Tr e v o r K .

W h i t t a k e r

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
(MINUS) 101
What you will not be taught
i n B U S I N E SS 1 0 1
Failing as an Entrepreneur has more to do with YOU!

Copyright Trevor K. Whittaker (2015)

The right of Trevor K. Whittaker to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims
for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British
Library.
ISBN 978 1 78455 148 3(Paperback)
ISBN 978 1 78455 150 6 (Hardback)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2015)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LB

Printed and bound in Great Britain

Dedication
This book is dedicated to the Master Entrepreneur and to
those who have fallen and to those yet to join the successful
of society.

Authors Disclaimer

This written work is designed to provide competent and

reliable information regarding the subject matter as is
contained in each chapter covered. However, this book is sold
with the clear understanding that the author is not engaged in
rendering legal, financial or any other professional advice.
Laws and practices will vary from country to country, province
to province and state to state around the world and if legal or
other expert assistance is required, the services of a
professional should be considered. The author therefore
specifically disclaims any liability that is incurred from the use
or application of the contents of this written work.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

11

1: Passion: The Key to Unlocking Human Business Potential

18

2: Optimism: The Mainstay in Overcoming Lifes Obstacles

83

3: Attitude: It Says Yes I Can or No I Cant!

107

4: Self-Image: Are You Missing What You Are Capable of

Becoming?

124

5: Values: Critical Parameters Will Dictate Your Business Destiny

169
6: Goal Setting: The Aim and Purpose of It All

197

7: Setting Objectives: Strategy & Goal Setting Procedures

271

8: Self-Discovery: The Foundation of Your Own Success

289

9: Loyalty: Exceed all Expectations

323

10: Listening: An Art That Could Save You

347

Conclusion:

382

Do You Qualify?

386

Action Stations!

392

Spreading the Word

394

Acknowledgments

From the time that I could remember I was being taught one
lesson after the other and endured many challenges throughout
my life. While trying to find my way, like you, some of the
lessons I learned were sweet, some were bitter sweet and
some were just plain bitter. While we go through the good or
sweet times we feel that we are on top of the world as I did.
However, when things go wrong the human and wrong
reaction is to find someone else to blame. I questioned God on
many occasions but somehow always knew that I was the
master of my own demise in almost all of my failures in life.
Having been brought up in an environment which most would
consider being poor and destitute I most certainly may have
been numbered amongst the criminal elite should I have
allowed my early influences to overcome me. In fact, even at
an early age I recognized that there was something or someone
greater than me, and if I was to remain on the straight and
narrow, I would need to have His influence and protection as
long as I lived. Having been walking the Christian life for so
many years now, I can honestly inform you today that my life
has been guided, protected and directed by my Heavenly
Father for as long as I can remember. Therefore, for this book,
and the lessons which I have learned in the business
environment and the rest of my life, I give praise, honor and
glory to whom it truly belongs God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit.
My dear, dear wife, Sunly-Ann, I pay a special tribute to in that
she has been my earthly inspiration for this book. I have never
in all the time that I spent on putting pen to paper so to speak
in order to complete this work heard a single complaint from
her. Instead, what I received from my loving wife is a
tremendous amount of encouragement and a woman who
7

stood in the gap at the office every Wednesday and Thursday

so that I could write this book in the peace and quiet of our
lovely home which we designed together. Thank you baby, and
as I have always said: You are the best! My friend, my lover
and my greatest supporter!
I want to say a big thank you to all of my children Donovan,
Ricky, Kristen, Natasha and Shamarie who have spent time
encouraging me to produce this work but more for the lessons
which each of you teach me every single day of my life. Please
never forget that if you walk with the Lord, focus on the task at
hand, and NEVER give up you will achieve your dreams. To
our departed little Ashton, I miss you, handsome! Thank you
for the tremendous lessons of courage which you taught me
through your debilitating illness which finally took you from
us but placed you into the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.
I love you and we will not forget!
To my brothers and sisters wherever you may find yourselves,
thank you for the fights which taught me to say sorry and
thank you for the lessons which made me strong. I would not
change you for the world and no matter what we all went
through as children God saw it all and loved us despite our
circumstances.
Lastly, (but most certainly not least) to my dearly departed
mother Alma, mom I know that you are proud. The apple tree
was a great lesson and you were most certainly smarter than
me on the day. Well done on your victory because your win
became my lesson. You taught me so many lessons for which I
shall be eternally grateful. You taught me to love when things
are at their worst, you taught me to sell when we could not buy
food to eat and you taught me what it feels like to rely upon
other people for help. However, most of all you showed me
how to laugh and to understand that a sense of humor in all of
lifes events is like a spoon full of sugar making the medicine
go down. I miss you and will always love you!

Introduction

This morning I had a consultation with my Neurologist, no, not

because I have brain damage, but I do want to tell you that my
heart broke for this dear lady. Her story goes something like
this. According to her she spent many years qualifying for her
passion in life namely neurology. As is the case with many
professionals, if they can afford it, they want to get into their
own practice as quickly as they can and want all the prestige
that goes with owning their own business. They want to be
entrepreneurs!
At the university which she attended she was taught all about
the science of the brain and the ultimate science of neurology
but nothing about business let alone the concept of starting her
own business. Whether we like it or not, the medical fraternity
is not immune to a lack of or poor business skills and many
want to start businesses before thinking the idea through.
Many times it does not even dawn on these good people that it
may be a bright idea to take a business course at least
BEFORE contemplating a business initiative or as part of such
an initiative. The end result was inevitable for my neurologist.
She shared the utter devastation of her business life with me
briefly, but the long and the short of it all was that she lost
everything which she had in a short space of time which
included her home and other material possessions. The impact
of this failure was so great that it affected her health to such an
extent that, according to her, she spent around a year in an ICU
recovering from this devastating time in her life.
Does this sound familiar? Spending a year in ICU may not be
what well-meaning entrepreneurs all land up doing; however,
the devastation for families is very similar indeed. Recently I
heard of a family who were so excited about the prospect of
9

not working for a boss anymore and had decided to apply for a
second mortgage in order to finance a business venture. Again,
the passion was there and the excitement and enthusiasm was
abounding but the issue with this couple was that neither of
them had ever owned a business before and had spent the
larger part of their lives working for a boss. It seemed so easy
to get the salary check at the end of the month without having
to be concerned about the actual management of a business.
They thought, after all, how difficult can it actually be right?
The boss goes away when she likes and drives a top of the
range Mercedes Benz. The way that she dressed was always
impeccable and in fact she actually looked rich and behaved
with a great deal of confidence and if she could be successful
in business then it is possible for anyone to do it they thought.
Really!
This couple was different though in that they made some effort
to receive a certain amount of business knowledge and part of
what they learned was that they needed a few things before
they even opened the doors. The banks are very good today
with encouraging potential and prospective entrepreneurs to
first develop a business plan before starting a business and I
agree with this policy and form of encouragement. I think that
every business needs a road map and a formal business plan
does this: the problem is that very few entrepreneurs actually
adhere to their own business plan. This couple went a step
further and also prepared an in depth and reasonable marketing
plan (the problem is that entrepreneurs do not follow their own
marketing plan) for their future business and have their
accountant formulate additional cash-flow projections (the
problem is that entrepreneurs do not follow prepared cash-flow
projections) just to make sure that they were on the right track.
How could they go wrong?!
However, the one thing that I did admire about Ben and Sue
was that they did not reinvent the proverbial wheel. They
found a business that seemed to be going well at the time, and
even found a niche in that they would spend their efforts
developing a specialized cleaning company focusing solely on
10

the food manufacturing industry. The food manufacturing

industry was good, they thought, because it is a consumable
product and food companies always have lots of money.
Another good thing was that the food manufacturing industry
needed specialist housekeeping services and they were both
trained in the art of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Point) apparently this is an international quality
standards program designed very specifically for the food
manufacturing industry all around the world. Personally, I
thought wow this couple may have something here and all
the pieces to this puzzle seem to be coming together very
nicely. I was impressed!
What I could not understand then was if they had done their
homework, went into a business which they were fairly
familiar with but also cleverly separated themselves from their
competition by focusing on the food manufacturing industry,
and HACCP, why did they go out of business less than a year
later? I was personally devastated and saddened when this
particular story was shared with me. I truly felt for this couple.
While the good thing is that their marriage survived the
negative business experience their financial lives were in ruin.
Ben and Sue had a great business model and the finances to
start their dream lives. They were initially well on their way to
becoming their own boss just as they had planned. However
their financiers and sponsors had no mercy when the cash-flow
went into the negative. They lost their home and all their
possessions as they were declared bankrupt and the children
were taken from a private school which they had known most
of their school lives and were forced to start over in the public
school system. The couple had great difficulty finding new
employment with the international economy being what it is
and had to move into a small apartment. One could argue, I
suppose, that these are but mere material possessions and that
they have their health and the ability to earn an income but I
want to tell you that this breaks my heart because they will
also have to deal with the psychological and physiological fallout from their first experience in business. They did share with
11

me though that at least they had not lost their faith and this
pleased me a great deal.
While I can go on citing one example after the other I have to
realize that if you are reading the material contained in this
book then you have either experienced personal failure in
business or at least know of someone who has if you are
neither then you will most certainly be glad that you are
reading the words between these pages should you be wanting
to start your own business. On behalf of people like you and
me then I want to do all that I can to prevent the current
devastation which exists around the world as this relates to
well-meaning people wanting to own their own business but
finding themselves losing everything soon after they opened
their business doors. It is this constant devastation in the lives
of people in the business world which has stirred me to write
this book with the sincerest hope that the right people would
read the material contained herein BEFORE they enter into the
big wide world of entrepreneurship.
The question that each future entrepreneur should ask then,
before going into business is am I really ready for business?
The glamour and prestige of owning ones own business is
alluring. The benefits, so called, of owning a business comes at
a price though. Many prospective entrepreneurs, no matter
how prepared at the initial stages, or during the honeymoon
period which I often refer to, will be prepared for the total
onslaught of owning ones own business. The real truth of the
matter is that the honeymoon period will wane as will the
excitement and initial enthusiasm. These will eventually give
way to the reality of cash-flow management and challenges
when clients and/or customers refuse to pay or pay invoices in
their own time. While legally binding agreements are entered
into by both parties the entrepreneur will soon understand that
these really mean nothing in the real business world as dog
eats dog so to speak. Many times, for all business, when the
economy forces pressure then it becomes a matter of survival
and as an entrepreneur you will soon see the true colors of
those whom you thought were great clients or customers. Your
12

biggest challenge will be managing your cash-flow simply

because your clients are forced to take care of their business
before yours and this means that they will hold on to your
money longer than they used to and longer than they should.
The entrepreneur will also soon see that staff, which they
employ to do a job, will do the same at their own pace and in
their own time and will be the single greatest cause of
frustration in any business. When staff dont perform then
clients become unhappy and when clients become unhappy
they dont pay or cancel contracts and or orders and we all
know where this will ultimately lead to. Wow! One would
think that I am trying to put people off from starting their own
business and I can assure you that this is not the case at all. I
care deeply for families who are destroyed sometimes by
reckless actions demonstrated in their insatiable determination
to get into their own business no matter the possible
consequences.
In all honesty, in my humble opinion, what makes you and
me successful in business comes from a place so much
deeper than an idea, a business plan, a good marketing
plan and good financial forecasts.
Before you enter into business of any sort you are encouraged
by me personally to consider the words which follow in these
pages, and in fact, if you never got the message the first time
then you should read this book over and over again until you
finally get the message.

13

What makes you and me successful in business

comes from a place so much deeper than an idea, a
business plan, a good marketing plan and good
financial forecasts.

14

Once you are personally convinced that you have finally

received the message as transmitted then you can consider a
business idea and then you can prepare your business plan and
whatever other preparation you feel necessary before opening
your doors. You have much at stake, my friend, but the greatest
disaster is that your decision to enter the business world will
affect your entire family should things go wrong. I dont want
this for you or your family.
It is my great pleasure to announce to you today that other
books will follow this foundational and critical book and if you
understand where I am coming from in these pages then you
will understand the way forward from here. You will notice the
contents page and you will see that we will be dealing with at
least ten crucial concepts which may not be foreign to you at
this stage but the secret is how each of these affects one
another and you personally not only in the business
environment but also in your personal life. It is my goal to
have you consider the impact that these ten secrets will have
on your idea to enter the business world and how each one is
so very intertwined and work together in order to assist in your
aspirations which are truly admirable. Creating jobs is vital in
any economy. However, do so without destroying your life and
that of your family. Read on, my friend, and absorb!

15

1
Passion: The Key to Unlocking Human Business Potential
Introduction
Recently I took a trip to the United States and after sixteen and
a half hours of being on an aircraft I found myself sitting in the
Delta Airlines boarding lounge after a session with US
Customs. You must understand that I was tired as I am not one
to sleep sitting up when flying and what did not help matters
was that I was awake when I should have been sleeping (time
zone changes). However, even in my moment of awakened
limbo I was astounded for a moment at what I saw. Hundreds
of people hustling and bustling their way through the airport
terminal and from one departure lounge to the next. The
atmosphere was electric and the noise from people who had
places to go and things to do was deafening to say the least but
the difference here was that all seemed to know what they
were doing and where they were going. I noticed friendliness
in people, cleanliness in the buildings and professionalism all
over the place. People were laughing and greeting one another
as though they had been friends forever, and yet, I was almost
sure that they were total strangers.
I felt that I was missing something but could not quite put my
finger on what it was, and then, out of the blue, a word came to
mind which perfectly described what I was experiencing that
Thursday morning in AprilPASSION!
Having spent many years in business and having truly enjoyed
being an entrepreneur during this time I have always wondered
why it is that so many businesses fail before they reach the
16

twelve month critical period or why someone who has become

so successful over the years suddenly shows signs of burn-out
or lack of interest in life and occupation? There is no doubt
whatsoever in my mind that there is a critical link between the
negative signs as stated previously and the loss of the very
electric moment which I had experienced at the airport in
Atlanta, Georgia namely, PASSION.
The concept of passion, or the lack of this mental and
attitudinal state of mind, is the ultimate key to unlocking
potential for above average achievement in ones business
life.
The announcement to board my onward flight to Albuquerque,
New Mexico was made and I was on my way to the Midwest
United States. My goal was to assess new services for our own
business with a view to implementation as an add-on for our
current client base of my business. I was wondering, now that I
had been exposed to the American passion at the Atlanta
airport, if my experience in Albuquerque would produce a
similar response from me? I was not disappointed at all!

17

The concept of passion, or the lack of this mental and

attitudinal state of mind, is the ultimate key to
unlocking potential for above average achievement
in ones business life.

18

By now you must understand that I was excited to reach my

final destination and to meet my new friends who were going
to reveal the new services to me. I knew that I was passionate
about the trip and the opportunity to learn so I needed to keep
an open mind but I was tired physically. When I finally met
Peter and John I immediately noticed the thing. Yes, the very
same PASSION which I had noticed in Atlanta had not eluded
me in my new found friends. For one thing I noticed that they
were not interested in how tired I was but got me back to my
hotel room and gave me about a half an hour to shower and
unpack before meeting them in the hotel reception area. I was
never asked if I was tired but was politely asked if I had a
pleasant flight, and being the man I am, even if I was dog tired
I would not have said anything at all that would dampen the
wonderful spirit of passion which I saw in these two men so I
decided to ignore how tired I was.
Needless to say I was kept busy with the most incredibly
passionate training for the entire evening and I was dropped off
at the hotel around one thirty the next morning. I am not afraid
to admit that John and Peters enthusiasm and excitement,
brought about by such great passion for what they were doing,
was what kept me going to the point where I had no time to be
tired. The one other thing that I noticed was that they had the
most amazing sense of humor and I can tell you that in
between all the work, concentration and training we laughed
and laughed and this most certainly helped to create a
brotherly bond between us during my eight day stay. We now
refer to one another as brothers. I realized from this trip, and
began to believe, that the concept of passion was a reality with
me as I have seen in the eyes and the lives of many good
business people. However, I also understood that the biggest
problem and challenge which others face was in fact
themselves they had never found their passion, and those that
had initially understood the driver had lost it completely.
Passion has been described in many ways so what we will need
to do is to ask the very pertinent question then and that is
What is passion? We are not talking about the kinds of erotic
19

passion referred to by many when a couple are in love or the

lust moments as described in many dictionaries rather we are
referring to the passion that it takes to move us forward in the
working environment and/or in our families and to keep us
focused on the things that matter and the actions that have
made us successful to date. There is also a direct correlation, in
my opinion, between the lack of passion in any form and the
failure in many areas of our lives.
Understanding Passion
Any strongly felt emotion; a strong enthusiasm for something;
the object of an intense desire or enthusiasm [Latin pati to
suffer]; passionate adj: capable of or revealing intense
emotion.
- Collins Dictionary

20

There is also a direct correlation, in my opinion,

between the lack of passion in any form and the
failure in many areas of our lives.

21

Intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction; a

strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object
or concept; an object of desire or deep interest; passion
applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring or ungovernable.
- Websters Dictionary
The two definitions above use terms like strong, enthusiasm,
intense, passionate, overmastering, desire, devotion in order to
describe all the inner actions and stirrings to assist us towards
understanding the true business of passion. I also like the way
that Websters Dictionary has added concepts such as
overmastering feeling or conviction, a strong liking or desire,
and an object of desire or deep interest. However, to me
personally, the words that best describe my own personal
passion (as far as Webster goes that is) have got to be passion
applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring or ungovernable.
Wow! I could not have summed it up better but I do want to
take some time to help you to understand how this works in
your life and mine. Yes, it is that important, because if you and
I dont get the basic concept then we may as well not continue
on with this journey of discovery. Remember, your future and
mine is at stake so we will not take short cuts and we will
commit to doing things right the first time including us
discovering our true passion in life.
The best way to describe and understand the emotion of
passion is to go back to some of the firsts in our lives. For
instance, the very first time I kicked a soccer ball I thought that
I had fallen in love. Something happened to me from that day
on and all I wanted to do was kick a soccer ball. I used to
dream about scoring goals at the tender age of eight (my first
time at the game) and then actually try to do just that in the
very next game. I lived and breathed soccer and I can tell you
that the feelings only got stronger as I grew older. The more I
loved the game the better I became at playing the game and the
higher my level of proficiency the more I wanted to play. I
played for my club. I also played for my school in the same
week and going to constant practice was not even a question
for me and I never needed any coaxing in this regard
22

whatsoever. I was brought up in a very poor neighborhood

however we forgot our troubles when the kids in the
neighborhood got together on the playground area daily to play
the game we were all so passionate about. I went on to play at
senior level and was invited to play for the army, then the
national defense force side, senior level and finally at
university level. I will never forget how I felt to make the All
Star team for my university. I decided to call it a day when I
was around thirty eight and this only due to the fact that I
thought it time. For so many years I was so passionate about
playing the game that at the time soccer was all I ever thought
about to the point where nothing else mattered. I was
consumed with my sport passion for many, many years of my
life, and at times to the detriment of many other more
important activities and responsibilities. Maybe you can relate
to this intense passion?
You and I will probably never forget our very first time at love.
This was such an intense moment for me I am able to
remember her name to this day. I did not care that she was as
tall as a Giraffe or that she was full of freckles from head to toe
I was in love and that was all that mattered. I was so
passionate about this first love that I could not wait for
school (Primary/Junior school grade six or seven?) to finish so
that my friends and I could meet the girls after school in order
to explore the wonders of girl versus boy. I was so in love that
I could not sleep and I found it extremely difficult to focus in
the classroom as I found myself on another planet most of the
school day. I could not sleep and all I ever spoke about was my
new found girlfriend. I can tell you that I defended both her
height and her freckles to the point of a fist fight with my
brothers and if you understand my height you will understand
why it was easy for them to tease me at will but what I lost in
height I made up for in passion in defense of my young love. I
thought that she was the most beautiful creature on the planet
and I was passionate about my very first love and that is all
that mattered. Are you able to recall your very own first love?
Maybe you are fortunate to still be together today? Do you
remember those moments where nothing else mattered at all?
23

What did you feel like when you saw the very first car that you
ever owned? My first car story brings back good memories and
bad. Back in those days I thought that my friend drove the best
car on the road and of course this was a vehicle which would
have appealed to any young man as the girls looked each time
that we drove by. I made a plan and bought the vehicle from
my friend for cash and never stopped waxing it from that day
on. I could not bear to see the car dirty or scratched so I
checked it regularly. The engine and the engine compartment
were absolutely spotless. I polished the tires, used special
leather polish on the upholstery (very expensive I may add)
and added every accessory that I could find to the point where
the car looked like a mobile version of a Christmas tree. I
made sure that I parked the car away from other cars as they
were just not good enough to be close to my baby (I also
didnt want any damage and scratches you understand) and my
garage was hygienically clean or I would not park her until I
made it so. I made sure that the gas (or petrol) attendant was
formally trained before he filled her up (or I preferred to
actually do this myself back then) and any mess would be met
with a serious mouthful from me. At this stage of my life
nothing was more important to me than my Canary Yellow
Nissan 1600Y. The passion I felt for her at the time could not
be compared to anyone or anything. She deeply stirred me!
I found her! This was what I told my family and friends when I
met my wife. I found the one that I can spend the rest of my
life with and despite all our faults we loved each other. How
wonderful it was to know that with all of my wrongs in life I
found someone that could understand me. For everyone else I
was always labeled as too complicated! Not easy to live with!
Too focused on business and not enough on me! While I do not
believe that it is the lot of a partner to change one another my
wife changes me by virtue of who she is. Her gentle and soft
personality understood me better than anyone I know and I
decided to change in order to accommodate such a wonderful
nature. As we grew in our relationship we changed for a better
partnership so to speak and this suitable partnership helped us
come together as one. It was wonderful to see how our love
24

grew but so did our passion for one another and the common
ground achieved through these personal and voluntary
changes. Love must grow in any relationship each and every
day but I am convinced that many marriages do not last
because the passion needed to sustain a growing love wanes.
How sad it will be if we as married couples are not able to
sustain the great passion that brought us together and the same
passion that helped us to plan our families and the purchase of
our first home together. Remember when we chose the names
of our children and the schools that we investigated to ensure
that they receive the best possible education? We bought a
house and the furniture together and chose the colors and the
designs in excitement and abounding passion?
Dedication and passion are a formidable team. Little Ashton
was but six years old when he developed strange symptoms.
The symptoms included the systematic loss of his eyesight
noticeable by him bumping into simple obstacles. Then for
some unknown reason he started falling off of his bed in the
middle of the night and when he jumped up and down on his
trampoline (a favorite pass time of Ashtons) he at times
misjudged the downward motion and landed up on the ground
something which he had never done before. His mother loved
him as any mother would and knew him well enough to know
that Ashton needed to be taken for a medical examination. The
little boy, who was blond, handsome and full of life, was
subjected to some serious medical tests in order to ascertain a
diagnosis and prognosis. No one was prepared for what lay
ahead for Ashton. After a while the doctors came back with a
conclusion and stated that Ashton had in fact inherited a
dreaded disease which attacks little boys under the age of
seven called ALD (ADRENOLEUKODYSTROPHY) and is
a terminal illness. Many may be familiar with this disease
through the movie called Lorenzos Oil (Nick Nolte).
Ashtons disease spread rapidly through his brain and he was
taken from his mommy a year later.
However, I had the opportunity to see how a mothers love
evolved from love to dedication to passion and back to love
25

once again. All of these entities working together in order to

ensure that a mother and her young son were held together for
as long as possible under some of the most trying of times.
Very soon Ashton started slipping in and out of a coma until he
was finally totally comatose (some would say a blessing in
disguise as the pain must have been unbearable). By this time
Ashton was placed on high amounts of morphine and was fed
through artificial means directly into his stomach. You should
be able to imagine how a single mother would deal with such a
situation as there were many late night trips at long distances
to and fro from the hospital. She also had to maintain a fulltime job during all of this and as the stress and pressure built
up her own physical health was now under threat. Ashton had a
wonderful sister who supported her mother in everything and
played her part well in support of both her brother and her
mother.
Ashtons mom never gave up and her passion for ensuring
Ashtons program was met was simply remarkable. I was
present on the very day that Ashton was called home and the
wonderful thing about this was that he was allowed to die in
his mommys arms but her passion for her son and her passion
as a person did not die with Ashton. I can attest to this as today
this woman is my wife and our lives are shared with the very
same passion as we realize how truly fragile life can be.
The idea with the above examples, and you and I know that
many more may be cited, is that we are able to take ourselves
back to the very moment of excitement of enthusiasm and
passion, in fact, those first moments as described. You see, my
friend, if we are able to understand the concept and the
emotion of passion then it will be this very entity which drives
us from day to day no matter the challenge faced by us. In fact,
passion is the so-called foundation of this book and is the first
secret and the first question that needs to be answered before
we are able to move forward as we contemplate any event as
this relates to entrepreneurship.

26

The First Secret: PASSION

Passion is not really a secret as such but because of its
quality, as this relates to our use of the emotion, in evaluating
whether or not the business world is a viable option for a
prospective entrepreneur we can say that it most certainly is
unique in its use here. While we will inadvertently learn more
about the use of passion in business as we move forward
however you and I must now dig a little deeper in order to
fully comprehend the origin of passion in our lives, how we
keep the passion once we have recognized it and found the
emotion and that there is the distinct ability to lose passion as
we move forward in both business and our lives. Our goal now
will be to dissect each stage one at a time so that you are able
to recognize where you are at any point in your business
development. Being able to identify the critical stages will also
allow you the time needed to make adjustments to your
attitude and direction on the business road so to speak.
Finding Passion
Passion is found in us as walking is discovered by us for the
very first time. We know what we are doing but we have not
yet learned to name it. When we walk for the first time at the
tender age of between twelve and eighteen months (earlier for
some later for others) we usually dont go around saying I am
walking and dont even give the name walking to the fact
that we have moved forward on our own steam by getting up
(finally some would say) and placing one foot in front of the
other. The fact is that we found walking! Hooray! After the
age of two (again, earlier and later for some) we start to speak
and the first word may be Mama! or Papa! We dont go
around at this tender age and say that I have just spoken am I
not a clever girl?! We walk and we speak but dont at this
point understand the concept or the name which society has
attached to these actions so we accept that we have achieved
something (notwithstanding the fact that everyone keeps
clapping when I stand and walk or when I talk) and continue to
build on this without giving our actions a second thought.
27

We develop through the childhood phases and get better and

better at doing the things we still dont fully comprehend so we
go from walking to running and from single words to complete
sentences and we be thus continually encouraged all the way
by our parents and families. We now continue to develop and
walking and speaking out in long sentences becomes the norm
and we receive no more encouragement because we have now
moved on to bigger and better things such as, what do I want
to be when I grow up? While in the adult world we
understand that it is way too early to be concerned with
earning money and setting up a home at the tender age of five
so we humor our children and encourage their dreams and
goals and desires. The right thing to do! However, what we as
parents and adults see is the enthusiasm and the excitement of
the child and we will do all in our power not to douse the
flame so to speak. This flame in the adult world we now
call PASSION!
Johnny wants to be a fireman, then he wants to be a policeman,
then he wants to become a doctor and he also wanted to be a
train driver. My brother-in-law has three gorgeous children and
whenever we go around for a barbeque they are dressed up.
The youngest is four and his name is Donald (nothing to do
with the duck) and then there is pretty little Belinda who is ten
(I think) and of course the one I love teasing the most Matthew
who is eight. The scene plays itself out in that when we arrive
they all greet us at the gate, very enthusiastically I might add,
and it looks like a scene out of either the Avengers or the world
of Barbie (in Belindas case). Donald is Superman, Matthew is
Captain America and Belinda is dressed in a long flowing
dress and believes that she is a princess called Barbie. I have
never seen children so excited to be something they are not.
They play their parts so well that they actually believe that
they are who they are dressed up to be. Let me give you an
example. Matthew is dressed up as Captain America so I play
stupid and keep on calling him Spiderman. I want to tell you
that if he could the boy would absolutely smash me to a pulp
(being Captain America and all). He goes absolutely ballistic
28

when I deliberately continue to call him Spiderman when I can

clearly see that his costume is that of Captain America.
In their ability to actually become what they dress up as they
truly take on a new invincible personality and they believe
that they have all the power in the world. Because the princess
dress represents beauty, romance and a possible prince
somewhere hidden in a frog Belindas personality changes
from who she normally is (not rough but definitely no
princess) to a wonderful little princess. The boys take on a
whole new persona and believe that they have the most
incredible powers. The one thing that stands out for each of the
children is that in their personal belief of the new part they
play when in costume they also assume the enthusiasm and
excitement that goes with the package but you and I cannot
explain to them that what they actually have is PASSION. I
hope that the children will never lose this as they grow up but
sadly it may be inevitable as this is the very reason that you are
reading this book today. You, too, had this passion so let me
ask you, What happened to your passion, my friend? As we
seek to understand more of where to find our passions we must
understand that the maturing cycle remains but the passions
change. The early adolescent years bring about the immature
and playful natures and then this gives way to both the careless
and carefree natures. Finally, and to the horror of most parents
the carefree and immature natures fuse to create the teenage
monster.
Girls and boys, for a long time first grow up thinking that the
opposite sex is everything but attractive. Boys want nothing to
do with girls and girls would rather be seen dead than talking
to a boy. Then, one day, out of the blue, this changes and the
light goes on. Boys start to look at girls with new glasses so
to speak and girls eyes open as if for the first time and this is
the time that boys become boys (not things to run from
anymore) and girls become girls and they both look at each
other in wonder and amazement and ask, where have you
been all my life? After hating you for so long you look so
good to me all of a sudden! Look at those eyes and hair and
29

lips how come I have never noticed those before? No, dont
hold my hand, it feels so good! Thus the new found
excitement and enthusiasm builds for the opposite sex and
while we dont call it passion at the time that is exactly what it
is. We develop a passion for the opposite sex and then find our
first girlfriend and go through the immature age of discovering
one another and we all know just how much this passion can
consume a young teenager. Studies at school are virtually
abandoned (if it were not for the persistence of mom and dad)
and so are all sanity and the only thing on their minds is to
impress the first love despite all the zits and pubic
development. While the constant giggling and laughter may
represent the immature part of our first passion this tends to
give way to the so called carefree nature as we mature.
The passion now matures as the adolescent discovers the
one. We often hear of the phrase high school sweethearts or
college sweethearts and while this baby love has developed
into a slightly more mature love we also now tend to add a
playful carefree side to this relationship. The love builds as
does the excitement and enthusiasm as the decision is made to
hook-up and graduation rings are swopped as a sign of a
more committed and permanent relationship and this brings a
sense of belonging which in turn takes the excitement and
enthusiasm levels up another notch. This is a part of young
love which we are all familiar with and this is the passion
which we cannot deny having experienced. At this point it is
imperative that you and I start to understand the term passion if
it has not as yet happened to you to this point. Passion is so
central to everything which we are as emotional creatures and
this is why I am so adamant in helping you to understand that
if you have no passion for business then how can you consider
such a high pressure challenge? Young love has its ups and
downs and challenges and the only thing keeping a couple
together when this happens is the passion which they have for
one another and this same passion you and I consider as love,
excitement and enthusiasm.

30

However, when you see in a young relationship, the carefree

nature and the immature nature fusing which seems to form the
very basis of the young adult stage. The childish ways and
passions turn into mature emotions which now cement a
wonderful and trusting relationship with the person which we
love. College or university awaits the young adult and the
anticipation of choosing a major as a focus of study and career
life (if this has not as yet happened) it creates a great deal of
excitement. The first time college experience is something no
one will forget as everything is new and fresh and much must
be discovered on the campus. The idea of joining a society or
sorority builds anticipation as the thought of belonging to some
form of brotherhood or sisterhood will fulfill the social need.
The sense of belonging does not only bring with it a security
but also the opportunity to fulfill the need to give back as it
were to others in the group and possibly to the community.
This is thus the opportunity to serve as a young adult with
excitement, enthusiasm but most of all the word passion will
best describe the intense emotion the young adult will feel at
this point in their lives. They attend classes and the teachers or
lecturers are new, the books are new, the campus is new,
classmates are new, the library is new and so are sporting
facilities and all of this brings about the greatest emotion of
them allpride (in the patriotic sense of course). The needs
change quickly now as the college sets about creating a
product reminiscent of its goals and all past loyalties are
forgotten as new loyalties are conditioned into the hearts and
minds of all new students. Do you remember the passion you
felt at this age? It does not matter where you were and in fact
you may not have been in any school of any sort as you may
have chosen the military as an option or gone straight into the
working world. The fact is that for the very first time you
were excited about the new things around you and thought that
if you were doing any better you could not stand itthis was
PASSION!
Everyone will remember the serious levels of passion felt by
one and all during the young adult stage as insanity or sanity
usually reigned supreme depending on how you look at it. For
31

the very first time it would seem that we needed a cause. Some
issue to focus on. Someone to stand up for and maybe
someone to protect and whatever it was the one thing that was
clear was that the passion was there. Some hated the Vietnam
and Korean wars and made their voices known with passion
while others fought for the right to life of unborn children and
others for the rights of a woman to terminate her pregnancy in
the case of rape and other circumstances. Workers protested for
more rights, better working conditions and wage increases and
are willing to strike in order to achieve their goals. The Syrians
are currently at war with one another because each side
believes they are right and are willing, and are in fact doing
just this, to lay their lives down for their cause. The Egyptians
and the Turkish nation also have two sides who honestly
believe that their argument and their side is better than the
other, and again, the passion is so intense that more lives will
ultimately be lost if sanity does not prevail.
Throughout the various developmental stages of man and
woman there is a time of insanity fuelled by great amounts of
passion; however, one can argue from a psychological point of
view that during this time of turmoil and passion direction is
sought. The human race is always willing to do whatever it
takes to further a cause and that is why some of the most
destructive moments in history such as the first and the second
world wars have been fought. Prior to this terrible time we also
know of civil wars which have taken place in the known world
on virtually every inhabited continent and this continues today
unabated. Men (generic sense) need direction as do countries
and many times it is passion that fuels the search for this. The
cause is the road to direction no matter how chaotic but the
passion associated with this is the fuel to bringing about a
conclusion to the chaos and establishing the final sane
direction.
Teenagers will quickly tell you of their story as they view their
parents in critical areas. It would seem that they tend to
question their parents more and more as they move through the
teen years. They will tell you of the need to feel wanted and
32

the dire need for direction. However, they will also share the
utter chaos they feel at times as they view their own lives not
knowing where they are headed and even if they did they
actually have no idea as to how to get there. One of the areas
of great concern to me personally, and I am most certainly not
perfect, is how many teenagers view their parents
preaching. It has been said that the greatest problem that
teenagers have with their parents today is the great
inconsistencies which they find in their actions and
philosophies. For example, Mommy says, Dont smoke, my
son, while puffing on a cigarette. Dad says, Dont drink and
drive Susan, while drinking a beer on the way to the 7Eleven. Never lift your hand to a woman, says Dad as he is
arrested for battering his wife. Go to church children, its
good for you, but fathers refuse to lead their families
spiritually. Young people also look for and need direction as
they have the most unbelievable amount of energy and will
either put their energy and passion into doing the wrong thing
or into the right activity. Your passion and mine was largely
mentored by what we saw around us and how we reacted to the
same and while we are not a product of our environments (I
dont care what the psychologists say) we may most certainly
be influenced.
The so called early year chaos is waning and the future looks
brighter. The university or college studies are done or we have
now established ourselves in some field of interest. We have
found an occupation capable of cementing our passion.
Finally! We have found the entity which has alluded us for so
longdirection. Enthusiasm gives the energy and excitement is
our booster but our new found passion becomes our drive.
One of my daughters, currently studying psychology at
university, has been a prime example of what we have been
discussing and contemplating over the last few pages. I have
watched her grow from one stage to the other (as I have my
other children) and finally the direction has been found. She is
calm and confident in her studies, has a cool headed boyfriend
and has an amazing passion for autistic children and those
33

mentally challenged. When she is not studying or attending

classes she is working with gorgeous young children affected
by autism. She is utterly consumed by her passion and cannot
stop talking about the children and the challenges which they
face on a daily basis. Her passion has now grown to the point
where she is determined to start her own school specializing in
catering for the needs of autistic children. My feeling is that
she will be successful not because she will be a psychologist or
because she is now gaining the much needed experience but
because she has the much needed passion to make it work.
My oldest daughter showed a different kind of direction and
passion with a very specific goal in her life laser eye surgery.
She was born with poor eyesight (genetically passed down)
and had no option but to wear rather strong lenses in order to
see. While she may or may not admit to this she developed a
complex but more importantly she had met a young man
whom she was convinced that she was in love with. It turns out
that she was right in this regard as they are married today and
have given me two beautiful granddaughters to date.

34

Enthusiasm gives the energy, and excitement is our

booster, but our new found passion becomes our
drive.

35

She was young and I was not convinced that this was the
correct procedure for her at such an early age however to my
surprise the physician was prepared to do the surgery after an
initial assessment. A quotation was handed to my daughter and
me after the consultation and of course I almost fell off my
chair. Be that as it may my daughter was adamant that this is
what she wanted despite the repeated warnings by all that the
surgery would be painful. Obviously she was young and the
cost beyond her capability, or so I thought. She bargained with
me until I agreed to pay half of the cost if she could raise the
first half and so the deal was clinched. As she was a waiter for
me in a coffee shop which I owned at the time I had no idea
what I had done by partnering with this little fireball of
mine. In no time at all she had raised her part of the money
needed for the surgery and I had no option but to play my part.
I will never forget the day that I registered her at the hospital
and she was called in for the surgery. I truly felt terrible as a
father for allowing her to go through so much pain. However,
while I apologized profusely to her that day and hugged her to
death all she could say was that it is very painful daddy but
Im so glad that I had it done and that its now over. I realized
for the first time just how passionate she was over her
boyfriend to the point where she would be willing to endure
whatever it took for her to look pretty for him. I only hope that
he will always remember this sacrifice which she made. To me
though, the intense passion for her cause was what impressed
me the most and it was this immense passion that enabled her
when she was not able.
The other thing about passion is that it gives energy. I am sure
that you will agree with me that when we finally identify
someone that is passionate about something the same question
is posed over and over again: Where does he get all the
energy from!? It is fantastic to also see someone so consumed
in performing activities in their passion that they often exclaim
is that the time already? The phrase then: Time flies when
you are having fun is a perfect description for those
consumed with any and all activities related to their passion.
All the cares of the world seem to vanish and the focus has
36

shifted from the negative to the positive from the lack of

energy to abundance of energy and from a dull day to a day
filled with enthusiasm and excitement. Optimism rules! The
energy that I am talking about here is almost supernatural if
you dont mind me using this phrase here as the person seems
to be filled with energy well beyond their means.
For example, recently, my second youngest daughter turned
twenty-one. What an affair! My daughter is really not an
extravagant individual and was quite content with having
something at home in the garden. My wife thought it a
wonderful idea but I had other plans as my mind had already
started to work out what the pool area would look like the very
next morning. You will understand that I understand that this
being the late adolescent early young adult stage and all
some young men stay young longer than some of the young
ladies do? I am thinking major destruction here and the more I
picture this mess the more determined (passionate?) I become
to pitch the whole idea of moving the venue somewhere else.
So that you clearly understand me I needed the venue as far
away from my home as I could get it and so I proposed the
same place where my wife and I got married. I knew that this
would be a hit. I had saved the house! From this moment on
the planning began; however, just a week before my daughter
had no idea as to how she was going to complete all her studies
and projects in time for semester finals at college. Strange
what a new passion and focus can do for one? All of a sudden
there was no problem with the exams and neither was there a
problem with finalizing the projects. What about the challenge
to plan the twenty first birthday bash? What problem!? You
will not believe how all of this came together. My daughter,
whose normal practice, is to produce distinctions continued to
do so during all of the planning for the party and the party
went off without a hitch. In fact, if I remember correctly, the
energy levels were still at a high the very next day as it was
time to open gifts and this was undoubtedly an exciting affair.
We all went through photographs (hundreds of them) the next
morning and this seemed to continue on for a week as did the
compliments on the great bash.
37

As we move on through life we have to earn a living somehow

as unfortunately that is how this world works. There are many
that, believe it or not, enjoy what they do and cannot believe
that they actually get paid for their efforts. Golfers play golf
and may be that good that they get paid big money because of
their talents; however, there are golfers with talent but play
more for passion and are good enough though to be club
professionals. Soccer coaches may not be as good as
professional soccer stars but get paid absolute fortunes when
they coach major soccer league teams. Ladies volley ball
coaches, swimming coaches and Olympic sports coaches earn
huge amounts of money for their coaching abilities prior to
world and international events. I looked-up ladies professional
business coaches on the internet just before writing this section
and I can tell you that there are many good business coaches
out there and from every corner of the globe doing the one
thing that they love the most with passion and getting paid well
for it. How amazing! How wonderful to find something that
you and I are so passionate about and to get paid for doing it!
Our passion is cemented through our occupation in the
business world. Whatever our chosen field we need to ensure
that passion is the driver. If you have chosen to become a pilot
then you have to be the best pilot in the world not just in your
airline what is the point of that? If you have chosen nursing
as a passion then make sure that you are the best nurse in the
world not just in your country or in the hospital for which you
work. If you love a clean environment around you and have
come to understand the need for hygiene in the workplace or in
the public arena and you are a Housekeeper or a Janitor then
be the best in the world. Your passion as a Janitor or
Housekeeper must be seen by others and should be contagious
believe it or not! Again, I refer to my experience in the airport
at Atlanta and the Janitors which I so carefully observed on
this day. It did not seem as though anything was too much
trouble for them. Not only were they happy to ensure that their
section of the airport was hygienically clean but they were also
more than pleased to offer strangers help when they required
direction. I also saw them offer to take trash from a patron
38

BEFORE the trash was dumped. The way that these gracious
people helped one another with consumables and equipment,
told me that they were passionate about getting the job done.
The fact that there was no loitering to be seen among them was
a clear sign that they actually enjoyed doing what they had
chosen as an occupation.
The one thing that I have noticed about passion, and I sincerely
hope that you will agree with me here, is that people that have
found true passion for their occupation truly dont care what
they do for a living as long as they love what they do day in
and day out. What they dont need is someone, whether it is a
manager, a family member or even a friend, coming into their
personal positive space spoiling the moment. Many
managers do this unwittingly. For example, an employee, who
is quite happy, content and PRODUCTIVE, the manager will
interfere with such an individual with disastrous consequences.
When someone is obviously passionate about what they are
doing and are happy AND are productive what on earth would
make a manager interfere with such an employee-no matter the
level of their task? This is good advice for you as a future and
possibly current entrepreneur.
Once we have found direction in life through our occupation
we will also find our passion and I truly believe that the one
goes hand in hand with the other but I also believe that you
cannot find the one without the other. Passion must be present
when an occupation is chosen or why would you and I
deliberately and willfully choose to spend the rest of our lives
doing something that we will detest, and according to the
scientists, bring about our untimely death through stress and
illness? Psychologically, for some reason, direction has
become all important to the human species. It appears that we
are no longer happy with wilderness wonderings and reckless
hippy, Gypsy or nomad style living and have opted for a more
structured direction filled life. It is often said that if you dont
have any direction then you wont amount to anything and if
you dont have any direction then you wont know how to
achieve your goals and so we can go on. Direction is found
39

through our passion as the future career path which we choose

is heavily dependent upon what drives us. The best thing to do
then as parents is to nurture the passions as they develop
throughout all the stages of growth in our children. Encourage
each phase without much concern that our children may get
stuck on the wrong passion. While it is truly difficult to
believe, our children are capable of self-correcting their
passions throughout all of the phases and stages as was
discussed in this book to date. However, when our children and
we as parents have finally identified the LIFE PASSION as I
like to call it, then it is time to cement this with all the
necessary support that we can muster.
The best way to support the initial stages of LIFE PASSION of
a young passion is to now foster the enthusiasm which gives
the energy and the drive for the future preparation of the life
occupation. The worst possible thing for any parent, sibling or
friend to do at this point is to douse, if you were, the
tremendous flame burning inside this persons heart. There are
many arguments from parents for instance in that many believe
that their children should go to school, become educated and
melt into the establishment. When the son comes home then
and says I want to work for myself and create a business this is
considered a risky passion and all efforts are made to steer
the young person into a safer environment the
establishment? A couple decides that they are tired of the
establishment and want to leave their jobs in order to start a
business on their own. What do you think the very first
reaction will be from the parents, assuming that they are still
living of course: Are you mad? It will be explained that they
have everything such as security, a great home, medical
insurance, retirement and so on and so forth. At no point will it
ever dawn on the parents that because of all the knowledge that
these two people have gathered over the years that they could
actually make it work to their advantage. There will be no
encouragement and most certainly no enthusiasm. Yet, this is
the very moment for encouragement, or at least a listening ear.
This is the moment a friend should listen and get excited and a
brother should embrace your idea with encouraging words.
40

