NASA – where he tested the latest in high-speed jets. He became an astronaut in 1962, and in 1966 piloted Gemini 8 in the first manual space-docking mission.
As a peak performer, Armstrong paid his risk taking dues. He learned to overcome fear through the steady, incremental gaining of confidence in his ability to pilot any type of craft in any kind of mission. He taught himself how to push through fear.
Send In The Marines
Ever since I watched Neil Armstrong risk his life to become the first man on the moon, I’ve been inspired to take risks. I also taught myself to overcome fear through the steady and incremental gaining of confidence in my ability to thrive in the face of risk. Because of this I’ve opened myself up to countless career opportunities and I’ve reaped substantial financial rewards. Let’s start at the beginning.
My experience with taking risks started when I was the captain of my wrestling team, the Columbia High School Cougars in Maplewood, NJ. I know they made me captain because I was the most “possessed” wrestler on the team, meaning I was the most dedicated. I lifted weights constantly, ate starvation dinners of water and celery to lose weight and wrestle at the lowest possible weight division, ran miles at night and attended wrestling camp every summer. I did everything I could to get the advantage over my opponents. I hated to lose at anything, so I tried to be the best in my sport.
When I stepped out on that red and white wrestling mat (or gladiator pit) twice a week to face yet another soldier whose sole purpose for the next six minutes was to twist me into a leotard-clad pretzel, I looked risk and danger in the eye. But I knew I was ready because of my conditioning and wrestling training at the hands of my coach, a tough ex-Marine. I also knew that the worst that could happen to me was a black eye or bloody lip – nothing as dire as what would happen to a NASA astronaut should there be a slip-up on his mission. So I marched into the fray with reckless abandon.
Wrestling was great training for lifelong risk taking, because I learned a helpful two-step process that I could use to bust through any fear that I encountered:
Get your ducks in a row, meaning, do as much as you possibly can to prepare for the fearful thing you want to try.
Realize that whatever happens, you will handle it!
Risky Business Is Good Business
As I moved on in life, the courage I learned on the wrestling mat served me well. I became a dedicated risk-taker, defying life to throw me a challenge I couldn’t handle. In my twenties, after a fling as an advertising copywriter hawking everything from Cadillacs to movies, I plunged into the fast-paced world of the entertainment business. I hustled my original tunes to music publishers in Manhattan, fronted rock bands, played piano in less-than-ritzy clubs and sang my songs wherever I could. The entertainment business was a never-ending workshop on risk: To stay ahead of the pack and get noticed, I had to constantly reinvent myself by writing new songs and being even more daring on stage. For example, when I played rock piano in the Big Apple I dyed a bright blue streak in my hair; it earned me amused glances, but alas, no contract from Warner Brothers.
In my thirties, I switched gears completely and went to work for a fast-paced entrepreneurial firm which is now one of the nation’s leading financial services companies - Charles Schwab. I started a new department within Human Resources to provide handbooks and newsletters for the growing company’s staff. I also helped create a department to provide brokerage services to money managers – a risky new venture which became one of the firm’s most important and successful efforts. It brought $50 billion into the firm.
In my forties, I went to work in Silicon Valley, where risk taking is so necessary to stay one step ahead of the game. As marketing director at two Internet companies, I was constantly pushed by our venture capital funders to come up with new and exciting product ideas and new ways of reaching the market. I learned in Silicon Valley that without risk there will never be reward.
Corporate risk taking was extremely exhilarating for me. Fortunately the risk taking skills I learned as an athlete and entertainer were transferable into company life. I had no fear of creating two new departments at Schwab, trying programs that had never been attempted or traveling around the country rolling out new services. In short, I didn’t mind going out on a limb at Schwab when it looked like a success was possible. I really enjoyed taking risks, and as a result I flourished professionally and financially along with the company.
In Silicon Valley I used my risk taking abilities when the Internet company I was working for had to cope with an onslaught of new competitors in our field. Every company was trying to be the category leader, the firm that people thought of FIRST when buying that product. Our applicant tracking software which companies accessed through the Internet (we were an ASP, or Application Service Provider) was far superior to the others. But how to let everyone else know?
