Simple Secrets to Success

In Business and In Life:

The 40 Wisest Things I've

Ever Heard Anyone Say,
From Gandhi to
David Lee Roth

by Chris Allen

Copyright © 2015 by
Simple Secrets, LLC.
All rights reserved.

For more information, please visit

SimpleSecrets.com
 Preface
Whatever I have or will accomplish in my life, it’s only because I
have been fortunate enough to stand on the shoulders of giants.
Not just giants in the world of thought and wisdom, but
visionaries in technology, too.

The words you're reading right now, I’m actually dictating into
my iPhone as I drive along the beautiful coastal beaches of
North Carolina.

I’m a lucky guy. For the past nine years, my wife and I have
been able to bounce back-and-forth from our home in the North
Carolina Mountains to a wonderful oceanfront house we rent on
the beach.

The lifestyle we’ve designed for ourselves just wasn’t possible 15

or 20 years ago. But thanks to the Internet, we can now enjoy a
level of freedom and independence that previous generations
could not begin to imagine.

Simply put:

1. There’s never been a better time to be alive.

2. Nobody’s been given more opportunity than you.

3. If you’re over 50, the Internet has made it possible to remain

(or become) a vibrant, relevant contributor to your local
community and society at large for decades to come.
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Anything standing in your way is of your own making. This
book and my mission are to clear your path and set you free.

Tell me how I’m doing at my website, SimpleSecrets.com.

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 1.

Whatever business you're

in, you're really in the
marketing business.

— Dan Kennedy

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For years I thought I created this quote, and maybe we both did
independent of each other. I have to give the benefit of the
doubt to Mr. Kennedy, though, as he has spent a lifetime
producing genius-level marketing advice that should be required
reading for anyone who gets within 50 feet their company’s
advertising budget -- whether it’s their own small business or a
Fortune 500 company.

In Business:

This should be the golden rule of any small business. It really

doesn’t matter what your product or service is (Dan Kennedy
calls them “deliverables”): dental work, a pizza, even a sermon.

In any business, the marketer of the thing is much more valuable

than the doer of the thing, since you can’t do anything until
someone walks through the door and buys.

In Life:

Even in everyday life, this quote is useful because it serves to

remind you to put the “experience” people have with you above
whatever it is you’re ultimately trying to accomplish. You can
be pleasant and still get your point across. You can differ
without rubbing the other person’s nose in how wrong they are.

Your personal reputation is your own personal “brand.” Do

things that build trust and confidence in your brand and you’ll
have loyal friends for life.

Remember:

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Whatever business you're in, you're really in the
marketing business.

— Dan Kennedy

6
 2.

My life has been a terrible

string of misfortunes, the
vast majority of which
never happened.

— Michael de Montugue

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Though it usually gets mis-attributed to Mark Twain, a French
philosopher who lived in the 1500s coined this particular piece
of brilliance.

In Business:

The longer you’re in a particular business, the more risk-averse

you become. You tend to get gun-shy, and the downside seems
a little steeper.

The truth is there’s often more risk in doing nothing. Even

worse is going into the “prevent defense” you often see football
teams adopt when they try to protect a tenuous lead in the
closing minutes of a game. Instead of playing to win, they start
playing “not to lose.” How many times have you watched that
lead disintegrate?

Sometimes it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, too. You spend all

your mental energy imagining what you don’t want, and
miraculously it appears! Not a good business plan.

Instead, take yourself out of the equation as much as possible.

Remove all the emotion from your assessment and confidently
take the calculated and necessary risks that are required to grow
your business.

In Life:

Nobody’s telling you to put on rose-colored glasses and ignore

the risks that come with living a full life; but it’s not much fun

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going through life with one foot on the brake, imagining every
worst-case scenario that lies around the next corner.

Like so many things, it’s a matter of balance. When does

prudence and exercising good judgment descend into needless,
destructive worry?

Usually, it’s when your thoughts are repeatedly keeping you

from taking a specific action. If it’s something that keeps coming
up in your life, there’s probably a valid reason to address the
issue.

Not going down a dark alley at midnight is good judgment. Not

going to the doctor because you’re afraid of what he might find
is destructive worry.

Remember:

My life has been a terrible string of misfortunes, the

vast majority of which never happened.

— Michael de Montugue

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 3.

Feelings are what you get

for thinking the way you do.

— Marylin vos Savant

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It seems like we live in a world governed more and more by
feelings, doesn't it? Since so much hinges on them, it would be
pretty helpful to know where they come from. Well, this quote
sums it up best.

In Business:

Always remember that people buy based on emotion, then use

logic to justify the purchase.

A middle-aged man wants that red sports car purely for

emotional reasons, but he'll tell himself (and his wife) how much
better gas mileage he'll get, how they'll have more room in the
garage, and so on.

In Life:

You are in complete control of how you feel. In fact, you're

manufacturing your feelings as you go through your day.

Did you have one of those Play-Doh Fun Factories as a kid?

You put the star-shaped template in front of the hole, push the
lever and viola -- little stars would ooze out while you cut them
with a plastic knife. You could make squares, half-moons and
other shapes, too.

Well, your thoughts are the templates for your feelings. In the
Fun Factory of your mind, you select the template you wish to
apply to completely neutral, malleable events of your life. Press
the lever and here come the corresponding feelings oozing out,
based on the thought-template you selected.

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So the next time you're feeling bad, pick a different thought
template and re-run those original thoughts through your mind
again. I guarantee you’ll feel the difference.

Remember:

Feelings are what you get for thinking the way you do.

—Marylin vos Savant

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 4.

We are kept from our goal

not by obstacles, but by a
clear path to a lesser goal.

— Robert Brault

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Do you remember the scene in Raising Arizona where Glen tells a
joke, then calls it a “way-homer?” He said it’s because you only
get it on the way home.

I didn’t appreciate the brilliance in this quote at first, but it

stayed with me. I now put it right up there among the all-time
greats.

In Business:

Voltaire said, “Good is the enemy of great,” and James Collins

had a bestseller (deservedly so) with Good To Great: Why Some
Companies Make The Leap… and Others Don’t.

Most businesses settle. They settle for mediocrity and they settle
way too quickly — sometimes before they even open their doors.

I love pizza. A couple of weeks ago, a new pizza place opened

up down the street. I walked in, ordered the two-slice and a
drink lunch special, and proceeded to be staggeringly
underwhelmed. Again.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt and they instantly proved to
be just another me-too, copycat pizza place serving barely
passable, me-too, copycat pizza. What’s the point of even
opening if you’re not going to at least attempt to make great
pizza? Why do you even exist? To quote Raising Arizona again,
“That's your whole damn raison d'etre, ain't it?”

But here’s the kicker — double kicker, really:

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1. It was lunchtime, they’d been open a few weeks and I was the
only customer in the place.

2. After he heated up my two slices, the owner was just sitting

there, shooting the breeze and laughing it up with the waitress.

You better believe if I had sunk all that money into a pizza
place, I’d either be out pounding the pavement with flyers or
samples or both in an effort to drum up some business. Or I’d
be in the kitchen working to perfect my dough, my sauce, my
toppings, and every other element of great pizza.

Congratulations on settling for your lesser goal, Mr. Pizza

Owner. Hope your lease is month-to-month.

In Life:

I’m a big believer in the 80/20 Rule. Eighty percent of your

results come from twenty percent of your actions.

You wear twenty percent of your clothes eighty percent of the

time. When you open your refrigerator, eighty percent of the
time you’re reaching for the same twenty percent of items. The
list goes on and on.

When we fail to achieve goals in life, eighty percent of the time

it’s because we saw a clear path to a lesser goal; only twenty
percent of the time did an actual obstacle stand in our way. In
our minds, though, we think it’s always the obstacles.

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Maybe I set a goal to lose twenty pounds, and when I don’t I
think it’s because I don’t know how. My lack of knowledge is an
obstacle. Or it was the holidays, or we had company over the
summer. Special circumstances were the obstacle that got in the
way.

The truth is, I had a goal of losing twenty pounds, but I kept
settling for the lesser goal of gaining immediate pleasure by
eating that giant piece of chocolate cake, followed by a slightly
smaller piece later that evening. There certainly was a clear
path to it, too — right from the fork to my mouth.

If there’s a goal you’re not reaching, stop looking for pretend

obstacles and start recognizing the lesser goals you’re constantly
settling for.

Remember:

We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a

clear path to a lesser goal.

— Robert Brault

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 5.

Discipline is remembering
what you want.

— David Campbell

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Wow. That’s a lot of life-changing power packed into six little
words.

In Business:

You could say that, in business, discipline is staying true to your

brand.

I once heard someone say that a brand is nothing more than a

logo and a crowd. I disagree, though, because in order to draw
that crowd to the brand in the first place, there had to be
something that distinguished it from the others in the market.

In advertising, it’s known as the “Unique Selling Proposition.”

Rosser Reeves, one of the real-life Mad Men of Madison Avenue,
coined the phrase in his 1960 book, Reality In Advertising.

You may have never heard of Rosser Reeves or his book. But
I’ll bet you’ve heard, “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”

That’s his! And it’s still used to this day as the USP for M&Ms.

Once you establish your own USP in your market, discipline is

staying true to it, while simultaneously shouting it from the
rooftops.

In Life:

Willpower is temporary. To truly change, you have to change

your relationship with the people, place, or thing that’s at the
center of your habit. Let’s call it a “habit trigger.”

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Remember that twenty pounds I vowed to lose? Well, it’s still
here. And so is my current relationship with chocolate cake.