However, in the real world this does not happen simply

because people out there are afraid of failure and not only for
themselves but for their loved ones as well. No one wants to
see the new budding entrepreneur lose everything should
things go wrong. The way to deal with this then is for these
well-meaning people to be as negative as they can be in the
hope of dissuading people like you and me from entering the
business environment at all. Let me tell you from my heart to
yours, if you are thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, or have
the heart of an entrepreneur then you must never allow
yourself and/or your dreams to be placed into a box along with
the countless of millions of lost dreams and into a world which
I call BUSINESS DREAM DESTRUCTION GALAXY.
Passion is exciting and what an entrepreneur has is exciting
and the road upon which you will travel will be hard and rocky
but exciting so dont you dare let other conformists shatter
your excitement as you will need this and the energy which
your excitement will create. Together your passion, enthusiasm
and excitement will give you the critical energy levels which
are the catalyst for overcoming some of the seemingly
insurmountable obstacles which lie ahead of you in business. If
you are a current or potential husband and wife team in
business then remember this will you, YES, it can be done as a
team. You CAN be a successful team in business and yes you
CAN make a success of business life together. While we will
deal with this subject more in depth later on I want you to
remember this little section as if you are going to make it
together then you are going to have to imbed these words into
your minds and make them a part of your business life on a
daily basis as to lose the concept, the meaning and the passion
of it all will mean the beginning of the end. ALWAYS focus on
what got the two of you in business in the first place.
About twenty years ago I was a senior executive for an
international corporation and decided that I had had enough
and I wanted to do my own thing. After all I had all the
knowledge and I was kind of doing my bosss job for him
anyway. I was even more educated than him so why would my
own business not work for me? My friend, let me tell you I hit
41

my head against so many brick walls I almost thought that my

head was a part of the Berlin Wall. My parents, in their
wisdom (unfortunately in a far better place at this moment but
no longer present with us all), and despite my age went
ballistic at the thought of me walking away from a career
(good old boy belief). I was reminded of the fantastic future
which I would be throwing away and the benefits. I have an
expense account, medical cover, retirement benefits, a
company vehicle, and the company paid all of my gas and
travel expenses and so they rolled the benefits out endlessly so
it seemed. How could I give this all up? Then I heard the
cruncher You have security!
I will never forget the day that I sat down in front of my boss,
who by now was also a very good barbeque and house friend
of mine, and said, John, I think that I am going to quit and
start something on my own! Obviously I cant tell you what
he said as it just wont be right. Suffice it to say, the man was
shocked beyond belief as he truly thought that I was a lifer if
you know what I mean. He went about, like they all do,
demeaning my decision, and told me that I would be sorry in
ten years from now. I was apparently, according to him, set
apart for great things in the company and that this news was
going to upset a lot of people on the top. I was asked to
reconsider. The truth of the matter is that the ten years came
and went and I was blessed with becoming a millionaire while
my friend was eventually retrenched from his position as the
company went bankrupt. Maybe this is why John wanted me to
stay on then just joking! You must understand that when you
have a passion for something and want to do something totally
out of the norm it is as though you have to sell your intentions
and ideas and passions to every single person that you know
including now, in my case, my brothers and sisters, and as you
know, sibling rivalry is always a constant battle in many
families. I now had to explain my decision in detail to my
siblings as they are concerned (terribly so) for my wellbeing
I was told. What I read between the lines was how was this
going to get you ahead of us and are we going to be able to
keep up with you? But yes they cared and wanted to know all
42

the details and wanted to make sure that I was doing the right
thing.
My friend, I have just told you a little bit of my story but there
are countless stories of various kinds out there where people
like you and me who are passionate entrepreneurs who are
being stifled by well meaning (not all the time) people ready,
willing and able to prevent us from fulfilling our passions for
the sake of losing security.
Let me share yet another secret. I have learned through many
wonderful and successful entrepreneurs (and you will hear me
repeat this on many occasions in this book) over the years. If
you are a TRUE entrepreneur, and this is often the difference
between this person and a businessperson, then you will know
that your security lies not in others but in YOU. You are
confident in your abilities, which you are as a person, your
attitude; the way people perceive you but most of all you
believe in your understanding of the way forward and need no
direction from already directionless people around you.
We say then that while enthusiasm gives the energy and drive
we also say that the new found cause in our lives will both
change and secure our direction and whatever so called
rebellion which consumed so much of who we were and our
time finally gave way to sanity. The great thing then about
passion is that while we had our so called wild days and we
wondered around from one stage of life to the next trying all
sorts of rebellious (at times) actions we eventually seemed to
find ourselves. When we find ourselves in the business
environment then we refer to this as direction and when we
have direction in our business and career lives then it is
amazing how everything else seems to fall together in other
aspects of our family life. When we live in chaos then we must
understand that this aspect is a realm not of this world.
Here then is my summation on this first session on passion!
Why look for passion when you already have it?! I am always
amazed at people whom I have the wonderful privilege of
talking to who ask me how they are able to get passion or they
will say to me I want passion like you have. My standard
43

answer is why are you are looking for something which you
have already found? You have had passion from when you
were a little boy or a little girl and I can tell you that it has
NEVER left you but what you have successfully done over the
years is allowed others around you to suppress your passion
whether you know this or not we will deal with this fact in
more detail under the Self-Image chapter. Can you imagine me
telling you that you still have the same passion which you had
when you were two or three? You are looking for something
you already have! You want to get into business for yourself
but dont think that you have the necessary passion to perform
but I am telling you that you are wrong! What I am telling you
is that you cannot go into business without passion, oh yes I
am, but I am also telling you that you have what it takes and by
the end of this book you will understand not only WHAT it
takes to start your own business but also that you HAVE what
it takes.
Now that we understand that passion is actually a part of what
we are and that it is critically placed in us in order to shake
and move us, and where it comes from and that we have not
truly lost passion, we must now understand that there are ways
to keep the flame of passion burning. While passion in our case
deals with the passion of business we all know that the term
passion on many occasions is also referred to the love between
a man and a woman in its romantic sense.
I will never forget, many years ago now, I was so touched by
an event as a young man that whenever I think of the story I
still get goose bumps. The couple had met at college but both
were extremely jealous of one another and of course this
caused many an argument between the two young lovers.
There were moments between the jealousy though where
tenderness was shown by both but it was at this instance that
the man in the relationship was negatively influenced by his
family as the young lady was not of the standing and
background approved by the young mans parents. They were
prominent politicians and well to do and her family was more
from the blue color community but with stable values to say
44

the least. The point is that there was a conflict of interest and
their passion for one another was seriously tested at all times
as both were influenced and had separate challenges. At one
stage in their lives though I remember, Jason preparing a
surprise for Melanie, a white horse-drawn carriage drove
them down to a lake at Central Park where he unpacked an
amazing picnic lunch with champagne. The two spent the
afternoon at the lake feeding the gees and discussing future
plans as a couple. Anyone looking at these two would have no
doubt of the true love and passion which existed in this
relationship. As the summers afternoon continued more words
of love were whispered to one another and as they looked into
each others eyes they seemed to fall more and more in love
with each passing moment. All of a sudden, without any
warning whatsoever, Jason kneeled down in front of Melanie,
and as she turned around all of her college friends were
standing all around the couple (popping out from behind every
tree it would seem) as he proposed to her, and all in that part of
Central Park that day whom were witness to this most
romantic moment. Needless to say the answer was YES!
The relationship took strain as the parents on both sides were
not happy and placed immense pressure on the couple.
However both were steadfast in their love and passion for one
another. Between classes, in her senior year, Melanie collapsed
for no apparent reason. Jason was called to the infirmary and
while Melanie seemed to recover somewhat the physician
decided that it was wise to request a blood test. A day or two
later Melanie and her parents (who did not want Jason present
at the time) were called into the doctors office that had terrible
newsMelanie had terminal Leukemia. While the doctor could
not be certain of the exact time remaining he did take time to
warn all concerned that only months remained and that there
was nothing that could be done to save Melanie. Obviously, the
shock was palpable but none more so than when Jason was
told of the results. Disbelief, determination to fight the disease
and we will get a second opinion were all of the defiant
gestures which came out of the mouth of a man that was
obviously much in love with his beautiful Melanie.
45

Jason was not going to let go. He was going to love her to the
end and he was going to spend every waking moment with his
love. As Melanie became weaker and weaker she had no
option but to drop out of school and so did Jason. She loved
going down to the local park, sitting on the grass and watching
Jason feed the geese. Little children were always a special part
of Melanies life and for the first time she realized that she
would never have the privilege if having children of her own
or in particular being a mommy to her little princess. She
would never see her daughter grow up or even see her get
married for that matter and this thought upset her a great deal.
Jason, being his sensitive self-had heard her muffled cry and
came over to hear her story. He fought back the tears but he
held her tightly. The worst thing for him was that he knew that
he no longer had the words to help her to overcome her pain
and all that he could do was hold her but somehow she found a
way to help him believe that this was enough. It was a Friday
morning, a little colder for some reason on this particular day,
sweaters were needed, but Melanie wanted to go to the park at
around ten in the morning. In fact no matter what Jason said in
order to persuade Melanie otherwise she was adamant that she
wanted to go to the park. Jason had noticed a difference in her
on this day though but decided that she was more tired than
usual and gave her more love and attention in the hope that she
would start feeling better. Although cooler weather prevailed
the love was stronger and the passion evident through
wonderful words exchanged and the soft gentle kisses felt by
each other. Jason, as he had done on a few occasions before,
had placed Melanie on his lap, hugged her, and used the swing
to go to and fro in the hope of soothing the pain. While they
were talking, after about fifteen minutes, Melanie became
quiet but Jason had not realized this for about a minute or so.
He looked down and realized that she had died gently and
quietly in his arms just like she had always said that she
wanted it to be.
As in our story above once passion is discovered it has simply
got to lead to what I will call PASSION STABALISERS. We
understand that we never truly lose passion but that passion
46

can be doused and or be suppressed by those around us. We

also must now know that once we have it back it is our
determination in a sense which allows us to keep this vital
business psychological tool in our lives. In keeping passion it
is vital that PASSION STABALISERS are understood clearly,
and in fact, in my opinion if you will allow me, is so
significant that the crux of this book is based upon these. The
essence if you will or the gut feel of passion to me relies on
the following entities: (1) OPTIMISM, (2) ATTITUDE (3)
SELF-IMAGE, (3) VALUES, (4) GOAL-SETTING, (5)
DRIVING-FORCE, (6) PERPETUATING PASSION.
Keeping passion as an entrepreneur will undoubtedly lead to
OPTIMISM. As in young love (noted in our story above) and
in a new idea and business it is optimism that keeps us all
going no matter the obstacle. It is absolutely amazing what you
and I can go through as long as we remain optimistic about the
end result and that is why we have so many sayings around the
world such as: Every cloud has a silver lining and we can
see the end to the tunnel or there is gold at the end of a
rainbow. World wars have been fought but it has always been
optimism that has brought our forefathers through these
terrible times as optimism brings forth hope and hope means
that things will not always go on the way that they do or as
they are and that things will change for the better. Optimism
happens on the evening of the last day of each year as people
live in hope that the following year will produce better results
in all areas of life. When you and I meet the right person
then this brings forth a great deal of optimism as the hope of
marriage, children, a home and a better life ensues. When our
children grow we become optimistic on their behalf as they
face college and we have the hope that their lives will turn out
as planned. When we all die we all hope that the place we go
to from here is as promised. Of course, nothing changes when
we have optimism for our business idea and I say to you that if
you do not have optimism brought about from your passion
then dont go into business as you will need every ounce of
optimism and hope when you are in business. There will be
days when you think that you have made a terrible mistake and
47

there will be moments when you will seriously doubt yourself

as a business person but it will be your true optimism that will
bring you through it all your unyielding passion supported by
your unwavering optimism.
Optimism will guide you to think in terms of success rather
than of failure. We look all over the world today and countries
are crumbling. What you say!? What happened to buildings
crumbling you say marriages crumbling? People crumbling
and businesses crumbling we know of these. Now you are
telling me that countries are crumbling?! Really! That is
exactly what I am telling you my friend. I hate to be the bearer
of bad news but like the other statistics which I have
previously mentioned, I think that you are aware of these too,
many (in fact most) of the new businesses started are out of
business within the first twelve months of first opening their
doors and just over fifty percent of all marriages end in
divorce. We can go on and on with one negative thought and
statistic after another and just as success may attract success
(we may question this notion later on) negativity will attract
more negativity and failure will only attract more failure. The
optimist focuses rather on the businesses that actually make it
and the countries that are succeeding and the marriages that are
stable as opposed to spending too much time on the opposite.
For instance, just the other day I heard of a married couple that
had been married for fifty-three years and had numerous
grandchildren and great grandchildren. Imagine that they were
still so positive they still had the time and the energy to do
limited travelling. Even though the world economy is in
decline all over I received a call from a man in South Africa
who is adding services as opposed to reducing like everyone
else and he has the most amazing spirit of optimism. My
friend, optimism brings forth hope and my feeling is that if you
take away hope from a man then you reduce him to nothing
indeed and you may as well cover him with sand as he will
technically be dead.
Optimism gives us the wonderful ability to see everything as
an opportunity. Other people see obstacles but you and I see
48

opportunities other people see a mountain and you see a hill.

My mother once told me of a story where she had the
opportunity to purchase a piece of land. She made the decision
not to buy the land because it was too expensive at the time.
Her friend did not agree with her and bought the land for cash
(my mother could have as well at the time apparently) and then
used the equity to obtain a mortgage and built rental properties
on the land she became a millionaire as she went on to
duplicate her business model over and over again. Did I learn
by my mothers mistake? I am of the opinion that when you
have settled into a business model and that this is working for
you, and then you should focus on reproduction on an ongoing
basis. However, you should always be on the lookout for new
opportunities which come your way as long as the new
opportunity is in line with your core strategy and business
model. However, the point being is that when you are
passionate about what you are doing you will be optimistic as a
positive by-product if you will and because you consider
things around you in terms of success as opposed to in terms of
failure you will always be aware of good opportunities coming
your way. Your entire persona takes on new meaning and
optimism is most certainly a key PASSION STABILISER.
When an entrepreneur sees the glass half full and not halfempty then you know that such a person has a pleasant and a
positive demeanor critical for business. If you intend to enter
into the business world without a positive mental attitude then
you have a serious problem however that is only half the
battle. The other half of the battle is that your attitude MUST
show. If you are positive then it must show so if you look at
the glass (issues) differently then it must show. People must
look at you and say he is different. Your suppliers must look
at you at and say the same thing about you. Your staff must
view you as a problem solver not a problem creator and it is
my view that while you may not be perfect you must be the
best problem solver in your business at any stage and no one
must be able to solve issues quicker and better than you at any
time even if you pay people to perform these tasks. As an
entrepreneur you must have the ability to look at things
49

differently all the time and the old adage of out the box
thinking will most certainly apply. Optimism gives you this as
if you are excited and enthusiastic about what you do then I
can tell you that you will have no problem at all looking for
solutions from whatever angle it takes. As an entrepreneur this
is a must for you as your business and your idea is at stake.
Keeping passion will ensure a positive mental attitude. You
will be tested in all areas my friend and if you think that you
have had life tough up to know then I can assure you that you
are about to face the toughest challenge yet. I have often
watched the program called Survivor, like many of you, and
like the challenge of it all obviously. If you think that
Survivor is tough, and if you think that you have had a tough
life, and then get ready, my friend, for the ride of your life as
business and entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted.
While I hate to do this to you I would rather that you save your
hard earned dollars and stay away from entrepreneurship as it
will destroy you if you do not understand the utmost need to
have the most positive of mental attitudes you will be tested
by all. You will see later how I refer to the fact that people
can see an attitude coming and if your attitude is negative
then that is what EVERYONE will see coming long before you
even open your mouth. I have always been amazed as to how
some well-meaning but most arrogant of entrepreneurs treat
their clients and prospective clients to the point where I
actually question who the client or customer is. If you want to
be served then stay out of business but if you dont mind
serving others so that you can get paid for it then by all means
get into business. Let me say that again you become an
entrepreneur to serve others and be paid for it not the other
way around so you are not doing the client or the customer a
favor being there.
A positive mental attitude will also have other benefits but one
which I like in particular is perseverance. Your business will
go through numerous phases in its life cycle (just like
everything else) so dont be surprised. One day things will
look so good you will not be able to contain yourself and the
50

very next day you will come into the office and truly believe
that you have got off at the wrong planet. Now, instead of
getting back on the train/plane and trying another
station/planet or giving up you will need to employ a
wonderful tool known to us senior entrepreneurs namely,
PERSEVERENCE. How do you like this? The Oxford
Thesaurus tells me that for a job requiring perseverance the
following words are best used to describe such an occupation:
persistence, tenacity, determination, resolve, doggedness,
diligence, dedication, application, commitment, endurance
and stamina. Wow! Wow! Wow! How can I compete with this?
This perfectly describes my point but the one that I want to just
spend a bit of time on as while the others do apply; however,
the doggedness has caught my attention and in my opinion
perfectly describes what you and I go through in the world of
entrepreneurship on a daily basis. You (and if your spouse is in
business with you) will find that you will be attacked from
all sides daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and any other
ly that they can throw at you and this attack will come from
people that you know and people that you dont know. You
will have to deal with client/customer complaints while
dealing with price increases from your suppliers while your
staff is off on sick leave. You will have cash-flow issues
whether you like it or not and you will have suppliers
delivering short stock. You will be chasing the money but
clients wont pay because the level of service was not what
they were promised. Your sales staff has misrepresented and
your installation team has under delivered. Your client is
threatening to terminate the agreement in place due to the
service agreement not being met and this is now affecting five
different sites owned by your client/customerrepresenting a
substantial loss to your new business and a serious threat.
What do you do? What do most people do? I am not
asking you what most people do I am asking you what you do?
Let me tell you what you do you hang in there and you
never ever let go no matter what they throw at you and you
know what they call this action DOGGEDNESS! You will
thank me for this sometime my friend so if you feel that you
51

are the kind of person that gives up easy then save your money
or give it to a charity as you will lose it anyway. You will be
challenged and you will be tested so be ready to persevere.
They say that patience is a virtue and if you are a budding or
a potential entrepreneur then you had better take time to
understand this virtue if you believe it to be such. However,
when you are sure of the passion for your business which gives
you the optimism which you will desperately need to succeed
and the correct positive attitude then all of these will lead to
you having the correct amount of patience, and trust me, you
will need this key ingredient beyond measure. All young
men have the same problem somehow and I dont care where
you are from in the world. I had this challenge and so do my
sons however my one son in particular no names shall be
mentioned of course. This particular son we shall call Steven
so we are just a little more personable with him. With Steven it
is the Instant Generation and he wants everything that he
does to be a success overnight or he simply loses interest in the
activity. I mention this to you as you may be reading this book
saying that I have a son just like that and he is in business with
me. Well this is the very reason that I bring this to your
attention. If you have the great fortune (and I still consider it a
privilege to work with my family) to work with a young son
then you will know exactly what I am experiencing at the
present moment but I wont change it for the world. However,
you will need to be careful, impatient people have a habit of
taking you in the wrong direction in the blink of an eye and the
danger is greater if they are somehow emotionally linked to
you and/or your business. Taking the above into account YOU
must understand that it takes time for a baby to walk and
your business is not going to get up and RUN BEFORE IT
WALKS. You are going to have to take the lead in having
patience and while we do not cover business plans in this book
it would be foolish not to prepare such a document and to
adhere to the same as you move forward. As a baby, gets up
and falls down before it even stands so will your business go
through these types of infant stages so be patient. As a baby
crawls for quite a while before it takes its first step so will your
52

business before you will be able to buy the Mercedes Benz that
you have dreamed of owning for so long? You may only be
able to move out of your rental home once the baby (your
business) starts to walk at a decent pace so be patient. The
bigger and better things in life will come as the baby has
started to run but not before so dont allow the people around
you, even your loved ones, to distract you and to push you or
your business beyond your means, or its capability. Living up
to the Joness is HIGHLY overrated so never get caught in
this trap EVER. In fact, be patient about where you want to be
financially and if you are deep into debt BEFORE you actually
take the decision to become an entrepreneur, and think that by
becoming a businessperson you will get out of your debt,
forget about it. Dont go into business if you are already in
debt as you will not be able to focus emotionally and neither
will you have the patience to allow the business to build
financially in order to service your debt. The moral here is that
you will bankrupt your business because of your debt before
you have a chance to prove that you are capable of succeeding
and this will have long lasting negative psychological
consequences on both you and your loved ones. Entrepreneurs
must be patient ALWAYS patient!
My philosophy as this relates to attitude is that it also has the
ability to intensify initiative. In the context of entrepreneurship
initiative may also be taken to mean enterprise and this to me
is the ability of an individual to think on their feet so to
speak. This is a resourceful driven person epitomizing the
entrepreneur who finds a way around any and every challenge
and is driven not only to succeed but to also be recognized by
his/her piers for outstanding performances within the industry
of operation. Initiative as far as the entrepreneur is concerned
speaks of someone who is inventive and innovative as in many
cases and countries around the world these men and woman
operate without any support network at all. These people,
though, even when operating with a professional support base
will stand out as entrepreneurs who are not afraid to think their
way out of a demanding and complicated situation. These are
the creators and often become the multi-billionaires of our
53

society and they are able to do this without the formal

education system as they are simply put above the norm. If
you have this attribute, and if you want to be an entrepreneur
then you will need to seriously consider this, then you will be a
person who is a dynamic leader and one who is either full of
energy in general or a person who puts back all energy into the
enterprise. If you think that you dont need to have much
ambition to be an entrepreneur then you will be wrong. If you
think that you can become an entrepreneur simply to escape
the so called rat race or so that you are not considered as a
part of the ambitious few then think again as the very
client/customers which now become a part of your life will
also now become your new bosses with new expectations for
you and one of them will be that you will need to have a
certain amount of ambition at least.
While there are many KPAs (Key Performance Areas) deemed
to be fundamental to the business well-being of the
entrepreneur I want to assure you that all of these pale in
comparison, in my humble opinion to that of SELFDISCIPLINE. You see, there are many so called business
people out there today that are just that businesspersons.
Again, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with them
but what I am saying is that there are many differences
between the businessperson and the entrepreneur and one of
them lies in the area of self-discipline. My friend, the bad news
for you then if you are an entrepreneur or want to be, you
cannot spend your time at the golf course and expect to be
successful in your business. While I am sure that some time at
the golf course may bear some fruit over time for some I am
yet to see an entrepreneur successfully build a long term
business based upon golf course business. The golf course is
only used here as an example but this includes many other
areas such as spending unnecessary time in coffee shops, at
malls, with families, (just because you can), in the movies and
so on and so forth. I once heard of a partnership where the two
partners were father-in-law and son-in-law. The one partner
was always at work doing what he was supposed to do in
building the business but the other was at home watching sport
54

at critical times during the work week. Well I can tell you that
the partnership never lasted long at all as the one partner were
an entrepreneur with self-discipline and the other was simply
lazy. Laziness has no place in business and if you are going
into business you need to be honest with yourself and if you
know for a fact that you have tendencies to be lazy then give
your money to a local charity as you are going to lose it all
anyway. Self-discipline is when you need to get up in the
morning and work the business plan just as you did the day
before and the weeks and months before with no letting up. As
an entrepreneur you will be jack of all trades but in this you
will also have to be the master of them all. You will need to
discipline yourself to keep to ordering schedules, meetings,
sales calls, existing client visits, service schedules, staff
training and the list can go on and on depending on what you
are getting into, however, the point is that you must be selfdisciplined if you are going to be an entrepreneur. The
wonderful thing is that if you have the correct attitude as we
have already discussed then having the correct level of selfdiscipline will come naturally to you. However, as your friend,
I want to caution you in this area that I have found that one of
the greatest causes for failure in this KPA, believe it or not, and
as has been stated before, is well meaning family and friends.
For some reason they seem to think that because you own your
own business your time now belongs to them and they will
consume as much of it as you will allow so never let them
destroy your business as they will not accept the blame for
your failure and you wont blame them but yourself and this is
the more the pity of it all.
My family knows me well so they know that I wont take on
anything that I am not totally passionate about. As a part of
being an entrepreneur you will know that it is highly
recommended by me and others in the know that you de-stress
each and every single day that you are in business. I have
chosen to do my de-stressing by riding my mountain bike. I
love riding my bike and my family will say, yes, youve
guessed it, hes passionate about it all! In order not to stress
on the way to work I choose routes which have less traffic and
55

in order to ensure that I dont get into peak hour traffic I only
leave the house at eight in the morning. In order not to get into
the afternoon peak traffic and to get my bike ride in I leave my
office at around three each day great hours you say. Well, in
all honesty, it has taken me many years to get to this point and
I only started doing the new program during 2013. With
regards to work, if I cant finish it today I can finish it
tomorrow or I delegate it to someone I trust to get the job
done. What about my bike? It takes me about fifteen minutes
to change into my bike gear and Im off for at least the next
two hours. I have selected the most difficult course which I
could find in my area and when I get home my family
seriously think that I am going to have a heart attack (may be
the case one day but so far the Doc says Im strong). After a
shower I chill on the couch and then I complain about all
kinds of aches and pains but lately no one takes notice
anymore they know that it wont change my mind at all and I
wont stop riding. When I am on my bike I make it a point to
think of all the most aggravating stressful things that have
happened to me that day, that week and that month if I can
remember that far back. My thought here is that if I think on
the most stressful items then I can get rid of these from my
system. I think it works (my physician friends may disagree)
for me as I feel more relaxed by the time I get home. The point
of telling you all of this though is that my wife once asked me:
Why do you keep on doing this to yourself? She also asked
me on another occasion: What makes you so committed to
riding your mountain bike? I will tell you what I told them,
Its who I am! You see, when you are an entrepreneur, ITS
WHO YOU ARE! You will not be able to be anything else as
the success will drive you as being an entrepreneur is a calling
and if you are called to do something then you are equipped
with the necessary passion and this very same passion will
ensure that you are instilled with sufficient optimism and
attitude. You will not think in terms of failure my friend but
see the opportunity in everything business around you and you
will be called upon to supply the solution to challenges and not
be seen as the problem to every problem. You will be seen as a
56

person capable of withstanding any storm in the business

world because you have patience beyond measure and this
very same patience intensifies your wonderful initiative. But
most of all, it will be your self-discipline that will set you apart
from the mundane and the mediocre as it is this very activity
that will propel you to the success which you have worked for
in such a professional manner.
When someone has passion, and intents to keep it then it
shows in a self-image that continues to grow and about from
one positive phase to the next. This is the most wonderful thing
about passion. It is capable of changing you and me. Once we
have found passion and intend to keep this wonderful
emotion then the next step is to allow it to continue to
influence all aspects of our business and critical areas of our
lives. Self-image, although dealt with in depth, a little later in
the book has an impact on critical areas such as our mental
skills, inter-personal skills and focus on tasks capable of
yielding high results as opposed to placing attention into areas
that do not produce gains for our ultimate goals.
For instance, it stands to reason that if you have decided to
invest a great deal of money and become an entrepreneur after
much deliberation and research, you would be feeling pretty
good about where you are right now a bit nervous maybe but
much better than you felt prior to the completion of all your
research at least. The fact is that you are now wiser as to what
it takes. You have researched the market. You developed the
business plan. The marketing plan looks good and so do the
financial projections. You have sought second opinions and
have even decided to appoint a business mentor as a back-up,
not because you have too much money but because you are
smart and you want to minimize the risk of failure. You have
thus done all the right things through due diligence. When you
are feeling positive, and when you are feeling good after such
an exercise, we usually attribute a psychological term to your
current state of mind at this time called a positive self-image.
Because you are in this state it allows you to think clearer
before you run ahead of yourself as a budding entrepreneur.
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My advice to you now is to do all that you can to prepare

yourself to improve your mental skills BEFORE investing
another dime into your business. What am I telling you? If you
need management training then go for a management course!
If you need accountancy training then enroll today! If you need
to understand taxes then learn how to understand taxes! If you
need to understand the labor laws in your country then make
sure that you understand the labor laws. My feeling is that if
you need a university or college or technical degree or diploma
of some sort before you need to start your business then do so
in order to get the necessary theory to minimize the risk of
business failure.
I have mentioned this before and I want you to be very careful
as I dont want you to misunderstand me at all. I am not saying
that a degree or a diploma will make you successful but what I
am saying is that the theory which you gain will be another
way in order to minimize the risk of potential failure and lose
your hard earned money. With regards to formal education, and
I may not be very popular with the formal educational
establishment (of which I am a product) after this but I want to
stress that there is a place for theory and a place for the formal
application of the same. Many times the theory and what
happens in practice simply do not match up. I can tell you that
I am not the first academic to make such a proclamation and
will probably not be the last. The best teacher will be what you
are able to teach yourself while doing (action) not really what
you learn in a classroom. For instance, when I told you that I
left my corporate environment to start my own business I had
formal education which actually taught me very little about the
real business world despite the fact that this was part of my
focus. The real knowledge came when I was actually in the
business environment making the decisions, developing the
business plans and making the calls in management. Making
mistakes in a classroom and making mistakes in the business
environment are totally different scenarios and activities. May
I suggest then that you seriously consider spending time in a
business BEFORE you actually invest in the business and I
dont care if it is a franchise or any other kind of business?
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This thing that franchises stand less chance of going out of

business is utter nonsense as the entire business depends way
too much on too many variables for this to be as certain as
some will make it out to be. ALWAYS spend time working in a
business before making a decision and prepare yourself
mentally for what you are about to face no matter how long it
takes and how much it takes. If you heed my advice here you
will not be sorry in the long term and your journey as an
entrepreneur will not be short lived. It matters not that you are
the worlds greatest brain surgeon but you still need to be an
entrepreneur in order to open a successful practice so what do
you know about opening and managing a successful business?
You are a great lawyer but what do you know about growing a
client base or maybe you think that its as easy as opening the
doors to an office somewhere? Think again!
You walk into a room, as you have been invited to a business
gathering, the room is large but not overcrowded. You notice
over in the one corner of the room, a middle-aged professional
looking lady who has attracted a few people around her. You
are the curious type and want to learn and assess and you want
to study this person before you move on before developing
business connections of your own. You grab a cup of coffee
and observe a petite individual able to captivate a small
audience with the telling of appropriate jokes, discussion
around normal daily living matters and business issues. Her
ability to turn her audience around to discussing why she was
at the event was remarkable and the interest generated in her
product was truly remarkable and professional. What this lady
has, we finally recognize, is a high level of inter-personal skills
a peoples person! When you develop an improved selfimage, brought about by maintaining high levels of passion,
you will find that your ability to develop professional
interpersonal-skills will intensify. As an entrepreneur it will be
imperative that you be able to deal with people or as we all like
to call it, you must be a peoples person. I must be honest
with you, and I know that I have mentioned this before but it
cant be stressed enough, how can you and I be in business, or
call ourselves business people and then show clear signs that
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we are really not interested in people by a display of our most

miserable demeanors much of the time? I have seen on so
many occasions as to how miserable some business people are
and it seems that they are actually carrying the entire world on
their shoulders and they most certainly dont look like they are
enjoying what they are doing for a minute. You must enjoy
what you are doing my friend or why do it? Being able to
communicate with your clients or customers is critical if you
want repeat business and if you are not interested in repeat
business then get out of business quick or give your money to
charity really! I was in a store once in Albuquerque, New
Mexico a while ago and got the absolute fright of my life. The
store was huge! The massive doors automatically opened as I
approached and as I walked through into the store I heard a
great shout! GOOD MORNING! I have never been greeted as
I walked into in a store this way in my life no matter where I
have gone and most certainly in no store of this size. I thought
that I was special so I listened and made sure that I was, but
alas all the customers that entered that door were treated
special just like I was. In all honesty I liked the treatment so
much so that I walked in and out of the door about two or three
times more and got the same response and I can tell you that it
did wonders for my self-image and I most certainly admired
the store managements ability to intensify its staff
interpersonal-skills amongst its customers fantastic job!
The amazing result then of passion is that while it will
continue to promote an improved self-image it will also assist
in our motivation to improve our mental skills for the task at
hand and the needed inter-personal skills required for the
people who will ultimately pay our bills and become our
clients and/or customers; however, the same self-image will
foster habits allowing us to focus on high yielding activities.
For example, it has been said, Nothing happens without a
sale! It is beyond me then that I often find young and budding
entrepreneurs who spend much of their time in every single
activity other than that of sales. It is sales that will get the
wheels turning, the salaries paid and the supplier invoices
settled. The accountant can only count the money if there is
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money to count and money can only be made if sales are

rolling on in. The great thing about an entrepreneur with a
great self-image is that you dont have to point this importance
out to him or her as they are the ones that clearly understand
the focus no sales no business. How good is that? These
entrepreneurs will set goals and go after the goals with all of
their might and they will focus on all the activity that gets
them closer to their goal not the activity that gets them further
and further from the goal and direction. The professional
entrepreneur will not need to be told that family can and will
distract you from success and they will not need to be
reminded that sitting in a coffee shop all day is counterproductive and at the end of the day detrimental to the business
goal.
Keeping passion we have noted leads to optimism which leads
to a positive attitude and we have also identified that this in
turn improves our self-image which we now believe will have
a definite and sincere influence in determining our personal
value system. While it is understood that everyone has an
independent VALUE PLATFORM I would somehow like to
believe that there are certain platforms which set
entrepreneurs apart from the rest of society. There may be
certain questions, certain activities and certain high and low
value items which may thread us all together somehow. I
know, all too well though, that the chances of anyones values
being the same are virtually impossible as we shall see in a
later chapter. The fact is though that a true entrepreneur, driven
by his/her passion, will be focused on values which will be
determined on the results of an improved self-image.
Values will be set in order of hierarchy and not in any random
fashion. As an entrepreneur you will need to understand that if
you are to succeed in business you will be driven by many
things but your hierarchy of values will clearly determine how
far you will go to achieve your dreams and what your success
will be based upon. This is your moral conscience if you have
any at all and this will either protect your family or you may be
the kind of person who will be willing to sacrifice your family
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for the sake of success. The values will help you to understand
what comes first in your life and how far you would go to
achieve it. You will also understand when analyzing yourself in
many areas where to place your focus for instance, low value
items or high value items. This is where, as an entrepreneur
you will understand your goals and focus your attention on
activities that will get you to where you want to be rather than
on wasting your time on activities that will make others
believe that you are busy but not actually productive sales.
The great thing about you here is that as an entrepreneur you
will understand, in light of the values which you have set and
understood you will have the ability to analyze each and every
activity in light of your personal goals and not be afraid to
shed what needs to be shed in order to maintain the much
needed focus in order to attain ultimate victory.
Keeping the passion has a lot to do with GLUE and as an
entrepreneur there is no better glue in the entire business world
than GOAL-SETTING. I like the word bond to describe
what I want you to understand here. As an entrepreneur you
have numerous pieces to a puzzle and before you are able to
succeed you must be able to put all the pieces together but the
main challenge lies within your ability to keep them together
and this I call GLUE/BOND. As an entrepreneur everything
that you and I are going to do to now centers on our goals. Our
very passion exists because of our goals as does our business
and aspirations. It would thus be correct to consider the entire
goal setting schedule (a later chapter) the glue that keeps the
entrepreneurship program together without which we would
have no direction at all. The glue then or the bond relating to
goal-setting is the connection or attachment to the entire
process which we call entrepreneurship.
Goal setting as far as the entrepreneur is concerned is the
COMPASS for success for much needed direction. I cannot tell
you how many times I meet great people who tell me of
wonderful ideas that failed. These good people explain as to
how they got things going and how the sales started coming in
and how they started opening other branches and that they took
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on additional staff but then all of a sudden things started to go

wrong. It was either something that happened in their own
lives or unplanned and unforeseen things that occurred in the
business or the one thing that they will always tell me is that
they never saw it coming. I ask them to produce key
documents of course such as: (1) Business Plan (2) Marketing
Plan (3) Financial Projections (4) Financial Statements (5)
Bank Statements (6) Goal-Setting Program. Guess what? The
only document which they cannot produce is what? The GoalSetting Program! This is the very program that directs the
business life of the entrepreneur. How is it possible to succeed
if you as the entrepreneur have no direction at all? How will
you know when you have arrived? How will you know if you
have gone off course? How will you know if you need to
adjust course? How will you know when to review your
current course? These are your business and personal life goals
and these should be of prime importance to any and all
entrepreneurs and if you cannot understand this now then give
your money to a good charity and dont waste your time in
business as you wont make it my friend. Surely this is also the
measurement of our journey and the level of our continued
passion. At any time if an entrepreneur wants to take a passion
measurement or a passion temperature then the best way to
do that is to take a goal temperature. Finally, the GoalSetting Program gives us the PURPOSE of it all surely? Why
are we expending all of this energy if not to achieve our goals
so tell me if we dont know what our goals are then how do we
know what we are expending the energy for ridiculous right?
Our goal is to have our business buy us a home. We expend
energy into the business after placing the home down as a goal.
We achieve the goal through the business by expending the
energy and we purchase the house and we all say HOORAY!
We then review the Goal-Setting Program and set a new goal
and expend new energy into the new goal with a view to
saying another HOORAY!
Goal-Setting does not only help us to keep the passion juices
flowing but it also is a major DRIVING FORCE. It is said that
success breeds success and nothing makes you more
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successful than achieving pre-set goals. There is a huge

difference in telling your friends and family that you are
aiming for a goal and actually achieving it as opposed to you
keeping the goal to yourself and achieving it and then breaking
the news it is just not the same. An entrepreneur is the kind
of person who thrives on a challenge, even to his/her family, an
in your face kind of person, who is not afraid to present a
goal and then go all out to achieve it. Many times the goal is
not achieved for the mere fact of I told you I can do it but for
simple recognition purposes. It is great to get recognized by
ones family friends and piers. Wow, what a feeling!
Particularly if they love you and have your best interests at
heart. Can you imagine what this will do to an entrepreneur
who has just risked everything including all that her husband
owns? Goal-Setting will thus create the desire in the
entrepreneur to succeed through the regular achievement of
pre-set goals and then the continued growth of the desire to be
recognized through the same achievement. Add all of this
together and what you should arrive at is a thing called
SATISFACTION and if this is what you are not looking for as
an entrepreneur then please dont do it PLEASE go and find
something else to do! You see it is the accumulation and the
perpetuation of all that has been mentioned above that will
keep your passion alive and well. No one will be responsible
for looking after the passion which you now have however let
me warn you that you will have many that stand ready to tear it
down even as you read these pages. Take your passion
temperature regularly and understand that so far you have
never lost your passion as you have brought it with you from a
very early age and you have now learned how to keep it. There
is still time for you to pull out so remember being an
entrepreneur is for extremely special people and I am not
saying that YOU are not special but you know what I mean,
dont you?
We have come a little ways now in the first chapter and have
dealt with two critical areas namely finding passion and
keeping passion. I suppose that one could stop right here if you
were a person looking for a reason not to be an entrepreneur. In
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all honesty, in my opinion, and as has been stated before, if

you have no passion for business then best not get into it and if
you are in business because daddy left it to you then best get
out of it now if you have no passion for it before you lose all of
what your dad has worked so hard to build. However, there is a
third and last entity in this first chapter which we will need to
seriously contemplate and that is LOSING PASSION.
In the life of an entrepreneur, and in light of the discussion of
this book and my quest to highlight the vital aspect of passion
in our business lives, I want to present the seven deadly sins
which can cause the loss of business and life passion:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Through the loss of personal motivation

The loss of personal accountability
Through unchecked negative behavior
Dissatisfaction with personal circle
Losing sight of personal goals
Non achievement of pre-set personal goals
The loss of interest to re-set or set new goals
The one thing that you will need to understand very clearly if
you are to be an entrepreneur is that if you are to succeed on
your own then you need to know that you are in fact on your
own. However, we do understand that there are wonderful
support groups and associations and the like but this is not
what I am talking about. Many small businesses do not have
the time or the finances to spend time and money on outside
motivational courses and the like so it is largely going to be
left up to you to motivate yourself on a day to day basis. You
may have great family and friends and if you have a mentor
then even more power to you and you are more fortunate then
if this person is able to pick you up from the doldrums when
you find yourself down there. In reality though when you are
feeling down there seems to be only one person available to
pick you up and that is you. If you are like me then we are
fortunate as we have a higher power. If you have a problem
with personal motivation and are constantly what they call an
emotional wreck then entrepreneurship is not for you you
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wont make it as your passion will wane the minute you face
the very first hurdle.
Generally though as an entrepreneur you will find three critical
things happening to you which you must consider and these
are self-inflicted financial pressure, lack of exercise and poor
health and probably in that order. May I make it quite clear to
you, my friend, in order to be a successful entrepreneur you
must understand the dire need to take care of yourself in all
areas. Should you not look after your finances you will place
undue pressure and stress on yourself. Should you not exercise
then you will become ill because of the stress and pressure. In
other words you will go around in a vicious circle and
ultimately you may even die. The advice then is simple. If you
plan to be an entrepreneur then you MUST exercise, you must
NOT have major debt and be aware of stress and pressure
levels at all times good health also means regular medical
examinations. Be honest with yourself and check yourself in
these areas and if you cannot take the upcoming punishment
then save your life rather.
Many would be entrepreneurs are lured into the glamour of
not working for a boss. I have not yet met an unhappy working
person who would not like the privilege of handing in his or
her resignation with pleasure. I have met many people who
would like to quit while also making a derogatory statement of
some kind to the boss due to some or other maltreatment over
the years. The point is that many people want to become
entrepreneurs but they dont consider their actions or their
desires before they act. The only thing that appeals to them at
the time is the idea of not having to report to the boss or
manager ever again. I want to be my own boss. I dont want
to ask anyone for vacation again! I dont want to ask anyone
if I can go off sick! They will go on and on however what
they are really saying is that they dont want to be accountable
to anyone anymore. If we feel that the entrepreneur can lose
passion through the loss of personal motivation dont we think
that the same may happen should there be a sudden loss of
personal accountability? Susan worked in a corporate company
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for many years and worked her way into the position of senior
HR executive, pretty smart lady some would say, and yes, I
would agree as long as Susan remained where she was. This
wonderful person called me one day in tears and told me her
story. While she was with the corporate she was personally
structured and worked for an even more senior manager but
she was never really in charge of the nitty gritty and day to
day running of things while she was with the company. She
described to me how she had staff at her call from morning till
night so to speak however the day came when she left to do her
own thing and then it dawned on her that she would have to
perform many of the daily tasks on her own without much help
at all. Apparently all of this deflated her to the point of tears
and severely affected the initially high passion levels which
she showed prior to making the decision to starting the
business in the first place. An entrepreneur may also become
prideful as he or she is now an own boss and feels that they
are not accountable to anyone at all anymore. This attitude is
not good at all as if you keep on telling your spouse that you
are not my boss then she is going to back off and when you
exclaim desperately one day you show no interest then she
will just say back at you, You are your own boss remember?
If you as an entrepreneur cannot maintain enough humility to
understand the importance of allowing yourself personal
accountability to those close to you then you will fail. Do not
allow your new found freedom to go to your head and do not
allow pride to destroy your dream. Remember, this is not only
your dream but the dream of your spouse, your children, your
family, your friends and others close to you. All of these want
to be and need to be included in all of your activities and your
successes. Should you deliberately and willfully choose to
exclude all of these that have chosen to side with you then you
do so at your own peril and when you exclude these you will
feel the pain and when you finally feel the pain you will start
to feel the loss of the passion and then all is lost.
Unchecked negative behavior can take many forms however
none more devastating to a family unit than that of pride and
arrogance. The saying of pride goeth before a fall does not
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ring truer to me than an ex-family member once married to my

gorgeous sister (believe it or not I had six gorgeous sisters but
one is now in a better place through cancer so many years ago
now). The man to whom I am referring showed signs of pride
and arrogance from the day that we all met him as a family.
However, in order to impress us all, he was dating our sister
after all and had intentions as we later had the misfortune of
finding out, he suppressed the true levels of arrogance and
pride within him. The marriage took place despite some of us
objecting in a limited fashion as who does not want the
happiness of a sister right? In the beginning we all thought that
we had made a huge mistake as the marriage went well and my
sister was gloriously happywe were astounded to be quite
honest with you. My sister had a responsible longstanding
position within the pharmaceutical industry and was doing
well financially and her husband of three years now was
moving up the corporate ladder into managementpretty stable
couple we all thought. During the fourth year of marriage there
was restlessness in the man which we had not seen before,
which I understand much better now, it was the signs of the
entrepreneur syndrome (as I like to call it ES). I
remember clearly as he tried, as many of you (and me) have, to
explain why he wanted start his own business and all the
benefits attached to him doing so and I also heard my parents,
and my sister doing their level best in convincing him the exact
opposite. Again, at this point I must admit I was on the side of
my ex-brother-in-law as I thought back then already that
owning ones own business must be the best thing on the
planet. You see I was never against him owning his own
business as everyone else was but I was against everything else
which followed.
My sisters ex-husband of a few years now started a
construction company. He chose well and decided to build upmarket homes in a wealthy neighborhood a good move for
him. He built high quality homes and quickly developed a
good reputation for producing some of the most stunning
homes in the area and became well sought after as a quality
builder. Within a few years the couple had a few wonderful
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children, very happy, spoilt (like all children hopefully in a

nice way) but never wanted for anything. The couple decided
to also build a home in the same upmarket neighborhood and
had a home most admired by one and all. They had everything
going for them and my sister absolutely idolized her husband
and loved her children this I know but she was not perfect by
any means. It was amazing, as the man became more
successful the more my ex-brother-in-law started to produce
his true colors. He would invite the entire in-law side of the
family around for a barbeque for the sole purpose to show off
his achievements and to boast of future projects and the
millions which he had made and was going to make. In
hindsight I think that the point that he was trying to make was
that when he shared his idea of a business with everyone he
was rejected and he now wanted to rub this in everyones face,
but he wanted to do a good job of making them understand that
he was on the right track all along. I think he made his point as
he did it over and over again to the point where the family had
decided not to do barbeques at his place any longer pride
goeth before a fall. The invites to his house stopped and my
sister bore the brunt of his family attacks, the children suffered
and so did the marriage. His success had gone straight to his
head and he was totally and utterly out of control. He had
always drunk excessive amounts of alcohol but we later heard
that he had started abusing the stuff which lead to him getting
home late at night. Questions were then raised as to his
faithfulness in his marriage which eventually was proven to be
the demise of the marriage ultimately. The long and the short
of his business life was that he lost all that he had built up over
the years and walked away with nothing. I cannot tell you
where I saw him last as that would give away who he is but I
can tell you this that it was far away from where I saw him in
the glory days.
I was watching a show on television not such a long time ago
and had noticed this young man (a presenter) and while I had
seen him before, I must admit, for the first time, I was
concerned for his future and for his well-being as what I saw
for him was failure and loneliness eventually in his life. When
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you think that you have arrived to the point where you can
actually state on television to millions of viewers that you
believe that people who are meek (by the way someone once
told me never equate meekness with weakness) and mild and
people who are not arrogant are the weak people of society,
then you must understand that you are a prime candidate for
the age old saying of pride goeth before a fall. You will
understand, my friend, what I am talking about here is not that
you need to walk around with your head between your
shoulder blades and hanging on the ground. I am not saying
that you and I must be slouching around in order to show
humility and speak softly in order to make sure anyone around
us does not confuse our loudness with pride. I am not saying
that you must not be proud of your achievements at all but
what I am saying is that if you are so proud of your
achievements that these consume you to the point where you
have no time for anyone but yourself then you have a serious
problem. No matter your achievements you must maintain
your passion and the quickest way to extinguish the flames of
passion is to douse them with pride and arrogance. The same
young man referred to above while referred to as successful for
now has a limited life span in doing what he is currently doing
and he will be the first to tell you that he is not happy as he
cannot keep a girlfriend apparentlymaybe he should ask
himself why dont you think?

70

No matter your achievements you must maintain

your passion and the quickest way to extinguish the
flames of passion is to douse them with pride and
arrogance.

