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10 Great Quotes From 10 Great Business People

Derek — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:53:55 +0000

1. Jim Rohn

“Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.”

2. Henry Ford

“Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.”

3. Walt Disney

“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.”

4. Peter Drucker

“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”

5. Edwin H. Stuart

“Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.”

6. Vincent Lombardi

“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing”

7. J. Paul Getty

“To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.”

8. Sam Walton

“High expectations are the key to everything.”

9. Steve Jobs

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

10. Warren Buffett

“I like to go for cinches. I like to shoot fish in a barrel. But I like to do it after the water has run out.”

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Five Timeless Lessons From Warren Buffett

Derek — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:25:32 +0000

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If you were to use anyone as a hero, there would be no better man than Warren Buffett. He has been one of the richest men in the world for the past 20 years and it should come as no surprise. He doesn’t try to please anyone other than his shareholders and his stock performance proves it. So, without further ado, here are five timeless lessons from the world’s most successful investor.

Play Baseball Without Strikes

In 1999, Warren Buffett compared investing to baseball without strikes. You can wait for the right pitch all day and there is no penalty other than lost opportunity. So, “when the fielders are asleep, step up and hit the pitch.”

What a simple concept, yet many businesses, including myself, make this mistake daily.

When my blog took off, I looked for advertising sales reps. I was tired of low CPMs from ad networks like Google and I wanted direct sales. I did minimal research and went with the first company who made me an offer. I swung at the first pitch.

I was locked into a 12 month agreement, but I didn’t mind. I was set to make a ton of money. Unfortunately, they didn’t pay me anything. I gave them millions of advertising impressions and never received one penny. My home run ended up being a foul.

I learned that it’s easy to swing at sub-par pitches, but when you’re in the business game, those sub-par pitches are what breaks your company. Just take a look at some banks in 2008 and 2009.

Keep Score on Your Inner Scorecard

For those of you who read “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life,” you will know what I’m talking about. For those of you who haven’t, Alice Schroeder talks about how Warren Buffett views success. He believes you need to keep score on your inner scorecard as opposed to your outer scorecard. In other words, measure yourself vs your own standards and not against other people.

Yet another mistake I made. I compared my business to others regularly. It was a huge waste of time. So, here are two ways I make my visits to the competition productive:

Action Plans – When I visit the competition, I won’t leave without an action plan that would work for my business. I may not use it, but at least I have it for further reference.

Interesting Stories – Great stories are powerful and rare. When I visit the competition, I look for great stories to log into my moleskin. This has been a huge help with my writing and my presentations.

So, while learning from your competition can be beneficial, comparing yourself to them is a waste of time. Don’t worry about who’s better or who earns more money. Instead, focus on what you can do to earn more money and achieve your business goals.

Be Greedy When Others Are Fearful

During the bottom of the bear market of 1974, Forbes asked Warren Buffett, “How do you feel?” He responded with “Like an oversexed guy in a whorehouse. Now is the time to invest and get rich.” This was the first time he made a public prediction about the stock market. The second time came in late 2008 when he said, “I’m buying American and you should be too.”

These two time periods have one thing in common. Buffett puts his money on the line and lives his quote “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” Now we know it worked for Buffett, but what about everyone else?

In the past few months I was able to buy some stocks at extremely cheap prices since blood was in the streets. Now, I’m looking at websites who are in a panic because of plummeting CPMs. I’m waiting for a fair price on great websites and I’m sure it’s going to pay off in the long haul. In short, if you look for opportunities, you can be greedy when others are fearful.

Diversity Protects Ignorance

Many people love to say “you need to diversify” to become successful, but it doesn’t make sense and Warren Buffett agrees. He said, “Diversity is protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.”

When I started earning money on the internet, I focused on several websites. I ended up making no money on all of them. Once I focused on one website, it took a few short months and I started earning good money. This strategy worked because I limited my opportunities and focused on one of them.

Buffett was right when he said “it makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing,” but it was not complete. It also makes very little sense for people who don’t know what they’re doing. Without focus, you will never become world-class. Studies show that you need 10,000 hours of practice and if you diversify, you will never reach that goal.

High Tide Shields the Naked

I know you heard the Warren Buffett quote “It is only when the tide goes out that you know who was swimming naked,” but now I would like you to write it down. When the financial tide went out in 2008, people like Madoff and the highly leveraged investment banks were left naked on the beach. The bull economy hid their mistakes, but the bear economy exposed them.

When I was running my entertainment blog, I rested on my success and watched my advertising CPMS deteriorate in the down market. The high tide was hiding my uncompetitive business model, but now that the tide is out, one of my businesses suffered significant profit loss. I was left standing naked.

So, whether you’re in a good market or a bad market, you need to commit to success. You need to make sure you are always doing everything in your power to stay competitive. The system I adopted to help me get through this was the Kaizen system and thus far it has worked for me.

Tying It All Together

When the majority of the world was hungry for tech stocks earlier this century, Buffett stuck to what he knew and measured himself vs his own goals. Many people thought he was crazy, but when the market crashed, he emerged out on top. Now in 2009, if history repeats itself, who better than Buffett to teach you about success?