Then I realized that one way to lead a category is simply to invent a new one and place your company in it. It had rarely been tried in our industry, but as marketing director I was up to the challenge. So, I invented a brand new category called Talent Relationship Management software. It had the instant benefit in that its initials, TRM, mirrored a very popular software category called CRM, or Customer Relationship Management. In our ads and on the Internet I explained that our company, Brass Ring Systems, sold TRM software, which was CRM for their employees. The gamble paid off, and we got favorable press along with many more sales appointments with companies who were curious about this new category-leading product.
So, I’m not an observer with regard to taking risks. I put my body on the line as a wrestler in high school. I put my pride and ego squarely on the line as a singer/songwriter. And I was in the heart of the corporate jungle slugging it out for years, working side by side with dedicated business adventurers and risk takers.
I learned that taking risks not only creates an exciting life, but is truly the only way to achieve financial rewards (other than winning the lottery or inheriting gobs of cash – but I’ll go with the assumption that you are not counting on these events). Risk taking is how peak performers get to the top. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at a peak performer who risked his way to a personal fortune worth more than a billion.
The Mouth That Roared
Ted Turner, now 72, has been called the Mouth of the South because of his habit of saying outrageous things in public. But Turner’s miscues in the press have not hindered him from becoming one of today’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Turner did not start out as a superstar. His college career was cut short when he was expelled from Brown for entertaining a woman in his room. While he bummed around Florida trying to decide what to do with his life, his father committed suicide. Turner returned to his home state of Georgia and took over his late father’s billboard company, now bankrupt. Turner took his first risk and borrowed every cent he could to buy his father’s company back from a competitor. He was successful, and turned the company into a money-making operation.
In 1970 he used the profits from his billboard company and bought a failing Atlanta UHF TV station called Rice Broadcasting, renaming it Turner Communications. In its first year the station lost $689,000. But Turner worked hard at improving the station, and the next year WTSG was the number one independent station in the South. Discovering that he could reach cable systems around the country by satellite, in 1979 he turned WTSG into the world’s first cable superstation WTBS (for Turner Broadcasting Systems) that distributed its programs via satellite. Being first was a risk, but that didn’t bother Turner. In fact, the plaque on his desk spells out his motto: “Either lead, follow or get out of the way.” The risk paid off, and that year his mix of older shows, movies and Atlanta Braves and Hawks games reached 5.8 million homes.
Turner’s media empire was successful, but success did not prevent him from taking his second major risk. Turner conceived of a new type of network, one that broadcast news 24 hours a day. Everyone told him to forget it; no one was interested in watching that much news. But Turner stuck to his vision. He put up his growing media empire as collateral and borrowed heavily to buy the equipment necessary for this new station called Cable News Network. At first, CNN was a joke; competitors called it Chicken Noodle Network. But people stopped laughing once CNN became the world’s premier news station. CNN repeatedly “scooped” the competition (Reagan’s assassination attempt for example), and its coverage of world events and breaking news such as the Gulf War is now legendary.
Turner’s empire was once again on solid ground. But that did not stop him from taking a third risk which would expand his operation into movies. In 1986 he again put up his media empire to borrow $1.4 billion to purchase the MGM film library. This one almost did him in, but a group of cable operators who had become dependent on Turner’s innovative programming for their survival came to his rescue. Turner, in response, took another gamble and formed a new and now very successful network in 1988, Turner Network Television, to broadcast the MGM films he acquired.
Turner’s company is now a billion-dollar global entertainment and news company. It owns four cable TV entertainment networks in the U.S. and four abroad, the world’s largest film and animation library, CNN, the Atlanta Braves (baseball) and Atlanta Hawks (basketball), New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment. Not bad for a guy who started out with a bankrupt billboard company! And he’s still taking risks. He set up the first independent TV station in Moscow. He created the innovative Airport Channel for news-hungry travelers. And his all-kids channel, the Cartoon Network, has surpassed the ratings of CNN.
What does he do with his riches? Well, for one, he is America's largest private landowner, owning approximately 2 million acres, greater than the land mass of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
I hope you see the theme that has made Turner a billionaire; namely, his ability to take huge risks in the face of ridicule and contempt from others. Believe me, I know that risk taking is not easy. But if you truly want to be a peak performer and achieve financial success, it’s vitally important to your future.