71

Passion can be lost if we are preoccupied with spending too

much time and energy on entities that dissatisfy us in some
way or another. Remember, the idea in maintaining high levels
of passion is trying to identify all those areas which drain
passion from us even in those close to us. We have already
alluded as to how those that love us most are able to negatively
affect us most as this relates to our levels of productivity and
the like so if we agree to this then why will we not be aware of
the fact that they may be able to drain our passion if we allow
this to happen. We must understand then that there is a good
chance that passion can be lost when we have obvious
dissatisfaction with our personal circle. As an entrepreneur
you are responsible for keeping your pride in check at all times
but even more so when you become successful. You may say
how do you know that I will be successful? Well if you
follow this book you will either qualify as an entrepreneur or
you will decide that its not for you; so I would have saved you
a lot of money if you have decided not to go ahead. However,
if you have decided to move on then it means that there must
be something in you that believes right? At this point then lets
assume that you will make it and that you will be alright at
least then by the time we get to the end of the book. Again, let
me say that YOU are responsible for keeping your humility in
check and if you dont do this you will be responsible for
turning yourself into someone that no one will recognize in
your home and in your family. In other words dont be
surprised if people start asking you a question like: Who are
who! My friend, I want to make it clear to you and all other
would be entrepreneurs out there, you will lose your passion if
you lose the ones you love and you will lose the ones you love
if you dont understand that humility personifies success.
You will lose your passion if you feel pressure to keep up
with the Joneses. Forget the Joneses! Focus on who you are!
Focus on your own family and focus on developing your own
business! We all have neighbors (business and home) and it
would seem that every neighbor is trying to outdo the next and
it happens to be more prevalent during the summer months
many would say. Remember, you are not competing with your
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neighbor but business competitors. You are not competing

against your neighbor you are competing for market share and
you want to pay the bills and offer better pricing and gain
better pricing from your suppliers and you want to make sure
that you make a profit as anyone can make money but it takes
a special entrepreneur to make a profit. Let me qualify the term
neighbor for you, my entrepreneur friend. The term
neighbor here is taken to mean anyone that you may deem to
be someone that you want to use to compete against
deliberately and willfully with the express purpose of showing
off but you cant because you have just started a business but
you do so because you are full of pride. Maintaining inner and
outer humility and restraint when it comes to taking on battling
the neighbors will become draining. If you are not able to
control these inner battles then they will most certainly control
you but worst of all they will take critical energy from you
which you are going to need in your business. If you are going
to keep your passion alive then you are going to need the
business to show signs of growth on a daily basis as growth on
a daily basis is what will motivate you and pay the bills.
If you are considering entrepreneurship, and have by now
understood the immense importance of passion in your future
business life then you must also understand that unless you
consider goal-setting the heartbeat to the brains so to speak
then my feeling is that you should not consider
entrepreneurship at all. Most people dont set goals because
they are lazy. Sorry, I have no other way to put it! Just lazy!
Lazy to set goals! Lazy to achieve goals! Lazy to measure
goals! Lazy to re-set goals and so I can go on and on! I can say
this though that in order to ensure that you and I dont lose our
passion we can help ourselves in the area of goal-setting by
first of all not losing sight of our goals, make sure that we
achieve our goals and always re-set off balance goals and set
new goals to replace goals achieved.
Like everything else in life an entrepreneur will only lose sight
of his /her goals if they are not being monitored Out of sight
out of mind. While it is good to have goals and upon this we
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all agree it is imperative that these goals be assessed and

measured at regular intervals. The big challenge which you
will face as a new entrepreneur is that once you have set your
goals then you will more than likely forget about them as other
things will get in the way and seemingly become more
important at any moment in time. You will also be distracted
and you will go where the wind takes you so to speak and what
I mean by this is that you will react more to the pressure which
you face on a day to day basis than you will worry about the
goals which you have set. So everything else will take priority
but your goals will be set aside. This will add pressure because
as you set them aside they dont set you aside as you will know
that they are there. You will also find that you may reach minor
achievements in unrelated areas to those as set in your goals
which help you to justify both your actions in the unrelated
area and the lack of attention to your goals so you falsely
believe that you have actually achieved somethingbut the
goals are still there waiting for you. I can tell you, so when you
say this to yourself you will hear this come to the fore, it
would be easier to go and play a round of golf with a friend
than to work on achieving any aspect of a goal which you have
set for you, your family or your business. It would be much
more fun to spend a day shopping with mom than it would be
to do cold calling in order to achieve your sales goal for the
day. Never lose sight of your goals as an entrepreneur, always
remain focused on them as goals will keep you and I
disciplined, and dont be blown around with all kinds of
distractions and minor achievements which will not make a
difference in the bigger scheme of things. We love those that
are around us but when we fail it will be those same eyes
which we will have to look into in order to explain why we no
longer have a home, a car and a business so please dont be
distracted. There is a time and a place for everything.
When one loses sight of set goals then it stands to reason that
goals will not be achieved which in turn will lead to a lack of
interest in goals in their totality. The impact of this domino
effect is catastrophic on the passion levels for the entrepreneur
who must do whatever he or she can to maintain high levels of
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passion in order to succeed. There is nothing more

demoralizing than setting goals with great vigor, vision and
expectations and then not achieving any of them at all. I have
had the wonderful privilege of dealing with many sales people
for many years from all over the world who are all excited
about goal-setting. They get excited for a while and then
NOTHING! I have done actual studies to find out where they
went wrong only to find that there was a similar thread
amongst them all the goals were all unreasonable and many
were unattainable. As an entrepreneur you will need to
understand that you must set goals but in doing this you need
to be reasonable with your expectations because it is
imperative that you actually achieve the goals which you set.
When you set goals and dont achieve them then you become
demotivated so why would you want to re-set new goals
again? You will start feeling that you are setting goals to
ensure that you fail? I cant tell you how many good people do
this to themselves and they will keep on doing this until they
give up and lose everything or until they meet someone like
me who puts a stop to it all. We have already used the analogy
of a baby! Everything is done in stages and small steps so why
should you as an entrepreneur not think in these terms
BEFORE you fall down? Set goals which give you and your
family reasonable expectations and then achieve these. Once
these have been achieved then increase the expectancy level
one goal at a time. The more you succeed the more your
passion grows and the more your passion grows the less
chance you have of losing your passion for what you are
doing.

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There is nothing more demoralizing than setting

goals with great vigor, vision and expectations and
then not achieving any of them at all.

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One of the biggest challenges which entrepreneurs face, and

you should consider this if you are not yet an entrepreneur, is
that their income expectations (goals) are not aligned with the
business potential. For instance, a lady called me about
wanting to fulfill a life-long goal of owning her own coffee
shop. We arranged to meet and I went through all the usual
checks and balances with her but I wanted to know what her
financial goal was for the business as the cash-flow projections
were not too good for at least the first six months. She had
placed a manager in the coffee shop and her daughter was a
part of the business but not as a partner with the mother. The
story goes then that the mother wanted to pay the manager, the
daughter and she wanted to take a portion of the profits each
month from month one. Well, this was not going to happen and
this is a clear example of what Im talking about. One cannot
have financial expectations which are above and beyond what
the business is able to bear or you dont have a business and
you will literally lose all the good money that you invest.
People are different so that means that values are going to be
different. Values make people operate differently so decisions
may be made differently and will even be arrived at differently.
You are who you are so may I ask you then who are you? Do
YOU know who you are? No, I mean do you REALLY know
who you are? While we will be doing an entire chapter on
finding out that which you are I can tell you that it is not
possible for you to set goals until you have been through a
session on values. You will find that other than your
fingerprints it is the only other entity on earth that is never the
same from one human being to the next. Now can you imagine
if this is indeed the case, and it is, how much would this impact
on you setting your personal goals? If you set your goals
randomly truly not understanding to the very depth of your
soul who you are and what makes you who you are then you
stand a very good chance of setting all the wrong goals and
that may be the very reason to date as to why you have never
ever achieved a single goal which you have set for yourself in
the past. Wow! You may never have thought about this right?
Once we finally align your goals to your TRUE values then
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you need to understand the tremendous need for personal

accountability and the accountability which could be afforded
you by those that care for you and your success. By not
achieving goals you have shown no interest and neither have
you drawn those that care into your activities and this must
change. The moment that you start achieving, and sharing
these achievements, you will be amazed as to how people
around you start caring and will want to be a part of your circle
of accountability.
Imagine this then if you will. You are on a high in that you are
about to achieve a goal which you have been working on for
the past six months and all you need is two more contracts and
everything will fall into place. Four days later, and after much
so called blood, sweat and tears it happens. The three
contracts all come in on the same day. What happens now?
Celebration of course! The family is told of the great news and
the evening is spent at the finest restaurant and if it was
promised the wife is taken away on a boat cruise for all of her
hard work and team work. You get back and so what happens
now? What happens to all of that energy which was expended
over the last twelve months in order to achieve the goal of
turning over a Million Dollars per month for the first time?
What happens to the time the space and the energy this must
be replaced by something else surely?
Some of the worlds greatest women athletes compete in the
Olympics every four years. The champions win after spending
many years achieving their goals so once they have their gold
medals what do they do nowthey achieved their goals right?
If you as a potential or existing entrepreneur and can recognize
that the Olympic athlete will almost immediately start training
again for the next race (which may not necessarily be the
Olympics) then you will also understand that once you have
achieved your pre-set goal then its time to re-set and/or set
new goals. If a football team wins the Super Bowl, or a soccer
team the world cup what is their next step? They ALL move on
to the next goal so why should you and I be any different at
all? We have our businesses so we strive for a goal or goals
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and we achieve and the very next thing to do is to harness the

energy and the focus and immediately place this in a new focus
before we lose it to a distraction as a distraction will lead to us
losing our passion. Think about this with me will you? Any
competing entity, whether it be sport, business, education or
politics would be absolutely lost and become totally mundane
without any form of competition and that is what a goal does.
A goal to an entrepreneur is likened to competing against a
soccer team in soccer. If a soccer team has no soccer team to
compete against then its absolutely useless. A ladys relay
swimming team will not want to compete against itself surely?
At the close of this chapter then I would like to reach out to
you by saying this: Passion is the very breath of excitement,
enthusiasm and achievement and without passion there is no
driving force in life and business. Passion has many faces one
would say but when it comes to life and business it is the very
driving force needed in order to achieve intentions and goals.
Why wake up in the morning then if we have no passion as
without passion there would be no reason at all to move a
muscle as it is this very thing within each and every one of us
which makes us independent and also separates us from the
mundane and puts us into the WELL DONE category. This
same passion will give us the very direction which we need in
order to fulfill our goals as have been set out in writing. It is
terrible to believe that there are good and well-meaning people
out there who have no direction, and this, all because passion
has left them and these same people wake up on a Monday
morning wondering about the direction for the week ahead.
They will arrive at the day called Friday having believed that
they have failed as not a single beneficial goal has been
achieved. How sad this must be for those without passion
which is the driver of success?!

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Passion is the very breath of excitement, enthusiasm

and achievement and without passion there is no
driving force in life and business.

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2
Optimism: The Mainstay in Overcoming Lifes Obstacles
The 1st Secret: PASSION
The 2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
Introduction
May I make a bold statement here which may help you right at
the outset and that is if you are prone to being a negative
individual and have pessimistic tendencies then I will be frank
with you and make it abundantly clear to you that the world of
entrepreneurship is most certainly not for you. Please do not
waste your time even researching the possibility as the very
essence of entrepreneurship denotes that of OPTIMISM and
optimism must be based on entities such as positive thoughts
which produce positive behaviors. In your case your negative
thoughts will most certainly produce negative behaviors which
will not be good for a business environment. Let me explain.
A number of years ago I was involved in a business and
unfortunately my ex-partner and I did not see eye to eye so to
speak. While we had worked together for many years tension
continued to build and what did not help is that I was
emotionally involved with his daughter. The relationship with
the daughter happened prior to us going into business so I was
not able to walk away from this at all at the time. The ideas
were great and we developed both a professional business plan
and a successful business; however, the more successful the
business the greater the challenge between the partners. The
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daughter and the mother and the brothers and the uncles and
aunties were all invited into the business over the years against
my advice and better judgment. The idea here now is that you
will have to do your best to use a gift and talent called
empathygenerally stated to mean that you have the ability to
place yourself in someone elses shoes and to look at things
directly from their perspective. Empathy is a gift and ability
only a few people practice but those that do use it to enhance
success, and in particular in the selling environment, which I
discuss in another book on selling techniques and practice.
You will now understand that I was working with the family
and socializing with them all during non-working hours, in
fact, we even did vacations together. However, we actually
started out enjoying all of this partner/family time but the
novelty soon wore off and even more so as the extended family
grew into the business. A sinister view grew amongst them all
that I was about to take over the business and get rid of the
whole lot of them and no one believed this story more than my
business partner. In fact, I had heard of the rumor and met
with my partner to discuss this threat against our partnership,
business and ultimately our friendship. No matter how many
times we met, and how many times I assured my partner that
this was not in fact the case, and spent a great deal of time
proving the contrary, he continued to side with and believe the
family. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I
learned first-hand what people mean when they say that blood
is thicker than water. The other complication by now was that
I had married the daughter and we had a beautiful little girl
together and instead of my life partner trusting in me and what
we were able to achieve together to that point this did not
happen. The marriage soured and simply went from bad to
worse. Life at home was not the same and I resented every
minute which I was forced to spend time with the family.
Going in on a daily basis to my own business was not the same
and I began to detest the very thought of working in a
company which I had worked so hard to build. When I got to
work I looked forward to going home and when I was home I
wanted to run away but only my little angel kept me sane and
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at home for most of the time. My bike riding kept me

reasonably occupied so this did help the home situation.
The day finally came for one and all whereby we realized that
this situation could not go on and something had to give sooner
or later. It was one Friday morning, and while I think that we
had all had enough, I decided, based upon all previous
experiences to date that it was time to separate as partners and
leave the business behind. Without making any partnership
arrangements or any arrangements at all for that matter I
cleared out my desk, walked out and never went back. The
question was then: What now?! There I was, alone (by this
time my marriage was also over), no income and I had just
walked out on my business. Some would say, and maybe
correctly so if they are unable to use empathy that all of this
was pretty extreme, reckless and emotional and in hindsight I
may even agree. The fact was that the decision was made and
this led to a point of no return for me I was in a corner and so
what to do? In most cases an individual in this situation would
simply have given up. His or her world would have come to an
end and maybe this has happened to you or someone that you
know and you are now reading this saying that you know how
I felt and this reminds you of your own experiences in a
similar situation. My decision and actions then were as
follows?
The first thing I did was take some time out to cry. I spent the
next four or five weeks lamenting over the tremendous loss
which I felt that I had suffered as my family disintegrated.
While I had developed a negative relationship with the family
it never started out this way and we were a family and friendsall turned their backs on me so I was alone. I had lost my wife;
however, the greatest impact on me emotionally was that I had
lost the wonderful opportunity to provide a full-time father for
my little girl this virtually destroyed me. My friend, this is
what business can do to you and your family and I share my
personal experience with you so that you may be smart and
take head to the possible consequences. I can honestly tell you
that I have never cried as much ever in my life but I got it all
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out and this included the years of frustration having to operate

a business and a marriage within such a hostile environment.
However, as they say, life goes on. I had to go on! I am not
the kind of person to give up or to wonder around as though in
some kind of desert or forgotten wilderness. I simply had to
find direction and a focus!
After wiping my tears for the very last time I came to a
conclusion which has since changed my life. I decided to
develop the very same business based upon the very same
principles and the very same business plan using the very same
service offering; however, this time I would succeed without a
business partner. I am pleased to tell you today that it worked!
I currently own and manage a very successful services
business and this same company has won national business
awards and I have personally received numerous accolades for
accomplishment in the business world. We continue to grow
and achieve new levels of success and this has changed my
life. I have the most wonderful staff around me but none are
my business partners. I partially attribute this success to being
left alone to manage and make professional business decisions
without being stifled by a business partner with insecurity
issues. What is the point of me sharing all of this with you
then? OPTIMISM OF COURSE!
Instead of wallowing in self-pity forever I had to come to the
point sooner or later where I had to swallow my pride, which
had been severely hurt, assess my life and the way that I had
been affected by what had gone down in my business and the
moment that I took a deep breath I realized who I was and that
all was not done for me. In order for me to discover an inner
peace and to understand my true optimism I had to first realize
the characteristics of optimism and whether I in fact owned
these within my life and mind. In other words, if I say that I
am an optimistic person and am convinced that I am able to
overcome this great hurdle in my life then I should understand
why I believe this before I am able to move on. There are
certain characteristics ascribed to an optimist of which I
consider myself guilty as charged. When my personal
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introspection began I thought of words and actions that would

be typical of both me and the eternal optimist and I came up
with the following:
1. Am I POSITIVE?
2. Do I feel a sense of HOPELESSNESS at all?
3. Am I filled with HAPPINESS for the future despite my
circumstance?
4. Do I still have the same level of CONFIDENCE as I did before
the devastating events in my life?
5. I was always POSITIVE so am I still that person?
6. While I was not at the time but could I ensure that I could be
CHEERFUL again?
7. The last question which I presented to myself was more than
likely, in my situation at the time, the most important one of all
and that was do you have HOPE?
So there you have it these are the very questions which helped
me to understand who I was in the very face of adversity and
which also helped me to re-define who I was and who I was
meant to be. Optimism then to me is taken to mean all of the
above such as being positive, happy, confident, cheerful and
most of all, filled with eternal hope. Take hope away from a
desperate man or woman and you may be taking away the very
breath of life.
The above mental attitude will thus be severely opposite to
someone who is not able to overcome obstacles in life namely
the PESSIMIST. This, in my opinion is a gift in the negative
sense as these people have the gift of turning everything
positive into a negative and the good into something bad. A
pessimist is able to see a cloud covering the moon when there
is no cloud and make miserable that which is happy and
cheerful. Generally these people are bitter and twisted through
some or other negative personal life experience and what
makes them dangerous is that they are willing to turn everyone
selfishly to their way of life. Nothing is ever good as all is bad
and nothing must ever be happy as all must be sad and there is
no such thing as hope but everything in life is utterly hopeless.
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There is never a bright side to life and lifes moments as to a

pessimist all is dark and things can only get worse instead of
getting better. To think that I could have turned to this
persuasion after my business experience but I chose the very
attributes and characteristics which are so prevalent in my
personal make-up instead for this I am extremely grateful
today although going through the experience at the time was
most unpleasant.
You and I need to understand how dangerous pessimism is
when you are contemplating entrepreneurship. I assure you
that this most negative of states of ones mind will destroy you,
your family and any business venture which you may have the
misfortune of embarking on. In order to ensure that you and I
understand the danger of pessimism as an influence throughout
our business lives we simply must look a little closer so that
we are better equipped to first of all identify this scourge and
to deal with the same once we have done so.
In order to identify pessimism we must ask the following
questions:
1. Are you more often than not UNHAPPY?
2. Do you consider yourself a CYNICAL person?
3. Do you easily RESIGN yourself to a negative
situationnothing I can do about it?
4. Are you often DISPONDENT at all?
5. Do you ever consider yourself in a state of GLOOM and/or
even DISPAIR?
6. Are you a FATALISTIC person?
7. Have you ever found yourself in a state and feeling of utter
HOPELESSNESS?
8. Are you more often than not in a state of NEGATIVENESS?
As an entrepreneur or a budding entrepreneur you must
quickly identify pessimism as a CODE 1 threat to your
success, and this, at any and all stages of your business. If you
are serious about a future as an entrepreneur and/or a business
person then learn quickly that everything will not always go
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your way and that you will face some of the most impossible
and insurmountable challenges but none of these mean that
you will ever have a license to slip into the deep dark world
of the pessimist. Pessimism will simply mean the end to all
your goals, dreams and desires in business and in life.
I am a firm believer then that an attitude of eternal optimism
will ensure that the entrepreneur is better equipped to
overcome any and all manmade obstacles in life and the
business world. You name the industry and you and I will find
a strong and successful leader. In such a leader, the one thing
that will always stand out as a high and meaningful
characteristic is the presence of a seemingly endless amount of
eternal optimism manifested outwardly. In such a person lies
an endless well so to speak of positive emotions which is so
prevalent that it is contagious to all those who come into
contact with this person. As an entrepreneur you must be guilty
of optimism and never be afraid of showing the signs nor
should you make excuses for your attitude. I can assure you
that you will only find the optimism trait in the best
entrepreneurs and business people all over the world so you
will need to feel that you belong to an elite group of successful
people no matter the industry within which they operate.
One of the best ways for you to recognize an optimist and a
successful business person and entrepreneur is their
determined inability to give any credence or time to the action
known as FAILURE. In all honesty, and this should be the
same in your case, failure is not an option as they will boldly
proclaim to you and me. FAILURE! WHATS THAT!? While I
have stated that if you are an eternal pessimist then it would be
better for you to choose another career as opposed to that of an
entrepreneur. I also want to admonish here that IF you are able
to re-focus your feelings and emotions from thoughts of failure
to opportunity and to the positive side then your life will
change for the better.
I have been studying the phenomenon of optimism verses
pessimism for a number of years now both within the
businesses owned and operated by me and in businesses with
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which I have been associated as either a consultant or mentor.

Based upon me deciding to write this book I thought that it
would be a good idea to reveal what I have discovered. I want
to warn you that I did not use any scientific method in order to
discover my findings as the only way to determine the
outcome which I am about to reveal to you was to see it in
practice and in the field so to speak. Again, this is me
speaking, what I found as I researched the trait of optimism is
a follows:
1. Optimists produced the better result and outperformed the
pessimist every time.
2. Optimists were able to sustain long periods of sustained
success patterns over extended periods of time seemed less
stressed, more focused and most determined.
3. Pessimists were more prone to throwing in the towel.
4. Optimists and pessimists doing the same thing in the same
industry saw the optimist lasting longer over time.
5. Optimists dont quit but pessimists quit all the time.
I was curious and wanted to know why I saw and concluded
what I did. I then asked the question WHY? From my
experiences, and nothing else, I came up with the following
two areas: (1) Management Attitude and (2) Industry Related
Conclusions.

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Pessimism will simply mean the end to all your goals,

dreams and desires in business and in life.

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Management Attitude
1. Optimistic managers do not think in terms of FAILURE.
2. Not pondering failure is a part of their essence or being and
nature internal.
3. Their commitment to the task at hand and their above average
work ethic does not deter them from their view and belief that
EVERYTHING IS AN OPPORTUNITY.
4. The optimists cup is ALWAYS half full.
It was Albert Einstein who stated, which I feel is so
appropriate for the optimist, Logic will get you from A to B but
imagination will get you everywhere.
Industry Related Conclusions (Service Industry)
1. An accidental observation makes me believe that optimism
promotes and many times leads to the great attitude of
PERSISTANCE amongst managers and entrepreneurs in the
service industry.
2. In service related businesses, in my opinion, PERSISTANCE
IS THE ULTIMATE KEY TO SUCCESS AND A HAPPY
CLIENT/CUSTOMER.
3. Optimistic service managers and entrepreneurs who show
persistence will try and try again and again in order to achieve
client satisfaction.
You may be wondering then, like I did, are optimists born?
You may also correctly be asking if there is hope for the
pessimist at all. Is it possible for a pessimist to change? First of
all we must look once again at both entities but as the attitude
of pessimism can destroy your life as an entrepreneur I suggest
that we first inquire as to this miserable attitude. There are
many reasons bandied about as to why people become
pessimists and how this all comes about and these range from a
lack of religious beliefs to the home environment when
growing up and the influence of TV at a young age. While I
am sure that we could study them all; however for the sake of
this book I feel that we should focus on the most prevalent and
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the ones that probably make the most sense to you and me.
After all, we need to have easy reference in identifying these
so an over complication at this point will be fruitless for an
entrepreneur and the business focus.
The following entities affecting the promotion of pessimism is
of great concern to me personally and may be passed down
from one generation to the other either deliberately through
force and/or inadvertently through ignorance. The list that
follows is in no particular order at all:
1. The home lifeearly childhood.
2. Contributions by mentorsadolescence.
3. Early and continued stresses and tensions-school, career or in a
business environment such as a partnership.
4. Existence of prolonged physical ailments and/or trauma.
5. The final result.
In briefly dealing with the above in manageable terms it is
imperative for the entrepreneur to understand truly as to how
close pessimism is to our lives and actions on a daily basis.
Young children (could be yours) are often brought up in the
worst possible neighborhoods and are severely influenced by
all that goes on around them. Should they be fortunate enough
to escape the influences of the area within which they live they
still have to deal with what goes on at home. Parents live in
their own worlds but will not admit to it. They want children
but do very little, in many instances, to protect them from the
daily wrath which is dished out in the home. Parents have
frustrations and stress both physically and financially. They
face these challenges on a daily basis both in the home and at
the office or in a business. They start bringing the issues home
and are not bothered about where they are and what they say
for that matter. In many instances it matters not that the
children are but a few feet away from a full blown feud
between mommy and daddy as the selfish levels have
overtaken the logic which should prevail in both parents. The
shouting, violence substance abuse will eventually take its toll
and the children will inherit these tensions and stresses and
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will go forward in life having this negative behavior instilled

in them from a very early age leading to pessimism about all
that has to do with life.
Contributions to internal pessimism also come from mentors
who go through the very same situation at home as was
described above. It stands to reason that if these people could
not care less about how they behave in front of their own
children then what will make you and I believe that they will
not negatively influence other peoples children daily. The
essence of the pessimist is a negative outlook on everything in
life and if the mentor is a pessimist at home then the pessimist
will display these tendencies in every aspect of life including
influencing your and my children negatively on a daily basis.
A mentor can be a teacher, a youth leader at a religious
institution, a sport coach or a tutor. There will be no escape for
such a young person and being surrounded by pessimistic,
negative and frustrated mentors and parents will have logical
consequences which are simply that more pessimists will be
created.
Early and continued stresses and tensions will occur at school
through peer pressure and more so if the child has now been
accustomed to being pessimistic. The constant pressure from
people around a pessimist will serve only to cement the
attitude and will most certainly not do anything at all to
alleviate negative thoughts or attitudes at all. The boss or
manager at the office who is a pessimist will behave like a
terrorist as will a business partner if an entrepreneur has the
misfortune of entering into business with such a negative
person. The continued home pressure and tension and the
pessimism brought along through life is a lethal business
cocktail with a logical destructive conclusion. The moral of the
story here for an entrepreneur is clear. Do your homework or
due diligence BEFORE taking on a partner or entering into any
kind of business venture with a pessimist. The conclusion for
you will be the same as it was for me as was explained earlier
in this chapter. Heed my warning, my friend, as a pessimist has

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no place in business and such a one will drag you to a place

where you will not be happy going.
Pessimism could be developed, in my opinion, by the existence
of prolonged physical ailments and/or trauma in ones life. I
am not a medical practitioner so I will talk to you more on the
logical side but also having faced this phenomenon within my
family and friends during my life. You, too, will be able to
identify with me as I tell you that there is nothing more
debilitating and negative than a long term illness or medical
condition that will not go away. No matter what is prescribed
to you it does not seem to help and the constant pain and
suffering makes one negative and takes away all positive
thoughts for life and will most certainly compound pessimism
to the very limits. You may want to try to understand a
quadriplegic who sits in a wheel chair day in and day out and if
that is not bad enough how optimistic would you feel if you
were the primary caregiver to such a one? Can you then
imagine the outcome and the attitude of someone already
pessimistic now having to deal with long-term illness or
trauma? It would be very difficult to remain optimistic in these
circumstances for the best of us but it can be done and is being
done.
What is the final result of all this negative exposure from an
early age? PESSIMISM! It is understandable that if anyone
and I dont care who you are, is exposed to the attitudes that
have been discussed above then the result will be the
development and promotion of a negative, highly stressed and
tensioned person. People with negative attitudes are
unfortunately labeled as are people with positive attitudes.
Pessimism has a negative connotation anywhere you go in the
world and such an attitude has no place in business or in life
for that matter. The question is then can such a persons
attitude be altered? This is a very good question as we see
examples every day of how this can be done quite successfully
and also many failures as to how a pessimist cannot change the
old ways no matter what help and motivation is applied or
fostered. However, is there help for the eternal pessimist and
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the answer must be yes but the solution lies in the hands of the
negative pessimist? Rehabilitation will be a long and a hard
road and will be based upon many small victories in order to
achieve total rehabilitation. The problem for the entrepreneur
is that such a road is seldom travelled by the pessimist so again
you are admonished to do due diligence when considering a
business partner. My personal advice is for you is to stay
completely away from someone whose entire make-up is in
direct opposition/contradiction to you and your positive nature.
I remember a family who were living in our neighborhood and
I want to tell you their story with a view to helping you to
understand what may make people pessimistic about life. I also
want to share this terrible ordeal with you so that you would be
more enlightened as to the plight of the eternal pessimist. The
family, as I remember, consisted of a mother, a father, three
brothers and two sistersfive young children all in all. In all
my life I have never been exposed to two adults in my young
life that were more self-centered and more selfish than these
parents. The dad was prone to substance abuse and blamed all
of this on action which he saw during the Second World War
and his very own upbringing. Apparently while his mother was
an angel and treated him with all the love due to him his
father was an animal" and regular beat his son and truly
treated him poorly. What did not help was that he did not do
well at school at all and the father used this as an opportunity
to instill in the young boy that he was totally stupid, an idiot
and would never amount to anything at all. The young child
also grew in an environment where alcohol was regularly
abused by all the so called leaders and mentors in the family.
Everyone that this young boy should have looked up to for
guidance was a drunk, using foul language and verbal abuse
virtually every day. He was forced to serve alcohol at a very
early age and was even encouraged to try the same during the
drunken sprees being enjoyed by the adults. The problem was,
the more the adults drank, the more aggressive they became
and to the point where it would not be uncommon for family
members and friends to resort to physical violence in the
presence of the boy. While the drinking continued the young
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man was not allowed to leave the drunken orgy as he was the
designated Barman or more appropriately you and I would
say, Bar boy.
Imagine the life of this youngster! More often than not he was
exposed to terrible conditions, verbal abuse, abusive language
and physical violence. This was his father as a role model so
may I ask you then what do you think became of the young
man?
The story goes that as he grew so did his anger and frustration.
He found a young woman, married her, abused alcohol and
then abused his wife. At the time they had a daughter together
and she grew up in these circumstances. Her mother was so
abused, as was the little girl, so the mother divorced this young
adult man. All of this frustrated him even more and he once
again, just like his father before him, turned to alcohol but this
time also drug abuse as the alcohol was no longer able to take
away the past frustration and hurt which was absolutely raging
inside of him. He went on through life though and was called
to serve in the Second World War around 1940. While he and
his two brothers were separated they mainly served during the
North Africa campaign against Rommel and his army. The
three survived the war but were seriously wounded on a few
occasions our subject was shot in the throat and lost an eye
during action. After 1945 he returned home and the three
brothers that survived were photographed and this was placed
in a frame with the heading of The Victory Three. The
alcohol abuse continued and the anger and frustration had now
multiplied many fold. The good news was that the war veteran
had met a beautiful young woman a few months after his
return home.
He first saw her when he used a bus for a job interview one
Tuesday morning he fell in love at first sight apparently.
While the young woman made him work hard for their first
date the rest is history. They were in love and soon thereafter,
like things were done back then, they were married. The one
thing which I have not shared with you thus far is that both the
young man and the rest of his family were not well to do at all.
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The will power and the ability to study further in order to

secure a better income was not a priority as this would most
certainly hamper the party lifestyle so enjoyed by one and
all. As long as everyone could drink, have money for cigarettes
and party then there was no need for education at all. The
young man not really having the intellectual ability resigned
himself to the fact (as his dad had correctly stated so many
years ago) that he would not amount to anything and
developed a very unstable working career. The jobs which he
was able to land never paid much at all. While he tried
desperately to move away from his past it continued to haunt
him. The more children he had the more the responsibility the
more the pressure mounted. His first instinct as always was to
run, to get away, and to reject the fact that he had
responsibilities at all. The problem was that the more he tried
to run from being what his father was the more he became just
like his father.
Instead of changing all the things that he hated in his father he
began to embrace these more and more. By this time five
young children were born to the couple, and while they never
ever divorced, the sheer pain and agony of this family will
become more evident as we move forward. The three sons
born to this man were around twelve years being the oldest,
ten, and eight. The two girls were around 6 and the youngest
being virtually new born at the time when they faced the most
devastating time of their lives. As they grew though matters
did not improve until they all left home later on to start lives of
their own. However, in the meantime the father lived by a
code: Wine, woman and song. In order to get away from the
responsibility which he created the dad often left the house and
was not seen again until arriving home intoxicated out of his
mind many months later. I remember seeing one of these
arrivals. A car drove down the street and was out of control
veering left and right almost hitting into trees and the curb. The
vehicle came to a grinding halt but not before going into a
fence. There was a moments silence and then the car door was
flung open and a body fell out of the drivers side of the
vehicle. Unbelievably a whistle broke out and the eldest son
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and his younger brother came out of the house to help their dad
out of the car. He could not walk in his drunken state and had
to be helped into the house. How embarrassing I thought at the
time!
After his first time running away from his pressure and tension
he repeated this pattern many times over; however, when he
did come back home after a long absence he was always
severely intoxicated and/or high on drugs and this led to
serious consequences. Many of these arrivals happened
during the early hours of the morning and the children were
woken from their sleep, embarrassed and had to go and help
the dad into the house while he screamed abuse at the
neighbors and his wife. Instead of the wife calming the
situation (very difficult to do as we can all imagine) she hurled
abuse back which infuriated the father even more. In his
drunken state he was still able to smash the furniture, destroy
the house and hit his wife which on many occasions saw her
lying on the floor covered in blood. The mother endured many
visits to the hospital and had many bones broken over many
years of abuse. The police came and went and nights were
spent in jail by the father however none of this helped at all
and the verbal and physical abuse continued for many years.
The five children in the house had no choice in the matter. As
long as the parents were able to attack each other both verbally
and physically there was no focus or consideration for the
children and many times they had to hide and/or run in order to
get away from the mom and dad. When the dad was away
the mother was frustrated and this frustration was taken out on
the children and even when she was calm she spent most of her
evenings in tears as she contemplated her life and her wayward
husband.
May I ask you a question? Please tell me how you would be
feeling had you been any one of these children. Can you
imagine the trauma emotionally and psychologically at this
point and not one of them had reached their teens when this
started happening. How does a young immature child handle
such selfish parents? How do five children survive the
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violence, the physical abuse and the emotional torture? The

story gets a whole lot deeper, and only to mention one other
issue before moving on, the father had been caught by the
mother having an affair with one of the childrens friends
mother who just happened to live in the same street. How
embarrassing when they got to school and being the focus of
school wide ridicule and embarrassment. We shall leave the
rest of the story to your imagination but take it from me that
there were many additional instances and actions which further
contributed to the most desperate of home lives.
What we need to consider here is not the parents but rather the
consequences for the children. As you can imagine these
children are all grown up now but the consequences of the
parents selfish actions shall remain with them until the very
day they die. They faced abuse of all kinds, embarrassment on
a regular basis and the most selfish of parents. And yet, we
look at the father and say that maybe we should blame his
father and family for the way that he turned out. After all, was
it not his upbringing that brought him to the point whereby he
could not face the world without some form of substance
abuse? Was he not taught to be the way he turned out and can
his inability to change be blamed on him some would ask? No
matter how we analyze the situation I can tell you that the
scenario is currently being repeated all over the world even as
you read these words, my friend. We then want to question the
actions of some and in particular we are not happy to deal with
the pessimist as I can tell you that the result of facing all of the
above would be that such individuals would most certainly
turn out to be the best of pessimists over the long term. What
would they have to be optimistic about!
There are many reasons which have been cited over the years
for why and how people become pessimistic to the point where
they are of no use to themselves or to those around them and I
want to mention just a few.

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1. Poor and selfish parenting.

2. Outside negative psychological influences-when we are young
and in adulthood.
3. The negative influences on children and adults by watching too
much bad TV.
4. Bad TV? Focusing too much on developing VIOLENT
tendencies, desensitizing our children to POOR MORALS and
ETHICS, promotion of AGGRESSION, promotion and
desensitizing of many unhealthy ADDICTIONS.
5. Physical inactivity.
6. Unbalanced BODY, MIND and SPIRIT.
7. Unhealthy withdrawal from SOCIETY.
8. The inability to LAUGH.
9. The clear presence of LOW SELF-ESTEEM.
10. A preoccupation with all that is NEGATIVE.
The best thing that I have done for you here is to get you to see
what you cannot be if you are determined to enter the world of
entrepreneurship. The other goal was to teach you to clearly
identify the kind of business partner which you should stay
away from at all costs. I want to warn you that the temptation
will come your way in a moment of madness and desperation
at some point in your business. A moment may arrive where
you are desperate for capital or a cash injection either to
continue your wonderful growth or you may need to actually
save your business. I want to give you clear advice with
regards to pessimists, no matter how much money and no
matter the smooth talking do not get involved with this
individual in life but more so in business. You must also be
aware of the signs so that you may remain as far away from
becoming a pessimist yourself. Understand the traits and
characteristics and when you are feeling down or challenged
then you must go through the list and RUN. Immediately
perform actions which keep you an eternal optimist. You may
be one negative experience away from becoming a pessimist
so always be aware.

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We will now want to answer a question. Are optimists BORN?

My answer and opinion on this matter is that I believe that
optimists are both born as such and they can also be made. If
you are not a natural born optimist, are you able to do anything
to grow optimism levels and your outlook on life and
business? My answer again must remain an emphatic YES!
Thus, if you are already an optimist then we have no need to
focus on you surely. However, if you are an optimist and are
not happy with your levels of optimism all the time then you
may want to read the following carefully. The same goes for
you if you consider yourself a pessimist. There are two things
that you will need to be doing to both become an optimist and
to grow current levels of optimism and they are as follows:
1. Teach yourself to PERSEVERE.
2. Teach yourself to MANAGE failure.
Please take note of the operative phraseology namely teach
yourself! No one is more interested in you than you. No one
will benefit more when you change who you are or enhance
who you are than you. The point here being that you dont wait
for others to change your perceptions and actions as change in
you and me must come from within. Only you and I are able to
manage the road to success in this area. Whether you are
pessimistic or optimistic will not really matter to anyone
except your close family and they are the ones that will walk
the road with you and they too will benefit from the new you.
Secondly, the lesson and pain to persevere is a gift and if you
dont have this gift or have never either been taught
perseverance or experienced this wonderful phenomenon then
you need to start immediately. While have discussed this topic
earlier in this book I want to cement this into you right now if
you will permit me. Perseverance is the ability to simply go on
and on no matter what the obstacle and it takes willpower and
tenacity. It is the determination to look at adversity in the eyes
and yet to stay on the proverbial straight and narrow or as
many of us say to hang in there! Never give up no matter
what you face in business and in life on a daily basis. No
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matter how many failures you have you will eventually

succeed by sheer determination as every failure will always
bring you one step closer to success. You can teach yourself
perseverance no one else can and you need this if you are an
entrepreneur.
I like to say never faint when you fail as failure is simply a
temporary disappointment. Teach yourself the same thing that
has happened to great people such as Albert Einstein, Henry
Ford and such contemporaries as Donald Trump and Sir
Richard Branson. Each and every one of these men have tasted
the bitterness of failure some or other time in their lives and
the good news is that their record proves that they overcame
whatever obstacles they faced at the time. I have personally
faced numerous failures in business before success finally
came. The failures in life are at times, and more often than not,
our best teachers. We learn by the mistakes that we make and I
am not telling you too deliberately go out and make mistakes
just so that you can learn something but what I am saying is
that be prepared to make mistakes and when they happen
understand the ramifications which do not include your death
(in most normal cases). Make a mistake, learn, and then, get up
again and continue on. Do not ponder failure accept for a brief
moment, shake it off and try and try again until you make a
huge success. They say that when you fall off a horse then you
must get back on right away and you should remember this
during those trying times. Failure is but temporary but the
sweet taste of success will last forever and you should never
forget this fact.
We all understand that pessimists by virtue of their very nature
are negative in outlook with deeper negative thought patterns
which are more than likely manifested outwardly in all aspects
and areas of their lives. Therefore, if you are a pessimist with
negative thought patterns and life behaviors the practical
applications then in teaching yourself to persevere and to
handle failure is as follows:
1. Re-think and re-work failure rather as LEARNING.
2. Failure represents the PAST so let it remain there.
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3. You have no control over past failure and neither are you able
to change failure.
In the selling environment I recommend a post sales call action
known as Post-Call-Self-Analysis. The entire idea behind
this analysis is that once a sales call has been completed the
sales person should take time out to analyze the good and the
bad parts of the sales call. I have found that by encouraging the
sales person to complete this action after each call, and by
teaching the method of doing these analysis sales people tend
to remember their critical errors during the very next call.
Should they have discovered a failure during a sales call then
this is identified and a solution put in place immediately in
order to avoid a repeat of the error or omission. When in
business then it is my belief that every failure no matter how
trivial the same it should be assessed, first of all to see if it in
fact is a real threat, and second of all if the threat is real then to
find the lessons which should not be forgotten and/or repeated
if at all possible. Once the failure has been identified and dealt
with then leave it in the past as the only thing which you are
now interested in is not repeating the failure and to ponder all
and any future success which has come out of all of the
lessons. Again, listen to me my friend set past failures aside,
learn the lessons and then move on! Understand that neither
you nor I will have any control over any of our past business
failures as the time has left us and none of us most certainly
cannot gain this back. If we cannot get the time back then it
stands to reason surely that we cannot get the failure back even
if your goal is to correct the failure. It is not possible to change
a past failure. Even if you were able to change a failed
marriage from a divorce to a re-marriage are you able to erase
the errors, mistakes or failures that got you divorced to begin
with? It is water under the bridge, in the past a part of life and
history which will never be repeatedmove on. You cannot and
will not be able to change past failure and only you are able to
deal with this eternal concept and if you are able you must
open up a whole new world called OPTIMISM!
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No matter how many failures you have you will

eventually succeed by sheer determination as every
failure will always bring you one step closer to
success.

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As a final reminder then, when failure is achieved and is over

you will always be confronted with two very simple choices:
1. You can choose to focus on what you did not do right.
2. You may choose to learn from these mistakes.
As we conclude this vital chapter the reader will have to make
a personal decision and then act internally in order to assure
success with each particular decision. You may be a pessimist
but are not happy with who you are and what you have become
and your goal for business and life success has simply got to
be a firm commitment from you to change your current and
past mental state. Optimism for you is the only option if you
are to succeed so make the most intelligent choice available to
you or continue to drown and wallow in mediocrity largely
brought about by your continued negative attitude reflected in
your overwhelming pessimism. You proudly boast that you are
an optimist but as we have seen you and I are never far from
joining the other side and this change over happens daily. All it
takes for you to be a pessimist is a few bad failures and the
inability to overcome these and you will join the negative and
dark world of pessimism.
The challenge to contemplate is hereby set forth. Would you,
as an eternal optimist, be happiest operating in a world full of
pessimists or would you prefer to be a pessimist living in a
world full of optimistic and successful people? Which would
you rather be? With this said and done it may be worth it to
consider where you are right now in your life. Has your
pessimism, both present and past brought you anything but
negativity or unhappiness in your life, working career and
business life? Has your pessimism kept you from developing
yourself into a wonderful person, a respected person and an
admired person? Business has no place for pessimism and a
true entrepreneurs personality is diametrically opposed to the
characteristics and negative attributes of the pessimist. Do not
take on a negative and pessimistic business partner as you will
do so to your peril.
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3
Attitude: It Says Yes I can or No I cant!
The 1st Secret: PASSION
The 2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
The 3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
Introduction
The entrepreneur faces many challenges in the life of a
business; however, I am sure that you will agree with me, in
many instances, the entrepreneurs worst enemy as it were is a
truly bad attitude. Being a successful entrepreneur is more than
developing and implementing a business plan and managing
the finances. A profitable business also needs more than an
entrepreneur or business person who is able to focus on and
succeed with a great IT program and a well-organized service
department. If your business is within the retail industry your
success will not only depend on a high foot-count through your
doors and the fancy clothing in the store. In fact, it makes no
difference what you do as an entrepreneur and how well
presented your business in all aspects I want to make it clear to
you that the best and biggest show window to your business is
you and how well your staff represents you. Some of the best
businesses in the world understand the concept which I am
about to reveal to you in this chapter. If you dont understand
that it is not enough to set up your business professionally if
you and your staff have no clue as to how to treat the client or
the customer. Therefore, allow me to introduce you to a key
attribute which you must recognize in yourself and your staffATTITUDE. Not only must this attribute and characteristic be
recognized in you the entrepreneur but also in all of your staff.
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However, if the owner (entrepreneur) and leader have

developed a bad attitude toward others then it stands to reason
that this will be passed on to those that follow within a very
short period of time.
The service industry around the world is a prime example of
where many people own businesses and the essence of this
type of business is to serve others, and yet, in many instances
we find that instead of an attitude of service and serving the
attitude prevails amongst many entrepreneurs that they are
doing the customer a favor. Instead of serving people they
seem to want to be served. If you are in business feeling this
way then this is the wrong attitude and will most certainly
form the foundation which will ensure your total and utter
failure and business collapse in no time at all. I am always
amazed when I meet entrepreneurs with an attitude problem
who have no clue as to what they are doing wrong in business
and why their well thought out plans are not coming together
as they had hoped. I can tell you the problem the minute I meet
them. These people come across abrasive, have no inclination
to put the customer first, refuse to listen to the clients needs so
will never have any solutions to offer, they are largely
unfriendly and therefore unapproachable not only by the
customer but by their own staff. A bad attitude says that you
are not approachable, unfriendly and self-centered, and if this
is you then please get out of business as you simply will not
make the grade. You need to understand something about
business and that is that its people that can either make you or
break you. If you are not a peoples person, and do not have
the inclination nor the ability to serve those whom you refer to
as clients or customers then you are lost. If you are not an
entrepreneur as yet, and you have a negative attitude then I
make it known that this is good for now you will not make
the grade as an entrepreneur. If you have an attitude problem
then stay out and away from working with the public. Please
go and find something to do where you are totally hidden from
and prevented from dealing with the public. I say it again, in
order to serve people you have to love working with people
and if your attitude is such that you hate people then stay away
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from them and avoid much disappointment as your business

fails or never gets off the ground. Like I have said before,
rather hand your savings to a charity instead of losing it all by
opening a business for the sake of it or because you want to
show off to friends and family.
The characteristic called attitude is something which you and I
need to monitor at all times. The one thing about identifying a
negative attitude is that it can be changed; however, a negative
attitude can only be changed by the owner so to speak you
and me. We will need to monitor our attitudes all the time and
when we are honest enough to identify that we are having a
bad day or moment then we must change this without undue
delay. Changing a bad attitude is like changing any other
behavior it is learned. The more you get yourself into a good
habit the more the behavior will change and eventually there
will no longer be a need for monitoring your attitude because
you have been responsible for changing this characteristic all
by yourself. Should you feel that you need help with this then
appoint a trusted friend to do attitude checks on your behalf
at regular intervals? Once you are told that your attitude needs
re-alignment by your trusted attitude mentor then dont shoot
the messenger-change your attitude immediately. The more
you focus on a bad attitude challenge the more likely you are
to recognize the need to change and to implement what you
need to in order to ensure the change. Attitude awareness
should be monitored in a number of critical areas but most
certainly in the following most affected by our negative and/or
erratic moments:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Work environment.
Work performance.
Customer/client relationships.
Working relationships.
The areas above deal directly within the working or business
environment and while one could consider these within family
and personal relationships this will not be the focus for us for
now as the goal is to ensure your success within your business.
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These business areas then will help us to focus on how we

perceive others but more importantly how they perceive us
during the critical moments of business, and particularly, in the
moment of closing an important deal. While you and I may
still have the ability to mask what we truly feel about others
we cannot control what other people think about us and this
thought alone should be seriously considered by the
entrepreneur. While you and I may never know what people
truly feel about us we do have the ability to change perceptions
or even to change bad perceptions of who we are by
controlling our attitude. It is thus our attitude, both negative or
positive, which creates the perception in the first place so it
must then stand to reason that it is also a positive attitude
which can change a poor perception of who we are.
From a business point of view then you and I should dissect
our attitude as this relates to the effects which this
characteristic has on the general productivity and success of
entrepreneurship.
The Positive
No one will question that a positive attitude is most certainly
infectious or contagious as is someone with a smile on their
face. A smile is generally an obvious outward sign of a healthy
inner self. While on the other hand a grumpy attitude and
constant frowning and a non-existent smile means the
opposite-an unhealthy inner self. In the business environment
ones clients, staff, suppliers and bankers are quick to pick up
on a positive attitude and this will affect the way you are
perceived and how business is conducted. A banker will read
into a positive attitude that all is under control and the business
is doing well and this in turn will ensure the same attitude
toward your business. In other words it is quite possible for a
banker or an investor to gauge the success temperature of
your business without asking a single question but can do so in
what he/she sees in you. The client/customers whom I have
met have always told me how great it is to create a long-term
business relationship with someone who is outwardly positive
as this is a clear reflection of someone in control and a person
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who is willing to ensure the success of the pending

relationship. I have also been told by customers that they
detect in a positive attitude the ability to satisfy needs and to
overcome obstacles which may or may not be presented from
time to time by the customer. I must say that I have always
believed, and will categorically state here, that the
client/customer, the bank manager, the supplier and your staff
are able to see an attitude coming a mile away.
The results of a combination of the impact on your staff and
your clients with your attitude will either ensure your success
or failure. The compounded effects and results from a positive
attitude being transferred from you to your clients and staff are
enormous in real terms and more importantly financially. Your
staff will absolutely love your attitude and will feel not only
more comfortable in your presence but will also feel an
absolute sense of loyalty and thus the net result here will be
greater productivity through a willingness and desire to please
you. The same applies to the client then. The client will
develop an eagerness to do business not only with you simply
because you ensure a pleasant experience during each
transaction or contact and but then this once again is
compounded through the positive contact with your staff which
positive attitude they received from you in the first place.
The Negative
Unfortunately I am forced yet again to state categorically that
negative and positives by nature oppose one another. People
with a naturally negative outlook on life detest the smiley,
happy and social individual. The positive person on the other
hand will do all possible to avoid someone who is negative and
the very reason for this is that attitudes rub off. Believe it or
not some negative people actually enjoy being that way and
these are the people whom I always admonish to stay as far
away from business as is possible as the very nature of
business is to be positive. However, it is imperative that one be
reasonable with regards to the outside impacts to a business
such as the local, national and international economies and the
effects upon any business. The negative person will see
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nothing but doom and gloom and will associate all other
businesses, which is either failing or who are suppressed by the
world economic climate, with his or her own. In other words
instead of seeing the challenges around him as an opportunity
these people will view them as an unassailable threat and
consider it only a matter of time before their business joins the
business graveyard. Technically they will use any excuse for
their failure whether actual or perceived. They walk around
with an attitude which is best described as follows: Woe is me
woe is me!
As a staff member in an environment where such a person is
present how productive do you think such a person would be?
Imagine being a client, banker or supplier having to connect
with such a person. This person is more likely to complain
about everything, and I mean everything, than spend time
focusing on solutions to what he or she thinks is a threat
brought about by whatever perceived crisis. A negative attitude
in an entrepreneur will not allow this person to exude
confidence and will most certainly not enhance performance of
any kind at all. In fact, I have seen on many occasions, that a
negative approach to life and business will severely damage
relationships, confidence, mental ability, and as stated before it
has the potential to kill you. As is the case with the positive
person anyone, and I dont care who you are, if you have a
negative attitude people can see a negative attitude coming a
while away!