The cake brings me immediate pleasure. It’s a dependable

friend who never lets me down. It gives and gives, and never
asks for anything in return.

But wait a minute. Maybe it’s not as good of a friend as I think.

Maybe it’s not just giving. Could it be taking something from
me? Maybe it’s holding me back from living a more active
lifestyle.

My knees hurt. I bet if I weren’t lugging around an extra twenty

pounds, my knees wouldn’t hurt as much. Hmmm…

Do you see how my relationship with chocolate cake is starting

to change? Instead of a friend I hang out with everyday, maybe
we just get together on special occasions.

Now it’s not a question of willpower and resisting a constant

temptation. I’m just not that into the cake anymore. We used
to be friends, but now we’re just acquaintances. Our
relationship changed and we drifted apart.

In Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz metaphorically describes

willpower as a stretched rubber band. You can hold it stretched
tight for awhile, but as soon as you get distracted or tired, you’re
going to let go and it will return to it’s normal state.

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Keeping your ultimate, positive goal in the forefront of your
mind will keep you from getting distracted, while you also forge
a new relationship with your habit trigger — one that puts you
in more control, with you calling the shots and dictating the
terms.

In this way, discipline is not the ultimate restriction; it’s actually

the ultimate freedom.

Remember:

Discipline is remembering what you want.

— David Campbell

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 6.

Nothing means anything

until you give it meaning.

— Steve Chandler

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If I were a psychologist, my specialty would definitely be
Cognitive Psychology, which this quote from Steve Chandler
pretty much sums up in just a few words. CP focuses on the way
we process outside information. When we apply faulty
reasoning, invalid assumptions, and misconceptions to otherwise
neutral events, we end up with “cognitive distortions.”
Examples are “all-or-nothing” thinking, over-generalizations,
and jumping to conclusions.

The best book I’ve found on the subject is Feeling Good: The New
Mood Therapy by Dr. David D. Burns.

In Business:

When you’ve invested a lot of yourself into your business or

profession, it’s easy to take any rejection as a personal rejection
of you. “They’re not saying ‘no’ to my offer; they’re saying ‘no’
to me and anything I might ever have to offer.”

It’s important to see all the no’s for what they are: neutral
events. Do not apply any additional meaning to them. Instead,
learn from them, if you can, and move on. As Steve Chandler is
also fond of saying, “The proper response to ‘no’ is ‘next!’”

In Life:

The quarterback throws a touchdown — half the stadium cheers

and the other half boos. They all witnessed the exact same
event, but it was the meaning they assigned to the event that
dictated their reaction.

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When you have an extreme reaction to any event, take a
moment to ask yourself how much is due to the raw event itself
and how much is due to the meaning you're giving it.

Remember:

Nothing means anything until you give it meaning.

— Steve Chandler

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 7.

You make your choices,

then your choices make
you.

— Jim Rohn

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How’s that for a bucket a cold, harsh reality thrown right in your
face? Truer words were never spoken, though.

In Business:

A man decided to open a steak place. His father used to be in

the restaurant business, so he asked him for some advice.

The father said, “Here’s the most important choice you have to
make: either be the absolute cheapest steak place in town, or be
the absolute best. If you’re somewhere in the middle, you’ll get
eaten alive from both ends.”

These days, I think you really only have one choice: be the best
and never, ever compete on price.

One of my all-time favorite talk-radio personalities is Bruce

Williams, now retired. In his book, In Business For Yourself, he
said the number one mistake he sees small business owners make
is setting their prices too low.

So many entrepreneurs start a business thinking they’ll undercut

the competition, and then make it up in volume. When the
volume doesn’t materialize, they’re sunk.

You see this on eBay all the time, too. Somebody has a source
where they can get widgets for $1 and sell them for $5. Then
somebody tracks down the same source and will gladly sell it for
$4. Somebody else comes along asking only $3. It’s a race to
the bottom, and pretty soon there’s no incentive for anybody to
sell the widget because there’s no margin in it.

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Small retail businesses are always lamenting having to compete
with Wal-Mart. If you ever find yourself in that predicament,
make the choice to never compete on price.

As Dan Kennedy advises, pick a battle you can win. You’re

never going to beat Wal-Mart on price, so compete in a different
arena. What can you offer that Wal-Mart can’t?

Can you provide better, more personalized service? If you’re

selling the same physical product as Wal-Mart, can you bundle it
with value-added services to make your offering superior?

Get creative and -- I’ll say it again just to hammer it home --

make the choice to never, ever compete on price.

In Life:

All you have is right now. You can’t do anything to rewrite the
past, and the only thing you can do to have any affect on the
future is to take some sort of action right here, right now.

I’m sure you’ve seen a giant mosaic hanging on a wall of a

museum, or maybe a hotel — thousands of small, colored tiles
that, together, form a complete image.

That’s your life — a “mosaic of nows.” The choices you make

in the now give each little tile its shape and color. What kind of
picture do you want to create?

Remember:

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You make your choices, then your choices make you.

— Jim Rohn

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 8.

Be the change you wish to

see in other people.

— Gandhi

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Yes, it's a classic. And, boy, is it ever worth reading again.

Another variation I like, courtesy of Steve Chandler, is to see

yourself as the problem in a given situation, even when you
know you're not really the problem. "Because if I'm the
problem," Steve says, "I can also be the solution."

It's a great way to get those creative, problem-solving juices

flowing.

In Business:

Never settle for having a copycat, me-too business. Always strive

to have a business that so over-delivers on its promises that your
customers feel compelled to tell others about it. Not just friends,
but total strangers.

My wife and I were in a great seafood restaurant years ago, and

she mentioned she would like to find a really good Chinese
place, too. The couple in the booth behind us overheard, and
immediately sprang into action.

They told us about a Thai restaurant in the next town over. We

told them we’d have to give it a try in the polite, “let’s do lunch”
kind of way, but that simply would not do. They made us
promise we would try it. Yes, they were more than just satisfied
customers; they were evangelists!

We did try it… and they were right! Best food ever! Now my
wife and I are unpaid evangelists for this place, too. We’ll tell

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people within 100 miles about it when given the slightest
opportunity. Man, I wish I was there right now.

No matter what your business offers, "be the change" that turns
customers into evangelists and leave your competitors in the
dust.

In Life:

Actions truly do speak louder than words. There simply is no

other way to lead than by example. We should all strive to be,
at a bare minimum, a positive influence on those we're around.

Remember:

Be the change you wish to see in other people.

— Gandhi

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 9.

The most important story

you tell about yourself is
the story you tell yourself.

— Jim Loehr

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This is very similar to one of my other favorite quotes by Henry
Ford: "Whether you think you can't or think you can, you're
right."

I include this one because it specifically references the power of

story, which is actually the title of Sports Psychologist Jim
Loehr's book (The Power of Story).

Always remember, people would rather hear a story than a fact.

Don't believe me? Walk around a bookstore and see how much
shelf-space is devoted to fiction verses non-fiction. How many of
the top-grossing movies this year will be documentaries?

In Business:

What's the story of your business? It can be the most important

relationship-building tool for your customers and the most
important motivational tool for yourself.

A powerful business story usually involves a goal larger than you.

In the nineties, and based partly on the success of the movie Jerry
Maguire, mission statements became a popular way of defining a
business’ core principles and values.

Remember:

What does your business stand for and what ultimate outcome
would you like your business to achieve for your customers or

32
clients? Weave the answers into a short, compelling story and
you’re off to a great start.

If you ever watched The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite,
you probably remember the human-interest stories done by
correspondent Charles Kuralt. He called his segment On The
Road, and he travelled the country in his Winnebago, looking for
interesting people.

In the late sixties, one person he encountered in his travels

worked at NASA. He was a janitor there, and he kept his
section absolutely spotless.

When Kuralt asked him, “What’s your job here at NASA?” he

replied without missing a beat, “My job is to put a man on the
moon.”

That’s the power of the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.

In Life:

Always be on the lookout for self-limiting stories rattling around

in your head, because those tend to be the ones we playback the
most. What’s the telltale sign of a self-limiting story? It’s usually
one that keeps you from taking action.

Also, just because a story was true once doesn’t mean it’s still
true today. Years ago, you may have tried and failed at
something due to a legitimate obstacle in your way, but that may
not be the case today.

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Zig Ziglar used to talk about seeing a huge elephant behind the
scenes at the circus. A flimsy piece of rope tied around his leg
and fastened to a small, wooden stake was all that kept him from
wandering off. He asked the trainer, “How can that little piece
of rope hold that big elephant?”

The trainer explained, “When he was a baby we used a big

chain, and he tried to pull away but couldn’t. Now, just the rope
is enough because he doesn’t try anymore.”

Chains may have held you back earlier in your life, but they
might be flimsy pieces of rope now. Take some time to re-
examine the stories you tell yourself about yourself and prepare
to be surprised!

Remember:

The most important story you tell about yourself is the

story you tell yourself.

— Jim Loehr

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 10.

Work on your business, not

in your business.

— Michael Gerber

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Major game-changer. This is one of the key takeaways from
Michael Gerber’s insightful book, The E-Myth Revisited. If I could
only recommend one book to someone starting their own
business, it would be that one.

In Business:

The idea behind the quote is that most people start their
business because they like doing the technical work involved.
But that’s no guarantee of success, and is often a recipe for
disaster.

Physically building cabinets and growing a successful cabinet-

making business require two completely different skill-sets.
When you enjoy the technical work, it’s too easy to lose yourself
in the role of technician — “doing it, doing it, doing it” — and
completely neglect the roles of manager or creator, which are
crucial in guiding your business to profit and long-term
sustainability.