I’m not suggesting you borrow $1 billion like Turner. Just know that peak performers are ready to put up their houses, cars, family jewels and even family dogs to make it happen. Try to decide what you are comfortable risking. Then keep that in mind as you read about other peak performers in this book and see what their strategies were and how much they risked. You may be surprised to find that many risked only what they could afford: their time and their egos. Others made only modest outlays. One billionaire sold his VW van to get started in business (Steve Jobs of Apple). A multimillionaire businesswoman took $500 of wedding gift money to start her firm (Lillian Vernon). Another multimillionaire businesswoman began by taking a $7,000 loan against her bed and breakfast (Anita Roddick of the Body Shop).
There’s no formula, no set dollar amount, that is consistent among peak performers. But there is one thing that is constant: the ability to take risks and the overwhelming desire to make their dreams happen.
You Can Do It, Too
Your potential is unlimited. You can create any kind of life you want and achieve any kind of success you can imagine. Once you learn to conquer your fears and gain the courage to take risks, there will be nothing stopping you.
Peak Performer’s Tip: The only thing standing between you and
your dreams is fear, and fear can be defeated!
Two
Peak Performers Start Where They Are
Movers Know When To Shake It
When I worked for Charles Schwab, there was a problem that occasionally affected managers. Obviously self-inflicted, it was never tolerated for long by their supervisors and often led to the dismissal of the troubled party. The predicament was known as “analysis paralysis.” It occurred when a manager just had to collect one more fact, consult with one more expert or check his or her horoscope one more time before making a major move on a project. This was deadly to one’s career at Schwab and I’m sure it’s just as lethal at any cutting-edge company.
I learned how to avoid analysis paralysis when I helped start up a division at Schwab that provided brokerage services to money managers or institutional investors. The creation of this division was a bold idea for the firm, since the company had made its name and fortune being the champion of the individual investor. Now Schwab was veering off into a risky market and, believe me, there was resistance.
Terrorist in Wingtips
Not surprisingly, most of the resistance came from the firm’s legal department. The head of the legal department called my boss and me to a meeting in which she tried to scare us away from this risky new venture. Her main argument was that not enough studies had been done to convince her of the ironclad safety of the millions of dollars Schwab had stashed away in the vaults. She worried that if Schwab offered brokerage services to money managers, one of those money managers could turn out to be ethically challenged and misuse or even make off with a client’s funds. This client might then sue the “deep pockets” – meaning the guys with the big bucks like Schwab.
“You are risking the whole financial future of the company,” our chief legal counsel cried as she performed a rain dance around the conference table furiously trying to unleash storms to drown our enthusiasm. “You’ll cause ruin! Mass destruction! Chaos and Armageddon! What do you two hoodlums have to say for yourselves?”
I looked at my boss who was grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat. I knew immediately that we weren’t going to wait around for any more analysis of the situation from the Legal Department or anyone else! We had completed an intense investigation and determined that there was an immense market of institutional money out there. We had the machinery – powerful computers, keen-witted brokers and clever marketing staff – to handle it. If this lawyer wanted to get in our way, then she had better put on her flak jacket and bullet-proof overcoat because it was DAMN THE LAWSUITS, FULL SPEED AHEAD! It turned out to be a brilliant move all around.
My boss, who was a lowly director at the time, zoomed up to Vice President, Senior Vice President and then Executive Vice President in a few short years.
The company profited because the department we started brought in $13 billion in assets in just five years. In 1996 this group represented $50 billion in assets out of the firm’s $150 billion in assets in custody – from renegades to keepers of one third of the company’s assets. Today Schwab Institutional is a major part of the company's assets under management and revenues.
And me? I got to manage a successful department with the creative freedom to produce a variety of innovative marketing programs. I had budgets at my command that were overflowing with cash just as those “never-empty” coffee pots flow with java at the International House of Pancakes. I enjoyed the salary and stock that come with corporate success. And I socked away enough capital to leave Schwab and start my own business.
Give It A GO!