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A smile is generally an obvious outward sign of a

healthy inner self.

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Gaining and Maintaining a Positive Attitude

What to do then? You want to start your own business but I
have made it very difficult indeed for you in this chapter. You
have recognized yourself as you read on and yet the desire to
be a successful entrepreneur will not leave you and the
attraction of all the benefits associated with owning your own
business is a major draw to you; however, you recognize that
you walk around most days exclaiming Woe is me woe is
me!. Is there hope for you?
On the other hand you are already positive in your approach
but sometimes doubt yourself more and more as you see the
utter chaos within the international economy and stifling red
tape being added by your government making it more and
more difficult to be successful in business. While you are
outwardly positive the inner you has some doubts and the
greatest fear which you may have is that this may manifest
itself outwardly. There is hope so lets take a look at what can
be done by both spectrums.
You and I will need to consider two vital areas which consist
of business and personal actions in order to grow a positive
attitude.
Business Actions
1. Fine tune business performance.
In any type of economy which may be causing stress and strain
for all sizes of business around the world it is imperative that
you and I first understand that we may be affected. When a car
needs fine tuning then we assess the mechanical challenge and
have the engine computer connected in order to discover the
areas of weakness with a view to correction. If your business is
doing well then find out what will make it do even better.
There are many areas in a business needing constant attention
so find out what these are and improve performance which
may include replacing staff, adding staff, changing suppliers or
modernizing some production machinery. The idea is that you
will not only prepare your business to deal with the world

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economic onslaught but you will also have your business ready
when this all changes for the better-act now to reap later.
2. Understand why you are successful.
Your business is now at a certain stage so what stage are you
at? This is the time to understand where you have gone wrong
by understanding where your strengths are. Assess your
achievements no matter how small and now build on these and
the more you focus on the success moments the more positive
you will become. The good thing about identifying what you
did right means that you focus less on what you did wrong and
the more you build on what you did right the more success you
will achieve moving forward. Many entrepreneurs do this the
other way around and tend to identify what they are doing
wrong. However, most positive entrepreneurs seek out the
positive energy and synergy in the business as this is a natural
skill and a part of their true character.
3. ALWAYS focus on the current Business Plan/and or goals.
At the outset you developed a business plan which surely
included certain goals for the business. The business may have
had growth goals over the short term (1 year?) medium term (5
years?) and the long term (10 years?) and you will do well to
focus your positive attention on these with a view to assessing
these on a constant basis. There is no point in having
wonderful plans when it comes to goal setting without a clear
review plan. Reviewing these plans keeps you in charge and
ahead of the game so to speak. Should the economy climate
and/or your competitors threaten the success of your business
plan then surely you understand that an assessment may lead to
you altering certain aspects of the plan to reduce any threats
against your business. The goal is to succeed but this can only
be done with a relevant business plan and relevancy can only
be achieved through constant review and updating. Once you
are happy that your recent changes to the business plan works
better on paper then it stands to reason that you now ask
whether what you are currently doing (business
activities/actions) matches to the revised goals and potential
achievements. If not then you should make changes to your
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current actions from a corporate point of view in order to

ensure that activities match the desired result.
Personal Actions
1. What are you pondering internally?
What you think is important, as what is on the inside will come
out on the outside before long. For instance, a couple meets for
the first time and may fall in love. Both only put their best foot
forward as they want nothing to come between them during the
honeymoon and courting stage. However, give the same
couple a few months and guess what? What was on the inside
all along will eventually come out and manifest itself in
behavior reflecting the true inner self. Therefore then, the
theory is that if you are prone to negativity in thought you may
be able to hide it for a while however it will not be long before
those around you are connected to your true nature which you
will reveal. Focusing on positive thought if you are a negative
thinker is paramount to developing the new you and even if
you are generally a positive thinker you may be tempted at
times to reveal the inner you. Replace negative thoughts either
with positive thoughts or positive actions which will reinforce
positivity in the mind. An entrepreneur whom I met shared
with me that he was in the housekeeping industry and cleaning
corporate offices was what his business was all about. He had a
concern but explained how he turned these concerns into a
positive moment for his business. His competitors and his
industry were being severely affected by the current economy
and he began seeing many of his competitors go out of
business but instead of panicking he gave the situation some
thought. He realized that with so many competitors out of his
space so to speak this surely meant more opportunity for him
and so he set about developing his sales team to deal with the
vacuum in the market and picked up much business now
available due to the reduced amount of competitors. He gained
valuable market share and established himself as a forward
thinker during tough times. Whether you are a positive thinker
but have moments of lapse of a self-confessed negative thinker
you should ALWAYS challenge a negative environment
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whether these be in thought or in action. When you challenge

any form of negativity you will be surprised as to your ability
to overcome and when you overcome in deed you will also
overcome in thought.
2. Actively seek out the positive.
The news channels portray a lot of negativity around the world
and these can range from the economy to terrorism to natural
disasters of every sort. It will be very easy for you and me and
our families to become negative due to all of this exposure and
many do. However, I can tell you that you will not need to look
far in an attempt to re-focus your attention on to something a
lot more positive and my suggestion is that if the TV is making
you negative then turn it off or move to a more positive and
pleasant channel. This is exactly what successful people do;
they are diligent in placing and maintain a defensive wall
around them, their businesses and their families in order to
avoid all of the negativity which we are exposed to on an
hourly basis. For these successful professionals there is always
a positive substitute available for any and every negative
exposure and this includes friends.
3. What attitude are you projecting?
If your client is capable of seeing an attitude a mile away can
you imagine what must go through the minds of your family
and friends? You need to be consistent and at least some
negative thinkers are this. Dont be false or pretend to be
positive at the office and then a negative person when in the
presence of family and friends. The temptation will be to relax
the positive attitude from time to time but if you are truly a
positive person you should never get caught out so even when
you are not happy or having a bad day make sure that you still
present the best inner you to one and all. As was stated before,
the more positive you think and the more positive you act the
more positive you will remain and you will take the ones you
love with you on this journey and affect their lives way into the
future-talk about a legacy!
4. Who are your friends and known associates?
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What is the point of you spending much time in the

development (or re-development in the case of a negative
thinker) of a positive mental attitude only to have it affected, or
in some cases destroyed because you do not have the ability or
fortitude to choose friends and associates carefully? When you
expose yourself to negative people, no matter whom and
where, you risk developing the same bad habits. The question
is then why would you do this to yourself, your business and
your family? Some negative thinkers will never change and
this is a fact and any attempt by you to change such a person
will not work so the choice then is whether to continue the
friendship and or relationship or not for the sake of preserving
your own positive mental attitude and the answer is an
emphatic NO! Stay away from negative people at all costs
because as an entrepreneur you will have to deal with many
negative people and challenges so you most certainly have no
need to go looking for trouble. Find clients (if possible),
friends, family and acquaintances that enhance your positive
attitude as opposed to tearing down this wonderful
characteristic which is cemented within you.
The YES I CAN attitude
It matters not what business you decide on as a budding
entrepreneur, as in all business you will soon learn to
understand that it is about SERVING and not about being
served as mentioned before. While both words start with the
syllable S I want to make it clear that service and selfcenteredness are worlds apart. Do you want to change your
attitude when it comes to service and serving others or do you
simply willfully and purposefully want to commit business
suicide? While it is one thing to recognize the need to serve
one will also have to have the will to serve and to do this you
need a positive attitude that allows you to see the amazing
benefits in serving others in a business environment. In order
to have and/or to develop a YES I CAN attitude toward your
clients you will have to understand that you must know how to
serve. As an entrepreneur you will have no option but to
develop the YES I CAN attitude by changing the following six
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key characteristics in your current and or future service life

starting immediately. We will carefully take a look at a few
features that will assist you in becoming an entrepreneur who
clearly understands the concept of service and the success
which this will bring to your business in the long term.
Six Key Features (Attitudes) of the Entrepreneurs Way for
a YES I CAN Attitude.
1. Have a genuine interest in people.
The idea here is that you must want to meet people and to
make it clear you want to meet all kinds of people. As a
business person you must also want to interact with people on
all levels. You must also have the desire and the ability to teach
and train people as the need arises. You must have a sincere
desire to learn as much as you can from them and about them
in order to understand them. Understanding clients will help
you and me to uncover their needs and desires and any person
having the ability to do this will undoubtedly be successful as
this is a lost art in todays business world. Once you have a
clear understanding of who they are and you have successfully
uncovered their needs then the next logical step is to lead them
to the solution and many, many times in life your and my
ability to lead people into the right way is what leads to our
own personal success and that of our business. The goal will be
to help them into a situation which will satisfy what they want
and what you want to achieve through the relationship and
many would categorize this as a win-win situation for all
concerned. Finally, you must have the inner desire to want to
please the customer at all costs but within reason and this
desire to please the client must be greater than your own need
to please yourself-this is what we commonly refer to as a
satisfied client.
2. Have perseverance beyond measure.
An entrepreneur will always be on the look-out for new
approaches to age old challenges but will also be open to the
good old ways that still work well today despite our so-called
modern era. You will not be afraid of new ideas which may or
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may not come your way and you will treat each idea upon their
own merit/s. Experimenting with new ideas will come
naturally to a successful entrepreneur and you will not be
willing to give up after the first try because you are the kind of
person who will try and try again without a fear of failure or a
willingness to give up. You will also not be afraid to change
someone elses idea if you feel that this will not work for you
if you dont make the necessary changes. Perseverance in this
instance also means that as an entrepreneur you will go for the
goal no matter what hurdle you may or may not have to
overcome as overcoming hurdles is a natural part of who you
are as a person as your attitude is known to all as positive and
determined.
3. Have patience.
Successful entrepreneurs are clear on the fact that many times
they will have to work within the clients timetable and
parameters and not theirs. Despite how you feel you will be
willing to attend regular client/customer/supplier meetings in
order to show your interest and to use these situations to grow
the relationship between you and the associate and while this
may test your patience you understand the need to exercise the
same for the sake of achieving your goals. Patience as an
entrepreneur will be tried and tested in all areas but he or she
will come out stronger in the end and this strength will be
evident in a friendly but confident smile. As a successful
entrepreneur you will sometimes be called upon to take more
than you can handle but handle it you will and the reason that
you will do this is simply due to your determination to
succeed. Professional successful entrepreneurs always
understand the age old saying that patience is a virtue and
are more than willing to show their good side when being
tested to the utmost by an impatient client/customer.
4. Have unwavering OPTIMISM.
The goal is to find an opportunity to be of service and to show
a willingness to serve before ever receiving a cent-this is called
building long-term business relationships. You are the eternal
optimist and understand the concept of giving in order to
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receive. Optimism also means that you will look for an

opportunity until you find one meaning that you have actually
spent some time in looking opportunities are around every
corner. You will also understand that actually finding an
opportunity to serve does not mean anything until you have
found a way to use the opportunity to yours and the clients
benefit. The one great thing about an optimist is that he or she
smiles a great deal and will look for every opportunity to make
those around them do the same. Optimists love happy people
and will thus find opportunities to make others as happy on a
daily basis. Entrepreneurs who are optimistic never think in
terms of failure and this includes challenges presented to them
by their clients.
5. Have out of the box thinking initiative.
Using ones initiative usually means that you are selfmotivated, dont have to be spoon fed and are capable of
generating good QUALITY RESULTS. An entrepreneur who
uses initiative is also capable of generating and implementing
systems and actions which will ensure the continued
satisfaction of a client which in turn assures the continued
development of client loyalty. You will also have the ability to
develop and manage initiatives which not only motivate your
staff to achieve above and beyond but you will also ensure that
these initiatives make your business an example and the
business to beat among your competitors-your business will be
the model that everyone follows. You will also have the
amazing ability to convert challenges into opportunities.
6. Have self-discipline
Always remain focused on what makes you a better person
and a more successful entrepreneur. In other words always
focus on personal and business tasks that ultimately reap the
greatest rewards. You will always have certain core
responsibilities and activities associated with your personal life
and business plan and being self-disciplined means that you
will have no problem in focusing on achieving these on a daily
basis. When growing your business your self-discipline will
not allow you to become side-tracked with non-work related
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tasks and activities and you will know the difference between
being unproductive as this relates to your goals and business
plan and being fully and completely productive on a daily
basis. There is a clear difference between work and play and
your self-discipline will not allow you to confuse the one over
the other. Many distractions will come your way but you are
the kind of self-motivated and self-disciplined person who will
not let any of this get in the way of your success. While you
may see the need for a professional business mentor from time
to time you most certainly are a leader and can manage and
operate your business as the jack of all trades and the master
of them all. You are like most successful entrepreneurs who
succeed in life-you are disciplined.
Conclusion
Optimism in life is absolutely vital to a successful and stable
business. How optimistic would someone be if they were
diagnosed with a terminal disease and the prognosis is certain
death? How would it affect you and your positive attitude if
you found out that you do not have enough money to pay the
mortgage this month and the next? Some entrepreneurs rely on
a single contract as a foundation for their business so how will
this then affect a positive attitude if the client were to cancel or
terminate these services giving only one months notice?
Because of this termination how optimistic would you be if
you now have to retrench staff members or terminate their
services? Have you lost a home, shares, stocks and anything
else caused by the current economy so let me ask you how this
has affected you and how optimistic and positive your attitude
if this has or if it ever happened to you?
Many examples as stated above may be cited but my hope is
that as an entrepreneur you will understand that you can stay as
you are or you can aim for and achieve the kind of success
which you feel is attainable for your life. If you want a great
attitude and overwhelming success then find out what it is that
you will need to change about your attitude and your optimism
levels. If you are a pessimist with a negative attitude then I feel
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for you but you can change and must change if you are to
succeed for you and those that you love. Having a negative
attitude will not only affect you in all the areas mentioned in
this chapter but will also affect everyone that comes into your
life and in your presence. People will see your attitude coming
a mile away so be careful not to give yourself away and that
this attitude does not destroy your business and vital long-term
business relationships. A positive attitude and an endless
amount of optimism cemented into your character will ensure
that you will always have a YES I CAN approach to all the
right people thereby ensuring your success as an entrepreneur.

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4
Self-Image: Are You Missing What You Are Capable of
Becoming?
1st Secret: PASSION
2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
Introduction
Mike and James were business partners together with John. On
paper, and according to a legally binding agreement between
the parties Mike had in fact sold the business to James and
John who were then obliged to either allow Mike back into the
business after a period of two years or buy the business in full
after the same period. Time lines were clearly stated in the
agreement drawn up by a lawyer and all went well until the
agreement reached maturity and Mike was neither allowed
back into the business and James and John were not in a
position to pay the amount due for the business but they
refused to leave and/or hand the business back. The agreement
in question lapsed placing both James and John in breach and
subject to legal financial claims.
Attempts were made by Mike to mediate an amicable
settlement between the parties but this was rejected based upon
a claim by the so called guilty parties that monies had in fact
been paid over to Mike during the initial period of the
agreement. There was a dispute and Mike requested proof of
the claims which were not forthcoming and it was clear that
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the claims were now in serious question. The matter went to

and fro to the point where the parties resorted to hiring legal
counsel, whom neither party could afford; however, pride,
arrogance and emotion took over as all logic disappeared.
Emotion was high from both sides and bulldog determination
set in as neither party was willing to give an inch. Matters
deteriorated rapidly from that point on. Verbal abuse,
accusations and threats became the order of the day as both
parties jostled for position and formulated a strategy for legal
attacks and defense. The truth of the matter is that I was asked
to get involved and on paper it seemed clear to me that once
the agreement was breached then the business should have
reverted back to Mike. However, based upon the claims that
James and John felt that monies were paid over to Mike, which
they were not able to substantiate in any tangible way they
refused to vacate the business premises or purchase the
business from Mike-a stalemate had ensued which could only
be unraveled through the legal system.
My goal as mediator in this dispute would be considered
simple under normal circumstances and the matter should have
been handled as a simple business transaction. However, there
was no longer a contract in place so James and John should not
have been negotiating at all as the business, on paper and due
to the original breach of contract clearly belonged to Mike.
What made this a more complex mediation was that the
lawyers showed no motivation to end the dispute by means of
a round table discussion with all relevant parties. The lawyers
also decided that each had a point to prove to their clients and
all the while the legal costs were mounting-another reason why
the attorneys may have lacked the motivation and resolve to
end the impasse between the parties. However, this was not my
biggest challenge. My biggest challenge came with the
knowledge that John was once Mikes best friend and James
was Mikes brother. A compounded situation occurred at the
same time in that much of James family were disappointed
and hurt about the entire situation and chose to support Mike in
the dispute.
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While all of this was going on Mike was out of work and thus
not able to earn a living with a view to serving his financial
responsibilities. Matters under these circumstances quickly
deteriorated for Mike as he started losing his personal
possessions due to a lack of payment. The first to go was his
Mercedes Benz, creditors started calling which started the
usual stress and pressure, as if he did not have enough already
at this point. His home was now also under threat and he was
forced to put the house up for sale. In order to continue to
ensure that he could eat Mike was now forced to sell off his
possessions one at a time. While all of this is going on in his
personal life he was still faced with financing the battle with
his brother and best friend. His family helped all that they
could but the matter both personally and legally escalated to a
point where many could not keep the financial support going
to the extent that Mikes personal possessions could be saved.
During many of the times as this relates to my communication
with Mike he would burst into tears and have a total meltdown
as he explained the total disappointment in his brother, his best
friend and the entire situation. I had known Mike for many
years, and while his home life was not conducive to building a
high self-esteem when he was younger, he had in fact managed
to become a successful businessman, a well loved and
respected brother in the family and a generous giver in his
community. One will be correct then for saying that this was a
terrible moment in his life and most certainly nothing that he
truly deserved. You would be right, and in fact, this was most
certainly how Mike was feeling at the time and worse. In fact,
the generous act of offering his brother and best friend a true
opportunity in life was testament to his true nature but this
most certainly backfired on the good man and he knew this.
By this time Mikes attitude went from highly positive to the
very lowest ebb. There was no more optimism left in him and
he started going into fits of severe depression. His attitude
could now be seen a mile away. He stopped smiling, stopped
sleeping and lost all the friendliness which was so much a part
of the mans character. He was no longer the Mike that
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everybody came to love and admire he was a different

person. He started withdrawing from his family and friends
and started believing that he was a failure and each time he had
to sell off another possession for food he felt worse and this
cemented his personal decline. Psychologically and
emotionally he became drained as the days wore on and he saw
the continued decline of his desperate situation. The fortunate
part, some might say is that he was not married but had grown
children who were out of the house. He was alone while he
was facing his most trying moments in life to date and while
his family rallied as best they could they all had their own lives
and so this continued for them. The evenings were the worst as
he was in a home, by himself, with no food, no TV and very
little furniture. At this point, with no clear resolution in site
Mikes self-esteem was at its worst.
When a human being has been through tough trials in life,
whether it is a current event or a past psychological trauma,
and is left with unbelievable emotional scars so to speak as a
result of this, and shows signs of social withdrawal, we usually
refer to this type of psychological phenomenon as low selfesteem or someone is suffering from a low self-image.
As in Mikes case, the results and effects of such a life trauma
will leave a person feeling unworthy, not able to achieve or
amount to anything, deep depression, socially unacceptable,
feeling unintelligent and will lack the motivation or the will
power to keep up with the rest of society in general and will
most certainly lag behind as this relates to business and/or
career development. So devastating are the results of such a
life trauma that someone who is experiencing low self-esteem,
or has clear signs of a low self-image, is capable and able to
severely affect those around him or her. This effect on other
people will include, but not necessarily be limited to children,
a spouse, close family and everyone around them in the
working environment. It is also my sincere believe that should
you be suffering from a low self-esteem or image you may
even have the ability to negatively affect your entire client
base.
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My goal in this chapter will be to help you to understand the

signs of someone who may ultimately destroy your business
and devastate your life as an entrepreneur. It will also behoove
you to be aware of the signs and symptoms together with the
consequences for your own life and personal behavior. A low
self-esteem and a low self-image have the potential to destroy
everything you know and own. If you are currently suffering
from this phenomenon then I want to suggest that you obtain
professional help with immediate effect. Should you be
contemplating starting a business then do not even think about
going into business until you have been rehabilitated? My aim
in this chapter is not to give you an exhaustive study on the
subject as some good men and woman have spent a lifetime in
studying the effects of this psychological phenomenon and
there is both much debate and information on this subject. My
interest is in you the entrepreneur and my goal will be to apply
what I know to your very particular situation and that is within
the business environment. However, I want to stress one more
time that if you show any signs of low self-esteem of low selfimage then please do not attempt the development of a
business as the stress and the pressure will destroy you and
your attempts at business and you will also stand a very good
chance of losing your lifes savings.
What does self-image mean?
The idea of self-image or self-esteem has more to do with what
you believe or think of yourself as an individual. This
incorporates your personal mental images and how you
currently imagine yourself as opposed to how others may
perceive you. This personal mental image and how you and I
imagine ourselves may seriously determine the kind of person
we will ultimately become. The start and the effects of this
phenomenon, as you will see, manifests itself at a very early
age and influences to the demise of a sufferer sees many
contributions from some of the most important people in their
lives and this happens along the way to adulthood and even
beyond. While others will notice, purely through personal
interaction, that you may be experiencing low self-esteem by
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your actions or lack thereof, I can tell you that what you feel
about yourself in this area is the main driver of your emotional
state.
Self-image and self-esteem is thus in a nutshell a mechanism
or ability of the mind to serve as a management system that
influences how we think and act, and how we view ourselves
and the rest of the world. A management system so to speak
which allows us unfortunately to have both views-negative and
positive. It is my view that our minds show us the negative and
positive but has no real ability to self-correct (in the event of
low self-esteem) despite the fact that it is also able to warn us
of the dangers relating to the negative.
It may also be likened to a subconscious state of the mind
which has a so called guidance system or mainframe
computer which is capable of being programmed to seek out
an image, a goal or a target. In other words we tend to seek out
subconsciously the things that make us feel good about
ourselves which is positive. However, with such an acute and
complex sense of self unfortunately the guidance system also
allows us to lock onto the things which do not make us feel
good about ourselves-hence low and high self-esteem or low
and high self-image. Self-image may be likened to a software
program for the conscious mind and its abilities or parameters
as it were would be best described as follows:
1. The control of all skill levels.
We here understand that our ability to perform at optimum
levels is influenced by whether we have a healthy outlook or a
pessimistic one and either of these two states of mind will
affect the net result gained by our actions in any given task.
For instance, taking on a business and developing this to the
point of success is better undertaken by an entrepreneur who
has a healthy self-image as there is a better chance of success
due to the better mental attitude which ensures both better
personal skills and the implementation of those same skills in
developing the business. The opposite is said to apply if there
is an unhealthy self-image. As a prime example then we once
again take a look at Mikes experiences as explained at the
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outset of this chapter. While Mike had a healthy and

productive self-image he had the ability to build his business to
the point of selling it, James and John must have been
impressed enough with the business to want to participate and
to even contemplate the possibility of buying the business. At
one stage of Mikes life he was fine and healthy and productive
with a very positive attitude about one and all in his life. So
what changed? Surely in the past in the growing of his
business he faced challenges before? He sells his business and
faces some serious legal challenges which in turn lead to an
assessment of his ability to deal with this business challenge.
The answer is pretty obvious in that his once healthy selfimage and self-esteem was damaged by external factors
rendering his self-image negative and unhealthy. The minute
bad things happened to Mike, mixed with the emotions of
having to deal with a family member, together with his own
personal upbringing it triggered all of the unhealthy past and
he started doubting his self-worth and this was due to an
unhealthy self-image at the time.
2. Controlling habits.
The self-image software will allow us to control our habits but
we will also have the ability to change bad habits or good ones
as in the example above. With this in mind the goal would
rather be to focus on the positive side as negative habits will
not get us anywhere but on the other hand positive habits will
most certainly assist us in focusing on more success driven
tasks as entrepreneurs. Focusing our attention on successdriven tasks will also ensure that we continually develop a
winner mentality. When an entrepreneur understands that he or
she must control ALL habits, including the bad ones, then
building on all the positive actions will lead to actions which
will ensure a positive self-esteem and self-image. A positive
self-image and esteem will ensure that our attitudes stay
positive and that our mindset will be geared more toward
doing the right thing at the right time as opposed to an
unwilling desire to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

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Self-image and self-esteem is thus in a nutshell a

mechanism or ability of the mind to serve as a
management system that influences how we think
and act, and how we view ourselves and the rest of
the world.

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3. Resist and immunize against negative influencers and change.

This part of the program is the focus element of the
entrepreneurs business life. Instead of constantly being
negative and focusing on the seemingly impossible this part of
our self-image and self-esteem allows us the freedom, based
upon our positive attitude, to resist negative influencers and
influences that come into our life. Many entrepreneurs are
easily distracted by all kinds of people that come into their
lives. For instance, they have chosen a certain business model
and product line and from time to time some well-meaning
friend or contact will offer you a new line of product which
in essence has nothing to do with the business focus at all. To
add such a line would mean that you will have to change
strategy, add costs and re-focus your attention on something
that may or may not work. This is the time to resist this
influence as such a change will distract you and jeopardize
your business and business plan. You must use your positive
self-esteem and self-image to assure yourself that you know
what you are doing and that you will resist people that
willfully (albeit well-meaning) want to distract you and you
will also understand that while such a distraction may hurt you
in the long term the influencer is not concerned for your wellbeing in many cases but rather out to further their own
interests. Stay focused and stay on track at all times despite
negative influences and influencers around you.
4. The ability to control how we think.
The operational side of our software allows us to do three
things: (1) see positives (2) see opportunities and (3) rethink
and overcome challenges. An entrepreneur who has developed
a low self-worth will not have the ability to focus on the
positive side to anything and this not because he or she does
not know the difference but because they have lost the
motivation to do so. For these people it is far easier to remain
in the hole as opposed to digging themselves out. While on
the other hand the entrepreneur with a high self-esteem will
ALWAYS be seeing the positive in every situation and will
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base his or her entire decision making process on this ability.

When you are feeling positive about who you are and what you
have achieved then you may be forgiven for feeling that you
are unstoppable and are on a role and almost every decision
you make will go your way-the success attracts more success
syndrome.
Lets face it the entrepreneur who has developed a poor selfworth over a life time will not have the ability to seek new
opportunities, and particularly, if they dont even have the
ability to view anything as positive. The opposite is true for the
man or woman who has a positive attitude as this person is
always full of ideas and always looking for QUALIFIED and
pertinent opportunities which will enhance his or her focus and
business. Opportunities are easily found by these people as
they are always looking for them, assessing these and
becoming excited about the possibilities on offer. Again,
success attracts more success and great opportunities find
those looking but the entrepreneur looking will only find these
if he/she has a positive attitude which leads to a high selfesteem and high self-image. The attitude of the positive
entrepreneur is firstly to recognize challenges for what they are
simply a minor hurdle to greater success. Unlike the negative
entrepreneur with the attitude of woe is me who never sees
anything but mountains when presented even with the smallest
of challenges. An order comes in and the negative entrepreneur
will immediately start panicking because he has no clue as to
where the money will come from to finance the new order. The
positive entrepreneur will quickly asses this challenge and then
has an attitude of gratitude for the new business. The idea will
then be to develop an action plan involving the bank financing
based upon a written, signed and legally binding agreement.
The difference is always gratitude and after that the challenge
is there to be overcome and overcome it a positive
entrepreneur most certainly will.
In order to ensure that we are all clear as to the meaning of
either self-esteem or self-image I will quote from two reliable
sources as follows:
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Definitions
Self-Esteem - Respect for or a favorable opinion of oneself.
Self-Image Ones own idea of oneself or sense of ones
worth.
-

Collins Dictionary

Self-Esteem A confidence and satisfaction in oneself.

Self-Image Ones conception of oneself or of ones role.
-

Websters Dictionary

Understanding Self-Image Development

In a Cosmopolitan Magazine T F James noted the following
passage in consideration of our understanding of the term and
state of mind known as self-esteem:
Understanding the psychology of self can mean the difference
between success and failure, love and hate, bitterness and
happiness. The discovery of the real self can rescue a
crumbling marriage, recreate a faltering career, and transform
victims of personal failure. On another level then,
discovering your real self means the difference between
freedom and the compulsions of conformity [throughout life].
Another objective in understanding self-image development
has often been used and explained as: The picture of me I see
is the me Ill be!
The statement above is taken to mean on the one hand low
self-esteem will lead to a low result or output if this is what we
view ourselves like at any given point in time. Therefore, when
we look in the proverbial mirror so to speak and we look at
ourselves from the outside we see many things on the outside
which tell us what is going on in the inside. The one thing
about human nature is that it is impossible to lie to ourselves
and we are at our most honest and honorable when we look
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into the mirror of life. Susan looks into the mirror one
morning and decides that she has put on weight. She asks her
husband if she looks fat and he takes a split second too long to
respond and by the time he does she has made up her mind,
based upon the hesitant response, that she is overweight. This
situation now plays on her mind and a sense of insecurity sets
in. Until she loses the weight she will feel insecure about
herself and if she cannot lose the weight for some reason she
will continue to be insecure and this insecurity will eventually,
if left unchecked, lead to a breakdown in her self-esteem. Due
to this state of mind the low self-esteem, fed by her desire to
lose weight but finding it difficult to do, she will find that
negative life issues will be compounded as she takes out her
frustration on those that she loves and at her work
environment. If she is an entrepreneur then there is no doubt
that part of her negative attitude will be displayed as a business
woman and both her staff and her clients will most certainly
feel the effects of her negative nature.
The husband, who is in a business partnership with his wife,
looks into the mirror next to her mirror and sees things a little
differently. While he admits that he is not the most handsome
devil on the planet he feels good and looks good about who he
is and who he is becoming. He realizes that he has a good wife,
wonderful children and now God has also blessed him with
two gorgeous grandchildren. A man is generally happiest when
things are going well at the office and assesses this and again
he is content and has a belief that his business will be a
success. The husband has developed a high self-esteem due to
all the positive things around him and thus when he leads his
family it will be done so with a positive frame of mind thereby
producing all the good and necessary vibrations needed for a
peaceful household and a prosperous business. His clients will
most certainly see the positive attitude and nature and they will
respond accordingly.
We must understand this dynamic in that the husband has a
high and positive self-esteem while the wife is struggling with
insecurity issues which has led to the development (self133

inflicted we may argue) of a negative and low self-esteem. You

and I do not need to be psychologists to understand that we
will now see a conflict in personalities hence the compounded
effect noted earlier in the chapter. The idea then is that
eventually we will all only live up to what we see ourselves as
being. If we are positive about ourselves and our outlook on
life, despite all the obstacles, then the output and internal
psychology will lead to a successful and positive attitude
which in turn will lead to a more successful life in all critical
areas. However, for those that consistently and continuously
focus on the negative either in physical appearance and/or in
mental ability the future is bleak and these psychological states
will most certainly lead to a low self-esteem, and this, largely
self-inflicted as mentioned before. The issue in business is
often the conflict between a low self-image and a high selfimage, and this, not only between husband and wife in
business but between any types of partnership. A husband and
wife partnership, though, is compounded in that neither party
is able to escape the other so to speak. The couple will work
together and live together and there will no moments where
either party can catch their breath or take a break from one
another.
The me I see is the me Ill be is also taken to mean that an
improved self-image means an improved life as a high selfimage will have a high output or result. Once again, I would
like to point out here the importance of choosing a business
partner carefully and one of the only ways to avoid conflict
with a business partners personality and/or esteem issues is to
consider not having one. However, this is not always possible
and many conflicts can be avoided, which conflicts may mean
the difference between success and failure in your business, if
the choice of business partner in business can be considered as
carefully as you would a life partner in a spouse. There must
be a sense of compatibility and a willingness to do what it
takes to ensure that personal issues do not lead to a
deterioration of the esteem of both partners which in effect
may destroy both the business and the relationship.
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Developing ones self-image will more than likely release the

inner hidden power of a psychological phenomenon known as
AUTO-SUGGESTION. Auto-suggestion is a critical activity in
fulfilling ones personal life and also achieving ones business
goals, dreams and desires.
Auto-suggestion simply put is your ability and mine to
unconsciously influence internally our own beliefs and
behaviors which will generally induce an outward result or
manifestation. Being able to sub-consciously or unconsciously
suggest positive things to our minds will take many hours of
practice and include a disciplined attitude to being always
conscious to auto-suggest good things to our minds. The
human mind has the uncanny ability to either believe what it
contemplates or make a decision not to. However, should we
teach our mind, through the power of auto-suggestion, that a
certain path or action is in our own best interest then it will not
only accept the idea but actually prepare all the necessary
chemicals and actions needed in order to achieve what others
may perceive to be virtually impossible. The idea is to get to
the point where you have so trained your mind to auto-suggest
or sub-consciously suggest positive thoughts and actions that it
no longer will take negative instructions so to speak. The mind
knows the difference between negative and positive inputs and
outputs but it also has the ability to block the negative in favor
of the positive.

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The mind knows the difference between negative and

positive inputs and outputs but it also has the ability
to block the negative in favor of the positive.

136

As an entrepreneur then it will behoove you to first understand

that you will more than likely face a barrage of negative people
on a daily basis and this exposure will need to be managed.
The only way to manage these negative influences as an
entrepreneur is to teach your mind, by means of autosuggestion, to ignore the negative and to focus on the positive.
The well trained mind will help you to understand that there is
nothing impossible on this earth and (not referring to spiritual
matters) that you are capable of and have the immense ability
to achieve whatever it is that you have set your mind to do-that
is humanly possible that is. The idea then is that whatever you
feed into your mind unconsciously you may ultimately become
and achieve. Of course, this alone will not ensure practical
success as one would still need to put action to any intent of
the mind whether negative or positive however we here
understand that if your mind believes that it can then it will
most certainly prepare you physically for the success.
Believe it or not then but the premise is that you will only
achieve what you seriously believe that you can achieve. If you
believe that you will not be a good husband to your wife then
chances are that you may not achieve being a good husband at
all and this may be one of many reasons that many children
today are growing up without a good father in the home and
the results, once again, will compound themselves as one takes
a closer look at the total family unit. If you believe that you
will not make it in business then chances are that you may not
make it and if you are auto-suggesting this idea into your brain
before you start a business then do yourself a favor and rather
work for a boss-chances are you will most certainly lose less
and this is not even an auto-suggestion but a fact.
Many people have done this very interesting experiment but I
want to tell you that I was astounded when I tested it for
myself. Even if you are a flea you are capable of programming
your mind to accept limitations. The experiment which I once
saw, which I subsequently tried because I could not believe it
(auto-suggestion?) entailed gathering a number of fleas and
placing them into a jelly jar (jam jar for you non-Americans).
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The idea was to watch how the fleas conditioned themselves to

their current environment. Upon placing the fleas into the jar I
had to close the lid quickly before they all jumped out and
while a handful made it out of the jar I was able to keep a
number inside so as to conclude the experiment which I had
seen done before. I left the fleas in the bottle overnight but
noticed immediately how frantically they tried to get out of the
jar. The next morning I noticed a very strange thing. While
many of the fleas were still jumping there were at least forty
percent of them that stayed down at the bottom. The ones
jumping were why I had done the experiment to begin with
and so I removed the lid from the jar and guess what? No
matter how hard the fleas jumped the highest that they could
jump was as high as the lid. I moved the jar into the sun and
thought that this would get them jumping higher and I even
took the jar outside but still they only managed to jump as high
as the lid of the jar. I was amazed!
The fleas had successfully used their environment to autosuggest to their brains that it was no longer possible to jump as
high as they were always accustomed to doing. The thing that I
also found most fascinating was that many of the fleas had
simply given up and had become content with simply lying at
the bottom of the jar. Their power of auto-suggestion was so
strong that they had completely lost their ability to actually
jump. I went a step further! I turned the jar over and guess
what happened? It seems then that the fleas that were on the
bottom of the jar, held on for dear life, and adamantly refused
to budge from their positions. When the other fleas were
finally out of the jar they continued to only jump as high as the
top of the jar as was the case before I removed the lid. I
watched and watched as I wanted to see if the conditioning
would be reversed, and while I had to look carefully through a
magnifying glass, it did not take long before the conditioned
flees started to jump higher and higher and the stuck flees
began to finally jump once again. Lets now take a look at the
lessons which I feel that I learnt through this process shall we?

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When someone, and in particular, an entrepreneur or a

potential entrepreneur has developed a low self-esteem or a
low self- image it is usually due to a psychological
phenomenon known as conditioning. Such a person, as it were,
somewhere along lifes path has been placed into a glass jar
and the lid was screwed tightly shut. This person may have
been told that they are useless and will never amount to
anything so many times over the years that he or she now
actually believes this. They try to improve or, like the flea,
they try to jump but they simply keep hitting their heads
against the jar lid. The jar will obviously in this case represent
the environment within which the person operates, and while it
seems clear (as in see through) the glass jar actually becomes
the suffocating and stifling part of growth and ingenuity. For a
person suffering from a low self-esteem this is how their life
has been for a very long time and that is why I say to you it is
absolutely vital that you understand that in order to be a
successful entrepreneur you MUST be able to get out of the
glass jar first. While you are able to see clearly and due to this
you may be able to fool yourself into believing that you are
capable and able to taking on a business with all of its
pressures then I want you to think again. By being suppressed
and oppressed for so many years you will not have the ability
to take on the challenges and the pressures which are prevalent
in both starting and managing a business. Therefore, be very
careful indeed that you take time to identify whether you have
a low self-esteem or not and this will be evident in your
current occupation. If you are currently struggling emotionally
and intellectually as an accountant or a lawyer or any other
occupation for that matter then this is a clear sign to you. Stop!
Take time to assess! Do you feel like you are suffocating and
do you feel that you are limited due to your own emotional
and psychological state then remember the fleas and the jelly
jar experiment? At this time your life may be likened to
someone who is trapped within himself or herself and not able
to break free due to your current negative environment which
may even be caused by a loved one, a partner, a boss or any
other person having any kind of influence over you at all. You,
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though, are your own lid in our experiment in that you have
allowed your environment, and all of those in it having
influence of any kind over you and you have thus concluded
that you cannot achieve greatness or your full potential
because you are told that this is the case and the lid is that
you actually believe these people. You have also at this point in
your life convinced yourself that they are right and that you
wont actually amount to anything. The problem here is that
not only can you take this attitude into a business environment
but YOU are the only person capable of removing the lid
from your life and true potential. With your current low selfesteem and self-image you may be likened to (depending on
the level of your affliction) the flee that sits on the bottom of
the jar holding on to all that is negative for dear life or you
may also be likened to the flea that has convinced
himself/herself that they are only able to jump as high as the
lid. Which are you then? The problem is that if you have
answered this question then it means that you not only have
recognized that you have a challenge of low self-esteem you
have also disqualified yourself from the pressures of owning
your own business. My advice is that until you have removed
both the negative influences in your life (and by this I am most
certainly not advocating that you divorce your spouse if he or
she is considered the jar and lid in your life as there are other
ways to change them for the better) and have spent the
necessary time and effort into reversing your self-esteem issues
then save your money for when you are ready for business as I
can tell you that it has been my experience that much of the
failure in business may be attributed to jam jar type
personalities.
Again, I am convinced that you and I will only achieve what
we BELIEVE we are capable of achieving so if you have a low
self-esteem I can tell you before you even get going that YOU
do not believe that you can achieve much. However, if you
have a high self-esteem then your success as an entrepreneur is
virtually guaranteed but you will need to add all of the other
ingredients presented in this book. My feeling is in a nutshell:
INCREASING SELF-IMAGE AND INCREASING SELF140

BELIEF will amount to an INCREASED POTENTIAL FOR

PERSONAL AND BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT.
May I also propose then that an improved self-image will also
lead to an improved ATTITUDE? I believe this for the
following three reasons:
1. Imaginary vs. actual experiences.
The Central Nervous System (CNS) has more to do with
controlling our behavior (actions) and therefore it does not
have the ability to distinguish between our behavior and what
we actually IMAGINE as an experience or what we
ACTUALLY experience. In a sense our CNS will do what it is
told to do so if we say jump then it will simply react to the
brain telling it to jump. If the act of jumping off a cliff for
argument sake is dangerous and life threatening then it will not
be the CNS which will prevent such an action as this will be a
function of the brain understandably. The CNS therefore is a
most obedient part of our anatomy and always does what it is
told the moment that it receives the instruction from the brain
to do so and will also not do what it is not instructed to do. It
receives information and obediently reacts to what it is told to
do so the premise then or the insinuation if you will is that if
you instruct the CNS to do something that it should not do, and
unless the brain intervenes to say STOP, then the instruction
will be carried out. The power of auto-suggestion then will
apply in this case surely? If you are thus suffering from a low
self-esteem and want to change the direction of your life the
main action system in your body, the CNS, will not stand in
your way at all! You command the CNS that you want it to
react only to positive action which will enhance your life and
your business and that is exactly what it will do. If you tell it to
produce negative output then this will also be the result as the
CNS will obey your (the brain) command even in the negative
actions.

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INCREASING SELF-IMAGE AND INCREASING SELFBELIEF WILL AMOUNT TO AN INCREASED

POTENTIAL FOR PERSONAL AND BUSINESS
ACHIEVEMENT.

142

2. Imagination leads to success.

The single greatest attribute ascribed to high self-esteem/high
self-image successful entrepreneurs has simply got to be their
ability to IMAGINE the entire road to success. These positive
people have long ago realized that visualization is the key to
getting the CNS to comply with the necessary positive actions
for success. By IMAGINING the road to success the high selfesteem entrepreneur sets the platform and foundation if you
will for final achievement of any pre-set goal, dream or
business desire. They realize that the CNS will react to both
negative and positive commands and they prefer programming
the CNS with what they see as the road to success no matter
the possible hills to climb as for this they will rely on the brain
for solutions and the ability to overcome anyone and anything
that stands in their way of ultimately achieving a positive
outcome.
3. Changing perceptions.
Successful entrepreneurs have also come to realize that
changing the perception of ones mind is thus the key to
changing ones self-image and self-esteem. Going back to the
jam jar and the lid then the successful entrepreneur would
prefer not to get into the bottle in the first place and would
most certainly not allow someone to close the lid on their
lives and business. These people are most certainly not
abnormal and they face challenges daily like the rest of us;
however, their ability to change negative perceptions into
positive perceptions almost at will has come with much
experience and will power. If you want to change your selfimage BEFORE you become an entrepreneur than this is the
first step in changing who you are as a low self-esteem/low
self-image potential entrepreneur CHANGE YOUR
PERCEPTIONS. In other words, change your own perceptions
of who you think you are from the negative jam jar closed in
kind of a person to an outgoing successful entrepreneur who
thrives on challenges as these are meant to be overcome. My
friend, if you cannot change your perception of who you are as
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a businessperson then please save your money and your life

and do not enter the business world as an entrepreneur.
Developing a healthy self-image will change your attitude and
mine from being negative and miserable which will
undoubtedly lead to a negative result and business failure to
that of a positive outlook and a sincere hunger for success. Our
positive attitude will also be the reassurance factor critical to
auto-suggestion, our imagination and our actual experience in
the business environment. The idea then is that when we are
successful in changing our attitude for the good then all else
will fall into place and success is that much closer.
Are Self-Esteem and Self-Image Different?
The answer to the above question is an emphatic YES! The
difference is mainly set out in the fact that it is ones selfimage which is a major factor in determining an entrepreneurs
self-esteem. It is important then for you and me to know, not
only the difference between the two, but also how these
interrelate and how they affect us. Self-esteem then may refer
to ones personal sense of self-worth and is generally, not
always, based upon a few factors such as: parental guidance
(negative or positive), early childhood parenting, general
upbringing and influences, pre-conditioning and conditioning
(jam jar) during ones adolescent and young adult phases
both in a negative and/or positive environment. One would
think at the development and cementing of a low self-esteem it
would seem difficult but not impossible to re-align. As we
have discussed on many occasions there are two degrees of
self-esteem and these are either low or high.
Low self-esteem is the sum of all the internal reactions which
have been generated by environmental experiences that usually
cause such an individual to experience dependency on and/or
inferiority to those around such a person. What are some of the
characteristics ascribed to someone who is suffering from low
self-esteem (not in any particular order)?
1. Internal struggles.
- Financial challenges produce stress instead of solutions.
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- A distinct feeling of low or no level of intelligence.