Mr. Gerber even goes so far as to suggest the average plumber’s

assistant who’s thinking about striking out on his own would
likely have more success opening a dog-grooming business.
Since he has no knowledge of dog-grooming, he would be forced
to work on the business, developing efficient systems and
marketing campaigns, instead of loosing himself in the business
by grooming dogs all day.

In Life:

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Systems and routines lead to personal success, as well. Just like
interest in a savings account, it’s the compound effect of small,
daily habits and tiny steps toward your life goals that grow
exponentially over time to culminate in high achievement and
major advancements.

Another way to step back from living and look objectively at the
course of your life is to have “to be” goals.

In his book, Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz said that most

people have plenty of “to do” goals (I want to visit Paris) and “to
get” goals (I want to own a yacht), but they rarely have “to be”
goals.

If you’d like to own a yacht someday, ask yourself, “What kind

of person is able to buy a yacht? What kind of habits and work
ethic do they have? What do I need to do to become that type
of person?”

This exercise will help you work on your life, instead of just living
in your life.

Remember:

Work on your business, not in your business.

— Michael Gerber

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 11.

Achieve your meaning

through creativity, not
consumption.

— Dan Sullivan

38
See if you remember this TV ad jingle from the seventies: “I’m
a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, she’s a Pepper, we’re a Pepper! If you
drink Dr. Pepper, you’re a Pepper, too!”

Hey, if you want to be a Pepper, that’s fine. One of the keys to

life, though, is to not just be a Pepper.

By all means, go ahead and drink a certain soda, drive a certain

car, don’t let anything come between you and a certain pair of
jeans (if you remembered the jingle; you’ll remember the jeans
ad), but draw the bulk of your identity and self-worth from what
you’re putting out into the world, and not from what you’re
taking in.

In Business:

Creativity in business means distinguishing yourself from the

others in your market. Creative marketing cuts through the
clutter, and rises above the noise.

In the book, Blue Ocean Strategy, the authors compare all the
copycat, me-too businesses out there to trying to survive in a red
ocean, murky with the blood of all the mediocre businesses vying
for a scrap of market share.

They suggest using your creativity to take your business into a

blue ocean, where there is no competition. To do this, think
about your product or service and ask yourself what can be
added or taken away that would give your customers a new
experience, and even carve out a new market or niche for your
business.

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An example they give is Jiffy Lube. Before, if you wanted to get
a routine oil change, you had to deal with a full-service garage,
drop your car off, or wait for a couple of hours until they could
work you in.

Jiffy Lube stripped away all the other services and just focused
on oil changes. It made it irresistibly convenient to have this
routine maintenance performed on a regular basis with no
appointment, thus creating a new sub-niche in the car repair
market. They created a blue ocean.

What can you add or take away to enhance the core experience
of your customers and create your own blue ocean?

In Life:

Think about the labels you use to describe yourself. Jot down
the first ten that come to mind.

Now look over the list and see how many of your labels are
consumption-based and how many are creative-based.

For example, “avid reader” is consumption, while “writer” is

creative. “Beer drinker” is consumption, and “home-brewer” is
creative. You get the idea.

A balanced list equals a balanced life.

Remember:

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Achieve your meaning through creativity, not
consumption.

— Dan Sullivan

41
 12.

A good plan, violently

executed now, is better
than a perfect plan next
week.

— Gen. George S. Patton

42
I know the word “violently” is off-putting to some, so feel free to
substitute “passionately,” “aggressively,” or even “haphazardly”
in your mind instead.

A similar quote you might like is, “Imperfect action is better

than perfect inaction.” I still prefer General Patton’s, though,
because I never see myself as being in a state of inaction.

I can easily convince myself that all my mental plotting and

planning is actually taking action, when it’s really not. But I can
never convince myself that all the gears turning in my head are
anything close to actually “executing a plan,” so General Patton
gets my butt in gear -- in keeping with his well-deserved
reputation.

In Business:

It’s often better to be first and mediocre than second and

superior. Remember videotapes? Beta was smaller with better
picture-quality, but VHS was there first and won the battle.

Software developers have coined the term MVP, which stands

for “Minimum Viable Product.” It goes like this:

Here’s the basic problem we’re solving. Let’s not worry about
all the bells and whistles and additional features right now. Let’s
get a minimal viable product out there as quickly as possible, so
we gain market share quickly before someone else comes along
and becomes the de facto standard.

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Besides, once it’s in the hands of the users, features we thought
were important might not interest them at all. Plus, they’ll
provide us with feedback for features that are important to them
that we never even considered.

Good enough is good enough! Let’s just get something out there
to see if we’re even on the right track. We can always polish it
up and add some features in version 2.0.

In Life:

Stop procrastinating and get on with it!

One of my favorite book titles is Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael

Masterson. His assertion is that most people think of making a
decision — “pulling the trigger” on a decision — as if they were
shooting a bullet out of a gun. Once it’s gone, there’s nothing
you can do to alter its course. So you better take your time and
make absolutely sure you’re doing the right thing before you pull
the trigger, because there’s no turning back.

In reality, he points out, most decisions are more like launching

a guided missile. Once the missile is the air, it must make many
adjustments along the way in order to zero in on its intended
target (or goal). The most important thing is that you go ahead
and fire the missile. Only then will you be able to make the
inevitable course corrections.

There’s no sense in leaving the missile sitting on the launching

pad while you go over and over (and over) your initial settings.

44
The fact is, you’re guaranteed to make thousands of adjustments
along the way.

So what are you waiting for? Ready, Fire, Aim!

Remember:

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a

perfect plan next week.

— Gen. George S. Patton

45
 13.

U=I-R
(Unhappiness equals
Images minus Reality).

— Dennis Prager

46
I can’t say enough about Dennis Prager’s masterpiece, Happiness
Is A Serious Problem. It is must-reading for anybody who would
like to be happy right now -- or for those who are considering
adding happiness to their lives in the near or distant future.

In Business:

You’ve probably lost count of how many times you’ve sat down
at a fast-food restaurant, unwrapped your burger, and thought,
“Gee, that doesn’t look anything like the one they showed in the
TV commercial last night.”

You went in with an image of a “10,” but you got a “2.” So

your unhappiness with the burger is an “8.” This is the ultimate
customer satisfaction equation. You can use it for every aspect
of your business.

Is your advertising promising a 10, but you’re only delivering 3s

and 4s at best? When people call your office, is it reasonable to
expect a 6, but your phone system turns the experience into a 1?

You can use this equation to over-deliver, too. Again, that’s the
way to create evangelists out of your customers. If they’re used
to getting 5-level treatment everywhere else for some mundane
experience, what can you do to rock their world and give them a
9? That would give you a “minus 4” unhappiness number.

Lower is better. Now you’re so low that you’re into minus

numbers, which actually moves the customer satisfaction dial
over to where we dreamed of being: happiness territory!

47
I think you need to deliver a 0 for a satisfied customer, a minus 2
for a customer who will refer friends and family to you, and a
minus 4 and below for a customer who feels compelled to tell a
complete stranger about you, if given the opportunity.

In Life:

As Mr. Prager states so well in his book, “If unhappiness is

measured by the difference between your image and your
reality, unhappiness can be reduced by either dropping your
images and celebrating your reality or keeping your images and
changing your reality.”

More than that, I think the formula is a tremendous help in

identifying the causes of your unhappiness. We often find
ourselves in an unhappy mood, but are not exactly sure how we
got that way.

“What happened?” we might ask ourselves. “My day was going

fine earlier, now I just feel like going home and climbing back
into bed.”

It’s great to be able to play back the last few hours and ask,
“What happened where my reality fell far short of my images?”
The answer tends to jump out pretty quickly.

Remember:

U = I - R (Unhappiness equals Images minus Reality).

— Dennis Prager

48
49
 14.

Everyone is the hero of

their own story.

— Mike Myers (Mother)

50
When former Saturday Night Live cast-member Mike Myers was
promoting his original Austin Powers movie, he did an interview
with Parade magazine. The reporter asked him why his Dr. Evil
character was still so lovable. He said that his mother, who was
very active in the theater, told him, "Remember: the villain is
always the hero of their own story.”

I’ve altered the quote slightly to make it more universal.

In Business:

When you think about it, this quote is actually very similar to
“The customer is always right,” which, in my opinion, does
more harm than good, especially to the small business owner.

For example, let’s say a woman opens a bakery, fully embracing

the old adage, “The customer is always right.” It doesn’t take
long before she starts hearing all the wacky ideas from her
customers about what baked goods she should sell: doughnuts
with gravy on top, chocolate-covered quiche, onion upside-down
cake, and so on.

She starts thinking, “The customer is always right? What a load

of baloney!”

Pretty soon, she completely rejects the entire notion — even

scoffs and sarcastically laughs at it now — and never gives any
credence to any suggestions or feedback she gets from any of her
customers.

51
“This is what I’m offering,” she thinks to herself. “If you don’t
like it, then leave.” And they do.

I’ve always thought the old adage stops short and could do with
a makeover.

It would be better to say, “In their own mind, the customer is

always right,” or “The customer always thinks they’re right.”
That puts the responsibility back on you, the business owner and
expert, to determine if the customer is actually right or not.

It keeps you in the game, open to new ideas and evaluating

them, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater and
summarily dismissing the whole concept that your customers
could actually help you improve your business.

“Everyone is the hero of their own story” is a better way to think

about customer service, suggestions, and reviews. You should
even apply it to the negative ones.

In Life:

It can go one of two ways for a hero. If they triumph over

whatever adversity or obstacle stands in their way, they are
“victors.” But failing means they are “victims” of those
obstacles.