How to Be Incredible

Derek — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:46:46 +0000

Photo Courtesy of Tony the Misfit

“Be Incredible.”

Fantastic advice, but how exactly do you get started? How can you “be incredible?”

Far too many people want to be incredible, but they are often left wondering how to get started. They focus on abstract ideas and advice, but they do not come across specific ways to start being incredible.

I am going to change that. I am going to show you how you can be incredible.

1. Ignore Everyone Else

Warren Buffett became the richest man in the world using a selective contrarian investing style. When other people were running, he was on the front lines swinging the money bat full-force.

Following the herd means you are a part of the herd and they are average. Incredible people focus on themselves and their goals.

2. Become Action Oriented

John C. Maxwell once said, “A pessimist complains about the wind. An optimist expects it to change. A leader adjusts the sails.”

How simple, but effective.

Complaining and waiting is not how you become incredible. Big ideas are meaningless without action. You can’t use a sailboat to get where you want to be if you’re not willing to adjust the sails.

3. Focus On What You Control

As a sales person, how would you rather sell a product to a new customer? Would you prefer to spend 8 hours trying to convince one customer to buy your product or would you rather try to convince 8 customers in 8 hours (1 hour per customer) to buy your product?

You should always pick the latter because you can’t control one person, but you can control how many people you talk to.

4. Make Your Goal Public

Do you want to know the best way to lose weight? Wake up every morning and weigh yourself. Then, write it down and put it where you and everyone else will see it all day. You will adjust your lifestyle when you can’t escape the truth.

Incredible people are not ashamed of their goals. They are willing to share them with everyone and will not falter in face of criticism.

5. Create An Action Plan

Far too many people want to become millionaires. They want to become financially independent and retire wealthy. However, very few people realize what it takes to become a millionaire. For example, if you are 20 years old and want to become a millionaire by the time you are 30, you need to earn around 273 dollars per day and not spend a penny.

Incredible people keep their goals in mind and have specific action plans to attain these goals.

6. Monitor Your Progress

You developed a great action plan and keep your goal in mind daily, but you need to keep track of how you are doing. If you are are not achieving your daily goals you need to alter your action plan to adjust for your shortfalls.

Incredible people keep track of how they are doing in relation to their goals. They understand the world is changing and they look to change themselves to adapt.

7. Keep Good Company

Isaac Newton once said, “If i have seen further than anyone else, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” Newton obviously knew the importance of the people around him.

In a quest for value, you don’t want to be a diamond surrounded by coal because you already won. Incredible people surround themselves with incredible people and it pushes them to become more incredible.

8. Ask For Help

Don’t waste your time trying to learn how to write on your own when you know people who are professional writers. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. You should be humble enough to ask for help, and generous enough to reward your teacher with success.

Incredible people are not scared to seek help because they know it will expedite achieving their goals.

9. Use Fear Constructively

Do you know what drives me to wake up everyday and improve myself? I fear mediocrity. I fear being average and I do everything in my power to avoid it.

Incredible people will not settle for less than incredible.

10. Develop Confidence

The most experienced people often fail at seemingly simple goals, because as Stan Smith, the professional tennis player, once said, “experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.”

Incredible people have the conviction to carry out their actions and the confidence to make them succeed.

11. Focus On Your Strengths

If you are an excellent writer, you should write. If you are amazing at math, you should do math. Turning a weakness into a strength could take forever, but turning something you’re good at from a 7 to a 10, can be much easier.

Incredible people know how to discover their strengths and how to develop them.

12. Expect Incredible

Steve Jobs created an environment where excellence is expected. He teams with the best designers, the best partners, and hires the best people. He once was quoted as saying, “Be a yardstick of quality. People are not use to an environment where excellence is expected.”

Incredible people create environments where excellence is expected and anything less is unsatisfactory.

13. Compete With Yourself

Many people find themselves competing with other people, but this is a flawed approach. You may not be built the same way.

Incredible people compete with themselves. Not only is the competition fair, but you always have someone to beat.

14. Choose Incredible Heroes

Heroes are inspiring. Heroes are motivating. Heroes make you strive to become incredible.

When I started earning money on the internet (back in 2006), Darren Rowse was my hero. I read his blog religiously and acted on his advice. I earned six figures in 2007 on the internet because of Darren and I will never forget it.

Incredible people find incredible heroes and it drives them to become successful.

15. Make Incredible Mandatory

A co-worker told me a story of a boss who use to ask his employees, “is this the best you can do” before he read any of their work. It’s passive aggressive, but he made “the best” mandatory. He never settled for someone’s second best work and his employees delivered the best as a result.

Incredible people make incredible mandatory and there are no excuses.

Lets Start Incredible Today

These 15 tips will help you be incredible. However, it is up to you to apply it to your goals. Remember, making the choice to start your journey today is the first step to completing it. As Maria Robinson once said, “nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

Incredible people start as soon as possible. So, what are you waiting for?