- Does not manage personal compliments well.
- Prime attention seeker and must be the main focus in any
environment.
2. Physical characteristics.
- Slouching or sagging posture.
- Voice lacks confidence (uncertain in tone, volume and
fluctuation)
- Lack of confidence in handshake (soft/weak).
- Obvious lack of body toning and physical conditioning.
- Unprofessional appearance and dress (generally untidy).
- Lack of eye contact during the communication process.
3. Psychological and personality observations.
- The need to dominate, dictate and display arrogance.
- Prideful and always boastful (or the opposite as below).
- Reserved and timid in public
- Defensive and protective.
- Will not admit mistakes or any wrongdoing.
- Always putting others down.
- Revengeful when competing.
- Envious to the extreme.
- Suspicious in nature.
- Thought process in losing terms only.
- Envious of others (keep up with the Joness).
- A natural and evil jealousy.
- Negative behavior usually is reflected in preoccupation
with blame, regret, shame and guilt.
- Constant need to be accepted by others.
- Preoccupation with need to be liked by all.
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The individual who portrays a high self-esteem is generally

rooted within his/her unconditional acceptance of whom they
are, and this, despite our obvious errors which lead to failures
both in our lives and our businesses. What are some of the
characteristics ascribed to someone who has a high self-esteem
(not in any particular order)?
1. Internal victories.
- Uses personal experiences to warn others of pitfalls.
- Temporary challenges are seen as hills not mountains.
- Produces permanent and reasonable solutions to financial
challenges.
- Professional attitude when dealing with financial obstacles.
2. Physical characteristics
- Upright and confident posture.
- Voice portrays confidence (certain in tone, volume and
fluctuation)
- Confidence in handshake (firm but not crunching).
- Obvious body toning and physical conditioning (at least
an obvious concern about physical shape).
- Professional appearance and dress (generally smart).
- Constant eye contact during the communication process.
- An obvious confidence in the walk and stride.
3. Psychological and personality observations.
- Accepting personal responsibility for actions.
- Honest demeanor.
- Participating with piers (listening, learning and sharing).
- Positive about others successes (T.E.A.M.).
- Self-disciplined and self-motivated at all times.
- Has the understanding of and uses empathy as a rule.
- A conscious attempt at personal modesty in the business
and pleasure environment.
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- Thinks and behaves in terms of winning.

- Considers the views of others but aware of personal
values at all times.
Seven Environmental Actions Promoting a Low Self-Image
and Low Self-Esteem
1. The negative influences of ones personal sphere.
In light of our discussion on self-esteem it stands to reason
then the more you expose yourself to negative people the more
negative you will become, and of course, the opposite is true if
you decide to be in the company of positive people. The more
positive you become the more you will believe that everything
is possible both in your life and your business. However, again
the opposite is also true, the more you expose yourself to
negative influences the more you will start to believe that these
people may have something and so the more you will be
influenced negatively to the point where nothing will be
possible and everything will become a hurdle in both your
business and personal life. It stands to reason, then, that the
more you start to believe that the negative things which you
are hearing are true the more it will affect both your self-image
and self-esteem in a negative way. My advice, whether you are
starting a business or not, stay away from negative people! Be
aware that if you choose a negative business partner then this
person will negatively affect you, your clients and eventually
your business. If you are a person who is easily influenced, and
in particular, on the negative side then DO NOT become an
entrepreneur as you will fail. You will unfortunately not
develop the positive attitude and outlook which will be sorely
needed in order to insure your success as an entrepreneur.
2. Ridicule and conditioning during our early growing years.
Ridicule in our early years can and may consist of any of the
following elements which has and may severely affect the
esteem of many good people. Ridicule may be in the form of
mockery, making fun of an individual after an obvious mistake
or an error in judgment, jeering or laughing at someone who
may have caused a blunder on the sport field or during a
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speech in class, publically humiliating a person to the point of

severe embarrassment and taunting a weak and possibly
challenged person to the point of tears through sheer
frustration. This often happens in particular during the early
and adolescent school years. As this continues and the person
becomes more and more affected by these constant
psychological attacks this will lead to a situation whereby your
abilities and natural talents may become unbalanced to your
self-image. It is important to note that this type of
psychological breakdown could come from some of the most
well-meaning people in our lives and those who have been
charged with our physical and mental well-being. People such
as parents, siblings, friends (including best friends), teachers
and some other form of authority figure in our lives who have
taken it upon themselves to constantly (many times in public)
question your ability, your personality and mental capacity.
While the psychological damage may have come from one or
all of the authority figures as stated above much of the damage
usually also comes in the form of innuendos, unintentional and
unnecessary comments and insinuations by some wellmeaning people but the ultimate devastation is real and it will
remain so until we change the status quo through a conscious
effort to overcome these poor influences upon our persons and
our lives. A poor self-image develops which is at times referred
to as an Inferiority Complex and is often built and developed
all the way into the adult stage of life by people such as our
life partners, business partners, friends, family and even a
fellow worker this will enhance and compound the
development of a poor self-image.
3. Considering failure as a permanent state and not temporary.
When we contemplate this action we must understand that both
you and I are susceptible to falling into this trap. Many
entrepreneurs, who describe themselves as having a positive
attitude and a high self-esteem, will tell you that they have
moments in their business lives which make them doubt
themselves. As an entrepreneur we have already concluded that
your day will be filled with many challenges and some of these
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you will be able to deal with and others not. We are not talking
here of the challenges which you are able to handle and
overcome but we are making direct reference to the challenges
that make you go home in the evening depleted and ready to
give up. It is these seemingly insurmountable challenges which
cause us to lose our positive attitude at times and also the very
same challenges which may seriously affect your ego, your
self-image and your self-esteem. If you face these moments of
sheer despair from time to time in business, and because of
your positive attitude, ability to auto-suggest good things back
into your being and high self-esteem then you have to spare a
thought for those whose personalities do not allow for a quick
turnaround when it comes to the psyche.
There are those, and this is yet another argument for not having
low self-esteem and low self-image people enter into the
entrepreneurial world, which are simply not able to view a
serious challenge as a moment in time that will pass. These
people have a serious tendency to confuse not achieving a set
goal with failure in their personal lives. Failure becomes
extremely personal and the focus is rather on the personal and
psychological impact than on the resolution of the hurdle. The
will to move on is stifled by their own ability to take failure
rather personally and this same single and very particular
failure is blown out of all kinds of proportion and then
becomes a stumbling block for months on end, and in many
instances there is simply no way back.
The tendency then to confuse failure in a set goal (it may very
well be a single and one-time event) may be attributed to many
things in the past but I will mention just a few so that you are
aware as to how far back this may go. For example, there are
many adults, and mature ones at that, who may have failed a
grade in the junior years and/or in the senior years of high
school representing a significant failure to the individual. The
memory of such a failure is still, even today, fresh and vivid in
the memory banks. The effect of such a catastrophe is long
lasting and in many cases permanent to the point where it has
seriously affected their ability to recover and thus are today
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classed among those with low self-esteem and low self-image.

Among the male population, in general, failure is not an option
and the effects of not making the football team, basketball
team or hockey team can be devastating and long lasting with
serious psychological consequences.
We have established that early childhood and young adult
failures are carried through to adulthood and further deteriorate
the self-image; however, the sad thing of it all is that we may
have been given some help along the way by people close to
us, who are supposed to be there to look after our physical and
psychological well-being. For instance, mommy may say:
Youll never amount to anything! In a divorced environment
where the tensions are usually high when one spouse has
moved out of the home the mommy may shout out: You are
just like your rotten father! The teacher, an education mentor,
with grave responsibility, may remind you: You are such an
idiot! A sport coach may exclaim in public: You cant do
anything right can you!?
In fact, as I write these words I remember an issue which my
wife and I had in the kitchen just this morning. The unfortunate
part was that one of my daughters was present at the time. The
entire incident was innocent enough and my feeling is that it
got out of hand due to sensitive natures. My wife said to me in
innocence, not meaning anything at all, Susan, (our daughter),
will cut up a piece of melon (I love the fruit) for you today at
lunch time. She also then jokingly added: By the way, this is
all you will be getting for lunch! I made it clear that I didnt
mind this as I wanted to look good for the beach when we
arrived in December. I further exclaimed that I didnt want my
bulge to wobble when I walk across the sand. Well, I can tell
you that it was as though I had just ignited a keg of dynamite
and realized very quickly that the matter was getting out of
hand and that we were headed to a direction which may have
dire consequences as this relates to family peace. As we were
all trying to get into shape for the December vacation time my
wife seemed to think that me wanting not to have my bulge
wobble when I walk on the beach had something to do with
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her and she took this rather personally. While I was seriously
talking about myself the matter quickly shifted to the girls who
had somehow assumed that I was pointing a finger at them and
accusing them of having a wobbly bulge. My daughter was not
happy and immediately walked up to her bedroom. My wife
and I spoke and managed to sort the misunderstanding out
between us. We apologized to one another and sorted things
out with my daughter.
It is this very kind of thing which creates the right kind of an
environment for the destruction of a positive self-image and
self-esteem. Can you imagine if I had lost my cool, because I
may have felt that I was being unduly attacked by the girls,
and taken all of the misunderstanding to the next level? This
very example, and many others like it, is what may be
happening in the home on a daily basis and we break one
another down to the point of depletion psychologically. While
we were mature enough to quickly establish that there was a
serious misunderstanding between us all earlier this morning
this same consideration may not apply to many homes around
the world. Low self-esteem people are extremely sensitive in
almost every area of their lives, and had this been the case in
my family, I could have caused permanent damage to both my
wife and daughter this morning. We kissed, hugged and
reassured one another of our love and have since moved on for
the day selfishness could have assured an entirely different
result though.
4. Poor memory capacity.
In my experience I can assure you that having a healthy and
well trained memory and mind is an absolute prerequisite for a
healthy self-image and self-esteem. The inability to remember
the most mundane things such as names, an upcoming meeting
or to get a tender or proposal in on time will seriously affect
the business result for an entrepreneur and his or her
personality. You and I will argue that this situation is selfinflicted, and guess what, you would be correct? However,
putting our personal feelings aside then for a moment we will
also have to understand, as we may have a partner or
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employees with this very serious challenge, that an untrained

mind and memory will cause the self-esteem and self-image a
great deal of harm. I have often heard during meetings
conducted in my own business: What!? You forgot about the
meeting but how could you, we sent out a reminder just
yesterday!? Many staff members have no ability to handle
someone like this and the unfortunate thing is that they make
their feelings known loudly and in open forum. You will notice
with low self-image people that they always have an excuse
for the lack of a trained mind: Sorry, I have a terrible memory
and I should have remembered the meeting this morning my
memory is really bad and I had a bad evening last night! The
other one that will come up all the time: I just cant remember
names at all! By the way, these and other excuses, in my
opinion, are simply put out there to mask the underlying
challenge known to us all as LAZINESS.
5. Drawing unreasonable and unrealistic comparisons.
The biggest issue that people face is that most often they are
responsible for continuing to foster and feed a low image and
esteem. Instead of identifying the fact that a low self-esteem
exists and making plans to correct this negative situation in
their lives many of them actually look for unreasonable and
unrealistic life comparisons which make them feel more
depleted. It is imperative that we all understand our limitations
and our strengths and the worst thing that we can do is to
compare these with other people, and even more so, if the
strengths of the next person far outweigh ours. Physical stature
in males is an important issue (for most women as well I want
to add) but how is it possible for a shorter in stature male to
reach up higher that a taller male. Bigger, heavier and taller
men are used more effectively on the offence and forward
packs than lighter men on a football or rugby field. Lighter
men in sport are usually the speedsters and show more agility
than their bulkier counterparts. Most professional sports men
and woman understand the differences which they have and
have no problem accepting the same. Some people, no matter
their size, have highly intellectual brains which have nothing
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to do with physical prowess at all. It stands to reason that

someone with a PhD in physics is going to know more about
that subject that someone who has received no more than a
high school introduction to the subject matter. Donald Trump
and Sir Richard Branson are in a different league to the
entrepreneur who has just started out in business so why
compare you to these giants of business? You may very well
get there one day but until then please be realistic about
comparing yourself to these men! There are people with
varying physical and mental attributes and so it would be far
more encouraging for us all to compare ourselves with people
that are more apt to motivate us than to compare ourselves
with people who are vastly different in physical attributes and
life experiences and will demotivate us surely? The problem
with many low esteem sufferers is that they feel somehow
compelled to compare their experiences with the Joness so to
speak and thereby exaggerating the Joness successes while
minimizing their own. The tendency then is to focus more
attention on the oppositions physical and mental attributes
than focusing on our own so called deficiencies in the same or
similar area.
6. Setting unrealistic and unattainable goals and personal
standards.
Nature itself will inform us of this very fact. A female lion is
considered the main hunter among the pride. When she decides
that it is now time to feed her cubs, and that she also needs to
eat, the hunt is on. She eases her way over a hill and looks at
what is happening below. She may see zebra, gazelle, Giraffe
and numerous other choice bucks. However, just to her right
she sees elephant, rhino and Cape buffalo. She now has a
choice and has to decide on her following course of action as
she contemplates the hunt. Exactly right! Not even a lion,
having an alternative choice, will hunt some of the big five if
there is a simpler choice and a more attainable choice. She
knows that hunting an elephant or a rhino could get her either
killed or permanently maimed. She instantly compares her
physical and mental capabilities and matches those with what
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she calculates to be a greater chance of success. She goes for

the gazelle and gets her pray, her cubs are fed, she feeds and
her mate then comes to help himselfSUCCESS! Personal and
business goals must be reasonable and achievable as the size of
your goal may lead to failure. You have to ensure that the
business can handle and support your dreams and desires and
that these will not drain your business financially. Low selfesteem and low self-image entrepreneurs seem to focus more
on the actual goal than they do on the ability of the business to
achieve such a goal and like the female hunter lion these
people have not learned to choose the goal carefully, taking
their strengths and weaknesses into account before setting a
realistic and achievable goal.
The problem with this scenario then is that if such a person
fails they do not have the foresight nor the ability to forgive
themselves for the failure and this failure is taken personally
and the negative output will linger on. The most difficult thing
to deal with, though, is that low self-esteem and low selfimage individuals are extremely hard on themselves in that
they feel that they simply MUST be the best at all costs. They
MUST be absolutely perfect in every way and are absolutely
unforgiving of themselves for any error or failure as such
failure may bring about the public ridicule which they have so
come to hate over the years. The cruncher here is that if they
are not the best or perfect in every way then they will most
certainly consider themselves the WORST IN EVERY WAY!
Only then, how very sad, will they review unrealistic and
unattainable goals with a view to downscaling and many times
the downgrading is so extreme (the total opposite to the
original thinking) that the goals and goal setting may totally
disappear as the defeatist attitude sets in reinforcing the
original low self-esteem and low self-image psychology.
7.

The use of environmental excuses for low and poor

performance.
The greatest weapon, if you will, used by the low selfesteem individual is SELF-PITY. They have a self-imposed
built-in ability to feel sorry for themselves in almost every
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instance where and when they fail at anything at all. They feel
truly that they are entitled somehow to feel sorry for
themselves at any point and in whatever the situation. To those
of us who are more positive people on the outside we are
always astounded when we see negative people using their
self-pity as a means to excuse poor performance, nonachievement of personal and business goals and for their lack
of production on a daily basis.
For now, then, we have spent a great deal of time
understanding low self-esteem and low self-image individuals
who may influence your life and mine negatively; however, the
question remains then is there a way forward?
Building and Developing a Healthier Self-Image
In order to assist an employee or partner, or anyone else for
that matter, in a regeneration of a negative image of
themselves we have to understand two fundamental truths:
1. Behavior and emotions are ALWAYS consistent with ones
self-image whether negative or positive.
2. The good news! A persons self-image can be altered!

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Behavior and emotions are ALWAYS consistent with

ones self-image whether negative or positive.

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It is imperative to understand, though, notwithstanding the

above two critical points, that in order to change the status quo
from a self-image point of view the person MUST have a
sincere desire and a commitment to such a change. Once the
GENUINE commitment has been made, the person will then,
and only then, be capable of securing change over a period of
time. Patience will be required and lots of it. We must
remember that getting to this point of a low self-image and low
self-esteem it may have taken many, many years and such a
deep seated psychological state cannot be reversed overnight.
The goal then will be to replace all the negative attitudes,
actions, behaviors and emotions with all the positive opposites.
This re-conditioning, so to speak, MUST happen both during
and after the change has taken place and should continue until
a total change has been secured.
Continued building and fostering of a positive self-image
needs a focus and I suggest three areas as stated below:
1. How does ATTITUDE affect the change in a poor self-image?
The idea here is to first build the motivation levels and the
natural result of this would surely be the new expectation of
both personal and business success. We shall deal with
developing motivation levels shortly however once higher
motivation levels are reached then there should be visible
changes in the positive. For instance, there should be a direct
and tangible change in the CONFIDENCE levels on the
outside while on the inside a QUIET DOMINANCE should be
evident and prevail. The expectation of success, being a natural
result of a new confidence and inwardly spirited person,
should also produce enthusiasm, persuasiveness and success in
the personal and business life. Success is a major attitude
changer and nothing breeds success than more success. The
more success, no matter how small, will most certainly
promote a healthier and more positive self-image.
2. How do increased MOTIVATION levels produce a positive
self-image?

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We are dealing with entrepreneurial spirit and our focus in this

book is on entrepreneurship and so our focus here will be on
work environment related activities and attitudes. While we
have focused on the term attitude in the previous chapter I
shall not dig deep at this juncture and will rather focus on
the practical things that can change a negative self-image. For
instance, when we increase our knowledge of both our
products and services to our clients it puts us in a position of
power in that the client does not have the knowledge of your
products and services at the level which you have. Your levels
of competency far outweigh that of your client/customer and
this makes your client submit to this and admire this. Some
entrepreneurs are walking around with the idea that the
prospect would rather not meet with them as the prospect may
be overexposed to salespeople in general and not trust them at
all and that salespeople (which is what you will be if you want
to grow your business) have a bad reputation. I can assure you
that this is the furthest thing from the truth. Understand this, it
has been said many millions of times over: Nothing happens
without a sale so ponder on this and finally understand the
importance of taking your services and products to the
prospect they actually need you and me and do want to talk
to us despite what your negative self tells you.
Motivation levels also improve when you take time to
understand (self-study) more modern servicing and sales
techniques as this knowledge will set you above your
competitors. The more you know about what you do the more
you stand out and the more you stand out the greater the
demand for you and your business and the service/s provided
and the products sold. An entrepreneur must understand his or
her staff. In most countries around the world entrepreneurs will
have to deal with labor laws and staff management in order to
develop a highly motivated staff that is capable and able to
move the business forward so that the entrepreneur can realize
all personal and business goals. The more you get to
understand your staff the more you will know them as there is
a distinct difference between knowing your staff and
understanding them. The one has to do with their outward
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talents while the other is on an emotional level. Get to

understanding what makes them do what they do the way they
do each task on a daily basis use self-suggesting or autosuggesting in the way of positive affirmations. As stated
before, the more you tell yourself that you are worthless the
more you will actually believe that you are worthless.
However, the more you tell yourself that you can make it in
business and/or change your current negative attitude the more
you will believe and do and if you believe and do then the
natural consequence will be a thing called SUCCESS!
It is absolutely vital that the low self-esteem and low selfimage person (or you as an entrepreneur for that matter) start
visualizing goals and objectives as soon as possible in order to
change the current perceptions of these two critical success
enhancing areas. I know that visualization for many people is
difficult. My wife and I decided to hire a builder to build a
house which we had designed. I received a copy of the
building plans and the most exciting activity which we had
throughout the building process was to visit the site in order to
view the slow but steady progress. However, I will never
forget how difficult it was for my wife to actually see the
end result and no matter how I tried to paint the final product
to her she struggled to get it all in her head without the house
actually being completed. However, as the foundation went up
and the walls became more and more noticeable it was like a
light went on and she started seeing the house completed in her
mind more and more. What I am saying here is that for many
people visualizing an end result is difficult but not impossible.
It is like everything else in life-it takes practice. The ability to
visualize therefore will get easier as the time goes on and the
successes are chalked up.
Napoleon Hill once concluded that confidence building
through positive self-suggestion and visualization of goals is
very important for success. Based upon the example given
above then my advice would be to enhance your self-image
through regular practice, balanced and sensible living and
personal grooming and dressing professionally or at least
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dressing the part. There is no substitute for oozing confidence

as people love to deal with a confident person as somehow it
instills a sense of security in those looking on or experiencing
the person on a one on one basis. Thus, confidence projects a
healthy self-image and the question then is how? Well, the first
consideration is that in the business environment, a tactful and
self-assured entrepreneur will command a positive staff
response and one of respect. The ability of a professional selfconfident entrepreneur will ensure that people are moved to
positive action-staff, suppliers and clients see this as a positive
self-image and high self-esteem. People truly enjoy dealing
with someone this confident as it portrays a high degree of
success.
3. How does the CONDITIONING of appropriate attitudes
enhance a positive self-image?
I want to discuss what I refer to as the SUCCESS
ATTITUDES. The following FOUR attitudes of success will
most certainly ensure not only an attitude change but the
assurance of a positive change in ones self-esteem.
1. An attitude of CONFIDENCE.
The importance of self-confidence has already been stated and
simply cannot be confused; however, I want to state quite
clearly, that to me, the attitude of confidence is primary to any
recovery and re-conditioning program when it comes to those
experiencing low self-image and low self-esteem conflicts in
their lives. By confidence here I am meaning, in the context of
the business environment, that you simply must BELIEVE in
what you are doing. For example, believe in the services
offered by your company, believe in your company and most
certainly believe in yourself. Have FAITH in who you are and
in your God-given abilitiesauto suggest success to the subconscious part of your mind. NEVER give up! NEVER ever
display a defeatist attitude at any time but even more so in
front of your staff, clients/customers and staff. The worst thing
though is when you take a defeatist attitude home to your wife
and familythey simply dont deserve this from you at all. An
entrepreneur with little or no confidence meeting with his
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client will more than likely infect the client with pessimism
and embarrassment instead of awe and excitement so be aware
of how you are being perceived by key people associated with
the success of your business.
2. An attitude of SERVICE.
This attitude is most certainly the key to professionalism in
service and in the selling environment. I have always believed
in the concept of identifying the needs of your client and
satisfying those and you are sure to be a winner. Many have
called this type of a philosophy as need satisfaction selling or
service. So go out there and find some needs to satisfy and
enjoy the fruit of your attitude. Always ensure that you are
client/customer oriented ALL OF THE TIME! Remember, put
your client first and his or her needs and wants and not your
own. Satisfy the customer first and you will win by default!
Always be more interested in the clients problems than your
own. While you are with the customer, focus on him or her,
and when you are gone if you want to go back to your negative
and selfish thoughts and needs then do so. Always show the
client your sincere side and be the clients friend as friends
bring a certain amount of trust to the table and trust is always
needed to conclude a successful business transaction. Spend
time building long-term business relationships which will not
only ensure repeat business but will also foster high long-term
payoffs.

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Satisfy the customer first and you will win by default!

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3. An attitude of SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

4.

Spend as much time as is needed in order to develop a positive

and persistent self-improvement attitude. The idea is to do a
complete personality makeover so to speak. Make sure that
during this time of personal self-improvement that you reshape
the negative parts of who you are to more of what you truly
want to be. The recipe for professional and business disaster
has got to be a bad mix of a poor personality combined with
poor professional habits. In the case of those experiencing a
poor self-image and low self-esteem you simply must
understand that before business success will knock at your
door a personality change must happen in you. No personality
change equals zero success!
An attitude of ORGANIZATIONAL-IMPROVEMENT.
A number of attitudinal actions and/or preparations must be
undertaken for efficiency and the generation of profit. I have
always said that anyone can make money but it takes someone
very special indeed to make a profit as without profit it is not
possible for a business to grow. I have seen many times that
the focus is incorrectly placed on making money and the idea
of profit is not even considered. An entrepreneur who intends
to be successful had better understand that generating profit is
why any business exists. The idea then is to work smarter not
harder. Being disorganized is a perfect way to nurture your
low self-esteem as the sheer frustration alone will affect your
personality in a negative way. With this in mind then it is
imperative that you always be aware of wasted capacity for
production within your business and personal life. All actions
should be focused on the continuous development of the
business and to increase the PROFIT MARGINS not the
turnover. Make sure that all systems, services and processes
are streamlined and kept simple (K.I.S.S.) at all times as over
complicating all of these will cost you time and money, profit
and confuse your staff. Never be in a hurry to make a final
decision if you have some doubt as to the outcome. It would be
prudent to rather postpone a major decision with a view to
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seeking a better solution than it would be to go ahead in

ignorance or under pressure. Many times your current supplier
base is filled will valuable and knowledgeable technical and
systems staff. Use the expertise on offer through these people
and many times this can be achieved at no additional cost
whatsoever to you and your business. Have a few telephone
numbers of some really clued up people who will assist with
any and all challenges which you may face and when the need
arises then dont hesitate to make the call as this action could
save you a great deal of money which will lead to an improved
bottom line.
Conclusion
Have you ever seen a lion suffering from a low self-esteem?
Well, neither have I! From birth the lion instinctively knows
that he or she is different and somehow it is inbred that they
are the king of the jungle so to speak. When they are born the
females know that it is their role to hunt and in this hunting
they are able to feed their young and the male is able to grab
what he feels that he needs. He sits on high ground surveying
his territory with the specific purpose of warding off would be
competitors and threats to his pride. The very plural
designation of a pack of lions being a pride will tell you and
me that they are very proud of who they are and walk around
without fear for any other animal or even man for that matter.
It is no wonder then that the male lion is so often referred to
that of the King of the Jungle. The lion parents NEVER
degrade their young and the cubs are brought up and nurtured
with absolute confidence and this may be seen in the way they
go through the stages of development. As they grow from
young cubs, through the adolescent stage, and then into young
adulthood the confidence grows because strong parents believe
that instilling confidence into their young cubs is a means to
survival. At a later stage, and while tough to go through at the
time, the young males are chased (expelled) from the pride
as they are perceived as threats to the ruling males leadership
and domain, it becomes clear that they received a confident
teaching full of encouragement and nurturing as they take up
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their rightful place in the animal kingdom full of pride and

encouragement. It is this very upbringing that has ensured that
they too will take on numerous females into their harem and
secure their very own piece of the savannah to protect (with
their life if necessary). They, too, will be equipped in order to
ensure that the pride continues within their very own cubs. No
matter the obstacles (and believe it or not lions, too, face
insurmountable obstacles at times) the lion will come through
with his or her head held up high, and because of their
upbringing their young will also be well equipped to overcome
any threat and any challenge against them. To them, it matters
not that they had days of hardship but that they have overcome
these with the prowess of the King of the Jungle. They most
certainly do not suffer from a low self-esteem and their selfimage is reflective of their high position within the food chain.
Having a low self-esteem and low self-image may very well be
a product of ones past and/or ones current environment
(whether at home or at work or wherever for that matter) as is
constantly placed into our minds by the psychologists;
however, YOU do have the ability to change the status quo and
prove the psychologist, psychiatrist and the therapist wrong
when they diagnose you as incurable or unchangeable or
some or other syndrome. YOU may have gone through a
most difficult upbringing like the other millions around the
world but YOU are better than your circumstances or the very
people who forced the negative attitude upon you and then had
the audacity to nurture the same over the years. YOU are better
than your past negative environment and those that want to
ensure that you remain negative into the future BREAKOUT! Come of age, my friend! All aspects of the negative past
and present can be changed in order to make you the person
that you aspire to be. You have admired other professional and
successful people for too long from the sideline and now,
having completed the reading of this chapter, and
understanding more about coming back from a low selfesteem and a low self-image, it is your time to shine. It is your
turn to first of all change your perception of who you are and
then it is also your turn to change other peoples view of you.
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YOU and YOU alone can make a difference to who you will
ultimately become. The past is the past and really there is
nothing that you can do about what has already been done so
learn the lessons then if you must; BUT move on TODAY!
However, even after you have spent a great deal of time
absorbing the contents of this material and you still remain
your old pessimistic and negative self, and have no internal
motivation to change, and then I will have no option but to
present you with a warning. Being an entrepreneur is not for
you! You being around other people is not going to be good for
them and they are going to let you know this which in turn will
simply reinforce the way which you now feel. Clients and
customers will not want to do business with you and your staff
will not be motivated to produce their best. Should a business
partner be unfortunate enough to be in business with you then
you will over a period of time destroy the relationship and the
first emotion which you will destroy is that of TRUST and
once this is done you will have NOTHING left between the
two of you. My final recommendations then, stay out of
business for the sake and success of others.
To those of you that are positive and have high levels of
esteem and image my advice is to do two things: (1) Protect
who you are; (2) Nurture your positive personality at all times.

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5
Values: Critical Parameters Will Dictate Your Business
Destiny
1st Secret: PASSION
2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
5TH Secret: VALUES
Introduction
While we will be dealing with goals and goal setting in the
next chapter it is imperative that you recognize a crucial
mistake made by well-meaning goal settersthey have never
given thought to their very personal value system which most
certainly affects how goals are set and can ultimately
determine the very achievement of preset goals. Personal
values from one person to the next are probably, other than a
fingerprint or DNA, the only other entity which sets us all
apart from one another. The idea of setting personal values
BEFORE a goal setting session never enters into the minds of
goal-motivated people and then they wonder why they never
achieve pre-set goals and when a goal is reached the
achievement is actually considered an anti-climax.
The idea in this chapter then is to first of all get you to
understand this new phenomenon (assuming that you may
not have ever contemplated understanding your value system
before setting goals) of values and then to show you how to get
to your core values in life which will most certainly change the

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way in which you not only think about goal-setting but how
you actually go about achieving the pre-set goals.
Values-Definition
If you have never given any thought in trying to understand
this thing called values then I want to take some time in
order to help you to understand what I mean when I say that
we need to discover your personal value system. However, in
order to do this we will need to investigate the true meaning of
values both as a word and for your life as a businessperson.
My honest conviction is that while many families set goals
within the household, and at times achieve these, I am not
talking about values within the context of the family, although
I have no idea as to how the home goals are arrived at
between partners, I can tell you that the differences in values
from one person to the next in business will cause massive
daily disruption to the intended success of the same. When I
refer to VALUES then what am I really referring to?
The moral principles and beliefs of a person
-

Collins Dictionary

The very nature then of the definition offered by Collins

Dictionary refers to the psychology of a human being and
denotes a personal set of moral principles which pervades our
inner being which then in turn establishes the inner beliefs of
each person on the planet. The definition refers to a person
and not persons and thus the singular versus the plural is
clearly defined. Thus the first principle is that the idea of
values is a very personal and many times extremely private
affair between a person and his or her own inner being and
self-consciousness. Your values and mine then will be
determined by what we believe within our very soul, and
herein lies something unique and new, and in my opinion
while ones past and present environment may play a role in
the development of ones values, I can assure you that your
values will most certainly be different to those of your parents
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and siblings despite your upbringing. The same thing will

apply to those working with you and your business partner and
many may wonder why their partnerships and businesses fail.
Your value system and mine is very different to those of our
clients and customers and then we wonder why you cannot
close the very important deal between the two of you? We
seem to fail in recognizing the inner differences between
individuals and many times this is what causes disruption in
families and businesses all over the world. Yes! I am saying
that many arguments caused in the home and at businesses
may be attributed to the differences which we all have in our
value systems which represent the very personal and inner
thoughts and moral standards which make us different from
one another.
As an example then of the difference in value system we have
number of young people in our church which my family and I
attend. Among the youth is a young person which we shall call
Richard. This young man is determined not to have sex outside
of the bonds of marriage; however, within his circle of friends
outside of the church they think that Richard is a little weird
for this conviction which he seems to feel rather strongly
about. To Richard, not having sex before he gets married is an
inner conviction and this moral standard has set him apart from
his friends in this regard. The friends dont seem to feel that
there is anything wrong with sex prior to marriage and this
may explain the high pregnancy rate amongst teens all over the
world and the subsequent associated rate of abortions. Richard
does not want this for his life so he has set a standard, a
personal conviction which we now term as a VALUE.
Jack and June are married and have been for at least eight
years now they tend to argue a lot. However, they dont
argue about most things but only the issues which make them
different. At this point they dont realize that these
differences which I refer to had been called VALUES for
many years. June has an absolute fit when Jack curses and
swears in front of the children. Her personal and internal value
system in this regard has been determined by her moral
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standards and she thinks that this is not healthy for the children
while on the other hand Jack does not see the sense in
protecting the children from something that they will be
exposed to anyway later on in life starting at school. The
difference between the couple will create havoc in the home
and the relationship, and should this continue unabated in other
areas as well then this will simply compound and foster the
frustration felt by both partiesending in divorce in many
instances as they site irreconcilable differences and
incompatibility to the judge. The differences here are what
we are now dealing with VALUES.
Rosemary and Susan have a wonderful business and have been
building their client base over many years now. According to
Rosemary Susan has a problem which is severely affecting
their relationship and is responsible for the current negative
vibes between the two. Rosemary will tell you that the
challenge which she faces with Susan will not go away and
that she cannot take much more of what Susan is doing to their
business. You see, while Rosemary is largely responsible for
administration and operations in their business partnership
Susan deals with all the sales and marketing side of their
relationship. Susan is good at what she does so the sales keep
on coming in which seems to frustrate Rosemary even more. I
was told that Susan is good at selling because she bribes the
client for the successful completion of the deal. While Susan
sees no harm at all in adding a little extra on to her quotations
for the prospect Rosemary feels that this is morally wrongthis
is a part of her VALUE system. The differences in value
system here will ultimately destroy the partnership and
business if this value is not changed by either party and
because ones value system is so deeply rooted within us it will
not be possible for either party to change which will lead to
business and partnership failure ultimately. However, if by a
slim chance that either party is willing to make the VALUE
CHANGE then things may work out I personally have my
doubts though.

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In my experience with business and the people that manage

them it would seem that values are formed from one
generation to the next and may even change (more than likely)
from one generation to the next the Hippy Generation had
very distinct values and beliefs but then so did the Rock n Roll
era of Elvis Presley for instance. The current Information Age
Generation has developed very distinct differences to their
previous generation counterparts. While I agree that all these
differences exist and to their influence on ones value system I
will also say the values will change from one family to the
next and even between the individuals which make up the
family unit. Values are also, more often than not, passed down
from one generation to the other which is based upon religious
and pagan beliefs and these, whether forced or adopted, will
ultimately have an impact on the development of certain
values. However, there are certain values, as we shall see
shortly, that have not been influenced by anyone or any outside
entity as these values are inner-born and are peculiar and
particular to each and every human walking upon the face of
the earth. One may find a similarity in values but actually
finding two people with EXACTLY the same value system
anywhere else in the world is virtually impossible in my
opinion anyway. The differences in our value system are what
separates us and what actually makes us both distinct and
interesting at the same time.
However, from a business and entrepreneurial perspective it is
wiser to seek a partner and a business whose values are as
closely associated and aligned with yours as is possible. For
instance, if you are against the use of alcohol then dont sell
liquor for a living as this will be diametrically opposed to who
you are and to a core moral value which you display inwardly.
If your partner thinks, during the idea generating stage of your
business relationship, that he or she thinks that starting a
business in the liquor industry is a great idea then back away
immediately as you will never (EVER) be happy doing what
you are doing and you will fail. Remember, your values may
be likened to a personal MORAL CODE and/or a CODE OF
BEHAVIOUR. The natural instinct within you will be to
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defend your CODE with all of your soul and with all of your
might at all times and against whosoever dares to challenge
you in this regard.
While your understanding of VALUES will continue to be
enhanced as we move forward in this chapter my goal will be
for you to see the value in understanding, identifying and the
setting out of your personal values in writing so that this
exercise will assist you in setting your life goals during the
next chapter. Thus the focus then will be to assist you to arrive
at the values that you are convinced represents you and your
innermost ideas (values) best. We will not only be interested in
establishing your personal values but the idea is to identify
both your CORE values and to set them out in order of priority.
We will need to uncover what is most important to you so that
these may be aligned to your goals and business ideas that will
actually enhance your chances of ultimate success VALUE
HIERARCHY.
Many of us have various values, as has now been established,
and while these are all different from one person to the other,
we all have priorities and it will be these very priorities which
will motivate you to achieve your pre-set goals in life. May I
say here then that it stands to reason that lower priorities will
not be a greater motivation for achievement than a higher
value? It is left to the higher value, then, which you will
experience for yourself in practice, which will be the
propulsion so to speak and the motivation needed in order to
get you interested and keep your attention and your energy
until you have successfully completed the pre-set goal. It
stands to reason therefore that once you have identified your
prioritized list of values then you will be able to focus your
energies and focus on aligning these with your potential goals
and will be able to set and achieve these with the highest
confidence.
With this in mind I need your input as to identifying the
thoughts and activities in life that motivate you more than
others. What excites you? What would you focus on more than
anything else if you were given the opportunity? What are your
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hot buttons? In order to arrive at a basic list of your values

we will have to undertake an exercise which will entail some
thought on your side. The idea here is not to rush, take your
time, and dig deep as this activity will be repeated on at least
a quarterly basis but not with as much intensity. What we need
to do now is the hard slog and set the foundation upon which
all future quarterly assessments will be done. Consider the
following questions then with a view to being open and honest
with yourself. You have no pressure and no one looking over
your shoulderit is just you and your inner thoughts. Dont
cheat! Be frank with your inner thoughts as you want to extract
these for the purpose of looking at them in writing. Please
understand, the HONEST answers to these questions will
represent who you are and what you actually value in life so
consider carefully and spend enough time at this critical
juncture as all that you do and achieve from this day forward
will be based upon how and what you answer:
Values Identification Consideration
Please place four thoughts and ideas next to each of the
following questions.
1. Consuming daily thoughts?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
2. Consistent mental pictures?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
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3. Monthly spending habits?

(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
4. Major conversation topics?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________

5. Majority of time spent?

(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
6. Greatest life goals?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
7. Energy spend activities?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
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(4) ____________________
8. Greatest life inspirations?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
9. Space filling home/office?
(1) ____________________
(With what do you decorate etc.?)

(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
10. Most organized areas?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
11. Topics most spoken?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
12. Topics most in thought?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
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(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
13. Greatest areas of discipline?
(1) ____________________
(2) ____________________
(3) ____________________
(4) ____________________
No shortcuts! If you have completed ALL the questions and
given at least FOUR answers to each then we are able to move
on. Consider the above list and first place the answers to each
question in order of priority. For instance you have answers
one to four but after further review you may have decided that
number four is actually more important to you than the current
number one so re-number these in order of priority for each
question. Once you have completed this step then you will
need to fine tune just a little more at this juncture. Look at the
questions from one to thirteen and place all thirteen questions
in order of personal priority. For instance, question seven may
be most important to you so place a number one next to the
number seven after you have crossed it out and complete the
sequence for all the questions. The idea here is to get to the
TOP FIVE VALUES (TFV) so that we may proceed to
establishing these in writing as per the next exercise.

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If you are to succeed as an entrepreneur you will

simply have to understand who YOU are before you
find out who other people are.

177

PERSONAL &
PRIORITIES

CORE

VALUESESTABLISHING

What we are after at this point is to seriously consider and

develop your Top Five Values (TFVs). Once you have
established your TFVs, after careful thought (I stress this as
whatever you decide upon here will be used in your goal
setting session which exercise is due in the next chapteragain
then, THINK CAREFULLY!), we will place these down in
writing as can be seen below.
However, just before we get into the thinking part and then
placing matters in writing I need you to yet again understand
the importance of what you are doing. In all of your life you
may have never been asked to be this honest with yourself and
to dig this deep within your very soul. If you are to succeed
as an entrepreneur you will simply have to understand who
YOU are before you find out who other people are.
Developing your TFVs will help you to view your personal
life, your business and the way that you handle people (both in
the business world and at home) in a whole new light. For the
first time (while you may have known all along and never
really gave it a thought) you may actually understand why it is
that you are not achieving your business or your personal
goals. You will also now understand why you are so different
to those around you and why those around you are all also
different in their own way. The goal then is to get you to show
yourself what makes you tick so to speak so that you are able
to focus in the right areas as this relates to you achieving
success. With this now said and done then lets now start the
most important exercise of your business life.
Explanation
It is now imperative that you give the process to date some
careful thought in that the final step in determining your TFVs
has arrived. In considering, from the previous list, the make-up
of your major values you will have to perform two actions:
1. As already stated, select your TOP FIVE VALUES from your
previous list.
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2. The CRUX? Would your TFVs actually make a difference in

your life (for example, are these areas currently missing in
your day to day living?)?
List your TFVs in the five spaces below in ORDER OF
PRIORITY:
TFV1:
__________________________________________________
TFV2:
__________________________________________________
TFV3:
__________________________________________________
TFV4:
__________________________________________________
TFV5:
__________________________________________________
Please note:
Understanding and setting your TFVs is not a one-time affair
as this exercise will now become a part of your life from this
day forward. My recommendation to you is that you set review
times aside at least every three months so that you can assess.
With a quarterly review you are able to use the current TFVs
as a benchmark and measure your progress or lack thereof as
this relates to your business first of all, as this is our focus in
this book after all, and also the affects that the identification of
your values are having in your personal life. The idea of course
is to get you to the point where you are successful as an
entrepreneur and the spin-off of this success will become
evident at home. An important point to remember then is that
both your business life and personal life should undergo
changes throughout your journey and it is possible that values
will change and be influenced over time hence the constant
need to review.

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Changes affecting your values may include, but may not be

limited to:
1. Achieving pre-set dreams, goals and desires.
2. Failure to achieve the above or any part thereof.
3. Your personal growth (business stature and outlook) and that
of your business partner or spouse.
4. Your assessment and reaction to business and lifes challenges.
5. A conscious decision to change direction either mid-stream
or planned.
When it comes to identifying and understanding values you
and I must come to realize that EVERYONE has a set of
values whether they actually think about it or not. The fact is,
as an entrepreneur, you are actually taking the necessary time
in order to identify your values, and then to prioritize these,
this is commendable. This exercise will place you ahead of the
pack as after identification then the focus and if you are able to
focus on what motivates you more than a focus on the things
which depress you then the chances of succeeding in the areas
that actually matter is high. Without contemplating the issue
too much though I am convinced that most well-meaning
entrepreneurs understand that they have a value system and are
even able to list them from lowest to highest value at any given
point in time. However, the reason I believe that many
entrepreneurs fail is because they are too busy (they will
convince themselves and you and me) and therefore never
actually get serious about identifying their strengths and
weaknesses and low and high priority values. If they are too
busy to achieve the exercises in this chapter then my thought is
that they will more than likely be too busy to focus on the
areas which will bring them the greatest returns and thus
enhance the chance of their ultimate failure in business.
Motivation levels are most certainly enhanced and more than
likely at their highest once a high value item has been
identified and focus placed in this value. For instance, if a high
value item for you is sales then you most certainly will not be
interested, or as interested, as to what happens on the
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administration or operations side of the business. You will then

focus more on the sales side because of its value to you while
your business partner may compliment your values to the point
where she has placed a higher value in your areas of less value.
When you are then more motivated to bring in the sales and
she is more motivated to ensure that the services and
operations run smoothly then this is what we all call a winning
combination. Everyone in a business has a clear purpose and
usually ones TFVs will determine who does what and who is
better at focusing on what KPA (Key Performance Area).
The way in which we identify this purpose is to clearly
identify ones TFV. In other words what we are saying then is
that once you and I have identified our TFVs then these are
the very areas which establish our personal identity. This
personal identity will remain as such until we feel the need to
re-evaluate our values, and in particular our highest values
which we have established may be every three months at least.
The idea then is that if you want to establish your own
personal identity in business and you want other people in the
business world to know what this is then perform the exercises
above in order to establish your TFVs as this will represent
who you are.
The question is then, why would you want to spend your time
in the areas that neither interests you or on those items that
never make it to your TFV? As an example, in the selling
process, a high value for you as a person within the selling
cycle is to actually sit in front of the client one on one, and yet,
in order to get there you will have to do a certain amount of
cold calling first. You absolutely detest cold calling (as do
most salespeople) so this activity has a very low value for you.
Let me ask you then? How motivated will you be to do cold
calling? The idea is that you actually realize that this is an
essential activity but due to the low value which you
personally place upon this activity you will not be motivated to
perform the task and so you will keep putting the activity off
and this we call procrastination a bad thing for an
entrepreneur. Another consideration with regards to lower
value items has got to be the ensuing disruption,
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disorganization and utter chaos that prevail in any such

activity. The Warehouse Manager is busy but most certainly
enjoys receiving and packing the inbound stock items.
However, he has a low value on a critical aspect of his function
in that ALL inbound and outgoing stock MUST be placed into
the stock control software system. Because the Warehouse
Manager has placed a low value on the input of the figures
onto the system he or she stacks invoices and delivery notes
into the pending file as the input is a low value item and it
can be placed onto the system another day. A few days later,
as new orders have continued to eat into the stock levels there
has still not been any focus or activity as this relates to the
pending file. At this present moment the stock control
system is redundant as it can only show low levels of stock if
the correct information has been inputted. The result is that an
urgent installation must be done and all of a sudden there is no
stock. Why? Well we all now know the answer to this
question! The client is disappointed and is threatening to
cancel the newly developed purchase orderchaos, and this all
due to procrastination brought about by someone who has a
low value item in a critical area. With such a person then there
is no doubt that he needs motivation and so the boss comes to
the rescue and starts motivation this individual in all the right
areas in order to ensure that there is no repeat of the current
chaotic situationsuddenly for the Warehouse Manager the low
value item has been changed to a high value item hence my
claim that values can be influenced either way and will need to
be reset from time to time.
As has been mentioned before your values are unique to you
and that no one has the very same set of valueseither high or
low. In fact values are so unique that it is quite possible that
somewhere in the world someone will have a value system
quite opposite to yours and mine. These differences may
manifest in what we consider to be our principles, standards,
our personal morality and moral code, and code of conduct or
behavior. The one thing, though, that I must point out to you as
entrepreneurs, which I consider GOOD NEWS, is that in order
to achieve our TFVs we will overcome the biggest obstacle.
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Our motivation levels and determination will be as high as our

desire to succeed and will match both the threat and the
obstacle no matter the size. This is why it is critical to assess
your TFVs BEFORE you go into business, and BEFORE you
appoint a business partner and BEFORE you set goals and
even BEFORE you enter any relationship at all this is if you
are serious about never ever getting divorced. However, for our
low value items we will have no motivation or ability to
overcome challenges in these areas as there simply wont be
the necessary interest levels needed to sustain any long term
threat.
In order to succeed in business you must be motivated to
succeed! If you have no motivation then the best thing to do is
to do a reality check on your value system. Motivation is
needed to keep you and I focused on a pre-set goal and our
dreams and desires. It is quite possible to draw inspiration
from our own motivation which in turn leads to consistent
success in achieving pre-set goalswe inspire ourselves.
However, we will also inspire those that we employ! We will
also inspire our familys and our friends through our
achievements which we have pre-set in goals because we are
highly motivated to do whatever we have to in order to secure
our success and to ward off any threat of failure. Once you and
I have established our TFVs then the catalyst to achievement
in this regard is motivation. Motivation then can be described
as the incentive and stimulus and drive which simply must
accompany our TFVs. We will thus, in a sense then be
induced and encouraged and spurred on in order to achieve
in the areas which we have identified as our TFVs.
Recently I was called to a business that had developed serious
challenges to the point of business failure. During my
assessment, and as you can imagine, I requested a copy of the
partners TFVs and company goals (not to be misconstrued
with a company business plan). Company goals in my
opinion is a copy of the personal goals which has been aligned
to the business for each business partner based upon the
outcome of a TFV exercise. Needless to say I was not handed
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what I requested and could then understand why the business

had serious issues. However, while my goal was to ensure that
the above was completed prior to my concluding my
consulting contract between the parties I had noticed a serious
lack of overall motivation amongst key staff members in the
business. What I saw was obviously due to a lack of leadership
which could not be effectively provided as the partners were
not personally inspired and neither of them was able to inspire
one anothera chaos scenario for sure! The long and the short
of the situation was that neither partner had taken the time to
find out what actually motivates them and this could not be
done due to the fact that a TFV exercise had not been
performed and therefore neither was professional goal setting
done. With no inclination of what will motivate either partner
they had no idea of success as they had no pre-set goals to
align with their TFVs. With no TFVs and no goal setting
there was no notion of what success actually meant and this
depressing situation was actually affecting everyone in the
company this had to change and did. However, the one thing
that the partners were never exposed to was the fact that people
are attracted to successful people and successful people inspire
other people and people in general are attracted to people that
inspires them as much as opposing magnets attract each other.
The partners developed their TFVs and personal goals and
started achieving these day by day. They had more direction
and started doing the things that they had an interest in and the
satisfaction began to show. Together with the satisfaction
levels inspiration was built and was transferred to all in the
business. The business and the future were secured as the
partners inspired their staff through their personal and business
achievements. The best of all was that the partners informed
me that the more they achieved the more they were inspired
and the more they were inspired the more motivated they
became to focus on their goals and to achieve the success
which for so long had eluded them.
What do we think about more and what do we remember less
of as this relates to our TFVs? You will agree with me I know,
we tend to think more on the things that actually interest us so
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we want to remember more and more of those interests and the

ensuing experiences. The opposite applies to the activities
which dont interest us at all as we want to forget these as soon
as is possible. For instance, relationship challenges? Mary and
Steven were very much in love; however, neither of them
bothered to find out about the others value system and
unfortunately, after them being very much in love, the
relationship disintegrated. Mary was devastated and still very
much in love and while she never saw it this way Steven was
one of her TFVs in her personal life value system. Steven
quickly moved on with life while Mary struggled to get over
the break-up. The memories for Mary remained fresh for a
very long time while the memory of the past relationship with
Mary was all forgotten by Steven who had already moved on
with another relationship. The illustration here was presented
to you in order for you to understand that your TFVs are
automatically given priority and placed into our long-term
memories while our low value items are placed into the part of
our brains where we deliberately choose to ignore them (and
do), and hence, these receive very little attention or memory
recall.
Once you start to inspire people through your achievements,
brought about by understanding who you are and what
motivates you more, you are noted for strong leadership
abilities. The one thing that people will most certainly notice
about you is that you are not fazed by difficult or seemingly
insurmountable challenges. In fact, due to the changes in your
business life and personal life brought about as a result of
identifying your TFVs, you are now known as a leader that
faces all challenges head on and that you will not be looking
for the easiest way out. What excites you more nowadays is
that you not only have the necessary motivation to overcome
but you are more interested in finding new and lasting ways to
get around or go over the challenge. As a newly established
leader of note you are no longer happy to work or operate
within the shadow of others as you are an individual and have
come to realize that values are different from one person to the
other and that your values are important enough to devote your
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full attention to and no energy is to be given to the

development of someone elses values other than in a
supportive role. The other aspect of a great leader is that there
is a realization that the only way to claim glory as it were is to
do so on ones own achievements and not on the achievements
of others. You are who you are and have identified the areas
which you will have to focus on in order to achieve success
and worrying about someone elses success (other than from an
encouragement point of view) is not a part of your focus and
you will not allow yourself to expend any more energy than
you have to on someone elses achievements you are your
own person and are determined to prove your worth in all that
you attempt.
As an entrepreneur, dont be fooled by placing your time and
attention into the wrong activities such as your low value
items. The low value items will not give you the kind of
satisfaction or the result which you need in order to achieve
and to be inspired. The goal then is to achieve and to be
inspired and this will only come from all of your efforts and
focus and energy going into activities which will actually
promote the values (TFV) which make you who you are. The
result then must lead to you promoting your TFVs at all times
and a determination must also be in place as to not allow
unnecessary distraction at any point in your journey. People
around you have a bad habit of consuming your time and
energy on your behalf if they see that you willingly allow them
to do so. You and I are also acutely aware that people are quite
capable of shifting our focus to any and other areas which will
in no way promote what we are trying to achieve and this will
simply lead to a tremendous amount of frustration as you will
be spending more of your time helping others to achieve their
goals rather than you achieving yours through consistent focus
on your TFVs. The other consideration here is that if you and
I dont focus on our TFVs then the low value items in our
lives will take over to the point where we are more consumed
with dealing with these than we are to achieving what we have
set out to achieve as per our pre-set goals, dreams and
desires.
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You have the same amount of time in a day as I do. You also
have the same amount of hours in any given day that anyone
else has out there for that matter so it has nothing to do with
the amount of time which you have at your disposal. Rather, it
is what you propose to do with the time available to you as
opposed to what others choose to do with theirs. Your TFVs
will dictate your time, day and the pace with which you
operate. Surely then, if there is no difference in the amount of
time which we all receive daily, we should be spending our
time more wisely and focusing all that we have on energy
toward accomplishing our TFVs? The goal as an entrepreneur
then would be to fill your day with activities that fulfill the
mandate of your TFVs and subsequent goals. Whatever you
do, do not allow distractions and most important of all do not
allow yourself to distract you from achieving the daily
activities which will ensure that you fulfill your TFVs as
distraction of any sort will ultimately consume you. The quest
each day then is to fill each hour with energy and activities into
the TFVs that actually matter. When you are distracted by low
value demands then show good leadership and management
skills DELEGATE! A professional entrepreneur will have
learnt a long time ago the art of delegation (remains a
challenge and a problem with the unprofessional though) and
as a business leader it is imperative that you get rid of the
distractions so pass the unimportant and the distractions on to
people which you can trust to deal with the activity effectively.
I do understand that many would say that they do not have
such a person where this type of delegation can take place and
my answer to this is simple train someone whom you can
trust! Again, your attention MUST remain on the achievement
of your TFVs and your pre-set goals which are aligned with
one another. When you consider delegation, a common
practice amongst the professionals and successful, is to make
sure that you trust someone with the task who will be highly
motivated to perform it. The big mistake with delegation is
those leaders and managers who delegate to staff that actually
dont want to perform the task at all and see no benefit in
helping you as the entrepreneur, leader or manager. Find highly
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motivated staff to delegate to and perform a values analysis on

ALL employees BEFORE employing them in order to see how
far apart your values are and that of the business.