Everyone’s favorite stories to tell other people are the

hero/victor stories. But their favorite stories to tell themselves
are the hero/victim stories.

52
You can see people’s faces light up when they launch into a
hero/victor story. It can be something as big as “I ran into a
burning building and saved a baby,” or as small as “This guy
thought he was going to get my parking space, but I got in there
right before him.”

People don’t light up when they tell their hero-victim stories. It’s
usually just some excuse-making tale that revolves around them
being well-intentioned and evil forces getting in their way.
These range from, “I was going to become a doctor and help
people, but my parents/teachers/friends didn’t believe in me,”
to “I was going to eat healthy today, but somebody brought in
another office birthday cake and I had to be sociable.”

Once you realize everyone is the hero of their own story, your
job becomes two-fold.

First, it’s up to you to examine the stories you tell, particularly

the ones you tell yourself, and try to keep your hero/victim
stories to a minimum.

Second, realize that all the stories you get from other people are
hero stories, and if you ever want to persuade them to take a
certain action or just get along with them in general, don’t ever
try to recast them as anything but heroes in their stories.

This will go a long, long way in creating successful relationships

with anyone you meet.

Remember:

53
Everyone is the hero of their own story.

— Mike Myers (Mother)

54
 15.

Peace is the result of

retraining your mind to
process life as it is, rather
than as you think it should
be.

— Dr. Wayne Dyer

55
This quote is a close cousin to, “Nothing means anything until
you give it meaning,” but it’s different enough that it deserves its
own place on my list. I particularly like the use of the word
“retraining.”

In Business:

Substitute the word “Prosperity” for “Peace” and you have a

world-class business quote. They’re really not that far apart
when you think about it. For a business to be at peace, it needs
to be prospering.

There have been many variations on the adage that businesses

are either growing or shrinking -- there’s no standing still. I
agree. So growth, even slow and steady, is the mode you always
want to be in.

In Life:

I mentioned before that I like the use of the word “retraining.” I

like that it rejects the notion of a “permanent personality,”
where you’re locked into a certain way of thinking and there’s
nothing you can do about it.

I’m not a big fan of trying to change other people. But I am a

fan of trying to change yourself. That’s where all meaningful
change begins.

One dangerous thing about this quote, though, is that pessimists

use it to justify a negative outlook. Pessimists always think of

56
themselves as “realists.” I’m sure you’ve heard a pessimist in
your life say, “I’m not being negative; I’m just being real.”

Pessimism is a safe, weak choice we primarily use to keep us

from taking action. “Why bother?” the pessimist asks, “It
probably wouldn’t work anyway.”

Problem avoided -- on to the next gutless choice.

Optimism is risky. There’s risk of failure, risk of disappointment,

risk of not being taken seriously. To me, however, a life without
any risk is not a life worth living. I’ll choose optimism.

Remember:

Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process

life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.

— Wayne Dyer

57
 16.

In the land of the blind,

even the one-eyed man is
king.

— Desiderius Erasmus

58
I struggle with perfectionism, and this quote helps me on a
couple of different levels. I’ve been blind to many things in my
life, and I’m always grateful to the kings who’ve helped show me
the way. It really did not matter how many eyes they had —
they knew more than me.

In Business:

What value can you bring to your market? Chances are, you
know plenty about one or more particular subjects that others
don’t.

In Chip and Dan Heath’s excellent book, Made To Stick, they talk
about the “curse of knowledge.” When you know something, it’s
easy to assume everyone else knows it, too. You also forget what
it was like not to know.

If you ever find yourself looking for a new business idea, ask
yourself what questions people seem to come to you for help
with. Perhaps this is an area of expertise or specialized
knowledge that people might be willing to pay you for.

You don’t have to be the world’s foremost expert on the subject

either. As long as you know a little bit more than the people
you’re helping, the service you’re providing them is valuable.

In Life:

I mentioned earlier I struggle with perfectionism. The most

damaging effect it can have on a person’s life is procrastination

59
from thinking you always need to know just a little bit more
before you begin anything.

I just need to read one more article, watch one more

instructional video, attend one more class… then I’ll be ready.
But all that extra knowledge isn’t necessary to begin.

If I’m blind in a certain subject, I just need to know enough to

get one eye open. Then I can learn more about the thing while
I’m simultaneously doing the thing.

Remember:

In the land of the blind, even the one-eyed man is king.

— Desiderius Erasmus

60
 17.

There are three economies

in the world: time, money
and liberty.

— Tim Ferriss

61
I was fortunate enough to have learned how to use the Internet
to design my own “lifestyle business” years before Tim burst
onto the scene with his groundbreaking book, The 4-Hour
Workweek.

There were plenty of insights in there that I knew on some level,

but had never specifically identified or been able to articulate the
way he did in the book — this one ranking right at the top.

In Business:

Of all the three economies, time is the least renewable. You can
make more money tomorrow, you can go somewhere tomorrow
you couldn’t today, but you will never get this time back.

People will gladly trade money for time. Are you able to save
them time with a product or guide that shortens their learning
curve -- or, better yet, eliminates it completely?

In Life:

In addition to thinking of these as the three economies of the

world, I also like to think of them as the three freedoms.

Money freedom allows you to do what you want. Time freedom

allows you to do it when you want. Liberty freedom means you
can do it where you want.

Balancing the three is the key to designing your ultimate lifestyle.

It’s up to you to decide your personal comfort level in each of
the three economies.

62
Remember:

There are three economies in the world: time, money

and liberty.

— Tim Ferriss

63
 18.

Whether you think you can

or think you can’t — you’re
right.

— Henry Ford

64
Everything ever created has actually been created twice: first, in
the creator’s mind, then in reality. If you use your mind to
imagine successes rather than failures, you’re halfway there.

In Business:

The human body is simply not designed to run a mile in under

four minutes. That was the conventional wisdom, until Roger
Bannister broke through the barrier in 1954.

In the year following Bannister’s record, thirty other runners

around the world joined him in the under-four-minute club. It
wasn’t due to any new training regimen or nutritional
advancements; it was simply that they now knew it could be
done.

Study the success of others in your business or line of work. Use

their success as confirmation that it can be done, and let it fuel
you toward reaching your business goals.

In Life:

The mind has been described as a “reality projector.” Just like a

movie projector, it takes the small image it carries inside it and
throws it up onto the big screen of life.

It’s up to you to determine what movies you allow to be played

through your mental projector. When you catch yourself
running a negative movie, some suggest saying the word
“cancel” to yourself, and consciously switching to a positive
scene instead.

65
Play movies of your past successes over and over again in your
mind. Those are your blockbusters. And that’s the best way to
guarantee there will be plenty of sequels for the rest of your life.

Remember:

Whether you think you can or think you can’t — you’re

right.

— Henry Ford

66
 19.

A smart person learns from

their mistakes. A wise
person learns from the
mistakes of others.

— Unknown

67
Remember when the concept of using “other people’s money”
to get rich became all the rage in the nineties? There was even a
movie with that title starring Danny DeVito.

Well, I think using other people’s mistakes to your advantage

might be even more beneficial to you.

In Business:

If “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it,”

and “You learn more from failure than you do from success,”
got together and had a baby, this quote would be it.

To paraphrase Michael Gerber from The E-Myth Revisited, eighty

percent of small businesses fail in the first five years, but eighty
percent of franchise businesses are still open. Why is that? His
answer is systems. I agree.

But what are the other mistakes most small businesses make that
dooms them, often before they even open their doors? Here are
my top three:

1. Setting prices too low/Competing on price — It’s a race to

the bottom. And, as Seth Godin says, “The problem with racing
to the bottom is that you just might win. Or you might come in
second, which is even worse.”

2. Doesn’t address the market’s wants or needs, just the owner’s

wants or needs — A guy and his wife dream of moving to the
mountains and opening up a flower shop. Nobody wants or

68
needs a flower shop in their little mountain town, but the owners
want to own one.

3. Me-too marketing/No Unique Selling Proposition —

“Quality, service and selection, all under one roof.” I nodded
off to sleep while I was typing that sentence. Has it ever
motivated anyone to buy?

Dan Kennedy’s question is still the best test: “Why should I do

business with you verses any and every other option out there,
including doing nothing?”

Don’t open your doors until you have an answer. If your doors
are already open, develop an answer ASAP!

In Life:

We are problem-solving machines. We love to solve problems

— especially other people’s problems. That’s a lot more fun
than solving our own.

Don’t believe me? You don’t see too many soap operas on TV
nowadays, but there used to plenty. When they ruled the
daytime airwaves, viewers knew exactly what their favorite
characters needed to do to fix their situation. “Felicity needs to
leave Conrad. Blake needs to get off drugs. Veronica and
Chase need to get back together.”

The Jerry Springer Show, Maury and others have now replaced those
shows. But they’re all scratching the exact same itch the soap
operas did for decades. They allow the viewer to sit back and

69
objectively solve other people’s problems. Now it’s “Candy
needs to leave Dale. Ricky needs to get off drugs. Shanna and
Boyd need to get back together.”

Why is it so easy and fun to solve other people’s problems?

Because we have no emotional investment in the outcome, so we
can see everything from a clear perspective.

That’s the key. If you want to learn from others’ mistakes and
apply them to your own life — bypassing years or even a lifetime
of regret — get outside yourself and look in without any
emotional investment in the outcome.

Pretend you’re on one of those daytime talk shows. You’re

sitting on the couch watching this other you on TV. What
would you tell you to do? I’ll bet you already know the answer.