This experience proved to be a valuable lesson for me. The more I examined the careers of peak performers like Charles Schwab and my boss, the more I realized that they didn’t wait until they had all the facts, all the capital or all the stars in alignment before they acted. Peak performers dive in on a wing and a prayer armed with lofty goals, good intentions and hope in their hearts.
The bottom line is that you can’t wait until all the conditions are favorable before you start on your dreams. This world is so unpredictable – you can never be sure what’s going to happen. So, the best idea is to start now from where you are to make your vision a reality. Don’t let the specter of a mishap dissuade you from getting started even if you don’t have all the facts. Be BOLD!
No Good Alibi
Lack of information about all the ramifications of your new idea shouldn’t stop you from making that important first move. But this inability to gaze into the future is not the only thing that stops people. You may be concerned about other areas in your life you deem insufficient. However, I’ll wager you that whatever you feel is holding you back, I’ll find a peak performer who was in the same leaky boat and still pushed off from shore toward their dream. Let’s look at a few cases.
Are you too POOR?
Walt Disney was so poor when he started out he couldn’t afford an art studio. A friend took pity on him and let him move his drafting table into his abandoned, dilapidated barn. Disney started drawing, but soon became distracted by all the rats crawling over his desk, up his leg and over his shoulders.
Rather than be defeated by these ratty working conditions, he adopted the rats as pets and began sketching them. He named one of his pet rats Mickey, another Minnie and so on until he had a veritable menagerie of characters for his animation projects. Now you can go to Los Angeles, Orlando, Paris and Tokyo (and Shanghai in 2013) and be greeted by an actor in a rat suit basically because Disney didn’t give up for lack of resources.
The firm he started, The Walt Disney Company, has $36 billion in annual sales and is the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Besides 11 theme parks, it owns several TV and radio stations (including the TV network, ABC), controlling shares of three cable channels, hotels, Marvel comics, publishing companies, movie and TV studios, a hockey team and retail stores; not to mention their merchandising machine that puts Pocohantas and Lion King goodies seemingly in every store in America. Not bad for a firm that started with a persistent, success-driven cartoonist and his talkative mouse.
Do you lack BUSINESS EXPERIENCE?
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were high school buddies who knew nothing about the food industry other than that they liked food, and their bulging bellies gave testimony to the fact. After careers in academia and social work, they decided to pursue this love. They looked into the food business and decided to open either a bagel shop or an ice cream parlor. The bagel making machinery turned out to cost more than the ice cream making machinery, so they opted for ice cream. With $5 they sent away to Penn State for a correspondence course in making ice cream.
Since it was an open-book course, they aced it and set out to find a location for a store. They felt that a college town with a warm climate would be the best market for an ice cream parlor. The bought an atlas, picked out prospective cities and then visited each one. But the towns they visited already had parlors, so they went north to Burlington, Vermont where there were no parlors. In 1978 they scraped together $8,000 and opened an ice cream stand in an abandoned gas station.
Business was great, but then they hit their first hurdle: Winter came and the line of customers outside their door dwindled to nothing. The only way they were going to survive the winter and stay in business was to package their ice cream and sell it in stores. So they packed their handmade ice cream into cartons, loaded their cars and drove all over New England delivering their gourmet creation to grocery stores. Their packaged ice cream turned out to be just as successful as when it was sold by the cone. By 1984 they were doing $4 million in business.
Ben and Jerry had started with no business experience and built a million-dollar organization. Interestingly enough, it was their LACK of traditional business experience that KEPT them in business. Using only their wits, they survived a major hurdle when the huge $4 billion conglomerate Pillsbury tried to put them out of business.
It seems that these two hippies from Vermont had created an ice cream that was competing with Pillsbury’s Haagen-Dazs in the stores. Pillsbury told Ben and Jerry’s biggest distributor that it would withhold Haagen-Dazs if they continued to distribute Ben and Jerry’s. Without traditional business backgrounds, Ben and Jerry fought back instead with humor. Jerry started a one-man picket in front of Pillsbury’s headquarters in Minnesota holding a hand-lettered sign that asked “What’s the Doughboy afraid of?”