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The goal as an entrepreneur then would be to fill

your day with activities that fulfill the mandate of
your TFVs and subsequent goals.

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What I have been talking about for the last while is in essence
time management! It stands to reason that you will get results
(whether good or bad) in any area that you spend most of your
time in. If you spend more time at the mall having coffee then
you can most certainly expect low output in the rest of your
business. If you are simply keeping yourself busy at the
office doing insignificant and low productive activities then
expect your business to be affected by your low production
this is a fact. In all honesty, I am trying to guide you here, get
rid of activities that you considered insignificant enough to
pass on to someone else at the office and focus on what will
promote your goals and TFVs. Get rid of low production
activities DAILY! Think only of your personal and business
growth and shed low yielding activities in favor of high
yielding high result oriented actions. Focus on any activity that
promotes your business and your pre-set written goals and
ignore distractions at all costs.
I want to reveal something to you now that may shock you! It
is common knowledge in the selling environment that there is
a special relationship between salesperson and client or
customer. This special bond develops from the moment of
them meeting one another but is cemented in the initial stage
which many of us refer to as the ice-breaking stage of the
entire process. It is during this stage or phase that the
salesperson sells themselves (more of this in my next book on
sales for entrepreneurs) to the customer with a view to
becoming more than just business acquaintances. The goal of
the salesperson is to develop a trust bond with the client so that
a successful conclusion to all efforts is enhanced. Here is my
shock news!

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Once the ice-breaking has been achieved and trust

developed the client will purchase from the
salesperson and not from the company.

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Once the ice-breaking has been achieved and trust developed

the client will purchase from the salesperson and not from the
company. The fact that the salesperson has made the sale is
incidental to which business she represents as after the bond
building stage she could literally represent any company and
she would be welcomed by the client and business shall be
concluded. I now want to make another statement that may not
only shock you but help you to understand why many
entrepreneurs staff behave and react the way that they do.
Your staff has a list of their own values and by working for you
this becomes their goal the achieving of their OWN
VALUES AND GOALS. The reason why they can so easily
move from one job to the other is also very simple to
understand THEY FEEL THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO
FULFILL THEIR VALUES AND GOALS BETTER AT THE
NEXT COMPANY! The fact of the matter then is that we all
want to achieve our highest core values and it matters not
where we do this as long as we are supported in our quest. This
is why it becomes imperative for you to perform regular values
analysis with your staff and ensure that your business is able to
accommodate these and as this happens you will also be
supported in your own efforts in promoting your goals, dreams
and desires through your TFVs. As you are dedicated to your
TFVs, to your pre-set goals and to your family so are those
working for you? Achieving their own ambitions is no less
important to your staff as yours is to you and your staff will be
dedicated to achieving their TFVs with you and your company
as long as they see this happening. Imagine then what can
happen if you hire people who are all on the same page and
who care enough about each other to promote a successful
conclusion to personal and business TFVs?
Conclusion
In this chapter the goal was to get the reader to understand that
success can be achieved either the long way or the professional
way. However, success only comes to those who first
understand who they are deep down and as an individual
person. To date, many well-meaning entrepreneurs have been
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focusing in the wrong areas and have thus been floundering in

their businesses and their personal lives.
Entrepreneurs employ all the wrong people who are more
interested in promoting their own agenda than to play a part in
the growth of you and your business. You may have been
guilty of not recognizing that you are wasting time and
acting busy doing all the wrong actions at all the wrong
times. I would say that prior to you reading this book you may
have had an excuse for not achieving your goals and desires to
date. However, from today you are responsible by sheer virtue
of the knowledge which has now been imparted to you. I am so
sick and tired of hearing of businesses here today and gone
tomorrowfly by nights. I am convinced that a huge part of
their failure has got to do with the fact that entrepreneurs seem
to be floundering around with no apparent direction at all. In
order to be a successful entrepreneur it is imperative that you
have direction which can be seen by your clients or customers,
staff and family. A person with no direction does not inspire
confidence at all. The only way to get direction is to set goals
that are achievable and reasonable and what will determine
these pre-set goals will be the very psychological phenomenon
within you called VALUES. Identifying your Top Five Values
in life, at any given point, is what you will need FIRST in
order to consider goal setting. The ideal would be to perform a
values analysis PRIOR TO selecting a business opportunity as
your TFVs should match the business of choice and/or the
other way around. Many entrepreneurs are in businesses which
they ought to get out of sooner rather than later, and if not, the
business will most certainly get rid of them. So many
businesses do not exists any longer because things are done
indecently and out of order. First things first: (1) perform a
values analysis; (2) arrive at your TFVs (3) consider and
approve a matching business; (4) set business and life goals
based upon your TFVs and (5) employ staff who will promote
your agenda ahead of theirs by ensuring that they are able to
also achieve their TFVs. Goal setting is critical to success, and
yet, many prospective entrepreneurs and existing entrepreneurs
never venture into this arena and blame the lack of planning on
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being too busyif you are too busy to plan then you are too
busy, my friends. If you dont plan then you are planning to
fail so consider this and the next chapter. Many entrepreneurs
fail to set goals because, in all honesty, they dont know how. It
will be my absolute pleasure to guide you through a simple
process whereby you are able to establish a plan which will
lead to success as long as you have the determination and
leadership to follow the plan to the bitter end.

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6
Goal Setting: The Aim and the Purpose of it All
1st Secret: PASSION
2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
5th Secret: VALUES
6th Secret: GOAL SETTING
Introduction
Lets first summarize our achievements to date! So far you
have been exposed to some extremely critical and thought
provoking topics. You have also understood that the very
reason for digging as deep as we have is to ensure that you
are able to determine your fit in the role as an entrepreneur. By
now you will understand that being an entrepreneur means that
you have all the attributes mentioned in this book to this point
and that should you move ahead despite having contrary or
opposing attributes then the chances of you losing all or a big
part of your investment and/or life savings will be greatly
enhanced-but your choice nonetheless. Thus, if you are not
passionate about the business or the business idea then this is
where you should walk away and not bother to complete the
reading of this book unless you have a burning desire to
change. We have also discussed the need to reflect on other
critical psychological attributes such as optimism, attitude,
self-image, and then of course, values. Each of the above are
absolutely critical to your success and these should be
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considered carefully BEFORE you waste your time, energy

and money on a business which will be doomed to failure like
the countless hundreds of thousands worldwide on an annual
basis. However, my hope and sincere desire is that you start a
business and one that you are passionate about and a business
which will bring you great joy and supply you with an ability
to achieve your pre-set goals.
While I may be assuming too much at times I simply cannot
be guilty of making that mistake here when so much is at
stake. I cannot simply assume that most of the readers
understand the concept of goal setting and/or whether the
reader has even been exposed to the concept called goal
setting. However, no matter whether you have or whether you
have never heard of the concept of goal setting I want to
inform you that both your life and your business will have no
earthly direction at all, from a business and materialistic point
of view, should you never get to the point of establishing a
clear and reasonable pathway to success. The pathway, or
goals, must be measurable at all times so this will mean then
that once goals are set then it would be correct to conclude that
a major part of your follow-up function will be to ask a simple
question then How am I doing? Constant re-evaluation
should lead you to a conclusion and this conclusion had better
be positive or else you have done something wrong in the
planning phases of goal setting. The good news is that I will be
taking you through a step by step process with a view to
ensuring that you have the direction which you will need in
order to succeed. However, before we start the process, lets
consider a few very important facts and issues before we get
started.
It would seem then (I am under correction here) that no matter
what we do in life we are deemed to be successful if we get
over the proverbial LINE and it is also thought that we have
failed if we do not cross at some point in time we cannot
score without crossing the goal line and this is a worldwide
accepted fact. The one thing that you and I will know about the
line, though, is that it would seem that there is more often than
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not a line to indicate a start and a line which clearly indicates

the ending of a pre-determined goal. We all know this, and yet,
we never view our personal and business lives with the line in
mind at all. When you and I consider the matter a little more
intensely we will notice that just about everything we do has a
start and a finish line. Our children go to school and when they
enter the main gate and cross that particular line then we
consider them to be in school and that they are now learning
(we all hope?). The day goes by and the final bell rings which
indicates the end of the academic day once they leave the
main gate to the school they also cross a line so to speak and
are considered done with school and attending classes for the
day. The same applies to those in the adult world as we all
realize that there is a line between working hours and family
time. We either participate in all different kinds of sport or
many of us participate by watching all kinds of sport. Have
you noticed (maybe you are like me as I have always taken
them for granted until I thought about it more carefully) how
important lines are in any sport and/or game and they all have
a start line and a finish line a kick-off (a start) line and a
goal line (an end)? Pedestrians and cars alike are all controlled
with lines and death or serious injury can occur if one or the
other crosses the line at the wrong time. A university student
has a start line in a sense in that they start out as a first year
student (freshman) and end the program in the final year
(Senior) as a graduate. They entered the university property
(the line) and at the end of four years they leave the university
property (the line) upon graduation.
While we can continue on and on with all kinds of examples
about the use of lines to demarcate the start and the end of
certain of lifes activities I want to now get to the point of
citing the few examples above. We use lines every day for all
sorts of things to determine the start and the end of many
activities in our lives ACCEPT when it comes to planning our
lives and our business goals! How is that? Why would we not
do what comes most naturally to us and that is to develop a
starting and a finishing line? We are born and we may call this
a line and we die and many consider this act a line but while
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we are alive, and despite all the examples of the use of the line,
we simply dont think it necessary to focus on what takes place
between the lines. With all of the examples above it is what
happens between the lines that really mattersthe lines
themselves simply represent the starting and the ending points
in our activities. We accept then that a student needs to put in a
lot of hard work DAILY in order to achieve a degree and yet
we forget to understand that the effort put in always has a start
and a finish. The activity, including the passion, optimism,
attitude, self-image and values will most certainly influence
the RESULT. Thus it is the result that we are after and we are
capable of recognizing and encouraging others around us to
do our best in order to bring about the desired result
EXCELLENCE! Again, we understand all of these things
clearly and yet we very seldom apply these techniques and
principles to our life and business planning how sad. It is no
wonder that we have so many failures in marriages around the
world and have the very high rate of failure in new businesses
around the globe.

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When you and I consider the matter a little more

intensely we will notice that just about everything we
do has a start and a finish line.

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The question then is why do we not think it appropriate to plan

our lives and the associated activities? After all, is the goal not
to be successful? I once asked an entrepreneur, who seemed
disorganized but successful (in his own eyes by the way) at
the same time: Debbie, I admire you and what you have
achieved in your business! Thank you, she replied! So tell
me, I said, in a questioning fashion, why have you asked me
here? She then told me what I had already assessed in the
short time that I was with her. I feel disorganized,
directionless and yet I am convinced that I am capable of
achieving more! My next question to her generated the
response which I receive from most unprofessional
entrepreneurs that I pose this question to: Debbie, do you
have a plan for all daily activities and the goals for your
business and life? Yes she exclaimed. I then asked the
dreaded question: Oh, thats great can I see the plan? See
the plan? Yes! You do have your plan written down dont
you? I then get the standard answer from the unprofessional
which goes like this: No, I keep it all in my head and also I
plan as I go! My friend, need I say more!?
Remember, we are not discussing the topic known as a
business plan here as this will be covered in a later book;
however, what we are discussing is the setting down, IN
WRITING, the dreams, goals and personal aspirations of both
ones business and personal lives. I am always amazed as to
how natural we find the use of a line as the start and ending of
a project, and yet, unlike the athlete or the student who plans
every move in between, the unprofessional entrepreneur
refuses, in some cases, and in other cases could not care less
about any form of planning and goal setting in the least. I
attribute this to a phenomenon known to us all as LAZINESS.
The excuse is then that I DONT HAVE TIME TO PLAN!
The issue here is then that I am on many occasions told by the
unprofessional entrepreneur that he/she is doing well without
planning to succeed to which I usually reply that they would be
doing even better if they had a written plan containing the
roadmap to achieving goals I have proven this to be true on
many occasions. There is only one word that can be used to
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best describe an entrepreneurs home life and business life

should no written plan outlining the goals, dreams and the
desires exist CHAOS! Yet, these very same people expect all
those around them, and in particular, their children and staff to
do professional planning for success. How ironic!
In understanding the word or the term GOAL it is imperative
that we also understand the word to mean two things: (1) the
intention; (2) the planning. There must be an intention which
manifests itself in a thought at first (a need or a want) and then
the ultimate goal is to be exposed and placed in writing which
forum is usually a goal setting practical exercise. The word
goal then must be taken to mean an aim or a purpose and all
aims and all purposes in life and in business are just thoughts
and/or intentions until they are reduced to writing with a view
to now planning for achievement. In fact, one cannot have the
one without the other and while the thought or intent most
certainly precedes the action the next logical step would be the
achievement of such intent. However, seeing a thought, dream,
desire or intent down in writing seems to change the entire
game so to speak. Many aspects, including visualization now
comes into play as does the action known as planning in order
to get to the starting line and the ultimate goal of achieving by
successfully crossing the end or finish line. With any sport
activity around the world, and with any academic pursuit, there
is a game plan In place. A football team does not start out on
the field by saying good, we have arrived so lets play! The
student does not arrive on campus one day and say I am here
to study so lets get to it! The sports team arrives at the
stadium to play but they play according to a pre-set game plan.
The student arrives on the campus to study but also has an
entire program of courses, classes and exams to complete
before they cross the graduation line.

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There is only one word that can be used to best

describe an entrepreneurs home life and business
life should no written plan outlining the goals,
dreams and the desires exist CHAOS!

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While both these examples have great intentions of succeeding

they have actually planned their success, and even though,
their plan does not always guarantee success it at least has
assured them of getting so close that a few minor adjustments
before the next game the plan will see them ultimately
succeed. With no plan in play it is not possible to achieve ones
true potential.
The meaning of the term goal then must be a true reflection of
ones aim/s in life. It represents, when reduced to writing
within the context of our current discussion in this regard, your
objective in your business and the object at which you are
aiming thereby producing the desired tangible result. The
driving forces then would be best represented by ones
personal ambitions and drive and these then will manifest
through our very personal intentions and our purpose for
ultimately achieving great success. With goal setting then it
must be reduced down to its purest form in that intentions must
be open and honest, our purpose must be transparent to all and
the goal written out clearly as not to confuse the target actually
aimed atwe must display purpose and aspire to achieve our
design (the pre-set goals) in order that we may arrive at a
successful end. The more we do this, as would be the case for
any athlete or student, the more we arrive at a successful
conclusion with each and every new pre-set written goal in life
and in business.
In reality though whenever the topic of goal setting and/or
goals are discussed in open forum then the issue usually takes
the following line when dealing with salespeoplethe very
people which you as an entrepreneur would hire to propel your
business forward by way of generating new business.
As a salesperson do you understand that the big difference
between the average salesperson and a professional one is
his/her attitude toward the setting of personal goals in
writing? Unbelievably they will acknowledge as follows:
Yes I understand that a professional salesperson has clear
written goals and thats what makes him/her so successful!
Good! May I see yours? I am sorry I dont have one in
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writing! As stated before, this attitude is the very reason that

people fail, and this failure, particularly in business. Goals
MUST be written down so that they can be verified as
legitimate core desires, needs and wants. Goals actually
become our daily plan and focus and are actually lived out
each waking moment. Goals then, in essence, for those that are
professional enough to arrive at a written plan, becomes the
TARGET for daily, weekly, and monthly activity and thus
becomes a clear visible roadmap to success one step at a time.
Not setting professional goals will create disillusionment
within the heart and the mind of the entrepreneur a recipe for
a disastrous outcome.
Not setting goals in writing then is the single biggest reason for
failure and why so many good people never achieve to their
full potential nor do they achieve personal and family dreams
and desires. The question is then: If we dont have a clear
written plan as to the way forward then how is it possible to
know if we have finally arrived?
Goal setting then has to be a process whereby we as highly
motivated people determine a specific outcome in both our
personal and business lives. The goals which we set are
directly linked to the values which are as different to one
another as are fingerprints from one human being to the next.
When setting goals then the question is always WHAT? The
idea is always, with each new goal or a review of previously
set goals, is to ask WHAT will make us more effective in
achieving our goals and then to WRITE THEM DOWN!
Remember, a critical factor to always contemplate when
settings goals is that our goals, dreams and desires are almost
always consistent with our personal and family value system
and must be developed with this in mind.
Why do Entrepreneurs Fail to Plan and Never Set Goals to
Achieve?
I have already stated my simple version of this question:
LAZY! However, I am sure that you and I can dig a little
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deeper and come up with many more for this crime. I would
like to propose that we investigate at least the following four
reasons:
1. The fear of failure.
There are two areas that we need to look at here: (1) fearing
frustration and embarrassment; (2) not setting goals will avoid
failure from the outset. These people have a phobia about not
actually being able to achieve any part of any plan in writing
so they rather not do the exercise at all. The fear extends not
only to the actual potential failure but they are not able to deal
with the sheer frustration of not achieving the desired result.
However, one of the aspects of this persons fear is that he/she
will be embarrassed (so they believe) should they not achieve.
Part of the goal setting process is that you share your goals
with a LIMITED number of people whom you trust and for
these people this is a major negative factor and a barrier to
them actually participating in a process sure to bring those
results. This person will thus have a low self-esteem and a low
self-image and will therefore not be able to handle the
embarrassment and the possible rejection as a result of their
failure. The common belief among those people affected by
low self-esteem and low self-image is that not setting goals at
all will protect them from abuse and/or ridicule should
failure follow planning. They lack the ability and the
motivation to rise up and take personal responsibility for either
their successes or failures.
2. The HERD MENTALITY.
A herd of cattle usually follow one another as do sheep. So if
the one (the leader) bull stands still then the rest of the herd
stands still; however, if the bull starts moving in a different
direction then the cattle will move in the same direction and all
of this applies to the sheep mentality as well. People love
following others for some reason more a lack of high selfimage than anything else. For instance, try this (you may have
already done so) move the next time you are in an elevator or
outside. When you are in an elevator full of people then do
nothing but look up or even simply fold your arms. When
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going outside, and are in a busy street for instance, just look up
and watch how many people will look up just because you do
so. I have performed the two previously mentioned on so many
occasions now and have stopped doing so but it is so
interesting to see how HERD MINDED people really are. The
point here then many entrepreneurs claim that they dont do
planning and goal setting because the majority of people do
not. Talk about embarrassing one? This attitude, once again, is
self-centered and is nothing more than LAZINESS and is
typical of low self-esteem and low self-image people. If other
people arent planning and setting goals then why should they.
The irony of all of this is that these are the people that really
need to do planning and goal setting for success. What I
always say to them is: Guess what? The same majority which
you claim you follow are people like you who are poor,
frustrated with life, and are typical non-achievers!
3. Always putting out fires.
I can just hear them now: I AM TOO BUSY! I cant cope
with the pressures at my business! Do you know how many
challenges I face each and every day!? I have said it before
and I will say it again, if you are too busy to plan then you are
too busy so take time off and focus on developing your goals
and planning. It is far better to spend some time to prevent
fires than the time wasted in putting out fires. Once again, I
want to submit that the real reason for this attitude is that of
LAZINESS!!! Too busy is certainly not a good enough
excuse for the lack of professionalism in planning and goal
setting. By implementing better planning and goal setting you
will save the time and become less busy as you will be more
focused on the high yield and high value areas to be busy
doing the wrong things. Your focus will always be drawn
naturally to your core values and when you are able to pin
point your number one value you will be even more focused to
succeed.
4. Never had a course in goal setting techniques.
If you have to date used this as an excuse for not doing the
right things by way of professional planning and goal setting
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then I have good news for you. Today is the day where we end
your ability to use number four above as an excuse for not
doing goal setting for a more effective business and life. Not
only will you know all that is needed from a direction point of
view but you will also be taken through all the necessary
procedures for effective goal setting and planning. The good
news is that it is not and has never been difficult to achieve
goal setting. We will also be going through the necessary
planning stages which will help you to effectively consider and
set new goals. In a nutshell then, we will reveal the secrets to
goal setting directions, goal setting procedures and goal setting
plans, and all of this, with a clear goal to make you so much
more effective.
The Result of an Entrepreneur Not Setting Goals or
Performing Life Planning
1. Entrepreneurs will stagnate and end up in a serious SLUMP.
The entire principle and reason why goals are set in the first
place is to give direction to the directionless. Take away
direction, or if you dont have direction in the first place then
an entrepreneur will wonder around in business and in life not
knowing what to do next. The same thing applies to
salespeople when they start the weekly selling cycle if they
dont have pre-set appointments for the current week they will
simply arrive at the office not knowing what to do. Think then
about yourself as you wake up on a Monday morning not
knowing what your priorities are for the coming week I can tell
you that you will be demotivated in no time at all and you
WILL get yourself into a serious slump. The entrepreneur has
constrictions in business as generally resources are always in
short supply and this includes human resources. Many good
business people go out of business simply because they have
no plan as to how to overcome obstacles by the correct
allocation of all resources associated with the business. I have
deliberately used the word SLUMP here because I want you
and I to see that being in a slump is self-inflicted as a moment
or moments of slump is not something that we inherit from
other people and neither can this be thrust upon us by external
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circumstance we bring this upon ourselves because we have

all kinds of excuses for why we should not assess our business,
our time and our families and then to formulate a plan for
success. By not planning then we are actually planning to fail!
The word slump, within the context of our discussion, must
be taken to mean a decline in the status quo. This phenomenon
then in itself is extremely dangerous to the entrepreneur
because in many instances the entire life savings is invested
into a business and a positive result must be achieved or the
entrepreneur stands a very good chance of losing everything
which he or she owns. Now imagine with me for a moment
will you that a slump will have varying degrees and will
produce disasters at various levels. What am I saying? Well if
an entrepreneur has no planning at all from the outset then you
can rest assured that it is not whether a decline will take place
but rather when and the decline thus becomes imminent and
immediate from day one. One the other hand we may have an
entrepreneur who has at least got the basics down and has done
a half a job on developing something resembling a life plan
and goal setting. The idea of a job not done professionally and
completed (after all only the unprofessional entrepreneur
would even do half jobs on whatever he/she takes on) to the
full will also tell you what kind of a person this is and that if
he/she does a half a job in planning then he may stand half the
chance of getting himself/herself into a slump and start a
downward spiral until the business if finally lost.
Goal setting and life planning MUST be done if you plan to be
an entrepreneur and I want to make it quite clear at this point
once again as an entrepreneur THERE ARE NO
SHORTCUTS! You simply must plan for success or success
will allude you and you WILL become demotivated. With no
written plan for your life (business goals and personal family
dreams and desires) you have no ability to measure and the
ability to measure your progress (or lack thereof) is critical in
keeping you focused on results and there is simply nothing
wrong with a business having a results driven leader. With no
direction then, should you not have a WRITTEN plan, you will
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start a collapse from the very day that you open your doors.
Remember, planning is part of the PRE-OPENING exercise
and due diligence. I want to use this opportunity to once again
point out to you the reader that all of the contents in this book
are actions and activities which should be performed BEFORE
you become an entrepreneur. While I am sure that this book
will help those that are struggling in their businesses currently
the idea is to read and ACT upon the contents written within
these pages BEFORE you decide on a business that matches
your value system and life plans and goals. The idea here is to
prepare you BEFORE you take the plunge so to speak. The
idea is to encourage you the very best I can and for you to dig
deep in order to determine whether you even have what it takes
to be an entrepreneur. If you dont heed my words in this book
then you are doomed to fail, and if not fail in totality, you may
probably be in a business which becomes a noose around your
neck as opposed to being a joy and a daily passion.
Once the decline has started in your life and business
(particularly in your business) you will go through a few
phases which are, but are not limited to, the following:
depression and what I usually refer to as the drop, fall and
tumble of everything good in your life. Can you imagine!? All
of this because of a lack of planning which in many instances
could be put down to one word only LAZINESS!
2. Entrepreneurs will not be motivated to complete the basics.
In order to be motivated one needs inspiration. When you or I
are disorganized how is it possible that we will ever be
inspired to achieve? Motivation refers to our ability to drive
ourselves through inspiration and inducement and all of this in
order to encourage us to excel. Being an entrepreneur is very
lonely at times and so many of us have to rely on our own
ability to be self-motivated. What makes self-motivation, or
any motivation for that matter, so difficult at times is when we
cant even begin to complete the basics on a daily basis. I have
experienced demotivation in entrepreneurs to the point where
instead of visiting with them at their place of business I found
myself discussing business issues at their homes or in a
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hospital ward. The very basic action of getting out of bed and
getting ready for work was simply too much to handle the
business had become a noose. These people become so drained
and despondent due to the total lack of direction, and now the
new threat of actually losing it all, that they see no way out and
all the available energy which they have left is reserved for
keeping them going on a daily basis. The basic actions such as
communicating with suppliers who are demanding payment
and the landlord who needs the rent paid is being set aside.
Going into the office to face staff and to organize the days
activities is not a part of their basic activity for the daythey
are totally and utterly demotivated and all of this due to no
direction at all. A written life planning and goal setting
exercise is what these people need, and yet, the sad thing for
many of these so called self-inflicted casualties is that it may
just well be too late.
A formal written plan gives the necessary direction while
following the plan actively will provide the inspiration and
motivation on a daily basis. When we all have direction we
have purpose and it is this very purpose which becomes our
incentive and stimuli to focus and to achieve the basic
fundamentals which are critical in order to assure success.
Alas, many people, despite the current negative situation faced
by the unprofessional entrepreneur refuse to put their current
state down to a lack of professional planning. EVERYTHING
ELSE will get the blame but not the laziness which usually
precedes a proper planning sessionit is too boring a task to
complete! A formal written plan setting out all of ones goals,
dreams and desires is the one action which will ensure that we
at least complete the basic business fundamentals such as
bringing in the sales, performing the needed services,
managing staff, and managing the current client base and the
supply chain on a daily basis. All of these are key
fundamentals in any business and yet these tasks become
arduous to those having no motivation to perform the basics on
a day to day basis. The matter is simple then and that is if we
have no clear written plan giving us direction we will become
demotivated to achieve and when we become demotivated we
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will not perform the basic and fundamental tasks which will
keep the business growing. Thus, production will decrease
consistently and continuously, and this, will simply add more
negative de-motivators. The end result then will be
predictableFAILURE!
3. Entrepreneurs will become complacent and satisfied with the
status quo.
I met with two business partners once who informed me that
they were facing a major challenge. The challenge consisted of
a difference of opinion (values?) between the two men
regarding the growth of the business. The one partner was
younger by at least fourteen years (remember this when
choosing a partner) while the other was in his early sixties. The
issue was whether to continue to expand the business or
whether to put the brakes on so to speak. The younger
partner was progressive and felt that expanding the business is
the best way to protect the business from complacency and
mediocrity. The more senior partner felt that doing so would
upset the status quo in that they had all the necessary material
possessions that they had aspired to from the outset and to
expand now would add to the work load and take away the
finances which were keeping them comfortable at this point
in the business. The younger partner had been progressive
prior to my arrival as mediator between the two men and
presented me with a clear written plan as to how and why he
felt that the business should move forward with expansion
plans. It was clear that the business had great services which it
provided to its client base, the financials were all in order and
the profit levels were great in fact their success had created a
tax issue which was yet another reason cited by the younger
partner as a reason why the money should be better spent in an
expansion program. I happened to agree with the younger
partner as the very nature of a business is to grow and to grow
continuously. The older partner had become distracted by the
success and satisfied with the status quo which led me to
believe that the root cause in the partnership may be the
laziness and complacency of the more senior partner. The
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difference between these two partners will be the values which

they hold meaning that the one is motivated by a larger more
successful business and all the benefits attached to the success
and prestige while the older partner was happy and satisfied
with what he had at that point in his life; he was also a bit lazy,
to be quite frank about my conclusions. A major determining
factor for me was that I had seen a clear goal setting plan of
action for the expansion proposed by the young partner and it
looked good and much of the financing needed for the
expansion was done through a business method called selffinancing. I proposed options which were simple to both
partiesthey had reached the pinnacle of their business
relationship and a change was inevitable. My proposal was that
if the two could no longer agree then the younger partner
should buy the shares of the older in order to gain full control
of the business so that he would have both the power and the
freedom to implement the plan which he so believed in. The
idea was accepted (for the sake of the business and sanity) and
the partners went their separate ways and both were happythe
business continues to grow from strength to strength.

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When we all have direction we have purpose and it is

this very purpose which becomes our incentive and
stimuli to focus and to achieve the basic
fundamentals which are critical in order to assure
success.

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The worst thing with a partner who is satisfied with the status
quo in the above scenario was that the personality and values
varied to such an extent that it would not be long before his demotivators deepened. The result may have turned out totally
different and such a state will make it harder and harder for the
young partner to get back to work the business would have
become the proverbial noose around the neck which would
have led to an enormous amount of frustration and animosity
between the partners which may very well have led to the total
demise of the partnership and the business.
Complacency will set into a new business and a more
established business at all the wrong times if no written plan
exists. This is another reason why I say that goals and life
planning must be performed on a regular basis and adjusted
according to ones accomplishments and failures. Even
retirement dates need to be planned for! If no plan exists, or if
current plans are not adjusted, the entrepreneur gets up to
mischief as there will be too much time on his/her hands.
Complacency has its very roots, within this context, in the
action known to us all as self-satisfaction. What the younger
partner was facing in his more mature counterpart was
smugness, a dangerous level of overconfidence, over satisfied,
self-righteous and worst of all UNCONCERNED. Businesses
must continue to grow as surely this is the very nature of the
beast? As an entrepreneur you must always ensure the
growth of the business and this can only happen if and when
you have a written system of pre-set goals which are analyzed
regularly with a serious view to updating the old with the new.
4. Entrepreneurs will lose priority of time and the management
thereof.
Without a formal written plan in order to keep one focused on
the high yielding activities it stands to reason, then, that the
entrepreneur will not have the necessary direction needed in
order to ensure business and life success. When the
entrepreneur loses sight (through lack of a written plan) of how
to prioritize time then he or she will also lose sight of the
management thereof. The thing with time is that we all get the
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same amount of it in each day. The key to success though does

not lie in the amount of time we each receive but rather in the
effective use (management) of the time. The one way to ensure
that you and I are using our time effectively is to have a
working professional plan which actually tells us where to
spend our time and where not to spend time. The written plan
will be a sort of a conscience to our activities and where we
spend our time. If there has been no time planned for a visit to
the coffee shop each day as this would not help us to achieve
our pre-set goals then our conscience will inform us of this.
With a written plan we now automatically have a time
manager, whose sole responsibility it is to keep us focused on
high yielding activities and avoiding low yield unproductive
time wasters. A written plan would cover the age old
philosophy of working smarter not harder in order to achieve
your goals. Not having a plan would have the direct opposite
effect: working harder and not smarter when working this
way then you and I will simply be adding unnecessary and
additional de-motivators to our day which will most certainly
be counter-productive to you and all others concerned with
your idea and/or business.
What is the Purpose of Setting Written Goals and
Developing Plans?
Lets look into at least six areas that may help us to answer the
question as was posed above:
1. To assist the entrepreneurs to reach full potential through
effort.
I have always been wary of the word and misuse of the same
namely potential. A real estate agent takes you to a run-down
dump and says that the house has great potential. They say
all you have to do in order to have a great house is to give it
some TLC. What they are saying is that the house is capable
of becoming great but is most certainly nowhere near that
point at present. When we look at some young person who is
doing well at university we have a tendency to state the she
has great potential so HOPEFULLY we will see her actually
make something of herself one day!? In other words what
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they are saying is great but she is not perfected as yetMAYBE

one day! So while the ability is recognized the talent has not
yet reached full maturity.
The very purpose of setting goals and developing plans then is
to take you from the POTENTIAL stage to the MATURITY
stage. You can do nothing with potential except nurture it with
a clear goal of getting it to maturity stage! So you have been
told that you have great potential of becoming a world class
entrepreneur and that you have all that it takes-you will
understand that this is only the beginning. You need a way of
taking what other people see in you and turning it into reality
and while there may be many ways for others to reach their
full potential, for you as an entrepreneur, there is only one way
develop a written set of goals and life plan and then work the
plan! The key then in goal setting will be to awaken the
positive thinking in you, remove all doubt which you may have
in yourself and to take you from a low self-esteem (if this is
what you are right now) attitude to a highly motivated, high
self-esteem and high self-image entrepreneurall the attributes
which you will need to be successful in your business. Instead
of having people say maybe he will make it in business the
idea would be to ensure that you make it in business and
instead of you doubting yourself every minute of every day a
written plan will assist you to become amongst the most
admired of people within your sphere of influence. The idea is
also to get you to a point where you actually get what you and
your family expects out of life.
2. Maximize the entrepreneurs productivity by focusing energy.
Without any doubt at all I do not hesitate to inform you that the
higher level of achievement the greater your self-confidence.
Remember success comes from effort but can be seen in a
persons self-confidence (a difference between this and pride
and arrogance) and customers and people in general love to
deal with successful peoplethus success brings with it more
success! The more success brought about by an impressive
self-confidence the greater the motivation levels existing in the
life of the entrepreneur; however, the higher the personal
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motivation the
management.

more

professional

the

personal

time

Expending energy in the high value goals will bring about the
associated production levels. However, in my opinion the
higher the production levels the more energy you will receive
and obviously the more focused the energy the greater the end
result. Once you have mastered the art of focusing your energy
into high value-high return activities you will feel better about
YOU in that people with high energy levels usually come
across with drive, tenacity and vigor. All of these attributes are
most admired by people all over the world but is very illusive
to those without a pre-set goal and life planning program. Once
you have developed your working plan then people will most
certainly see you as full of spirit, full of zeal and full of zest for
what you are doing and will most certainly deem you as a
serious contender. This positive attitude affects all those
around you including the dear ones which you love at home.
Many will say that you are a person full of exuberance and
strength and may not understand the change in you but the one
thing which no one will doubt is the fact that there is a
permanent change in you and while they dont understand it
they most certainly like the new you.

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The more success brought about by an impressive

self-confidence the greater the motivation levels
existing in the life of the entrepreneur; however, the
higher the personal motivation the more professional
the personal time management.

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3. Give the entrepreneur purpose to life and direction to business

activities.
An entrepreneur must be guilty of planning on purpose as this
may be the one time in your life whereby you would be
excused for actually doing the right thing on purpose. Purpose
means intention and motive and obviously justifies all of your
actions in the planning stages of your business. When you plan
it means that you are deliberate in your thoughts, acting
intentionally in placing these down in writing and consciously
preparing to achieve what you have now embarked on.
As an entrepreneur or a potential entrepreneur reading this
book it has always been my goal to get you to see that certain
actions and achievements will create a great deal of security
within you. There is no more powerful tool in business than a
businessperson who has large amounts of personal security.
However, we understand that personal security does not
happen as it must be fostered and nothing fosters security
within the entrepreneur than success upon success. Always
moving toward a set goal and achieving the goal will help you
to gain all the inner security which you are going to need in
order to ensure consistent growth within your business. We all
acknowledge, although not a topic for this book but a later one,
that a business plan is critical for any business and if we are
capable of identifying this then surely we must also understand
that the same applies to our personal lives and personal
business goals? We are referring here to a PLAN OF ACTION
for your business and personal life and having this will go a
long way in changing potential to actual achievement.
4. Entrepreneurs, whether winners or losers, are determined by
the goals they achieve.
Believe this or not but the moment you make a decision to start
your own business you will initiate the natural behavior in
others to judge you. Why judged? Well you have those that
want you to succeed so they will want to see progress and the
only way for them to see progress is that they are able to see
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goals being achieved in some tangible way makes perfect

sense! On the other hand, you will have the skeptic, who will
judge you because of their own personal agenda as there will
most certainly be some people around you (although they may
not be blatant enough to voice their feelings about you and
your so called business plans) who will want to see you fail,
because of all kinds of reasons which may only be known to
them at any stage. So understand this clearly then you WILL
be judged either way and the only way to assure those that
support you is to produce tangible evidence of your ongoing
success; however, on the other hand constant and visible
success is also the only way to silence your critics. Nothing
silences a skeptic more effectively than constant and unabated
success when you plan for a goal and actually achieve it
WONDERFUL! The idea is that you remember, unfortunately
this is human nature, winners and losers are determined by the
goals they achieve in the game of business.
When an entrepreneur is judged because of not achieving preset goals, then this person is considered a failure PLAIN
AND SIMPLE! The one thing though that an entrepreneur
must never be guilty of is that when he/she is judged we do
lose the battle because we have planned to fail by not
planning to succeed and the only way to plan to succeed is to
plan and set reasonable and achievable goals for both life and
business. I want to stress that no matter what you may have or
may not have learnt in this book that you will at least
remember that without planning to succeed you simply wont
and the contents of this book would largely have been wasted
on you and the wonderful life which could develop for
yourself and your family. Unfortunately, I hate to have to point
this out to you yet again but I want to assure you that failing to
effectively plan for success in your business life will lead to
inevitable failure in your personal life as well please dont let
this happen to you and your family. You will be investing both
finances and your life into your business and at the same time
you will drag your family into your new lifestyle so you owe
it to all of those that you love to do this properly and if you
cant then rather hand your money to some charity as I am sure
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that you will lose it all anyway and I want to add that you will
also lose all respect from those around you and your dignity in
the end.
I always remember one of my most favorite money games as I
was growing up and am proud to say that while losing a game
here and there the people I played the game against had a very
tough time beating me. I loved playing the game you know as
Monopoly! Wow! I always got so excited at throwing the dice,
getting the correct numbers so that I can land on properties to
purchase. I needed to get all three (or four in some cases)! The
three would give me the ability to build houses and hotels and
then I would wait like a vulture for the suckers playing against
me to land on these valuable assets which brought in mega
income so that I could buy everything else in site. The obvious
goal was to choke the business life out of them. I usually
planned to win and had a method of playing and when I started
playing Monopoly I played to win, my friend, and you had
better believe it! I was ruthless and showed no mercy to
my opponents (many of which were family and friends so you
can understand that things got heated at times). I played to win
but the only way for me to know that I won and that my
opponents had lost was that I had to KEEP SCORE! If I
succeeded in bankrupting everyone else, and I landed up with
more money than everyone else, then I won the game KEEP
SCORE SO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE WON OR NOT
RIGHT!!?? The question is, then, in business today why play
BUSINESS if you are not going to keep score? I mean truly
what is the point? Business is no more than a serious game of
Monopoly so if we keep score in a simple game then why not
view your business as a game in the first place to make it more
exciting and in the second place to keep score so that you may
come out a WINNER! Planning and goal setting allows you
the ability to keep score and it is the method by which you
both achieve your strategy and assess the depth of your
success. How would you measure either way if you have no
benchmark from which to measure success or failure?
5. Goals serve as a map which keeps us on track day after day.
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Today we are fortunate in that we have Google Maps,

Garmin, TomTom and so many more devices giving us
very specific directions to a pre-set destination. Even if you are
one of the fortunate ones who are able to find your way around
without the use of voices in your ear every few seconds or
minutes you will have to agree that at times these direction
finders are a blessing in disguise. To have all the roads in
your head is even better! However, the point here is that we
use all the tools which we have at our disposal when we need
direction and many spend thousands upon thousands of dollars
purchasing the amazing technology. The sad thing is, though,
that we never spare a moment, as entrepreneurs, and dissect
the benefits of owning these tools and the reason/s that they
actually exist, and then, understanding the practical
applications by means of association with our businesses. Just
as an electronic direction finding device will give direction on
the road, goal setting will give you direction within your
business; and just as much as you will not arrive at a difficult
destination (as at times this is what business is a difficult
destination) without direction you will not succeed in business
without the same. Thus, it is absolutely imperative that you and
I understand that as Garmin will keep you on track EVERY
STEP OF THE WAY so will the goals which you set for your
business success. Direction is given one step at a time and a
new direction is given after the driver has turned the correct
corner or travelled to correct amount of miles or kilometers.
When the driver goes the wrong way the same is corrected and
he or she must make the correction as instructed or one will
not land up at the correct final destination what is the point
of ignoring the clearly given directions right? The very same
thing will apply to your direction finder in business goal
setting. You will need direction EVERY STEP OF THE WAY!
The direction must not only be spelt out clearly but the
direction must be monitored and goals allow us to monitor our
life and business direction EVERY STEP OF THE WAY and
on a DAILY BASIS!
Goals are broken down and become beacons and beacons are
designed to be followed in order to arrive at a pre-determined
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course of action. Beacons were widely used during medieval

and ancient times and the function was largely to warn of
pending attacks by an unwanted enemy (for example, The Lord
of the Rings). Beacons would be placed IN PLAIN SIGHT for
all to see and not hidden or the entire point would be
redundant. Usually the beacon was something bright or
something high such as a tower but the point is that it was a
warning signal and could not be if hidden from plain site at
any time. A lighthouse is also considered a warning beacon and
without many of these in days gone by many, many more
people would have lost their lives. Once again, in order for the
lighthouse to be of any effect at all the idea was that it should
be seen by ships approaching too close to the coast and failure
to actually see the warning ended up producing catastrophic
results indeed. With aircraft today beacons are still used in
order to point the way and without these critical landmarks the
chances of aircraft disappearing off the radar is enhanced. In
fact, the radar itself keeps track of all aircraft activity, marks
direction for an aircraft, acts as a warning and keeps order out
of utter chaos. Hence, the use of direction finding methods for
us mere humans since the beginning of time is not new to us
all. However, what is new to many entrepreneurs, or so it
would seem, is that they do not see the need to have their
businesses aligned to business warning beacons at any time
and then the question is asked as to how it was possible for
them to fail? Warnings are placed in our paths deliberately in
business but can only happen if professional planning has
taken place and when all warning beacons are adhered to.
What is the point of setting up an early warning system with a
view to ignoring them all? Goals, pre-set goals and life
planning are merely a direction system with a built in warning
system which emanates out of our actions and constant reviews
of our business progress or lack thereof KEEPING SCORE!
Goals broken down become beacons pointing the way daily
and keeping us all as entrepreneurs on track and pointed in the
direction of ultimate success. In fact, it is my opinion that the
trip or road to success must surely be as exciting as the actual
end result or achievement surely? How wonderful it is to see
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your plans coming together one step at a time until your goal is
finally realizedhow motivating will this not be to you and me
and how much good would this not do to an entrepreneurs selfimage? The other thing that I am convinced of is that an
entrepreneur who is constantly achieving goals, one step at a
time, will most certainly be promoting personal self-discipline.
Self-discipline means that you are growing in your knowledge
that you must take a step toward success daily and that you do
not need to be pushed by anyone else to KEEP SCORE or to
be motivated to business action. You become your own person
more and more and self-discipline will enhance success and
success ONCE AGAIN will enhance self-image which in turn
will make you a well-respected business person to all those
that feel a need to judge you. The idea then is to understand
from day one that you are only able to achieve the above if you
have actually planned and set goals with a view to achieving
this one step at a time. Goal setting then will also encourage
the entrepreneur to improve his personal responsibility for
accepting all results of all actions whether good or bad
keeping score! If you dont like your score then you have the
personal responsibility to change your reactions which in turn
will or may lead to a strategy change which should thus lead to
an improvement in your score ultimately. How it saddens me
sometimes to see great business ideas being squandered by
entrepreneurs who refuse to change course because they have
never learned the art of accepting personal responsibility for
decisions and when these go wrong they stubbornly refuse to
change strategy for re-alignment to a winning course. The
question is then posed, many times with exacerbation and
frustration: Why and how did I go out of business?
6. Personal goal setting will assist in turning obstacles into
stepping stones.
The absolute worst thing for a budding entrepreneur is to get
into a situation, largely through ignorance, and not reading this
book say I tongue in cheek, where they are faced with
mostly unnecessary and self-inflicted obstacles at the outset
and/or during the business practice. With professional planning
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to be performed BEFORE entering into a business you will

reduce the frustration occurring in many businesses today and
that is the obstacles preventing success. Obstacles in my
opinion, then, are activities or lack of activities which
deliberately plunge the entrepreneur, the business and the
family into a situation whereby they face the proverbial brickwall. The lack of planning is self-inflicted this we all are now
aware of however this leads to some of the most frustrating
moments in business which consist of negative actions such as:
(1) Unnecessary barriers to success; (2) Unnecessary hurdles;
(3) Unnecessary hindrances; (4) Unnecessary stumbling blocks
which lead to frustrating and unnecessary obstructions,
drawbacks and impediments. ALL UNECESSARY AND DUE
TO LAZINESS IN PLANNING EFFECTIVELY BEFORE
CONTEMPLATING GOING INTO BUSINESS!
Dont ever be guilty then of turning stepping stones or
opportunities into obstacles and rather give some serious
thought to turning all hurdles into stepping stones for the sake
of success and through professional planning BEFORE you
start a business. Remember, in many instances small failures
do not represent total failure in the least and in fact, it is the
smaller failures that keep us on our toes as these represent the
clear warning signals on the ultimate road to success. Look at
it this way then: Small failures become detours not dead
ends! It would be a welcome moment for me when I finally
am convinced that entrepreneurs have come to realize that
small failures (setbacks) will help them focus on the BIGGER
PICTURE so that they come to understand why they have
developed more tolerance for the minor frustrations which they
face on a daily basis in business. Again, we simply must revert
to the negative impact of a negative self-image in this regard as
there are far too many entrepreneurs on the brink of failure due
to the inability to recognize that it is their very perception of
themselves, and their abilities, which may just be the cause of
their own destruction.