Remember:

A smart person learns from their mistakes. A wise

person learns from the mistakes of others.

— Unknown

70
 20.

Focus on the difference you

can make, not the
difference you wish you
could make but can't.

— Lyndon Duke

71
For me, this is the toughest quote to live up to on a daily basis.
But that doesn’t mean I should stop trying.

In Business:

If you have a product or service, it’s important to know your

“core offering.” At its heart, what is the root problem you are
solving, or what is the root experience you’re trying to provide?

Too many businesses lose sight of their core offering, and go off
on tangents that ultimately dilute their brand to the point where
it has no meaning.

In their classic 1981 book, Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, Al
Ries and Jack Trout describe how a brand can only occupy one
slot in the customer’s mind. Trying to be too many things to too
many people — what they called “line extension” — actually
has the opposite effect. You don’t mean anything to anybody.

That’s why, when Honda wanted to enter the luxury car market,
they created the Acura brand.

Honda already occupied a place in the economy car market and

in the public’s mind. A high-end buyer isn’t going to drive
around in a high-priced Honda. Better to start fresh with a new
brand. Toyota took the same tack when they rolled out the
Lexus brand.

Define your core offering and periodically check to make sure

you’re not straying too far from it.

72
In Life:

This is where it gets tough for me. I wrote before about my

struggle with perfectionism, and this quote helps me combat it.

The thing is, perfectionism also leads to one of the biggest

“cognitive distortions” I mentioned earlier: all-or-nothing
thinking.

If I can’t have it all, I don’t want any of it. If I can’t help

everybody, I’m not going to help anybody.

It’s a very childish way of thinking. If I’m not careful and

conscious of it, the all-or-nothing distortion is one of the first
filters I reach for when I’m processing an event my mind.

This quote keeps me from reaching for that filter. I hope it helps
you, too.

Remember:

Focus on the difference you can make, not the

difference you wish you could make but can't.

— Lyndon Duke

73
 21.

Once you make a decision,

the universe conspires to
make it happen.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

74
Alert! Alert! We’re getting dangerously close to The Secret
territory and all that Law of Attraction stuff, which I think has
done way more harm than good. I’ll steer us clear of it, though,
so hold on.

In Business:

Would you like to know the oddest thing I’ve ever noticed in
over twenty years of being self-employed and owning multiple
small businesses? When I’m hustling to make things happen —
pitching, working leads and even cold-calling on many occasions
— opportunities and new clients always seem to pop up out of
the blue, totally unrelated to my efforts.

It’s the darnedest thing. So naturally I start thinking that I don’t

have do all this hustling. I’ll just sit back and let these new
clients keep revealing themselves to me. Then what happens?
You guessed it — they all disappear.

The difference between what I observe and all that Law of

Attraction stuff is that I’m an involved participant in the process.
I’m not passively waiting for good things to come to me. That’s
a key distinction.

If I dared to rewrite Emerson (and this is my book, so why not?)

I think it would be more accurate to say “Once you make a
decision and act on it, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

In Life:

75
Have you ever bought a new car and then you start noticing a
lot more of those cars on the road? Once you get it, or even
when you’re just thinking about buying it, it seems like half the
people on the road are driving around in your car.

The truth is, there are just as many of those cars on the road
today as there were last month before you made the purchase or
even started looking. Our minds want to see those cars, so our
subconscious lifts the filter and lets all those cars onto the
expressway to our conscious mind.

Why? Because it supports a decision we want to feel good

about. Remember earlier when I wrote that all buying decisions
are emotional, and then we use reason to justify them? This is a
prime example.

We want the car because we want it, then we help justify the
purchase logically by seeing all the examples of other people
making the same decision.

Since I dared rewrite Emerson once, please allow me to do it

again (after all, Emerson also said, “The better part of courage is
having done it before.”).

“Once you make a decision and act on it, the universe conspires
with your mind to make it happen.”

At least now you’re an active participant on both ends of the

equation.

Remember:

76
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to
make it happen.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

77
 22.

To worry is to pray for

what you don't want.

— Dr. Deepak Chopra

78
Like most of us, I’m prone to worrying. Keep this little gem in
your mental back pocket and use it when you sense yourself
getting carried away.

In Business:

I mentioned before the concept of your mind being a “reality

projector.” Worry is an endless loop of negative movies played
over and over in your mind.

Having a worrisome, fear-based, scarcity mindset in your

business is not a recipe for success. What’s the best way to
overcome it? Here’s what I’ve found works best for me:

1. Set an overall business goal.

2. Divide it into smaller, milestone goals that you’ll reach along

the way, like rungs on a ladder.

3. Focus only on the action you need to take to get to the next
rung.

4. Don’t look up at all the rungs you have left to climb, and
don’t look down at how high you are, either. Just check your
progress and take the next “action step” to advance one rung.

In Life:

Eliminate worry by dividing all events into two categories: things

you can control and things you can’t.

79
With things you can control, stop the worry by actually doing
something about it -- even a small step. Action dissolves worry.
It’s like flipping the closet switch to reveal there really is no
monster.

When it comes to the other category, things you can’t control,

you need to accept the fact it’s out of your hands. Any energy
you put into wishing it were otherwise is a complete waste.

Accepting the way things are will help you make peace with
them.

Remember:

To worry is to pray for what you don't want.

— Dr. Deepak Chopra

80
 23.

It's never crowded along

the extra mile.

— Dr. Wayne Dyer

81
What a simple, yet powerful turn of phrase from Dr. Dyer. He
could sometimes get a little “out there” for my taste, but he
never failed to inspire me.

Another one of my favorites from him is, “When you squeeze an

orange, what comes out? Orange juice. Why? Because that’s
what’s inside. When life or other people squeeze or put pressure
on you, what comes out? Whatever is already inside.”

I might have to save that one for Simple Secrets: Volume II.

In Business:

Dr. Dyer used to tell the story of coming back to his hotel after a
run, and discovering he’d just missed the complimentary
breakfast by a few minutes. “Sorry,” the concierge said,
“Kitchen’s closed until lunch.”

The next day, he vowed to get back from his run a little earlier,
but was still a few minutes past the cutoff. This time there was a
different concierge on duty, but Dr. Dyer didn’t even bother to
ask, and just went to his room.

A few minutes passed and there was a knock on his door. It was
today’s concierge holding a small tray with a couple of
doughnuts, a muffin, a bagel, and some orange juice.

He said, “I noticed your face when you came in and saw them
taking down the breakfast bar, so I went to the kitchen and
grabbed you a little assortment before they put everything away.
Hope you enjoy!”

82
He called that guy an “eagle,” because he was flying high,
observant, towering above all others. The original concierge
was a “duck,” floating in a pond of mediocrity, just quacking
along with all the other ducks.

This story has found its way into the personal shorthand
between my wife and me. Say there’s an erroneous charge on a
statement. “Were you able to get it resolved?” I ask.

“Not at first,” my wife might say. “I got a duck, but I called

back twice until I got an eagle and it’s done.”

In your business, ask yourself if you’re being a duck or an eagle.

In Life:

I know it’s weird to use a life example for the business section
and a business example for the life section, but I’m controlling
my inner perfectionist and going with it.

In the TV series Mad Men, Don Draper is having trouble with a

client and fellow partner Roger Sterling keenly observes,
“You’re not good at relationships because you don’t value
them.”

That’s it. You go the extra mile for things you value without
giving it a second thought. You polish the fine silver, you get
your best canine friend the memory-foam dog bed instead of the
cheaper version, and you make back-ups of the back-ups of your
computer hard drive with all your family photos.

83
Decide which relationships you truly value and it will be easy to
go the extra mile.

Remember:

It's never crowded along the extra mile.

— Dr. Wayne Dyer

84
 24.

If a thing is worth doing,

it's worth doing badly.

— G.K. Chesterton

85
Hmmm… are we seeing a pattern here? Another quote that
helps fight the battle against perfectionism. Do I have too many
of them in this book? Should I delay the publication until next
year (i.e. never)? Inner thought: cancel. Let’s move on.

In Business:

For the purpose of your business, cut out the word “badly” and
paste in the word “crudely.” Have you ever seen a picture of the
original “Apple I” computer, built on wood?

Just a note: I promised myself this would not be the one

millionth book to reference Steve Jobs as a source of inspiration,
and I still think I’m good because the Apple I was really all Steve
Wozniak.

I wrote earlier about the software developers’ concept of

“Minimum Viable Product.” Does your basic product
successfully solve a basic problem?

If so, test it, ship it, modify, repeat.

In Life:

The key word to focus on in this quote is “worth,” not “badly,”

which I bet you were doing.

The problem is we often don’t know if it was worth it until we’re

already there in it.

86
Will practicing the piano for all those endless hours be worth it?
Once we hear the applause at the recital and have the ability to
sit down at a party and wow them with a tune, we know the
answer is yes. But prior to that… is it worth it?

The key is two-fold: look at small victories in your own past that
you know were worth it, and big victories in the lives of others.
The small, personal victories will keep you from backsliding.
The big victories from others will help propel you toward them.

You’ll get better and better… and, yes, it will be worth it.

Remember:

If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly.

— G.K. Chesterton

87
 25.

Give me a stock clerk with

a goal and I'll give you a
man who will make history.
Give me a man with no
goals and I'll give you a
stock clerk.

— J. C. Penney

88
You can almost hear the words echoing in the scratchy distance
of old recordings, like Teddy Roosevelt proclaiming, “The only
thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

In Business:

You can only manage what you measure. Goals are the ultimate
form of measurement.