Ben and Jerry continued the theme by writing the slogan on all of their ice cream containers along with an 800 number. Callers were sent a Doughboy write-in kit, containing pre-written letters to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of Pillsbury; and a “What’s the Doughboy afraid of?” bumper sticker. More than 15,000 kits were sent out. Eventually Pillsbury backed down when the story was picked up by all the major media turning Pillsbury into a laughingstock – a big bully picking on some hippies. The bad publicity defeated the Big Boys and gave Ben and Jerry untold millions of dollars worth of free publicity.
Thanks to the boost of nationwide attention and the superb quality of their ice cream and yogurt, Ben and Jerry’s is today a division of Unilever with ice cream parlors in 30 countries around the globe. First a gas station in Vermont…now the world.
Do you lack a GREAT OFFICE?
In 1951 Lillian Menasche was a 22-year-old housewife pregnant with her first child when she started her mail-order business on her kitchen table in her home in upstate New York. Taking $500 of wedding gift money, she bought a 5-inch classified ad in Seventeen offering a monogrammed leather pocketbook and matching monogrammed belt for $7. Her father, who ran a small leather goods factory, agreed to make them for $3 with Lillian doing the monogramming herself. In less than three months, the ad brought in $32,000 in orders.
With her first profits, Lillian placed larger ads in fashion magazines. Then in 1954 she put together her first catalog – again on her kitchen table – comprised of eight black and white pages that she mailed to 125,000 customers. She did extremely well with items that were the height of preppy fashion in the '50’s such as monogrammed collar pins and signet rings.
As her business grew, she expanded into light manufacturing, creating charm bracelets, lipstick containers and makeup cases for companies like Revlon and Elizabeth Arden. The company was now called Vernon Specialties because she lived in Mt. Vernon, NY. (She changed her name to Vernon in 1990.) Vernon used herself, rather than costly marketing research, to determine what to sell; she offered only those items she would use in her home. Her business thrived in the 1970’s when women returned to the work force and were too busy to shop. In 1987 when her annual sales were at $112 million, she went public.
In 2003, Vernon sold off her company and she netted $60 million. So much for needing a fancy office suite!
Do you lack INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE?
Ken Hakuta knew nothing about the rough-and-tumble toy industry. He was running a small business, exporting ironing board covers and cat food to Japan and importing karate uniforms to America. Then one day in 1982 a small package arrived from his parents in Japan. It contained two gifts for his sons called Tacos, slimy rubber octopuses that, when thrown against the wall, slithered down in an entertaining way.
A light went on in Ken’s head. What if this toy was unknown in the United States? Could he get into the toy business and be successful? First he called his parents to find out where they had bought the toy. The he called the store and asked them the name of the manufacturer. The he called the manufacturer. Three calls later he learned that the U.S. rights were up for grabs.
He decided to take a gamble. He called the manufacturer back and said he would order 300,000 octopuses, a commitment of $120,000, in exchange for worldwide rights to the toy and pay for them in 60 days. He didn’t have the money or any idea how toy sales worked – only the belief that he could somehow turn the toy into a fad.
With no toy industry experience, he had to rely on his gut instincts. His gut told him that to start a fad he needed the media’s participation. In his town, the Washington Post was the media of greatest importance and, just as significant, it also had national distribution. So he decided to get his toys into view of the Post staff. When the first shipment of toys arrived he started packaging them in little plastic bags at his home. The he filled a backpack with his newly dubbed Wacky Wallwalkers and canvassed the city, selling them to coffee shops, newsstands, delis and drugstores within walking distance of the Post’s offices.
Before too long, a Wallwalker caught the attention of the Post’s fashion editor who wrote a story for the front page of the Style Section on how it was going to be a big fad. Then the business section of the Post picked up the story and orders started flowing in. Meanwhile a producer at CBS in the Washington bureau noticed how intently the reporters and cameramen in the office were playing with the Wallwalker. He had Dan Rather interview Hakuta for a spot on the CBS Evening News which ended with Rather saying, “I’ll take a dozen.”
After four months, Hakuta had a fad on his hands. He headed for Hollywood with his Wallwalkers seeking movie and TV publicity. There he successfully demonstrated the toy for some NBC executives who gave him his own prime time special with the Wallwalkers as cartoon characters. An executive at MGM/United Artists put in an order for 50,000 Wallwalkers to promote the James Bond movie Octopussy. Ken was on a roll! Kmart and all the major toy stores ordered huge quantities. Then Wendy’s hamburger chain ordered the Wallwalkers to give out with their meals and Kellogs decided to put one in every box of cornflakes.