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In order for me to adequately impress upon you the importance

of goal setting in the business environment (in case I have not
as yet succeeded) I want to employ the kind assistance of a
study performed by Harvard University many years ago now
(but still prevalent to our current exercise I am assured). The
study was conducted on the subject of the impact on the lives
of those graduates who religiously set goals versus those who
place no value on this exercise in their lives. I want to also
point out that the study was originally not conducted
specifically with the entrepreneur in mind and thus I would ask
you to consider this but that you also realize that the results of
the study will apply to ones personal life nonetheless.
Students, around twenty years after their graduation were
requested to participate in a survey regarding their use of goal
setting in their careers. Thus, the study was centered on
graduates who set goals and who actively participated in life
planning exercises with a view to measuring the impact on
success in their financial earning ability and the results are as
follows:
1. 83% - no specific goals at all and only had great plans in
general.
2. 14% - had specific goals but none of these were placed in
writing at all.
3. 3% - had written and specific goals.
Results
1. The 14% of graduates with SPECIFIC goalsearned 300%
more than graduates with NO specific goals.
2. The 3% of graduates with specific and WRITTEN goals
earned around 1000% more than graduates with no specific
and no WRITTEN goals.
May I dare to ask what your thoughts are at this point? I will
be honest with you when I tell you that I was utterly astounded
that graduates from one of the most prestigious business
schools in the United States have graduates who have never
understood the most simple of concepts in that of setting clear
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and concise financial and life goals. It begs the question then
as to how these people get into the university in the first place
with the entrance requirements as high as they were at the
time? I also wonder what has been done to change matters
since this discovery. However, let you and I not judge the
success or failure of these graduates (twenty years after
graduation I want to remind you) until we have taken a deep
and close look at our own state of affairs. You will now see
that my advice and admonition to you is to do all your goal
setting and life goals BEFORE you enter into business as you
can only imagine the tremendous financial loss to you and
your family should you be like the Harvard graduates who
were assessed AFTER twenty years from date of graduation.
The question then is not what has happened but rather what are
YOU going to do with your new found knowledge of the
Harvard graduates?
Goal Setting Major Parameters
We must now move into phase two of the three parts of goal
setting and life planning and while the next section may
contain new thoughts for consideration I want you to be
prepared to hear some of the most important aspects of this
exercise yet again so I will ask you to forgive me for this in
advance. I am not only writing a book but I have a serious and
genuine concern for you, your family and your business
success. With this in mind I would now very much like to
focus your attention on five absolutely critical areas which will
deal with your business and your personal lifewithin the
context of the topic at hand namely goal setting. We will need
some direction (beacons if you will) as to what areas to focus
on so we will develop at least five goal setting parameters
which are as follows and we shall discuss these individually as
per normal practice:
1. Personal Values (Yes again!).
We will quickly review as you cannot set goals until you
understand what these are and what these represent in you as
an individualall else from this point on is reliant upon your
values and this you now know without a shadow of a doubt.
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Values are your personal moral beliefs and life principles and
these represent who you are to those around you and will affect
every part of your life and decision making process. Therefore,
in order to set goals and life planning it is imperative that you
identify CLEARLY your Top Five Values (TFVs) as a matter
of urgency using the exercises as was previously stated in
Chapter 5. The ultimate objective is to set goals and to do life
planning to such an extent that these would enhance your
TFVsyour TFVs are of prime importance and should
ALWAYS be enhanced through your planning or none of what
you do will make sense and you simply will not be motivated
enough to overcome obstacles with a view to achieving your
goals no matter what. To date, you have had what we all call
missing links or as others may put it voids in your lifewe
need to uncover these in the values analysis stage presented in
Chapter 5. The best way to identify your TFVs then is to ask
yourself a question with a view to answering it honestly and
the question may be put in the following way: As this relates
to my business life, my personal life and my personal life
satisfaction levels what do I feel that I am missing at this
stage? Once this vital question has been answered you should
have identified the five voids or missing links as it were
(TFV5s). This will then lead you into the next phase of setting
your values being entities known to most as Life Divisions.
In fact these are usually broken down into seven parameters all
of which will be familiar to you and these are (The order and
the preference is something for you to determine):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Spiritual
Mental
Physical
Family
Business
Financial
Social
Again, you are the determining factor when it comes to placing
the order of priority for you and your family when it comes to
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the above so think carefully and set your personal

HEIRARCHY. Please refer again to the VALUE
IDENTIFICATION CONCIDERATION SHEET in Chapter 5
for further assistance with this section.
2. Financial Aspirations.
a. Earnings Targets
- Business
- Personal
- Family
b. Savings Targets
- Business
- Personal
- Family
c. Retirement Targets
- Business
- Personal
- Family
I want to emphasize here that the above considerations center
on three critical aspects namely (1) money; (2) security; (3)
peace of mind. Money, and/or planning for the most effective
use thereof is not evil as some ignorant people will have you
and I believe and neither is money the root of all evil. The
true context is that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil
and we are not talking about the LOVE OF MONEY here but
the professional planning and effective use of the resource.
Never get the above confused and never let anyone else
deliberately confuse you in this subject either. Whatever you
do never be afraid to set money goals at any stage in your life
as this is prudent as long as you keep the activity within
context and the correct order of priority.
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3. Professional Aspirations.
Professional dreams and goals must also be carefully
considered and placed down in writing. Professional
aspirations and considerations should be done in at least the
following four areas:
a.

Education
We have said that knowledge is not knowledge until you put
it into practice; however, we must always consider what
knowledge will be applicable in your particular case in order to
support your advancement with achieving your goals and life
planning. What is the point of putting knowledge into your
head which will not support your efforts, and also, what is the
point of placing knowledge into your head which will have no
lasting value to you. I refuse to read fiction books as a rule
(does not have to be your rule), and this, simply because I
cannot see how this will help me to promote by personal
business and life goals. While I am sure, that once I am retired
and have achieved all of my goals in life it would be rewarding
to finally sit down with a good action book for a change, but
until I am done my personal feeling is that I will simply be
wasting my time. I have said it before in this book and to many
people if you want to be better at what you do then study for
EXACTLY the subject and information which will enhance
your chances of success within that very area. Study to the full
extent of your capability in any subject that will make you
more proficient. I believe that not every attempt at study need
be a degree at a university but at least read three books on a
single subject matter that is pertinent to your challenge and
you will surprise yourself as to the level of knowledge which
you will gain together with the solutions to the potential
challenges within the same area. It has been said that
LEARNERS ARE LEADERS EVERYWHERE! So ask
yourself then: What kind of information will I need to absorb
in order to help me to achieve and be a leader among leaders
within my field of business? You want other businesses to
follow you and not the other way around so the only way to
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stay ahead of the pack so to speak is to stay ahead through

education in the correct and pertinent areas.
b. Achievement
A few years ago I was invited to enter my business into a
national competition within which the ultimate winner would
be crowned The National Business Champion. What I was not
aware of at the time was that I was competing against 35,000
other businesses with equal opportunity to win. However, as
you would be, I was flattered at the prospect of being invited in
the first place and then the old winner mentality also kicked in.
I accepted the invitation and made an adjustment to my
business achievement goals in order to accommodate my new
desire to actually win this prestigious event. There was much
work to do if we were going to compete and so I received the
way forward from the organizers which led to me believing at
the time that I had taken on more than I could chew. The
parameters for entrance and consideration were tough and time
consuming but I had set the goal and there was no going back
now. I approached my key staff who had in turn promised to
support me in the idea and also to extramanage so that I
would have the necessary time to take on this project without
much disruption to our business it worked great! The
elimination rounds proceeded as per the promised schedule
and I was amazed to find our business within the last five
finalists and then down to the final three. The winner was to be
announced at a black-tie event at a prestigious local venue and
the press was going to be present as was other top business
people in the know. What a glamorous event to be quite frank.
Our key staff was invited and was given VIP treatment and
seating. The great moment came and the drums began to role
and lo and behold the name of my business was mentioned as
the overall winner and my personal name attributed to this
success. Wow! What a moment! I thought that I had just won
my very first Monopoly game all over again! The band played
and the ticker tape parade began and so did the rest of the
celebrations with my staff. The cameras flashed and the
congratulations poured in from all the dignitaries present that
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night. The newspapers and business magazines did what they

had promised and had exposed the news and our business to
the fullest extentthe results were absolutely spectacular I can
assure you.
The question is, then, what will stop you from achieving such a
goal only YOU! If you dont plan to achieve anything, my
friend, then guess what? You will not achieve anything! There
are things which you should consider in planning these goals
and they are:
- Designations which you would like to attain personally
and/or for your business.
- Credentials (something entitling you to some form or
other of credit for your achievements) attached to you and/or
your business.
- Awardssuch as the one which my business won in
2010 (The National Business Champion).
- Recognition for quality service or for top and
innovative products and/or inventions.
c.

Contribution
What part do you want to play in moving your business and
your family forward so think on these things and place these
down that will clearly state your intentions and contributions
toward this goal? Your actions and goals must answer the
following questions:
- How will you make your business stronger?
- If your company has a board then how will your
contributions make them stronger?
- You operate within an industry so how will your
contributions set your industry apart and make it stronger and
more admirable?

d. Personal and Business Advancement

In this section you have to give some thought as to where you
would like to see yourself and your business over the short,
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medium and long term? You have two things to consider here
and that is business expansion goals and personal growth
goals. Some of the areas which you need to consider and factor
in are:
- Your position within the business as the CEO, CFO,
COO, MD and the like (each position will change
exponentially with the growth of the business and will directly
affect your goals and position within the organization as it
grows.
- How many branches will you start out with as a
business?
- How many branches should you open within the goal
period or short term, medium term and long term?
- In fact is it your goal to expand at all?
- Will you go NATIONAL?
- Will you go INTERNATIONAL?
- Is it your goal to eventually sell the business and if so
when?
- You may believe that first prize will be to list on the
NYSE or other relevant stock exchange/listings within your
part of the world?
- Would you enter into a merger arrangement if the terms
were conducive?
- Would you consider acquisitions as a means to grow
your business?
4. Material Aspirations.
Unfortunately we live in a material world and we all have
material needs. Remember, there is a vast difference between
needs, wants desires and then GREED. Many people want to
set goals for themselves and their family and if the desire is to
be GREEDY then that leads them to ultimately set goals that
are unreasonable and unattainable. As we now know, not
achieving pre-set goals will cause motivation levels to drop
and have a severe effect on both you and your familys self233

esteem. My advice, is that you dont become greedy at any

stage of life planning and goal setting, and even more so, when
you are performing this vital task for the very first time. With
this in mind and our heads on straight what areas do we want
to focus on when setting material goals?
a.

Business.
- Emergency Fund Development 3 months to 12
months plus cash reserves.
- Capital Expenditure Fund Development Monthly
Cash reserve build-up for purchases of major equipment and
machinery.
- Material needs for business expansion program as
previously discussed.
- The question to ask as you go through this exercise
as you will see below is what your NEEDS are and what are
your WANTS in these critical areas?

b. Personal.
- These are what I refer to as goals of necessity (NOT
GREED!)
- GOALS OF NECESSITY= this deals with YOUR
NEEDS (Daily, Monthly etc.)
- Only now do we deal with what I refer to as goals of
luxury (NOT GREED BUT DREAMS!)
- GOALS OF LUXURY= this deals with YOUR
WANTS, DREAMS AND ULTIMATE DESIRES (More
medium to long-term goals)
c.

Family.
- These are what I refer to as family goals of necessity
(NOT FAMILY GREED!)
- GOALS OF NECESSITY= this deals with your FAMILYS
needs (Daily, Monthly etc.)
- Only now do we deal with what I refer to as goals of
luxury (NOT FAMILY GREED BUT DREAMS!)
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- GOALS OF LUXURY= this deals with your FAMILYS

WANTS, DREAMS AND ULTIMATE DESIRES (More
medium to long-term goals)
5. Personal Aspirations.
You work hard and your family is committed to you. You
endure much criticism and judgment from people not in favor
of your wonderful progress. You manage the cash-flow well
and endure more stress than most people will have in a lifetime
and your family understands this aspect and sacrifice as you all
develop. Your business continues to grow but you still have to
be concerned for your personal health and well-being, and of
course, that of your family. Thus, it is imperative that you be
rewarded or why become entrepreneurs to begin with? In order
to consider the way in which you and your family may be
rewarded for the great sacrifice and effort put in and the
success arrived at we must now look at the areas which may
bring about the greatest levels of personal satisfaction.
a.

Personal achievement rewards.

It is imperative that you take time out from success! The one
simple thing that my family and I do when I want to reward us
all for success is celebrate the event in a tangible and enjoyable
way. For instance, I have no problem arranging a mid-week
barbeque and get everyone home early (we all work together
so this works well for us) and around the pool. We let loose
and do the unwind thing. We chill and we relax and we
thank and we praise one another and then we give thanks to the
One who has made all of this possible. What a great way to
reward excellence and successWITH FAMILY! I also love
getting the family together at a fancy and upmarket restaurant
with a view to enjoying some good food, entertainment and
one anothers company. Another way I have rewarded the
family and my own efforts in business is to arrange a total
break away from the city within which we operateget out of
town so to speak! Go up to the mountains or get to the coast
as long as you get away and be together. It may be that I will
only do something special with my wife and that we will get
away and spend some alone time together but rewarded we
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must be and rewarded we most certainly shall be! The goal of

the reward, once it has been accomplished, is to work for the
next PRE-SET REWARD!
b. Live life to the full.
The consideration here is not difficult at all and centers on the
question: What goals can I set that will enhance my ability to
enjoy the fruits of my labor in a tangible way? Will the
ultimate purchase of a cottage at the lake help you to enjoy life
to the full and will the peace and quiet calm you down and
enhance your health and well-being? Many love boating and
fishing and mountain climbing and camping or simply
travelling so what would it take for you? Living life to the
full has no reference here to doing all the wrong things and
these activities have to be considered very carefully. It is often
the downfall of successful entrepreneurs who become filled
with pride due to their achievements and they feel that
living life to the full includes divorcing the wife, cheating on
a spouse and partaking in all kinds of licentious behavior. This
is not living life to the full but rather self-destruction so be
very careful as to what you consider to be living life to the
full and please dont take me out of context during this
exercise.
c.

Broaden ones personal frame of reference.

This is an area where you consider your personal growth in a
few critical areas and the impact that these will have on your
ability to perceive knowledge and communicate the same to
those around you. Broadening ones personal frame of
reference is vital to an entrepreneur as it exposes his ability to
communicate on multiple, and at times, at advanced levels and
this is most certainly good for business surely? Some of the
areas within which to broaden your personal frame of
reference would then be, but not be limited to some of the
following activities: (1) Advanced business courses/reading;
(2) Cultural and international interests/exposure/study; (3)
Religious development; (4) Advanced education courses in
fields related and unrelated to your industry but at least aligned
in some way.
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d. Physical goals healthy body healthy mind mentality.

Warning: It is not possible for you to absorb the amount of
pressure and stress as an entrepreneur without some form of
physical and mental punishment! You must seriously
contemplate your pre-emptive action in preparing your body
and mind to deal with the rigors of business as you will simply
have to trust me when I tell you that your entire physical
system will take severe punishment and you MUST be ready
for this result. Again, I want to stress upon you to understand
that I am not stating that stress and pressure MAY come your
way in business but what I am saying is that it WILL come into
your life. The question that you now have to answer is what to
do about the inevitable? While I am not in a position to
recommend a course of action for you I will encourage you to
at least have REGULAR medical checks (complete and
thorough examination), have a dietitian check your eating
habits REGULARLY and ensure that you have a personal
trainer manage your exercise routine if you do not already
have a program of your own set these goals!
e.

Social goals family oriented.

Family and friend time! Fantastic! The time to be around the
people you actually CHOOSE to be around because you love
them and enjoy their intellectual and physical company set
these goals with the following in mind then: (1) Time spent
with your own family household; (2) Time spent with blood
relatives; (2) Time spent with in-laws and spouses family; (3)
Time spent with friends and close friends. Always include the
amount of time which you would like to spend and what the
actual activity will be. For instance, if you love a barbeque
then set up a few Saturdays a month within which to
accomplish your goal but then include the family social goals.
Decide who you will invite when and write this down and as
you will be enjoying an activity which you love anyway you
can kill two birds with one stone in inviting those that you
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love thereby fulfilling the social needs of the family make

sense?
f.

Personal and family experience goals.

I also refer to the experience goals as PARTICIPATIVE
ACTION GOALS. These are the activities which not only
reward but they allow you to let off some steam and forget the
pressures and the stresses of the past while. The activities
referred to here are healthy and must be designed to promote
health and personal well-being. These activities may be as
challenging as climbing Mount Everest or as mellow as laying
on the beach with a favorite book (like the one you are
presently reading?) However, whatever your fancy, the idea is
to get you (and your family should the decision go this way) to
actively participate in some action activities and so these must
be pre-set down in writing as pre-determined goals. Some
ideas for you to consider, but are by no means exhaustive, are:
(1) Sport activities; (2) Some form of art or creative expression
activity; (3) Music participation playing some form of an
instrument; (4) Local book club; (5) Travel
local/International; (6) Some form of extreme sport
skydiving, bungee-jumping, parachuting etc.; (7) Other way
out, unusual (making a movie) activities which one only tends
to dream about.
Ten Golden Rules to Goal Setting
We move forward in our quest to understand the why and the
how of setting professional reasonable and attainable goals and
life planning. Strategies must be prepared in order to be
successful and goals must be monitored for effectiveness. Life
in general is governed by rules and rules are there to give us
direction and to prevent chaos from ensuing within the larger
part of society. Boundaries and rules are good but they must
work for you. You have a choice here and that is that you can
both adopt the rules and make them work for you or you can
discard the rules and reap the rewards which will usually come
in the form of failuresimple choice?

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I want to stress upon you to understand that I am not

stating that stress and pressure MAY come your way
in business but what I am saying is that they WILL
come into your life.

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In order to assist you with the actual practical session of setting

your goals and life planning later in this chapter I would like
you to seriously consider the fundamental parameters (Golden
Rules) for a successful conclusion. I have ten rules which I
would like to propose to you. Strategies and goals:
1. MUST be personal.
2. MUST be in writing and in an affirmation format (declare
your intentions!)
3. MUST be consistently reviewed and be flexible.
4. MUST be measurable.
5. MUST be achievable, reasonable and realistic.
6. MUST be challenging and be specific.
7. MUST be kept private, and yet, shared with key interested
people only.
8. GOALS ALREADY ACHIEVED MUST be re-evaluated and
re-set accordingly.
9. MUST not contain unrealistic time parameters (time-lines).
10. MUST be converted to visualization and positive affirmations.
Must be Personal
Whatever you do you must set your goals on your own! Do not
employ the help of an outsider and do not accept nor elicit
ideas from those around you. This is the moment that you have
to be with yourself as you will have to dig deep. Having
someone influence your goals or setting these for you will not
work as unless what you want to achieve comes from within
then the entire exercise will be fruitless and success will not be
attained and failure assured. One of the big reasons why you
will have to do this on your own is because only YOU can be
committed to the achievement of the same. How is it possible
that you will be totally committed to the achievement of goals
either influenced or set up by a third party? You can and will
only be able to accept personal responsibility for either the
success or failure of the goal setting program if you were the
original author. Well-meaning people may offer to help, and
have a genuine interest in your success, but they must never be
left alone to believe that they know whats best for you. So,
again, I say that the thought process and the pre-set goals and
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how you achieve these must be yours and yours alone. Only
YOU can achieve the goals and not your family and neither
your friends. Your family, friends or influencers will not have
the same ability to be persistent when it comes to facing and
overcoming obstacles and they will most certainly not have the
same kind of self-image which you project in order to see the
entire plan through to the finish.
Must be in Writing and Affirmation Format
You have already seen the results of the Harvard geniuses
who do not place their goals and life planning in writing. I am
giving you all the credit in the world here and know deep
down that you will learn by the very expensive lesson taught
and learned by not placing your goals and strategies down in
writing. Any goals and life-plans which remain in your HEAD
will not and do not count when goal-setting is done. This will
be the time to take all that is in your head and in your heart and
to place it all down in writing. Direction and strategies will
ultimately be much clearer when you see these before your
eyes in writing. Many excuses are offered by entrepreneurs as
to why goals fail but none is more abused than the eternal
curse of forget. Placing all goals, life-planning and strategies
down in writing will reduce the temptation to revert to the age
old forget/forgot tacticyou will be held accountable to what
is in writing and not what you may or may not have forgotten
at any stage of the program.
Affirming your goals on a DAILY basis is imperative. Stating
your goals in a way wherein which you DAILY declare your
intentions regarding your daily goals is what will set you apart
from those who will certainly fail for not doing so. Affirming
your goals then on a DAILY basis will mean that you
absolutely state your intentions to succeed and that you loudly
and boldly declare your sheer will power in overcoming any
and all obstacles that may present themselves while you are on
the way to ultimate victory. You must announce, pronounce,
confirm and assert your intentions to succeed and this is all
done with each and every DAILY goal. Some ways to consider
the affirmation process are: (1) Daily computer reminders; (2)
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Key people DAILY reminders; (3) DAILY Notebook

reminders; (4) Index cards; (5) Brochures containing an actual
pre-set goal; (6) Samples of pre-set goals. Place goals in
conspicuous places at work and at home which will help to
serve as constant reminders of the very reason that you are
working as hard as you do.
Must be Constantly Reviewed and Flexible
Once your goals, life-planning and strategies have been placed
into a written format I will need you to understand now that
the same is NOT etched in stone! This simply means that the
plans are flexible and that you are able to and allowed to
change the plans as you go along and the one thing that may
make you want to make a change is that you will plan to
review the entire program at critical moments within the life of
the plan. You will most certainly be affected by issues and
factors way beyond your personal control and/or influence and
these will force certain changes for which you must be
prepared and be ready to adapt to. A simple SWOT
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis on
both your business and personal life will quickly reveal
internal and external influences on your plans for which you
must make regular adjustments and some of these may be: (1)
international oil price per barrel; (2) utility price increases; (3)
bank interest charges and lending rates; (4) unstable weather
patterns and disasters; (5) national and international political
instability; (6) unplanned business purchases; (7) loss of
business/gain of business; (8) motor vehicle accidents. We can
go on and on with this subject on influences upon your plans
and mine but the idea is that you understand that not only do
YOU need to have flexibility but that you need to build in a
certain amount of flexibility into your planning a Plan B
scenario if you will! Not only will you need to understand the
need for flexibility but you will also have to review the
compatibility of your entire program from time to time as
things change and your plans may no longer be compatible
with what you now plan to achieve. A compatibility check as
often as is possible is prudent and will save frustration in the
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long-term. In fact, my advice, review annual plans on a

QUARTERLY basis and review quarterly plans on a
MONTHLY basis for personal and business compatibility.
WARNING! Whatever you do you must not consider
changing pre-set goals and life-planning strategies for the sake
of change. Changes must only be made if and when (by way of
concrete proof and evidence) serious influences, whether
internal or external, have severely impacted on your plans.
However, on the other hand, refusing to adjust plans in the face
of clear evidence from an outside or inside influence is also
self-defeating and may lead to failure to achieve the goal.
Must be Measurable
There is a big difference in making a statement of any sort. A
statement may be made in general terms and in very specific
terms. When one is setting goals and performing life-planning
exercises then the obvious choice would be to always ensure
that goals are stated in specific terms. The word specific in
itself denotes something definite, something explicit and
precise. The very definition of the word means that there can
be no confusion of intentions whatsoever as the intention is
clear-cut, detailed and most certainly exact in every way. Goal
statements and affirmations then must be specific in statement
and intent at all times.
The use of general statements is not conducive to a goalsetting exercise at any professional level and will most
certainly not give the author of the goal-setting program any
clear cut direction as to the specific goal set and required.
General statements are broad in nature with no clear-cut
definition and dont bring a point to a head with a focused
outcome. In fact general statements are to be considered the
enemy so to speak within the goal-setting exercise. General
statements leave one hanging and wondering about an outcome
where on the other hand a specific statement leaves no doubt
whatsoever as to intentions. General statements are thus vague,
sweeping, and rough around the edges, loose and considered
indefinite. For instance, the difference between a general
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statement and a specific statement used in the goal-setting

exercise may be presented as follows:
Im going to improve my life! General statement.
Im going to improve my life by doing !Specific intent.
Im going to be a better person! Vague statement.
Im going to be a better person by ! Focused statement.
Im going to be wealthier! Loose statement.
Im going to be wealthier by: _______! Non-confusing
statement.
Im going to have peace of mind! Indefinite statement.
Im going to have peace of mind by doing: _______!
Explicit statement.
Im going to be more successful! Popular statement with
no substance.
Im going to be more successful by doing ! Precise
statement.
Im going to do better for myself, my family and my
customers! Ordinary and conventional with general
connotations.
Im going to do better for myself, my family and my
customers by changing: _______! Clear focus and intent
with goal.
Once the goals have been clearly stated, in very specific terms
(as is the strict requirement when doing any goal-setting
exercise) then one has technically set the much needed
benchmark or yardstick for future measurement. In order
to make any entity or action measurable there must be a
starting point or a measuring line so that success or failure may
be monitored and measured along the way. If there is no way
of measuring then there is no way of arriving at an end result
which may include success or failure.

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Goals must ALWAYS be measured for effectiveness

or we shall simply be wasting time working on
ineffective goals and life-plans.

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Thus when doing a monthly or quarterly review as was

previously recommended then both the goal and the
benchmark will be under scrutiny for measurement. Goals
must ALWAYS be measured for effectiveness or we shall
simply be wasting time working on ineffective goals and lifeplans.
For instance, within the business environment working within
the services industry the following example may apply: My
business goal for the next twelve months is to grow company
sales by 25% by focusing on a 25% annual increase in the
following sales KPAs (current benchmark plus 25%).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Dollars earned.
Quality quotations/proposals out.
Sales in.
Cold calls accomplished.
Appointments set with prospects.
Site surveys matched to proposals out.
Please note: NOT I will increase my company sales this
year!General vague statement with no benchmarks attached
for measurement purposes.
Must be Achievable and Realistic
Challenging and realistic are often words used to describe the
constant battle of balance when setting goals and doing lifeplanning. Some believe that goals should be challenging while
others believe that these should be realistic while yet
challenging. When goals are set to challenging standards it is
taken to mean that the goals will test one and try one to the
limit. It may also mean that the attempt at achieving the goal
may stretch ones abilities and most certainly tax motivation,
self-image and resolve if taken on.
When we assume a more realistic approach to goal-setting then
we assume that while the temperature is hot it is not
unbearable. A realistic stance on goal-setting means that we
have gone about things in a more practical and sensible way
and that reason and common sense has prevailed. The plan is
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developed in a pragmatic fashion! Therefore, whatever your

view you now have both sides but may I just caution you to
follow the common sense route which may be a balance
between the two at any point in time as long as the view and
associated actions work for you in your quest for success. All
you want to arrive at in the end of the planning stage is an
achievable and realistic plan of action for achieving your
goals, dreams and desires.
Professional goal-setting and strategy procedures promote
personal growth. The idea then is that you and I are pushed
into our achievements through our clear cut plan and thereby
challenged in all key areas of our lives. While setting
unattainable goals is ridiculous and fruitless the opposite is
also true in that setting goals which have no substance or
challenge is also a futile exercisethere simply MUST be a
balance at all times. The best outcome would be for us to set
goals which enable us to achieve and reach our true potential
and/or limits. You and I are capable of so much more than we
actually expect of ourselves and yet, many times we become
satisfied with personal mediocrity and shy away from
challenges that have the ability to astound our own
expectations. While at times we challenge ourselves and set
tough goals, and this is good, the end result though must lead
us to believe that there is a greater sense of self-satisfaction as
we show true grit in taking on a greater challenge but an even
greater sense of self-worth when the seemingly unattainable is
finally attained. Again, I want to stress that I am referring to
the ATTAINABLE tough and not the UNREASONABLE and
UNATTAINABLE tough reason must always prevail!
We must always be aware of the impact which overconfidence
and over-enthusiasm has on our ability to set unreasonable and
unrealistic goals. Enthusiasm is a great attribute to have as is
confidence but I am sure that you will agree with me that these
same, at times, positive attributes can become the very plaque
of destruction within the wrong environment such as goalsetting and life-planning. Overconfidence and over-enthusiasm
is for the young and fearless and not for the mature and
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professional entrepreneur as with the entrepreneur all must be

done decently and in order so that success is assured. Sense
must prevail when setting goals and an overabundance of
uncontrollable emotion is not welcome at this stage of your
personal, family and business development. The last thing that
we want now after putting in so much effort is for unbalanced
emotion to bring about a sense of unrealistic intelligence.
Please remember, setting goals out of our reach will cause a
tremendous amount of frustration and disappointment and this
is both counter-productive to our cause and will most certainly
not conclude with the desired result. The final result of all this
negative emotion and behavior then will be that we will suffer
a negative effect on our performance levels as we move into
the future. We plan to succeed and not to fail!
Must be Challenging and Specific
So far we have dissected words such as challenging goals,
realistic goals, reasonable goals and achievable goals. While
we understand that goals must be challenging but not
unattainable we must now also understand that goals need to
be SPECIFIC in order to achieve the pre-set goal.
The context is to understand that the opposite of the word and
meaning of specific is the word known to us all as GENERAL.
We have also established that stating goals in general terms is
not the way to go. However, the term specific, within the
context of goal setting, is vital in its particular application in
that setting general goals may see us fail while specific goals
will give us clear direction and no confusion as to what we
want to achieve will exist at any point during our quest.
Specific goals then within our current context are taken to
mean that we are aiming at achieving something definite,
something in particular and something clear-cut. Thus no
ambiguity exists in what we are aiming at!
For instance, when a team of Navy SEALS is handed a
mission, the overall parameters of the mission is discussed in
broad and general terms. However, when the goal of the
mission is discussed it is very, very specific indeed. The broad
terms of the mission to capture Osama Bin Laden had to do
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first of all with the general gathering of intelligence which in

itself was not the goal but considered rather a means to an end.
Once the intelligence was in place decisions followed but even
these were not representative of the ultimate goal. The
decisions referred to here had more to do with manpower
(which Navy SEAL team would be best suited for the mission)
and logisticshow to get the best team in position to carry out
the actual mission. Up to this point all that has been discussed
are goals and plans in general but the actual goal and target has
as yet not been discussed. In other words there is no point in
setting the ultimate goal and target until you have some final
and critical details out of the way such as, in our current
example, manpower and logistical needs. Once all of the
general parameters are taken care of, in other words does the
team have all the necessary back-up (in whatever format) to
actually achieve the goal or target which we have not yet
discussed here? It is imperative that the Navy SEAL team first
contemplate the general and the basics in order to assess
whether the goal is actually attainable and reasonable and that
all the fundamentals (general) are in place in order to set the
goal and or the target of the mission. Should they not come to a
conclusion in this fashion then the chances that the mission
will fail is not only heightened but the risk of the loss of life by
means of fatalities is thereby enhanced. As we all found out
after the fact was that the focus or the specific goal if you will
was to capture Bin laden or kill him if resistance was offered.
Again, according to those on the ground Bin laden offered
resistance and he was killed mission, target and goal
accomplished. For the SEAL team they gained glory and
readied themselves for the next mission and specific target
and/or goal.
The question then is so what is so different within the business
and personal goal setting environment. General homework
or groundwork must be done in order to arrive at the very
specific target but the target is what gets the attention and can
only be achieved if you know what you are aiming at in very
specific terms.
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Setting specific goals, then, will entail you being very specific
and this in turn means that you have a definite and exact aim at
what you want to achieve. The goal must be precise, special,
detailed but clear-cut with a clear and an exact meaningvery
definite and particular in every sense of the word. Another way
to define the term specific then would be to understand that it
is some or other goal or target which has very particular
qualities or aspects of something (Websters Dictionary).
A clear target is easier to aim at despite opinions to the
contrary. The emphasis here is on the word clear. The target
must be unhindered and clear of any obstacles and debris so
that there is a clear line of site. For instance, an archer takes
aim at a target during the Olympics and another takes aim at a
deer in a forest. The question is that while they are both aiming
at very specific targets which archer is more likely to actually
hit the target? Well, the archer that aims at a target at the
Olympics faces no obstacles to her shot other than a wind
adjustment; however, the archer in the forest also has the wind
to contend with but there are trees, shrubs and other
distractions which may hinder her in her aim meaning that
these influences may eventually make her miss the mark or
target completely. The idea is to fix the goal and/or objective
with a view to unhindered aim and achievement.
If the goal is specific it is easier to visualize! The simple
interpretation of this statement is that a target is easy to see if
you know and see what you are aiming at. Simple! It is said
that things are clear as glass but I have also heard the saying
which goes like this: things are as clear as mud! The last
thing that we want is to have a specific goal so muddied-up
that we cannot see what we are aiming at and if we cant see
what we are aiming at then how will we ever see to hit the
target. In order to see the end result before it actually happens
one needs a clear view of the route to the target. The word
clear in our current context must mean then that we have a
clear sight to the target and such a clear vision must be free of
any doubt or confusionclear. In order to be more effective in
achieving our goals they must be stated in terms that is free of
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any so called obstruction or any ambiguity. Once this has

occurred then visualization can take place and what this means
as we have discussed before is that we are able to see the
successful conclusion of the goal before the actual event and/or
achievement. The word visualize is a verb and therefore,
within our context, an action word. Visualization is therefore
not passive and will require some effort the least of which is
not the ability to imagine. Using visualization when specific
goals are set means that one would actively sit and draw the
end result closer by means of imagining not only the victory
and/or the achievement of the goal but the actual goal itself.
You want a new motor vehicle or automobile then understand
everything that you can about this goal and SEE the vehicle
standing in your driveway and SEE yourself sitting in and
actually driving the Mercedes Benz of choice if this is a goal
for you. You also want to see the color and smell the leather
upholstery on the inside of the automobile and take a look at
the imaginary control panel, or not, you may have a full-color
brochure on hand and thus have help in making the imprint
into your brain. The brochure or catalogue of your goal will
make the goal become real in your head as the only thing then
left for you to do in the visualization process is place your
physical body and mind into or onto the goal right in front of
you. Visualization also means the ability to envisage (picture)
the end result, imagine it, conceive it and dream it up.
The best way to visualize and imagine ones goals is to do so
using the natural five senses. Aristotle has been credited with
classifying what we know today as the five senses: (1) Sight,
(2) Smell, (3) Taste, (4) Touch and (5) Hearing. While it is
largely believed, in modern times, that we do have additional
sensory perceptions it is still believed that the above areas
cover the major physical sensory areas. The structures
pertaining to each sensory organ contains a path of information
(supplied by sensory receptors) which leads to the central
nervous system which in turn feeds the information to the
brain for processing.
1. Sightthe most developed sense in people.
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In order to get to setting specific goals it is the senses which

will assist in making them real, the goal by being specific is to
get into the habit of making all your goals come alive
through the senses. The sense of sight is not only a gift to those
that are able to see but to you and me so that we are able to
better envisage what it is that we would like to achieve most in
life. If your goal is to buy a new home then see the home in
your mind. A new car means that you can go to the dealership
and view the car thereby imprinting the contours and color of
the automobile in your mind to the point where the picture is
totally vivid without you having to open a brochure. The same
thing will apply to the goal of a tropical island vacation, motor
boat and a jet-ski. Sight is the most developed of our senses
and when we look upon an object we will fully understand all
the sensations which go with looking and absorbing.
2. Smelleither good or bad.
Fragrance, scent, perfume and aroma are all a part of the
immense capability of our senses and we most certainly
underestimate the value of these when we set goals. Smells are
so powerful that we are capable of remembering these for
decades. Certain smells remind us of wonderful moments in
our lives and moments which we would really want over again
as we move forward. However, as you and I know we will also
remember smells which bring memories to the fore which we
never want to experience again ever in our lives. So smell is a
very powerful tool and when you add smell to the sight sense
then our ability to create a mental picture of a specific goal is
heightenedso why not employ both senses if it will assist us
to visualize to the fullest? You now have a mental picture of
the new car (which you have seen) which you have set down
as a specific goal (down to the model and the make and the
color) so add to this the leather smell of the seats and see how
this starts to cement the idea and the picture for you.
3. Tastedistinguishing various flavors
Taste is considered a sensation of flavors both the good tasting
sensations and the bad tasting ones. We are able, through our
taste buds, to differentiate between sweet and sour, bitter and
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toxic. In fact the sensation of taste may in fact save our lives as
this may prevent us from swallowing bad smelling substances
which may be poisonous. Now, while one cant really lick the
new car, house, motorboat or jet-ski should this be a goal for
you but one can most certainly taste the meat off an upmarket
gas barbeque if this has become a goal or that expensive bottle
of whisky or the box of chocolates which you have always
wanted to buy. I once had a goal to purchase an expensive
water purifier for my home and went about tasting the water
from one competitor to another in order to cement my goal in
my mind. I also know of an entrepreneur whose goal it was to
buy a cottage at a river and part of what he did in order to
cement the goal was to taste the river waterit was good
enough to help him cement his goal which he later achieved.
4. Touch a means of communication
Consider this will you? A woman is blind and thus has no way
of seeing so she meets a young man and asks if she can see
him. How does a blind person see? Many times they see by
means of touch and this lady will navigate the face of the
young man which she wants to see. The senses in her hand will
communicate the facial contours and features in no uncertain
terms and an assessment will be made in a very short period of
time as to the looks and make-up of the facethe wonderful
thing is that most blind people will match the voice up with the
looks (the hearing sense) and form a pretty accurate picture of
the person in front of her. Touch involves rough, smooth, soft,
sharp, rounded, contoured and the surfaces available and their
textures are most certainly too numerous to mention here.
However, touch is an amazing gift given to us all which has its
part in the five senses and touch, together with the other senses
has been designed to help us create a total picture and sensory
experience of everything in life. Add this then to the viewing
of the car and the smelling of the leather seats and the
visualization process, using all of your senses, is almost
complete.
5. Hearing second most developed physical sense.

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The human ear is an amazing piece of technology, and

together with the other senses has been given to us as gifts in
order to arrive at the total life experience. Think about this
with me then in that our current subject matter is goal setting
and a vital part of this exercise is using our imagination and
visualization skills a task for which we are already well
equipped without us having to do anything to gain the needed
tools as these have already been providedall we have to do is
learn to use what we already have. Fantastic news! From a
technical anatomical point of view the ear and our hearing
abilities come about as follows. The inner ear or cochlea is
covered internally by nerve fibers. These nerve fibers react to
vibrations received and then transmits these vibrations to the
brain (in stereo so to speak) using a nerve known as the
auditory nerve. The brain receives the input from both ears
and thus determines both the direction and the distance of
various sounds.
You may want to set a goal to redo your entire garden area
using a professional gardener or landscaper. While the
professional will assist with designing the final layout they will
need the picture (imagination/visualization) inside of your
head. You and your spouse have discussed this over and over
again and what has helped is in part the garden and home
magazines which you have both studied and the annual home
and garden shows which you have attended in your city or
state. Wow! It would seem that you have all the critical
information in your head and you have to date, barring some
room for adjustment, actually impressed yourselves with the
wonderfully designed garden layout all currently in your head.
You see the grass, the shrubs, the trees, the pots, the paving,
the curbs, the automatic sprinkler system and of course, the
water feature/s. But wait, what is this? You smell the freshly
cut lawn and see yourself trimming some of the trees and smell
the flowers being produced by your handiwork. As you walk
on the lawn it feels soft, smooth and freshly cut. The water
feature looks great and is working as designed. The water
flows from the top down, and for some reason you put your
finger into the water and it tastes greatthe birds will enjoy the
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water for sure! The great thing about your imagination and/or
visualization is that you are able to actually hear the water
running and the birds singing and this makes the entire picture
more real and achievable and instills in you a determination to
achieve this goal something which you have never done or felt
before. You have used all five senses in order to make your
goal come alive and when your goals come alive to the point
where you see, where you touch, where you hear, where you
taste and where you taste the reality of it all then we call this
successful visualization. You will need to imagine and
visualize all of your goals using the gifts which you have
already been given called The Five Senses. Your personal goal
should be to develop this gift on a constant basis as only then
will you understand the true power of using visualization to
cement a pre-set goal with a view to achievement.
Here is a simple example of a goal stated in general terms and
then the same goal stated in very specific terms:
1. General and incorrectly stated goal: I want to be a better
parent!
2. Specific and correctly stated goal: I want to be a better parent
so I will listen patiently to my children for at least one hour
every day!
Must be Kept Private but Shared with Key People Only
We have already in this book had a short discussion on how
your friends, family and acquaintances will view your attempts
at entrepreneurship I must once again take this opportunity to
get you to understand that not everyone is interested in your
success. The goal here then is to get you to understand that the
people which you will least expect to will be the very people
who may doubt you and most certainly will have no intentions
of supporting your efforts as an entrepreneur. In fact, these
people are eternal skeptics and sharing your goals and dreams
and desires with them is probably the worst thing that you can
do so think very carefully. You will have skeptics and you will
have those that are naturally jealous of anyone (family, friend
or foe) succeeding in life. They will most certainly not
consider what you tell them as private and confidential and
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will definitely use your information to their benefit and in a

negative sense such as gossip. Understanding whom you may
trust with your innermost goals and life-planning dreams is a
talent. Whether you realize it or not it is to your benefit to find
a confidant and a personal motivator but who you choose, and
how many good people you choose for this task is as critical as
choosing the correct business partner so take great care during
the selection process. The number one criteria for selecting a
confidant has got to be the fact that he and/or she will always
have your best interests at heart and a close second is the
ability of such a person to treat the relationship as private and
confidential.
However, should you not be able to find someone which you
trust and who does not possess the key attributes as just
mentioned then the best person to confide in is you? The better
thing to do with your goals and life-planning (written plans) is
to keep them private and not divulge them to anyone at all.
Why? The main reason for doing so has got to be to prevent
negative and uninterested people from influencing you and
your positive attitude negatively. So many times I have seen
excited entrepreneurs, who have done all the right things by
setting goals in writing, and who are on the right track, start
sharing their enthusiasm and excitement with those that they
suppose actually care only to be shot-down in the most
awful way. The entrepreneur goes, virtually in an instant, from
a positive self-image to a negative self-image based solely
upon the poor and many times pathetic comments made by
negative people. If you can't find anyone that you absolutely
trust to confide in then dont confide in anyone at all as the
best person to manage the goals and life-planning is you
anyway. If you have a positive attitude after all the planning
sessions then dont deliberately go out and find someone who
will not think twice about taking the positive side of you and
replacing it with something totally negative.
By the way, personal confidentiality will also heighten
awareness and create a sense of excitement for you. After all, if
only you know about the goals, and you achieve these one by
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one, both the personal satisfaction and motivation will create

new levels of excitement which should lead to a continued
determination to see your entire program through despite the
temporary obstacles faced from time to time. You will most
certainly act and think more positively. Obviously, the
exception to this rule will be people that clearly have your
interest at heart such as (possibly): a trustworthy business
partner, a caring and non-judgmental spouse, a best friend who
sticks closer than a brother or a family member who has
been a long standing interested mentor.
Must be Re-evaluated and Re-set Accordingly
There is no point at all in buying a good book with a view to
reading it and then you never open the cover to begin the
reading and absorbing process. Most would consider this
notion absurd! Your goal-setting and life-planning program is
virtually a book on your life and contains all of your wishes,
wants, needs, desires, goals and dreams so why would you not
refer to this as often as possible? You may think I am
exaggerating but I have personal experience with entrepreneurs
who spend hours upon hours in developing and researching
their goals and life plans and after they place all of this in
writing, they never refer to the program ever again, or at least,
until they fail and want to know why. Let me inform you of a
fact when it comes to you achieving your goals. Goal-setting is
so powerful a tool that you will find yourself near
accomplishment much sooner than you may expect. This is
why re-evaluation and consistent re-sets are vital so review
constantly. My suggestion is that you review on a regular basis
but once you are close to a goal you may have to perform a
reality check of your pending achievement and the entire
program sooner rather than later. The idea for a pending goal is
for you to assess the inevitable achievement of the pre-set goal
with a view to making any and all adjustments that may be
needed for the final run so to speak.
Must not Contain Unrealistic Time Lines and Deadlines
Lets face it time lines and/or deadlines are detested by most
unprofessional entrepreneurs and people in general. Many
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well-meaning people have never come to understand the

tremendous value of working under a certain amount of
manageable pressure. In fact, it has been proven that you and I
work better under pressure and if you are a successful
entrepreneur like I am then you will understand exactly what I
am saying. Pressure does away with the lack of activity which
we call laziness. Procrastination is another disease which is
affected when someone is under pressure and so we come to
understand that not all pressure is bad for us. However, when
you and I set goals, which are clearly unrealistic to begin with
and we add to this time lines and/or deadlines which are totally
unrealistic then we add unrealistic and unmanageable stress
and pressure to our lives. An example of an unrealistic goal is
as follows:
Unrealistic goal: I want to have $50,000.00 in my bank
account by the end of the year it is now November.
Realistic goal: It is now November and I would like
$50,000.00 in my bank account by November next year. I will
deposit $4,167 into my bank account each month for the next
twelve months or $2,778 per month for the next eighteen
months, or lastly, $2,083 for the next twenty-four months.
You must understand that in my opinion you will set few
unrealistic goals in light of the knowledge which you now
have from reading this book; however, the problem and
challenge is that you will have unrealistic time limits. The best
advice that I am able to offer is that it would be more prudent,
and less stressful for you, to visualize and/or imagine your
goals as though you have already accomplished them, and
then, allow your natural motivation levels to move you toward
the target. Lets get back to the lion shall we? She stalks her
pray only after identifying a target. Once the target is set in and
locked on there is nothing on earth that will distract her from
finally achieving her goal and the kill will be assured. I have
no doubt that the lion visualizes the kill and the taste of the
fresh meat in her mouth. She also has a need to feed her cubs,
and of course his majesty is also hungry. With the lion and a
fact which you and I must understand is that she will lock onto
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her pray but then take her time in order to get into a position of
attack. Going in too early may lead to the pray recognizing her
intentions and usually the result is the natural instinct to flee.
Taking too long in getting into the attack position may see a
competitor sneak in for the kill. However, the target is
identified and locked on so the stalking process begins. She
will not be unrealistic in her approach as trying to get to the
pray as quick as possible may place undue pressure on her and
things will begin to go wrong to the point where her goal may
not be achieved. Getting to her goal then is a process which is
most natural. She eases into the stalking process, and her body
is crouched, comfortable and natural nothing FORCED! She
uses her surroundings well as a camouflage and understands
that sudden and unplanned movements will be disastrous for
her and her family. The more natural the process toward the
goal, or the target, the easier the chase and eventual killgoal
achieved! Her NATURAL MOTIVATION then hunger!
Here is something that I want you to seriously contemplate if
you are going to be successful on the practical side of goalsetting. The unprofessional entrepreneur only uses deadlines
on goals which they may not truly want to achieve! The
question here then is why set such goals to begin with and I
would say to you then that you are one hundred percent correct
in posing such a question? Do not waste your time on setting
goals which you have no plans of actually achieving and this in
essence the very topic of discussion in this chapter. You and I
will have goals which we place under the urgent category
and I am not referring to these; however, even when setting
such goals you must set reasonable time lines for effective
completion.
Must be Converted
Affirmations

to

Visualization

and

Positive

Reminder: Definition of the term AFFIRMATION.