The biggest problem with goals in business is that when you set a
goal (or have it set for you) and reach it, the reward is usually
just a higher goal (i.e. more work, moving the goalpost).

“Hey, you hit 10,000. Great job. Let’s do 12,000 next month.
Congratulations!”

Me? I like business goals where the reward is freedom.

Here’s the goal. If it takes you twenty days to meet or twenty

hours, it doesn’t matter. Hit it and you’re done for the month.

Add bonus money to the equation in lieu of free time and you’ll
make it doubly enticing. Now you’re playing in two economies
instead of one (remember the three economies: time, money and
liberty).

What’s the ultimate benefit to this model? The people who’ll

gravitate to this arrangement are the exact kind of people you
want working in your business.

In Life:

89
Growing up, we have our goals set for us with each passing
school year. But after we graduate, unless we land at a company
with a structured hierarchy (like a law firm, for example), we
enter a “goal-free zone.”

For most of us, it’s BYOG -- Bring Your Own Goals.

The key to reaching a goal is the exact opposite of operating a

Ron Popiel product. Set it and never forget it!

Remember:

Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man
who will make history. Give me a man with no goals
and I'll give you a stock clerk.

— J. C. Penney

90
 26.

No one can make you feel

inferior without your
consent.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

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If you’ve read this far, you probably know why this is one of my
favorites. Because it puts you in charge of your own feelings!

You? In charge? Imagine that!

In Business:

Let’s talk about sales. Nobody really wants to be in sales, right?

Because if you’re in sales, you’re one of those fake, polyester-suit-
wearing, used-car types, aren’t you?

The only times I’ve ever felt inferior in business was when I
didn’t believe in the product I was selling. Let’s be more
specific: I would never sell a product I didn’t believe in, but there
were times when I knew the product wasn’t the right fit for the
prospect, yet I was obligated to try and sell them.

I was once given the assignment of selling local television

advertising to dry cleaners.

Let’s get this straight. I’m going to explain to a dry cleaning

business how blanketing (no pun intended) a whole city — plus
two cities not even in our state, but in our “metro,” which is TV-
speak for viewing area — is going to grow their business? Are
you insane?

Dry cleaners are location-based businesses. People drop off their

laundry because it’s on the way to and from work.

They need location-based marketing. Direct mail based on ZIP

Code, Val-Pack, local supermarket coupons, even local cable

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TV inserts would have been 1000% more effective than
network-affiliate TV ads.

I didn’t last long there, but I sure did learn a lot about what not
to do.

You can believe in the product, but you have to believe it’s the
right fit for the market, too. Otherwise, you do give them
permission to make you feel inferior.

In Life:

Here it is, short and sweet. An insult only hurts to the degree
you believe it.

Remember:

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

93
 27.

Life is 10% what happens to

me and 90% how I react to
it.

— Charles R. Swindoll

94
I feel the need to do a quick rewrite for Mr. Swindoll here: “Life
is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I respond to it.” You’ll
see why below.

In Business:

I’ve started businesses where I thought I was going to serve one

market, and it turned out the demand was actually in a
completely different market.

Your business is 10% what you put out there, and 90% how you
adjust to what your market tells you it wants.

In Life:

You can always rely on the great Steve Chandler to come up

with a brilliant distinction. He’s the reason I felt the need to
rewrite the quote, substituting “respond” for “react.”

Steve points out that reacting to an event is a mindless,

defensive, negative act on your part. You’re not creating
anything; you’re just deflecting, giving the control back to the
person or event from which it came.

When you respond to something, it is a thoughtful, positive,

creative act. You retain the power and control.

I love playing pickleball. It’s like tennis, but on a smaller court,

and you play with a paddle instead of a racket.

95
When I’m reacting to a shot, I’m just mindlessly hitting the ball
back. My fingers are crossed in the hope it’ll go over and land
somewhere, anywhere inbounds.

When I’m responding to a shot, I’m selecting exactly what I

want to do and precisely where I want to place the ball. I am,
quite literally, “calling the shots.”

Make a habit of noticing when you’re reacting and when you’re

responding. By being conscious and aware of the distinction,
you’ll gain more power and control over the situations you find
yourself in throughout the day.

Remember:

Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to

it.

— Charles R. Swindoll

96
 28.

Our deepest fear is not that

we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure.

— Marianne Williamson

97
This quote often attributed to Nelson Mandela, but it’s actually
from Ms. Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. Here’s the
complete paragraph:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest

fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not
our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I
to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who
are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small
does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to
make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in
some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we
unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically
liberates others.”

In Business:

I wrote earlier about all the me-too, copycat businesses out

there. Why are there so many?

A lot of owners just don’t care. Some think there’s safety in

numbers, so they’ll just blend into the herd and settle for their
tiny sliver of the pie. Others simply don’t believe it’s in them to
stand out, innovate, and be the best.

An innovative, successful small business is always dying to give

out samples and demos. Their attitude is, “The pubic’s never

98
experienced anything like this before. Once people try us, I
know they’ll be hooked!”

If you know you’re selling the best vacuum cleaner ever, you
can’t wait for the prospect to come in so you can throw a
handful of dirt on the carpet.

If your cookies are the best, you love breaking some into pieces,
hitting the streets and sharing them, because you get such a thrill
seeing people’s faces light up with surprise at the best cookie
they’ve ever tasted.

Whatever your product or service is, are you excited at the

notion of giving out samples? If not, get busy and innovate until
you can’t wait for your prospects to sample the results.

In Life:

Why do we fear we are powerful beyond measure? Because it

puts all the control and responsibility for our lives in our own
hands!

If you are all-powerful, you could have done whatever you

wanted. You could have been whatever you wanted. It was all
right there in the palm of your hands, there for the taking, and
what did you do? You settled… for this!

One of my favorite poems is My Wage, by Jessie B. Rittenhouse:

I bargained with Life for a penny,

And Life would pay no more,

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However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,

Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have gladly paid!

You may have settled in the past, but you don’t have to settle
going forward. Who you are right now is already enough.

Remember:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our

deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

— Marianne Williamson

100
 29.

You can have everything in

life you want, if you will
just help enough other
people get what they want.

— Zig Ziglar

101
Mr. Ziglar was truly one of the greats. Even after his passing, I
think this man continues to touch more lives and help more
people in a day than most of us do in a lifetime.

In Business:

First, it’s about knowing your customer. Smart businesses now

create a “customer avatar,” which is a fictitious person that
embodies all the qualities of their ideal buyer.

Assign them a name, age, income level, hobbies, likes, dislikes —

all the demographic and psychographic details. Once you have
that, you can go about discovering their wants and designing
products to satisfy them.

Second, you’ll notice Mr. Ziglar said to help people get “what
they want” and not “what they need.” This is an important
distinction.

Selling to “wants” is always preferable to selling to “needs.” It

could make or break your business.

Let’s say you were walking around a mall and you saw the vast
majority of people were overweight. You might say, “What this
place needs is a weight-loss clinic.”

You may, in fact, be right. But what they want is a really good
ice cream shop.

In Life:

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What do people want, in general, when they’re around you?
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: it really doesn’t
involve you at all.

At the risk of sounding harsh, people couldn’t care less about

you. What they really care about is how they feel about
themselves when they’re around you.

That doesn’t mean you should go around offering a bunch of

insincere compliments, like Eddie Haskel on Leave It to Beaver.

What it usually means is treating people with respect, being

engaging, and being a good listener. They want to feel like their
opinions actually matter to you.

Hopefully, their opinions do matter to you. Otherwise, why are

you even hanging out with them?

Remember:

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just
help enough other people get what they want.

— Zig Ziglar

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104
 30.

Seeing through the game is

not the same as winning the
game.

— "Conrad Hunter" (from North

Dallas Forty)

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The book, North Dallas Forty, was made into a movie in the
seventies starring Nick Nolte and Mac Davis. Lots of great
character actors in there, too, like Dabney Coleman and G. D.
Spradlin (who you might also know as the Senator who tries to
extort Michael in The Godfather: Part II).

In Business:

Have you ever been amazed by a magic trick? Then, when you
find out how it’s done, you can’t believe anybody would ever fall
for it.

It’s the same in business. Think about the first place you worked
when you were in high school — let’s say it was a burger place:

In the beginning, you think, “This place is great! The burgers

are ‘rad’ (we’re living in the eighties in this example). It would
be so cool to work here!”

Then, you get the job and discover the handful of simple
ingredients and no-brainer system they use to make the burgers.
“Wow — that’s all there is to it?” you ask, a little disappointed
now that you’ve peeked behind the curtain.

After a short time, you adopt “the attitude.” You can’t believe
what fools people are to walk in here and plunk down $5 for a
bun with a meat patty and some veggies on it. Now you know
better. You’re enlightened, aren’t you?

106
You’ve officially “seen through the game.” But you sure haven’t
won the game, have you? You’re actually heading in the wrong
direction. Your newly adopted attitude keeps you from winning.

In business, the name of the game is “customer experience.”

People aren’t just paying for a product; they’re paying for an
experience.

The magician is well aware of how the trick is done. After all,
he’s preformed it a thousand times and, right now, he’s got a
bird squirming in his pocket. The true magic is in the
experience he creates for his audience.

A great magician’s act, routine, shtick (all another word for

“system,” by the way) is simply his ability to repeatedly deliver a
spectacular experience to his customers at will.

That’s what a great business does, too.

In Life:

What does a “win” look like when you’re dealing with people
on a personal level?

Sometimes it’s easier to start with what a win doesn’t look like.

A win is not, “I proved I’m right and they are wrong.”

A win is not, “I’ll agree to it, but I’ll make sure they know I’m
not having a good time.”