In all, Hakuta went from a negative $120,000 to a positive $20 million on his gamble. He also started a new business for himself, running Fad Fairs around the country and hosting his own TV show, The Dr. Fad Show. It shows what you can do when you are willing to take the first step.
Are you TOO YOUNG?
Computer magnate Michael Dell runs one of the world’s largest computer makers. He is living proof that you are never too young to be successful.
At the age of 13, Dell ran a mail-order stamp trading business that earned more than $2,000. At 16 he sold subscriptions to the Houston Post and made $18,000. When he turned 17 he bought his first BMW, cash down. He was no ordinary delivery boy; he realized that newlyweds and families who had just moved were prime targets for subscriptions, so he put together a targeted mailing list on his Apple computer.
Dell was a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. He established a dorm-room business selling computer chips and disk drives for IBM PCs through newspaper and magazine ads. He bought his products at cost from IBM dealers who were required to purchase large monthly quotas from IBM. His component business was thriving when he noticed that retail computer salespeople often knew a lot less about the PCs they were selling then those who came into their stores. Dell figured he could provide better services and better prices over the phone. He started selling his own IBM clones directly to customers, and by eliminating the retail stores, he offered them at about 40% of cost.
Of course, everyone told him that it was impossible to sell computers by mail since they were such complicated machines. Dell proved them wrong and was soon earning $80,000 per month. The following year he told his parents he wanted to drop out of school. His father, Alexander, asked why, and he responded that he wanted to compete with IBM. His father laughed, but chances are Dell's early detractors are not laughing now.
By 1988 Dell had built a $159 million company; in 2010 the company's revenues had shot up to $61 billion while employing 76,000 people worldwide. He has made his mark by creating a new kind of computer company, one that fully customizes its PCs for clients who order them over the phone, by fax and through Dell’s sales force. His company is especially popular with businesses because Dell pre-configures each computer to the precise requirements of each business, even loading proprietary software for them.
Dell’s recent personal worth was pegged in 2010 at $13 billion. Good thing he didn't listen when people called him an unrealistic college kid.
Are you TOO OLD?
Ray Kroc was a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman when he stopped into a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California. He wanted nothing more than to sell a machine to the two brothers, Mac and Jim MacDonald. But what he saw convinced him to completely change his life, and in the process, create one of the world’s most phenomenal business successes.
What Kroc saw was a brand new way to run a restaurant. At this drive-in hamburgers were produced quickly, efficiently, inexpensively and identically. He saw high school students working in precision under the direction of Jim and Mac and their supervisors. He saw the long lines of people waiting for food at the counters being served quickly. He realized he was watching a system that could be cloned worldwide.
In 1954 he convinced the MacDonald brothers to let him franchise their method. A year later, Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. By 1957 Kroc was operating 14 McDonald’s restaurants in Illinois, Indiana and California. He opened his 100th restaurant in 1959. In 1961 he bought the MacDonalds out for $2.7 million and went on to create the third largest restaurant chain in the world behind Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell and others) and Subway.
In the past 50 years, McDonalds has become a $22 billion per year business with 31,000 franchises and 400,000 employees around the world. What’s more, Kroc created a model for doing business which has helped an entire generation of entrepreneurs build their fortunes: the franchise.
All of these peak performers had one thing in common: the ability to start exactly where they were – old, young, prosperous or not – and begin pursuing their dreams. Learn from them! It doesn’t matter where you start. It just matters that you start. You’ll never be completely ready, so now’s as good a time as any!
Give Yourself Permission To Have What You Want
I’ve read many personal development books and I have my favorites. As far as books with the best title, however, the winner is without a doubt one by Arnold Patent. Patent was an attorney for 50 years who experienced a health crisis. He turned to meditation, nutritional supplements and spiritual teachings to become well again. He then began teaching workshops on the spiritual principles he was using to heal his life, and he wrote and self-published a book called You Can Have It All. The main thrust of the book, which has become an international favorite, is that we can achieve any level of success that we set our sights on.