107
A win is not, “I’ll be critical, and if anybody calls me on it I’ll
claim I was joking and turn it around by accusing them of being
uptight and unable to take a joke.”

To me, a win with people is similar to what Jerry Seinfeld used

to say when he’d do The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. “When
you go on Carson, you’re main goal is to get asked back.”

So how do you get asked back by the people in your life? Be

pleasant and remember my golden rule of interaction: “It’s not
about you. It’s about how they feel about themselves when
they’re around you.”

Remember:

Seeing through the game is not the same as winning the

game.

— "Conrad Hunter" (from North Dallas Forty)

108
 31.

Want to be a flower? You

gotta be a seed.

— David Lee Roth

109
For my money, Roth isthe greatest frontman in the history of
Rock and Roll (I didn’t say “singer” -- there’s a huge difference,
so don’t even start). He's also come up with more than his share
of keen insights over the years. This one has always stuck with
me since I heard him say it back in 1986.

In Business:

It’s exciting to come up with an idea you just know will be “the
next big thing.” But any idea that’s going to work on a big scale
will almost always succeed on a small scale first.

I’ve seen people invest their life savings and even take a second
mortgage out on their house in order to open up a restaurant.
They knew it was a sure thing, since all their friends loved their
unique recipes. It wasn’t.

Better to be a seed first. They could have started a small

catering business, just to see if there really was a demand for
their special dishes recipes. Then, once they built up a
following, they could have used the profits from the catering
business as seed money (no pun intended) for the restaurant.
Only then would it be flower-time.

Unfortunately, I’m not immune to thinking too big, too fast

either. When I had my direct marketing business, I’d have a
product idea, then get a few dozen prototypes made to test the
market. After the test was successful, I’d ramp up to 5,000 units.

After a few successes, I thought I had it all figured out. On my

next project, I said to myself, “I don’t need to bother with

110
prototypes. I know this thing is a winner. Look how much we’ll
save if we get 10,000 units made right from the start.”

You guessed it — it was a total flop! I wound up eating about

9,996 of those units after they sat in my garage for a few years.

I should’ve listened to Diamond Dave.

In Life:

I want it, and I want it now! Not only do I want instant

gratification, I want immediate recognition, too. I want to be the
best, and I want the world to know it right away.

For most meaningful things in life, there are no shortcuts. You

simply must put in the time and effort.

There was a movie called Rat Race several years ago in which
two guys in a truck were trying to beat the other characters to
some location, and one says, “I know a shortcut!”

The driver says, “No! Shortcuts are dangerous. If they weren’t,

it would just be called ‘the way.’”

A slow and steady pace in the right direction is far better than
speeding down the wrong road, then another, then another.

To get faster, more efficient results in any aspect of your life,

abandon the idea that you’re not going to have to do any work
to get there, and embrace the idea that learning from both the

111
mistakes and successes of others will vastly accelerate your
progress.

Remember:

Want to be a flower? You gotta be a seed.

— David Lee Roth

112
 32.

You become what you think

about all day long.

— Earl Nightingale

113
I’ve always enjoyed the Nightingale-Conant personal
development courses. I remember when you’d get the big
binder with all the cassettes in it. This quote is from The Strangest
Secret, written and narrated by Earl Nightingale himself in 1956.

Emerson probably beat him to it, though, when he wrote, “A

man is what he thinks about all day long.” But I like the
transformational optimism in Mr. Nightingale’s version best.

In Business:

Successful, thriving businesses got that way by a single-minded

focus on serving the customer (the experience they provide), not
how the customer was going to serve them (by giving them
money).

Bottom-line thinkers are only concerned with what’s coming in.

Visionary business owners are obsessed with what’s going out.

Your success is merely a by-product of how well you serve your

market. You can’t attain it directly. But if you focus on serving
all day long, it will miraculously appear.

In Life:

Create a mental picture of what you want for yourself, and then
start living into that picture.

Again, you’re not passively trying to attract things to you.

You’re actively altering who you are in order to be the person
that’s congruent with your new mental picture.

114
I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “What got you here won’t
get you there.” Well, it’s a cliché because it’s true (most are -- if
you’ve ever led a horse to water, you know I’m right).

Remember, it’s “We become what we think about,” not “We get
what we think about…”

Become the person who gets the things you want, and you’ll get
them.

Remember:

You become what you think about all day long.

— Earl Nightingale

115
 33.

It’s never too late to be who

you might have been.

-- George Eliot

116
Yes, tomorrow is promised to no one, so make today the day you
begin to turn it all around.

In Business:

“We can’t change,” business owners always say. “Customers

have grown to expect certain things from us.”

To which the reply is usually, “What customers?”

“You want us to alienate our core base of loyal customers?”

“Yes. There aren’t enough of them to sustain your business.

The only reason they come here is because every other place
refuses to put up with them.”

Often, you don’t have a bad business; you’ve just chosen to serve
the wrong market. It’s never too late to pick another one.

In Life:

Let’s get real. If you had the potential to be an Olympic figure

skater in your teens, but now you’re fifty; its definitely too late
for that.

I don’t think Mr. Eliot was talking about fame and achievement
as much as he was about contribution.

Yes, it’s too late to be a figure skater. However, it’s not too late
to be world-class figure skating coach. You can still contribute

117
to the sport in a way that touches lives and elevates people’s
spirit.

As the saying goes, “The best time to plant an oak tree was forty
years ago. The second best time is now.”

Remember:

It’s never too late to be who you might have been.

-- George Eliot

118
 34.

Everybody knows that you

can tame a wild horse and
make the animal useful.
But it is impossible to put
life into a dead horse.

— John Caples

119
Mr. Caples was an iconic advertising figure from the 1920s (pre-
Mad Men) who pioneered many direct marketing methods.
Today, the highest honor you can garner in Direct Marketing is
called The Caples Award.

His book, Scientific Advertising is as relevant today as it was when

he published it. Why? Because people are the same.

That’s why a Bible story is just an interesting or enlightening as

it was two thousand years ago. Our surroundings are certainly
different, but our human nature is the same. Just as it will be
two thousand years from now.

In Business:

Your business marketing should be “wild horse” ideas, tamed to

suit your market.

Obviously, if you’re a dentist or accountant or anyone in a

professional services field, you can’t be too outlandish and still
maintain your credibility. You can start with a wild, outrageous
marketing idea, though; then polish and refine it to compliment
your professional image.

Examples of “dead horse” marketing include variations on:

“Service, selection and savings all under one roof.”

“Our people make the difference.”

“You’ve tried the rest, now try the best.”

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“For all your [whatever] needs.”

You’re never going to breathe life into those. Rope yourself a

wild horse instead, and then tame it to suit your market.

In Life:

When designing your ideal lifestyle, start with the “wild horse”
ideas, and then tame them to fit your own personal comfort
level.

For instance, you might love to have a house at the beach, right
on the ocean. But you really don’t want the hassle of the
constant repair and upkeep, plus the enormous expense of
owning oceanfront property, and the worry that goes along with
it.

You could tame that wild horse by renting an oceanfront house

in the off-season. Rates are much lower, beaches are way less
crowded, and if Mother Nature decides to level the place, you
just hand in the keys and walk away.

Let your wild horse ideas run free in your mind, then figure out
how you can tame them into reality.

Remember:

Everybody knows that you can tame a wild horse and

make the animal useful. But it is impossible to put life
into a dead horse.

121
— John Caples

122
 35.

Most folks are about as

happy as they make up
their minds to be.

— Abraham Lincoln

123
It’s official: Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln get credit for
more quotes they didn’t actually originate than any other
historical figures.

I saw a funny one online the other day:

“Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.” — Abraham

Lincoln

In Business:

Want to be happy in business? Choose your customers. Don’t

let your customers choose you.

You decide the type and caliber of customer you want to attract,
then tailor your offerings and your marketing to not only attract
your ideal customers, but also repel the undesirable ones.

If you ever watched The Sopranos, I’m sure you remember Artie
Bucco, who owned the Italian restaurant, Vesuvio.

In one episode, Artie is having trouble keeping the restaurant

afloat, so he resorts to coupons.

There’s a great scene where they open the doors to the

restaurant in slow motion, and all the retirees in jogging suits
come flooding in, waving their coupons.

Before, it was a respectable restaurant that repelled the bottom-

feeders. Now, he’ll take anybody. Any customer is a good
customer, right? Wrong.

124
Tailor your business and your marketing to do double duty —
attract the good, repel the bad — and you’ll be a happy business
owner.

In Life:

For most people, happiness is like the horizon. No matter how

far you’ve come, it’s always out there in the distance.

You reveal your happiness horizon whenever you start a

sentence with, “I’ll be happy when…”

Now you’ve successfully attached your happiness to some future

event and, as an added bonus, you have a built-in excuse for not
being happy right now.

Then, what happens when your happy event actually does

occur? You move that goalpost to another event in the future
and the cycle starts all over again.

Gratitude is the key to all happiness. It’s only natural to want

and plan and strive for better things in the future, but be grateful
for what you have now, as well.

Make up your mind, and choose to be happy today.

Remember:

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their

minds to be.

125
— Abraham Lincoln

126
 36.

You never know what

people are going through.

— Disney World Instructor

127
When I was in college, I was fortunate enough to work a
semester at Walt Disney World.

It was great. A few hundred students from around the country

would come in and work for three months, while also taking
classes to learn about a different aspect of the operation.

At our final orientation, the lady giving the class said, “Disney
World is known as the happiest place on Earth, and you’re going
to see so many people having the time of their lives.”

“But the truth is, too, that in surveys conducted in virtually every
country around the world, this is the number one place that
people say they would like to see before they die.”

“You will see a lot of people in wheelchairs and with obvious

medical needs. But many people want to come here while they
are still well enough to enjoy the park fully. They may not show
any outward signs of illness or disability yet.”

“When you see a guest in a wheelchair or with a disability, we

want you to be as helpful to them and make their experience as
pleasant as you possibly can. But we expect you to give the
exact same level of treatment and care to every guest you
encounter. Because the truth is… you never know what people
are going through.”

That little talk has remained with me from that day forward.
What profound advice.

In Business:

128
Never assume you know what your customers want. Ask them.

Use online surveys, feedback cards, even the good old suggestion
box. Always make it easy for your customers to tell you what
they want (and what they don’t want).

Then, all you have to do is make it and sell it to them.

Everybody wins.

In Life:

Years ago, I made up this little quote based on the Disney World
talk that I try to keep in mind when I encounter people who are
being rude, angry or obnoxious:

“Never assume the worst in people, just assume they’re going

through the worst right now.”

Easier said than done, I know, but it does work. Give it a try next
time.

Remember:

You never know what people are going through.

— Disney World Instructor

129
 37.

A mouse survives by being

a mouse, and a lion
survives by being a lion. If
one tries to be the other, it
fails.

— Unknown

130
Some sports have you pitted against an opponent. In others, it
seems you’re really just trying to beat your “personal best.”

For most people, I think life is a personal best type of sport.

In Business:

Pick one thing, make that your core strength, and then play to
that strength constantly in your marketing. This will set you
apart from all the other “pretender” businesses that dare to
compete on this particular battlefield.

Let them win on other battlefields where you have no interest

engaging. Let them be the low-price leader, for example. Let
them enjoy looking over their shoulder all the time, too, waiting
to be undercut.

Stake your claim in one area, and be so good that it would be

foolish to try and take you on.

In Life:

There’s a difference between saying, “that’s just a fact of life,”

and, “that’s just the way I am.”

Accepting a truly unchangeable attribute is a good thing. It

allows you to move forward and focus exclusively on playing to
your strengths.

131
The second one shuts you down. It’s another way of saying,
“Leave me alone. I give up. Nothing’s going to change here, so
forget it.”

Develop the talents and strengths you do have to become the

best version of yourself.

Remember:

A mouse survives by being a mouse, and a lion survives

by being a lion. If one tries to be the other, it fails.

— Unknown

132
 38.

Always make your future

bigger than your past.

— Dan Sullivan

133
Mr. Sullivan has also said this in a similar way you may like even
better: “We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are
greater than our memories.”

In Business:

Having a plan for your business is a lot different than just having
a business plan.

A business plan is something you implement, but an ambitious

plan for your business is a destination — a beacon you can use
to keep your business headed in the right direction.

It also keeps your business young and innovative because, to

reach that destination, you have to stay creative.

In Life:

I remember when the movie The Bucket List came out, and
everybody started making their own personal bucket lists.

The list will definitely keep you looking forward, and forward is
where all ambitions reside.

You don’t have to abandon your memories, by any means.

Instead, use them to create the future you’re dreaming of.

Remember:

Always make your future bigger than your past.

134
— Dan Sullivan

135
 39.

Maybe so; maybe not.

— Dr. Wayne Dyer

136
This quote doesn’t mean anything unless you know the classic
Zen story behind it. I heard Dr. Dyer tell it years ago, and
here’s how I remember it:

A farmer walking into town passes The Buddha and says,

“Buddha, please help me. Something terrible has happened.
My ox just died and now I have no way to plow my fields. Isn’t
that the worst thing that could have happened to me?”

The Buddha replies, “Maybe so; maybe not.”

The farmer walks away shaking his head, thinking The Buddha
has obviously gone mad. On his way home, he spots a huge,
strong, wild horse and ropes him. This horse will do even more
work than the ox.

Next week, the farmer sees The Buddha and says, “You were
right! I now have a horse that can do twice the work of my old
ox. Isn’t that wonderful news?”

“Maybe so; maybe not,” says The Buddha.

Again, the farmer walks home thinking The Buddha has lost
touch with reality. When he arrives, he finds his son lying on the
ground with a broken leg. He had been thrown while riding the
new horse.

On his next trip into town, the farmer spots The Buddha and
says, “You were right again. The horse broke my son’s leg.
Now he won’t be able to help me at harvest time. Surely,
Buddha, don’t you see this is the worst news imaginable?”

137
“Maybe so; maybe not,” the Buddha calmly replied.

That was the last straw. The farmer walked away telling himself
he had wasted enough time seeking advice from this old, senile
man.

Just then, word spread throughout town that war had broken
out against a bigger, stronger village. Troops were going to
every house and farm to round up all the able-bodied young
men to fight. They would be outnumbered and outmatched,
and would most likely die.

The farmer rushed home. The troops had come, but since his
son had a broken leg, he was not taken and his life was spared.

And from that day forward, the farmer never doubted the
wisdom of The Buddha again.

In Business:

Use this story and particularly the “maybe so; maybe not” quote
to help you see business opportunities where others only see
obstacles.

Remember, the greatest private fortunes in American history

were made during The Great Depression, America’s worst
financial crisis.

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Did Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Vanderbilt think,
“What’s the point? We’ll wait until economic conditions are
better. No use trying to do anything now.”

They adopted the maybe-so-maybe-not attitude, dreaming up

innovations that changed the world and created limitless
opportunities for themselves and others.

In Life:

“Maybe so; maybe not” is the perfect mantra to maintain

perspective in your life.

It’s best not to go through life ruled by your emotions. I’m not
saying don’t have emotions; I’m saying don’t be a slave to them.
Too many people are.

Remember:

Maybe so; maybe not.

— Wayne Dyer

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 40.

Often the rules for success

are so simple and so
obvious they aren’t even
seen.

— W. Clement Stone

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You’ve undoubtedly heard the old saying, “Behind every great
man, there’s a great woman.”

Well, here’s a variation for you: “Behind every great success,

there’s a great system.”

Though both the great woman and the great system go

unnoticed, their presence makes all the difference in the world.

Success is all around you. If want to create more success in both

your professional and personal life (notice I did not say “attract
more success”), you need to identify and emulate the system
that’s producing it.

In Business:

They’ve had some struggles recently, but McDonald’s is one of

the greatest business success stories of our time.

Since most of their employees are just starting out, they have an
extremely high turnover rate. It’s an incredible 300% annually.

Let’s do the math on that. For a business to have a 100%

annual turnover rate, they have a totally new group of
employees every year. So a 300% rate means when you walk
into your local McDonald’s, the faces you see today will be
replaced with new faces four months from now. And, in eight
months, a completely different crew will have replaced those
faces.

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Wow. How can McDonald’s maintain their consistency across
all those thousands of locations around the world when they
have to plug in new employees at such a rapid rate? They have
a system! To be more accurate, they have a system for everything.

My first job out of college was a copywriter at a local ad agency,

and our local McDonald’s franchise was a client. I can tell you
first-hand that they have systemized every aspect of their
business. We had a whole wall of bookshelves filled with 3-ring
binders from McDonald’s corporate headquarters (they call it
Hamburger University), and that was just for their advertising
and marketing.

One of the big takeaways from Michael Gerber’s excellent book,

The E-Myth Revisited, is to systematize your small business so
there’s a procedure for everything. Even if you have no plans to
ever sell your business, pretend you are going to sell it and
document all the step-by-step procedures for the “new owner.”

Yes, behind every great success is a great system.

In Life:

A more informal word for “system” is “habit.” Habits are our

personal systems. But why are the successful ones, as Mr. Stone
says, often so hard to see?

Many times, we choose not to recognize the successful habits of

others because doing so would lead to us having to do the one
thing we dislike most: change.

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I’m comfortable and familiar with my current habits. I don’t
want to abandon them because they’re actually working for me.
People only do what works for them.

You may see a friend or family member engaging in what you

think is a bad habit. But, to them, it’s a positive. On some level,
it’s absolutely working for them, just as your current habits are
absolutely working for you.

If you have a habit you’d like to change, there’s a conflict inside

you. You’re obviously getting something you perceive as
positive from the habit. However, another part of you senses a
negative aspect to it.

Focus exclusively on the positive. Be honest with yourself, and

figure out the benefit you’re getting from the habit. This may
take some soul-searching, or it may come to you in a flash.

Once you’ve identified the positive, you can then try replacing
the current habit with another one that delivers the same
benefit, but doesn’t cause the inner conflict.

For instance, smoking may be a stress-relieving positive, but you

know it’s unhealthy. Is there something else that would give you
similar stress-relief, without the downside of the health risks?

As Og Mandino said so well in his classic book, The Greatest

Salesman In The World, “In truth, the only difference between
those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the
difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success.
Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I

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will obey, which precedeth all others is — I will form good
habits and become their slave.”

Of course, the irony in that passage is that becoming a slave to

good habits results in the ultimate freedom of success.

Change your habits; change your life.

Remember:

Often the rules for success are so simple and so obvious

they aren’t even seen.

— W. Clement Stone

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 Was This Book Helpful To
You?

I hope you found some valuable insights in this book, and that it
helps you achieve success in both business and life.

Now it’s your turn. I welcome your comments, questions, and

feedback.

Please take a moment to leave a review on the product page of

the online bookstore from which you purchased this book. I
know you’re busy, but even a few words would be tremendously
appreciated.

Also, please feel free to contact me directly via my website,

SimpleSecrets.com.

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