(According to Websters Dictionary) to make firm,
validate, confirm, to state positively, to assert as valid or
confirmed, to express dedication to.
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Affirmation(According to Websters Dictionary) is the act of

affirming, something affirmed, a positive assertion.
Affirm(According to Collins Dictionary) to declare to be
true, to state clearly ones support for (an idea or belief).
While we have already successfully treated the subject of
positive affirmations and visualization I want to put the
matter to bed finally by leaving you with the following steps
which I am hoping will aid you in cementing the process for
the future. The four steps which follow will be critical when
striving to achieve your goals in a practical sense:
Step 1Convert all goals to affirmations.
Step 2Visualize all affirmations daily as though they were
already achieved.
Step 3Visualization will establish the needed cybernetic
imprint in the subconscious mind.
Step 4In turn this will alter your confidence levels allowing
you the needed energy and motivation to accomplish the actual
goal.
Strategy and Goal Setting Worksheets
Finally! We have arrived at the PRACTICAL SESSION of
setting goals and life-planning. Up to this point you were being
prepared for what follows. What is the point of all the theory if
there is no practical application at all? The background up to
this point has been detailed for a reason as one cannot enter
into so vital a moment or exercise without the knowledge to do
soknowledge is not knowledge until you put it into
practice. With this in mind then the goal at this juncture is to
get you to focus on all that you have now been exposed to as
this relates to goal-setting and life-planning in the practical
sense. I have no doubt that by now your mind is filled with the
very goals and life-planning as was discussed in this chapter.
We now want to be reasonable in our time line but make a
concerted effort to place all of our thoughts down in writing on
the following worksheets. I do however want to warn you that
the worksheets are not a one size fits all scenario, and so,
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you may have to consider making changes to them or even

formulating a set of worksheets that works better for you, your
family and your business. My goal is the get you going and
where you place your ideas on is the least of my concerns at
this point. I am happy with whatever worksheets you decide
upon as long as these work for you and your unique situation.
However, should you feel that the following worksheets will
work for you for now then lets begin?
The following planning (strategy) sheets have been compiled
in order to assist you in arriving at your financial, professional,
material, personal goals and other goals. It now becomes
imperative that you consider very carefully your direction for
your future as an individual and corporately. As discussed
before it is highly recommended that you start with a five (5)
year plan and then break the same down into annual bitesized chunks for easy monitoring and achievement. You will
then break the same down into quarterly and monthly checks
and balances.
Conclusion
The length of this chapter, and the depth to which matters have
been expounded, will have to be a clear indication of the
importance of the subject at hand. How wonderful it will be for
you and your family to set goals and to see these all come to
fruition. What a life lesson this will be to your children, to your
friends and the relatives who you love and that care about your
success and well-being. What an example of success this will
be to your staff, clients and suppliers alike. Consider how
many businesses fail each year due to a lack of planning to
succeed and how you, with your new found knowledge have
been equipped to prevent the very failure being experienced by
well-meaning entrepreneurs, all over the world, simply
because they dont have your knowledge. I am sure that you
will agree with me that should an entrepreneur read this book,
and attain the knowledge therein, and still fails to plan for
success then you and I may be forgiven for feeling that they
may deserve to fail. What a shame that would be, and in all
honesty, what a disgrace to fail while the way to success is
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right at your fingertips so to speak. We all need direction in all

areas of our lives and particular in the business world. So
much depends upon your success. You have staff that look up
to you for job security and your family who would love to
know that whatever you have built up is secured by an
individual who is responsible enough to plan for success. The
admonition therefore is that you study with a view to
implementation. Set your goals and follow your dreams and
desires, if not for you, then do so for those that never stop
taking their eyes off of you. Be successful for the people that
admire you the most and the only way to ensure this is to
understand that knowledge is not knowledge until you put it
into practice!

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7
Setting Objectives: Strategy & Goal Setting
Procedures
1st Secret: PASSION
2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
5th Secret: VALUES
6th Secret: GOAL SETTING
7TH Secret: SETTING OBJECTIVES

Introduction
If you have read the previous chapter with a view to action
then by the time that you read this next chapter you would
have completed the worksheets. Together the knowledge and
worksheets now gives you more direction than you may ever
have had before. My hope here is that you have taken the
exercises, admonitions and needed planning seriously as these
deal mainly with the theoretical side of your work and effort to
date, however, there is more! We will need to deal with the
implementation aspect of your plans as there is no point
whatsoever in having plans without having a plan to moving
all of this forward with a view to the actual achievement. It is
at this stage where many entrepreneurs fail as they dont seem
to take the third step or even have knowledge of a step number
three as this relates to goal-setting and life-planning. I have
said it before and I will say it again, having a written plan is a
great start but the idea is to take the written plan and MAKE IT
COME ALIVE! This chapter deals with this very idea and will
guide you into the realization that your plans are nothing
unless you start achieving them and you can only achieve them
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if you are guided as to how this all comes about. With this in
mind then please follow me into the practical aspect of all of
your efforts to date. I want to make sure that you achieve your
goals so read on and read well as you will be amazed as to how
easy it is to set the practical path for achieving what you now
have in writing setting objectives for strategy and for goal
setting procedures.
The objectives then deals with the MEANS OF
ACCOMPLISHMENT. To date, you and I have dealt with two
critical aspects of goal-setting and life-planning and these are:
(1) setting values; (2) setting goals. However we have three
aspects and steps which need to be accomplished in order to
now achieve the goals and this third and vital step is:
SETTING OBJECTIVES!
The entire process consists of the following three steps: (1)
Setting values; (2) Setting goals and (3) Setting Objectives.
Thus, the means of accomplishment must answer the
question: How am I going to achieve my personal goals
which I now have in writing? The most exciting part of much
work to date will now begin in earnest. Because of your
heightened motivation levels for achievement of your goals we
will now discuss methods of actually bringing your goals to
life so to speak. The more we make goals happen the more
motivated you will become and the more motivated you are the
more chance of you continuing to achieve your goals. The
more you achieve your goals in a practical sense the more
successful you become and the more successful you become
the more you are admired by those around you and the more
you are admired the more your self-esteem will grow and be
established in the positive sense. Remember, people love doing
business with successful people and nothing breeds more
confidence than you actually achieving pre-set, pre-determined
and pre-meditated goals. The more you achieve your goals the
more excitement you generate and this will motivate you to
seek out different and better ideas for achieving all the goals
which you have written down. New ideas for achieving your
goals are the life blood to continue success as sometimes old
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ideas may not work. However, your mind will be tuned in to

finding new ways, and innovative ways to overcome the
obstacles (hills not mountains) which you may face along
the way. Once you have set your goals and now have a way or
a plan to actually achieving them then you will start noticing
special things and actions relating to your goals, and all of this,
due to your new heightened awareness of things taking place
around you. For instance, lets say that one of the goals which
you have placed down is that you want to achieve the purchase
of a brand new Mercedes Benz E350. Because of your
heightened awareness you start to notice something that you
had not noticed until the goal was set. You now actually see
your dream vehicle on the roads more than ever before. You
will surprise yourself and probably make the following
statement: Wow! How come I have never seen these
automobiles on the road before? The very vehicle which you
would like to drive is now so in your face at every turn and
you may not understand this but this is simply due to your
heightened awareness which is due to you setting the
ownership of such a vehicle as a goal. Wonderful how it works
dont you think!? The truth is then that you will begin to notice
things around you as these have now become more important
to you, and this, because of your goal-setting and strategy
sessionsthis will continue then to excite and motivate you.
We will now consider the action of actually setting objectives.
The first thing that you need to understand is that the word
objective has to do with aim, purpose and direction. It also
deals with your effort and the direction in which your efforts
are established. It deals then with all of your actions which are
focused to achieving a pre-set goal or target if you will. It also
means that you have arrived at a certain position in your life
and have established a clear purpose (finalizing goals) and
such purpose needs to be attained or achieved at all costs but
the question is HOW? It is this very question then which the
definitions of the term objective will answer as we move
along. The term objective, as a noun, is taken to mean an
intention, an aim, a target and point, intent and an end to a preset goal within our context.
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With the above in mind then we shall move on as you now

have the basis for the entire chapter. Goals and strategy
planning is usually done for the long term; however, no matter
the term of your goals the best way to achieve these is to
ensure that you break pre-set goals down. One cannot eat an
entire cake in one go (unless you have a really large mouth and
then stuff it into your mouth until you choke) but when eaten
in slices it becomes achievable, reasonable and attainable.
While I believe that you should set long term goals for five
years as a maximum I do understand that many would differ. I
have seen goals for ten years and dont see the sense as who
wants to wait ten years in order to see the results of goalsetting. Five years is a reasonable time frame within which to
achieve most goals; however, should you feel the need to go to
a ten year program then by all means do so. Should you set ten
year goals then the best way to break this down would
logically be a phase 1 and a phase 2 program each being five
years apart. Phase 1 will need to be broken down into annual
reasonable segments and the same action will apply to Phase 2.
Despite the fact that you have set a ten year plan unless you
break this phase down the goals may seem insurmountable,
unreasonable and unrealistic. Remember, whenever you set
goals these should always be broken down into the smallest
possible piece of the cake in order to ensure that you dont
choke when trying to achieve the entire plan all in one
actionmore on this a bit later in the chapter. The ultimate
reason though when breaking goals down into bite-sized
chunks is so that we are effectively able to monitor our
progress or lack thereof along the way.
Part of the objective would be to understand and define the
following two segments relating to our subject at hand.
1. Financial segment Actual goals
No matter what your goal you will have to understand that you
are going to have generated an income in order to achieve the
majority of your pre-set goals. When I talk about money then
we take it to mean that we will need to first of all generate and
income in order to achieve our goals. It stands to reason that
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our material goals should be aligned with our resources which

resources consists of income. We will thus need to understand
the value of the desired goal/s and convert these into an
income goal so that we have the resources with which to
achieve our goal. Our objective in this case then would be to
identify the amount of money it would take to achieve a pre-set
goal and then to find a way and means through our businesses
in order to attain the financial goal first. The process would be
to convert the original goal into a money value and go after the
amount rather than the actual material goal as it is the attaining
of the necessary funds which allows the actual achievement of
the material goal. For instance, one of your goals is to purchase
a jet-ski and the monetary value of the jet-ski is (at least the
one that you are after) $27,000.00 but your goal is not really
the jet-ski then is it? No! Your goal is converted to the money
value so your goal is then the attainment of the $27,000.00
surely? Once you have amassed the $27,000.00 you are then
able to purchase the jet-ski which you have for so long now
simply dreamed about.
a.

Stated as income
The objective here, or plan of action if you will, would be to
assess and arrive at a money value in totality for all of your
pre-set goals for the pre-set term of achieving your goals. The
overall value then of the totality of your goals for a five year
achievement term may amount to $250,000.00. Great! Now we
know that the value of your five year goal is $250,000.00 and
this in essence becomes the actual goal and the planning or
objective will now shift focus to the achievement of the
abovementioned amount and not the material item. While the
money value seems unreasonable and unattainable at present
you must now understand that what will change this is your
ability to break this amount down into bite sized chunks so
that you dont choke. $250.000.00 divided by five years is
equal to an annual financial goal of $50,000.00 in order to
achieve your five year strategy and pre-set goalsnot bad and
much more acceptable than looking at the entire picture of
$250,000.00! When we break the $50,000.00 down even
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further by dividing this amount by the amount of months in the

year then we see an even more acceptable scenario as the
amount that we then go after is only $4,167.00 per month.
Using the average then of 22 working days in the month
throughout the year (you may want to change this if your
business operates more days per year) the daily goal will be
$189.41 per day ($21.05 per hour) in order to achieve your five
year pre-set goal. We understand clearly at this point that your
focus has now shifted from going after the actual material
items/s on your list of goals to the money value associated with
the same. By doing this our objective has thus changed and for
many the goal/s now seems so much more realistic and
attainable. Whatever you do you must not forget the lessons
contained in the previous chapter regarding the setting of
reasonable and attainable goals.
b. Numbers of contracts with clients or retail sales
As an entrepreneur your mind may already be working
overtime as you are already converting the abovementioned
money value into the amount of service contracts/agreements
which you have to enter into in order to achieve your five year
plan. If you are in the retail sector then you are working out the
amount of stock to be sold in order to arrive at your financial
goal as stated above. If this is what you are doing then fantastic
as you are thinking exactly the way a successful and goal
driven entrepreneur should be thinking. Convert your goals to
money all the time and then work out what needs to happen to
achieve the financial goal within the parameters of your
business. Your business is capable of providing you with your
dreams and desires but you need to understand the conversion
ratios and the capability of the business in order to make this
all work for you. The business must work for you and not you
for the business. You must manage your business and not the
business managing you. The business exists to serve you and
not the other way around. I cannot tell you how many times I
see the confusion in a business when an entrepreneur does not
get the above philosophy right. You need to enjoy your
business and never allow the business to dictate your life pace
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or your direction. Setting goals as has been discussed in this

chapter and the last allows you the freedom and the direction
when it comes to your finances and such finances are in your
control as long as you understand that the business is there for
the very purpose of generating income FOR YOU AND
YOUR FAMILY!
In order to continue with our chapter on objectives, and to
understand the necessity of an additional breakdown
financially in order to achieve all pre-set goals within a certain
amount of time we will now have to continue the conversion
ratios in order to arrive at a practical business method of
achieving our newly set financial goal which would give us the
ability to realize our material goals in the long term. For
instance, we go back to our five year term for the phase 1 part
of our goal-setting program and the associated money/income
value of $250,000.00 which we had broken down into
$4,167.00 per month. We will, for the sake of the exercise
assume that you are in a service related business and that the
basis of the business relationship between your company and
your clients is a service agreement/contract which contains not
only the parameters of your business relationship but also the
services to be rendered and the money value attached to each
agreement/contract. We will also assume, for the sake of
argument then that you have already developed an average
value of your current client base and this average
contract/agreement value is $450.00 per service per month.
Your goal is to achieve a value of $4,167.00 and so we will
need to divide $450.00 into the target amount. The math will
tell us that we will need to sign up at least 9.5 clients per
month (2.37 agreements/contracts per week) at $450.00 per
month in order to achieve our monthly goal which if repeated
over the next five years we will achieve our pre-set goals in
good time and without undue pressure and stress. One other
critical objective to point out is that if you have not included
ALL the necessary business expenses and overheads in the
original planning and goal-setting then this monthly figure will
have to be adjusted for the next five years and also be broken
down as pointed out above. You will thus have financial goals
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for your personal goals and business overhead and expense

goals. These will need to be added together.
While we are now clear on the objectives for financial
achievement we must also consider the following critical
parameters. The above objectives will thus need to be reviewed
in the following ways:
- Personal strategies and goals (What YOU want to be!).
Despite what people tell us we all have a sense of wanting to
change for the better. The only people who will know the inner
truth about who we are will be you, me and, of course, our
Maker. There are so many areas to cover when you assess
yourself but in this instance the focus should be on what do
you want to achieve in your business. If your goals are all
inclusive though then the introspection is wider and the scope
of all changes broader. The objective here above all else is to
get you to understand that who you are as a person at the
present moment may not be the person you need to be should
you be serious about success in achieving your pre-set long
term goals. For instance, it may well be that personally you
consider yourself under qualified for the specialized field
within which your business operates. You will need to consider
changing this sooner rather than later because your lack of
education within your industry may be the very reason that you
fail both in business and in achieving your pre-set goals and
life-planning. The idea here is to ask yourself a question such
as who do YOU want to be? The focus now is on you as an
entrepreneur and your ability to both identify who you are
currently and what you will need to change in order to succeed
in the future.
- Business opportunities in your territory (In the various
market segments within the territory and within your industry).
The market and industry within which you operate may have
limitations and these very limitations may be the reason that
you are severely hindered for achieving your goals. It is vital,
BEFORE you decide on a business idea, that you investigate
the industry within which you plan to operate and the market
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segments which exist within the territory of operation. There

needs to be a demand for your services and/or products within
your territory and this demand we refer to as a business
opportunity. If the demand does not exist then you have no
business so dont continue on with your idea once you have
discovered that you have a problem with selling the service
and/or product. I have met so many people who have done all
the necessary homework as stated above and have stubbornly
decided to ignore all the relevant evidence and continue with
their business idea with disastrous consequences. If the
business idea does not have a market/demand then you have no
business so accept this and move on. Should you decide to
ignore the obvious then hand your money to a charity as you
are about to lose your life savings.
- Personal strengths and weaknesses (What do you need to
adjust?).
I have seen on numerous occasions when an entrepreneur is
most certainly not a peoples person and it shows. If you dont
like people then get out of business, my friend, as people are
the very nature of what makes business successful. People
have money to spend and your goal is to get them to spend this
vital resource with you. Should they spend their money with
you then you win. You will win because you will have
developed a financially thriving business which in turn is
allowing you to achieve all of your dreams and goals. The very
people who are so capable of assisting you to be successful are
also capable of destroying you and your business. If therefore
you are not happiest dealing with people then stay out of
business will you as you will be wasting your time and you are
doomed to failure. However, if you are a peoples person then
this is considered a strength as opposed to the previously
mentioned weakness. Be honest and consider what your
strengths are and identify in all honesty what your weaknesses
are, and once you have successfully completed this task, be
quick to make all and necessary changes before your
unwillingness to change bankrupts you. Build on your
strengths and turn your weaknesses into strengths.
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- Business strengths and weaknesses (How do these affect

your objectives?).
Personal and business strengths and weaknesses do tend to
coincide with one another. It is my opinion, and many will
agree, that weaknesses identified in the entrepreneur will find
their way into the business this is a given! However, if some
of your key staff display signs of not understanding service to
your customer then it is imperative that you deal with the
situation sooner rather than later. If you are in the retail
industry and you have identified that the foot count is not
what it used to be you had better change this by addressing the
matter with the center management as a dropping foot count
will not be good for your business as time goes on. I am a firm
believer that strengths and weaknesses in both the entrepreneur
are easily identified by performing a monthly/quarterly/yearly
S.W.O.T. analysis. Whatever you do it would be wise of you to
perform the abovementioned analysis on both you and your
business as often as is needed but at least quarterly until you
are successful. Once you are on your way and reaping the
rewards you and your management team MUST perform a
S.W.O.T. analysis at least once per year and make all relevant
changes in order to eliminate personal and business
weaknesses and to build on the strengths which have been
clearly identified. Weaknesses, whether internal or external,
will severely hinder you should you willfully and deliberately
choose to ignore these so brush these aside at your own peril.
- Business competitors (Do they exist within your target
market and how will they stand in your way?).
This is a critical assessment! You will need to understand if
you are choosing to operate in a highly competitive
environment. Of course, we are talking about similar industry,
similar business idea, similar market and similar pricing. You
will also need to understand the services/products being
offered by your competitors. Do not be like the Ostrich who
places its head in the sand thinking that he is protected so he
ignores everything around him. You MUST do your homework
as you may have the same services/products and you are more
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expensive. You may have a competitive pricing structure but

the competitor is offering more value for money. Has the
competitor been around for a while so how loyal are the
clients/customers to your competitors and will they consider
making a change to your business? Opening a business in a
heavily competitive industry where loyalty is king may not be
the wisest thing to do so make sure that you completely
understand how many competitors you are going to be facing
in your target market, how they operate and their pricing
structure BEFORE you open your business doors within your
territory. Any negative influence which your business faces
from your competitors will have negative influence upon you
achieving your personal and business goals in the long term.
2. Business environment The market focus
The focus now shifts for the moment to the setting of
objectives for the business as a whole. Understanding the
business environment within which you operate is critical to
your success; however, you will also need to understand your
market focus. While we are not discussing the business
marketing plan at this juncture we do however have to bring to
the fore the importance of understanding your market focus so
who are you aiming your services and/or products at? The fact
that YOU believe that you have a great product or service is of
no consequence at all within the bigger scheme of things as if
you have no one to buy into your service or product then what
do you actually have? For instance, I had a young man call me
a few days ago. The young man was very excited as he spoke
to me and he went on and on telling me about a new product
which he would like to introduce us to. The reason for his call
was to set up an appointment with a view to a presentation of
the product. According to the young man he has secured the
distribution rights for the product within the state, and without
doing any research that I know of, he has already secured stock
of the product at great expense. It turns out that we already
have a wide variety of products which we offer our clients on a
service contract and his product concept is already in use with
my company. The question is did he understand fully his
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market focus? Who is he aiming at? Is he going to hit the

correct target? In this case the answer is no! The sad thing is
that if he does not know who to aim at with his great product
he will land up being a part of the millions of businesses who
start up but go out of business very soon thereafter. You will
agree with me that this man has very little chance of achieving
his goals, and in my opinion, if he did not take the time to find
out who to aim his great product at then he is probably like the
millions of other would be entrepreneurs who do not plan to
succeed and by not planning (goal-setting) they plan to fail.
There are three important marketing considerations which
must form a part of your objectives when attempting to
achieve your written goals:
1. Understand your TARGET MARKET.
The question now is fairly obvious: Where am I going to go
in order to generate business? The answer to this question in
marketing terms is what we refer to as segmenting your
market. Segmenting your market simply means that you will
have an understanding of who your business is aiming atnot
difficult at all and yet the young man and millions like him
around the world dont seem to think that understanding this
concept is important! With this in mind ask yourself why you
think millions of entrepreneurs are here today and gone
tomorrow? However, we will look at an example within the
services industry. The company has identified a very broad
target market and their services are geared toward the
workplace environment. The workplace environment pretty
much covers every business on the planet as long as it is a
place of work. The company has decided not to perform their
services within the residential market so the aim has been
established. However, within the workplace environment the
company used the following methods of segmenting their
markets with a view to further streamlining the ultimate focus.
a.

Mega businessMulti-nationals (decision making = 3 months

to 2 years).
b. Large businessNational corporations (decision making = 3
months to 1 year).
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c.

Medium businessRegional footprint (decision making = 1

month to 6 months).
d. Small businessLocal/State focus (decision making = 1 week
to 3 months).
The above segmentation has more to do with company
financial turnover and size than location. The idea with
segmenting the above also has to do with the turnaround time
as this relates to a decision and approval of
quotations/tenders/proposals once they are submitted. Market
research and experience has taught this company that the larger
the business the longer the time between submission of the
proposal and an answer to the sameexceptions excluded. The
experience has also led the company to understand that
turnaround time gets better as one goes down the
abovementioned list exceptions excluded. You must
understand how such a scenario will affect the cash-flow of
any service business or any business for that matter. As a new
entrepreneur you must get as many quick decisions as possible
so going after the big boys at the start of your business
would be a serious enough mistake and big enough to put you
out of business before you even get going. With this in mind
how did this company balance the decision making challenges
with the needed cash-flow growth at the correct growth stages
of the business?
The first stage was to recognize that a prospect mix was
necessary. In other words the old adage of not putting all of
ones eggs in one basket was adopted as a way forward. Thus,
the QUOTES OUT TARGET MARKET was mixed and a
formula was created which included the overall focus and the
inclusion of each segment into the mix. For instance there
would be no such thing as allowing the sales staff to focus
solely on Mega business or the small business segments alone.
As stated before, the main reason for this is that certain
decisions may take longer to approval than others. While it is
possible that larger companies may commit to business within
a relatively short period of time it will be more likely that the
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medium to small businesses will respond sooner. The mega

and large businesses usually take longer with a final approval
because of the management structures in place forcing a red
tape situation. The other consideration is that the majority of
mega and large companies are already locked into contracts
and/ agreements and they will need to give the competitor a
termination notice which means that the service company
mentioned above will have to wait for up to three months
(termination notice period) before installation can take place
and that the very first invoice may be generated.
While you will have to identify your own target market and
then segment these according to your business offering you
must also know that there are many ways of segmenting your
market. Again, I want to reiterate that this is not a book on
marketing practices the abovementioned company identified
other ways to segment their target market. For instance, they
also segmented on an industry to industry basis. What this
means in simple terms is that they identified certain industries
which could afford them quick and easy decisions, as you will
remember, they are ALWAYS concerned about cash-flow
management. Examples of industry type market segmentation
would be a focus on automobile dealerships, health club
chains, national food franchises and food manufacturing
plants. A single salesperson would be hired with the sole
purpose of focusing on closing deals with a single industry
entity. Other salespeople were hired to mix the focus as they
would present proposals to mega, large medium and small
business within a given territory (territory management will
appear in my next book on sales for the entrepreneur).
2. Segmenting your Target Market.
The goal is to get you to understand that in order to do
business and to actually achieve your personal, family and
business goals you will need to know who you are doing
business with (target market) after you have identified that
they want your service or productthe demand! You now need
to identify markets appropriate to your business within your
target market and this is known as segmenting your market.
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However, segmenting your market must always be done with

your cash-flow projections in mind or you will be out of
business before you know itthe segment mix! Once you have
identified the above through the completion of all the research
you are able to move forward more intelligently. The above
exercise is done professionally as a part of your objective to
ensure that your business is acceptable to the client/customer
and that you control the business and not the other way around
and that the business is sure to provide you the finances so that
you are able to achieve all of your pre-set goals and familyplanning. When performing the necessary research you need to
understand a few critical areas which may affect your final
outcome. To summarize then, how you segment your target
market may depend on the following key areas:
a.

The opportunity exposed research, research and research

your product and market.
b. Personal financial goals is the business and/or business idea
able to provide the finances needed for you to achieve?
c. How your competition will affect your efforts research,
research and research.
d. Your personal strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur
identify and change, change and more change.
3. Considerations when segmenting your Target Market.
The following is a list of helpful considerations when
segmenting your target market but the list is by no means
exhaustive and you may find other more pertinent
considerations as this relates to your product and/or service
and target market.
a. Profile your target market A, B, C & D.
b. Profile the DECISION MAKER Who signs the deal off?
c. Profile the competition the ownership, leadership and top
management.
d. Profile the competition The Company, the services/products,
the pricing, etc.
e. Profile your personal/company market exposure how well
are you and your business known?

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f.

Profile your efforts where are you spending 80% of your

time?
g. Profile your efforts where are you spending 20% of your
time?
h. Profile your service strengths what makes your services
unique/and attractive to the prospect?
i. Profile your HOOK service/product what will you lead with
in marketing & selling?
The conclusion of all of our work over the last few chapters
must follow the approved plan for strategy planning and goalsetting success. A plan is of no use if there is no follow-up
program within which to measure the success or failure of the
same. There are two things that we will always need to
consider when setting objectives for achievement:
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
2.

Always remember the four major goal-setting KPAs.

Financial.
Business/Professional.
Material.
Personal.
Always use goal-setting check sheet Setting goal-setting
beacons.
a. 10 year strategy plan.
b. 5 year strategy plan.
c. Annual review beacon 1.
d. Quarterly review beacon 2.
e. Monthly review beacon 3.
f. Weekly review beacon 4.
g. Daily review beacon 5.
Please assess the following check sheet and make any and all
changes which you think pertinent to your business and your
goals. Whatever you do it is important that you review your
values, your goals and your objectives on a constant basis. At
no time must you allow yourself to get off track as this relates
to the constant and regular need to produce income as failure
in this regard will ensure total failure as this relates to your
achieving ultimate success.
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Conclusion
Most people never achieve their full potential simply because
they have never been trained to set effective goals and then to
strategize as to how to achieve business and family pre-set
goals. We have now seen over the last three chapters contained
in this book how important it is to focus on the three critical
areas when setting goals (any goal), namely: (1) Setting of
ones values as a fundamental and crucial first step in the
process; (2) The professional process of setting goals and
performing strategy planning; (3) Aligning all objectives which
clearly define the pathway to achieving all goals, dream and
desires. It is absolutely imperative that you understand that
there is a clear sequence of events and the one action logically
follows the other. However, if you forget everything else you
must not forget this and that is that within the three steps as
mentioned above there are absolutely and plainly NO
SHORTCUTS! You either make a determined decision to be
professional in all three phases as mentioned above or dont
start the program at all. The difference between your success
and failure lies within your ability to recognize that you need
direction and then to perform all the tasks professionally in
order to assure that the much needed direction is found and
acted upon. Like anything else in your business and in your
life, goal-setting must be done in order and in turn it will bring
order out of apparent chaos. Therefore, goal-setting, lifeplanning and strategy planning, if done professionally, will
give new meaning to your life and will also ensure that your
dreams turn into reality. Plan the goals for your life and work
the plan and you will be absolutely amazed at the results.
Whatever you do though dont plan to fail!

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The difference between your success and

within your ability to recognize that
direction and then to perform all
professionally in order to assure that
needed direction is found and acted upon.

failure lies
you need
the tasks
the much

Like anything else in your business and in your life,

goal-setting must be done in order and in turn it will
bring order out of apparent chaos.

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8
Self-Discovery: The Foundation of Your Own Success
1st Secret: PASSION
2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
5th Secret: VALUES
6th Secret: GOAL SETTING
7TH Secret: SETTING OBJECTIVES
8TH Secret: SELF-DISCOVERY
Introduction
My second oldest daughter is studying psychology at
university. She has a very soft and a giving heart and had
decided to dedicate some of her time and growing knowledge
to a worthy cause. After doing some research she decided on a
foundation (registered as non-profit but not so in practice it
would seem) which specializes in providing special needs
facilities to autistic children. As a Junior Therapist she is
assigned to one child only and it is her responsibility to mentor
the chosen child when she puts in her time at work. I want to
tell you about this story because one would think that with
such fragile children that all would be committed to the task
and to the needs of these very special little ones and that there
would be a reasonable sense of team spirit and helpfulness
within this organization. The other thing lacking it would seem
is any form of professionalism at all.
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Recently, my daughter came home and told us of a situation

with one of the children. For some reason (not a usual event)
on this day my daughter was assigned to take care of a new
child who has serious issues. For instance, despite being asked
if she wants to potty on a few occasions, and in fact sat on
the toilet for quite some time, she refused to go. No sooner had
she moved off the toilet when she decided that it was time to
go while she was on the playground. Needless to say, and I will
not spell this out to you, but you will understand the mess that
my daughter had to deal with and had to clean up. There was
not a place on the little girl that did not need to be cleaned. She
was taken back to the washroom where she politely kept
placing her foot into the toilet bowl and was very
uncooperative at the time, and all of this unwanted activity
made matters and the mess worse. When my daughter asked
for help her colleagues refused claiming that they had their
own issues to deal with. When she needed wet-wipes and
toilet paper there was none to be found. The long and the short
of the matter was that my daughter came home most frustrated
and expressed her frustration with tears. As it is not my policy
to fight my childrens battles (unless absolutely necessary) I
did encourage her to report the matter to the owner of the
company who apparently is never at the business to begin with
this she did.
The owners initial response to my daughters emailed report
was reasonably pleasant to start with and she was adamant that
she wanted the names of the people who refused to help in the
situation and who was responsible for not ensuring that there
was adequate toilet paper and wet-wipes. So far the response
of the owner was in order and no comment from me here.
However, within a half an hour the owner sent a second email
which was typical, in my opinion, of the response of an
entrepreneur who is not in control of the business and is very
seldom present at the place of work. In this case the owner
decided that she prefers to work from home together with her
husband. I know what you are thinking and you are one
hundred percent correct. How do you run a business, which
has premises, from a remote location surely all kinds of
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things could and will go wrong? The second email from the
owner was from someone out of touch with her business as she
then proceeded (after accepting my daughters first email) to
explain to her that she should have followed protocol and
reported the incident to her Team Leader. The Team Leader
was in fact one of the people who were too busy to respond
to my daughters call for help. After the event the Team Leader
did nothing to address the situation at all and carried on with
life as though nothing ever happened so the Team Leader
was not an option. While it was not her function my daughter
was lambasted for not ensuring that she had toilet paper and
wet-wipes at the time of the incident-apparently she learned
later that the owner was responsible for placing all orders and
that the lack of the necessary items was in fact an oversight on
her part. Staff employed to assist with these emergencies were
nowhere to be found, and again this was the Team Leaders
fault as she was apparently responsible for ensuring that staff
were properly managed. No matter what the correspondence
between my daughter and her employer she refused to accept
responsibility for any of the negative behavior of her staff and
the lack of needed items for the children. I have also been told
that there is a high staff turnover in the business and instead of
the owner doing introspection of her business practices and her
management thereof it would seem that at no time will she
accept responsibility for the obvious challenges faced by one
and all in the business. My feeling is, and I am sure that you
will agree with me, the business will not last long at all. The
fact that this entrepreneur spends many hours away from her
business has no control over her staff and has no idea as to the
needs of the business. According to her, is not her fault as its
the fault of the Team Leader, my daughter, the child in
question and the housekeeper who should be there to assist in
these types of emergencies!
So often in the business world and society in general we are
way too eager to blame others for our own shortcomings,
mistakes and weaknesses. Our failures are willingly placed
upon the shoulders of either our great staff or our family
members. Blaming someone when they are wrong is one thing
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and deserved; however, blaming someone else as a result of

OUR actions and who WE are is totally unacceptable in the
world of business. As an entrepreneur you must understand
something very clearly (already alluded to in a previous
chapter) THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU ALWAYS! It is
your business and YOU are the employer and YOU are
responsible for every single aspect of your business. When
something goes wrong it would be wise to first ask yourself the
question: Was there anything that I could have done which
would have helped to avoid that negative situation in my
business? If the answer is no then you will have to deal with
the guilty party but if yes then you will have to be very careful
how you handle yourself as you will have many eyes upon you
in anticipation of how you will self-correct. Despite all of your
personal training which you have undergone in order to ensure
a smooth operation, and if you still fail, I can promise you that
if you are an unprofessional entrepreneur you will always find
a way to blame someone else for your own failure failures
caused by you and you alone. We call this psychological
phenomenon BLAME SHIFTING! This is a rather popular
pastime for those that never amount to anything in life.
Blame shifting is a common, and yet, extremely dangerous
game played by almost everyone and is prevalent in all spheres
of life. The blame shifting game is played by everyone from
governments and politicians, to the business world, families,
marriages and the individual. However, when it comes to those
who consider themselves professionals, and who are equipped
with the necessary skills and optimism and the correct positive
attitude these will be quick, when caught in a compromising
situation, to point out that old adage: The buck stops here!

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THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU ALWAYS! It is your

business and YOU are the employer and YOU are
responsible for every single aspect of your business.

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The goal then of this chapter is that if YOU want to be

successful then YOU will have to keep yourself accountable
for your own lack of action, lack of willingness to change and
your lack of professionalism. Should you understand this then
you will also see in this chapter that you and you alone, are the
foundation of your success (speaking earthly only of course)!
Nothing builds trust with another person more than a great
relationship built upon a willingness to accept personal
responsibility truly a dying breed!
You need to develop an understanding of who you are. In order
to master skills you first have to master who YOU are as a
person and as an entrepreneur. A skill is most certainly an
ability to manage people but if you have identified that you are
not a peoples person then you have a weakness and such a
weakness will cause you and me (supposing that I have such a
weakness that is) to fail. The fact that we have identified that
we are not a good manager of people because we dont like
them then we will be able to focus on the solution. The ability
to identify and admit to a weakness is the first step to
recovery. An alcoholic must first see his fault and identify
his weakness and admit to the same before he/she is ready to
accept help. The smoker continues to smoke despite all the
warnings to the contrary staring them in the face because the
smoker does not see it as a problem. As long as the smoker
refuses to see the harm being done to the body and that
smoking is a weakness, the motivation to quit will be lost.
Cancer may help the smoker to understand that when smoking
one plays with fire but at this stage it will be too late to take
corrective action the smoker will die! However, if the same
person identifies the weakness early on and based upon this the
smoker quits it may very well save a life. You and I cant
master skills if we cant master who we are and the first step to
mastering who we are is to identify all of our weaknesses and
admit to these. Only once ALL of our weaknesses are honestly
identified can we find honest solutions which are desperately
needed for personal change. If you are not willing to make
changes as an entrepreneur then you ought not to pursue this
noble profession as you will fail and you will waste all of your
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money and you will disappoint YOUR FAMILY AND

YOURSELF!
There are those who will stubbornly state that I am who I am
and if people dont like who I am well then they can take or
leave it. These are the same people that will argue that if they
have a weakness then all they will need is to learn a technique
which should take care of the challenge. However, I am of the
opinion that mastering a technique is short sighted and will
only bring short-term change. My feeling is that bad habits will
ALWAYS eventually overpower a learned technique. Learning
a technique in the hope of overcoming a serious personal
weakness is likened to placing a Band-Aid on a hole in your
heart. The hole in ones heart will need surgery by a qualified
surgeon or you will die and it is as simple as that. If you have
had bad business practice habits for many years the only way
to get rid of them is to recognize that they are bad and then
replace the bad habit with a more professional solution. For
instance, it is imperative that an entrepreneur be able to sell his
product/service, for years he has convinced himself that he
cant sell and has never been involved in selling because of
this I am not a salesperson! I cant sell! The idea here
will be to identify the fact that the notion of I cant sell is not
true and must be rated as a personal weakness which may
destroy all of your future goals NOTHING HAPPENS
WITHOUT A SALE! There is no such thing as I am not a
salesperson as we are ALL salespeople.
My youngest daughter goes with me to the store with the
express goal of getting me to purchase candy at the pay point.
She asks for the candy and I say no! She will ask me for the
candy again and again I will say no, again and again! She then
uses whatever selling tool which she has at her disposal and
she does not care what tool she uses against me as her goal is
to get me to buy her candy no matter what. I get hugs and
kisses and sometimes I get tears. I get a soft small voice asking
so nice that it becomes impossible for me to resist. Her
persistence in closing (as in the selling environment) me over
and over again is what makes her a successful salesperson but
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obviously I wont tell her that until she has matured as a

woman. Most adults land up getting married and I dont care
who you are, and whether you realized what you were doing or
not; however, you sold yourself to your spouse in so many
ways I dont have the time to go through them all. I can
however confirm this with you and that is if you had nothing to
sell then your spouse would not have bought from you and you
probably would not be married today.
Without mastering yourself you will fail to achieve goals and
your true potential. Now what do I mean when I say that you
will need to MASTER who you are as a person? The question
comes up and I have to ask: Who is in control of you? Yet
another question needs to be asked in this case: Who is in
control of you-are you in control of your thoughts and actions
or are you being controlled by outside and/or external forces or
people? In other words, are you your own person? I want to
deal with two words as we move forward which may help you
to understand where I am coming from. The first word which
we will analyze is MASTER and the second will be
MASTERY. However, before I continue I want to make it quite
clear that the analysis to follow in no way deals with any
religious association and belief. Personally I have but one
Master and this is my Maker. I am not dealing with this aspect
of life but rather my focus is you and the influences that your
external environment may or may not have on you which
environment may be affecting you in a negative way
specifically as this relates to your role as an entrepreneur. The
point will be made clearer as we move forward.
1. Master.
In the first instance the term master (as a noun) refers to
someone who is in charge of others and a ruler, head or chief
of others-A governor, a president, a prime minister, a chief, the
head and a lord (as in the UK hierarchical protocol). The term
master may also refer to an overlord, a managing director, a
chief executive officer and chairperson of the board. However
while the titles give us an idea of the position of such an
individual we are not as concerned with the position as we are
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about the one fundamental strand that binds them all

together, and that is: NO ONE TELLS THEM WHAT TO DO!
These are titles and positions held by people who we
commonly refer to as leaders. They are technically and
substantively masters! They are used to giving the orders and
not taking them. These people have subordinates who respect
them, revere them, obey them and see wisdom in them each
and every single day. Not only do they have direct
subordinates but people on the outside looking in also revere
people holding these positions.
As an entrepreneur then you are a managing director or a chief
executive officer or you may even be the chairperson of the
board and this means that you are a master who in turn means
that you give the orders but dont take the orders. A successful
entrepreneur will quickly understand the role as master (does
not mean overbearing and dictatorial in any way at all) as
being one of leadership and example to all in the business
(employees, clients and suppliers alike). You will now
understand this about yourself and that is that YOU provide the
solutions and YOU separate the challenge/issue from all
emotion and YOU deal with reducing a seemingly
insurmountable challenge down to bite-sized chunks. The
business belongs to YOU so YOU need to come to terms with
being responsible for everyone and everything under your
business roof so to speak. YOU are the master in your
business and no one else, and yes, not even your bank
manager!
Again, as clarification, I want no misunderstanding here and so
I am going to use my Max as an example but I am not referring
to humans as dogs. With that out of the way I want you to
understand my very special relationship with my one dog
called Max. Max and I go back a long way as I bought him
when he was a little puppy (around six weeks old I think). The
first thing was that I BOUGHT Max so he belonged to me and
no one else. Unfortunately for Max (and he wont agree with
me on this) because I bought him I am his owner just as you
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become the business owner when you either buy the same
and/or do a business start-up. The most unbelievable things
about Max was that I never ever spent time in convincing him
of our roles as master and mans best friend as all of this
seemed to develop automatically over the years. While I have
never taken advantage of Max he has never taken advantage of
me (except for his insatiable appetite for digging with the
purpose of either hiding or retrieving a bone) in that he knows
my position in our relationship and I know his. Max is a large
breed black German Shepherd and has the capability of hurting
me should he no longer feel that I am his master. The chance of
him misunderstanding his position both now and in the future
is pretty remote and I want to say, knowing Maxs size, that I
am very happy about this. The point of all of this is that I dont
allow Max to tell me what to do. When I walk him in the
mornings, and if I was not his master in charge of him, I would
let him go so that he can attack all the dogs in the
neighborhood that continuously bark at us as we pass. I control
Max and he not only knows this but I get the distinct feeling
that he appreciates my willingness to be his master. YOU are
the master so YOU are in control of ALL circumstances around
you in business and this includes YOU, your staff, your clients
and your suppliers but mostly YOU! As I am the owner of Max
my beloved friend I am also my best friends keeper. If you do
not understand who you are then you will never realize that
YOU are the master of your business, the owner of your
business and the keeper of your business and in order to
achieve your business and personal goals, and to reach your
true potential, you will have to understand that YOU are the
leader and manager of it all. A master then is one whom is or
becomes an expert and a genius in his/her field. How far
away are you from being exactly that?
We now understand what a master is but we also need to
know what a master does (verb format). As we are dealing
with YOU, and we want to understand more of who YOU are,
within the business environment we need to understand all of
the actions associated with being a master and with who you
are as a person and entrepreneur. A master then will be
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responsible for doing some or all of the following actions as a

part of his/her make-up: you need to be in control, you need to
keep control of your business, you need to monitor your
business at all times, at times you need to have the ability to
restrain, keep in check and contain matters in your business
and in your life and you will need to confine and curb many
aspects in your business the least of which may not only be
rampant spending, poor service delivery and over enthusiastic
staff. As a master you will be expected to get the hang of all
aspects of your business and your personal life in relation to
how this may or may not affect your business. I am so tired of
hearing how entrepreneurs have no motivation to learn
EVERYTHING they can about their business and industry. It
stands to reason that if many of these unprofessional
entrepreneurs who are too lazy (a better word for not
motivated) to learn more about their business they will not be
inclined to do introspection with a view to identifying their
weakness and to change these in the positive. The professional
master then is responsible for his/her own growth and must
learn, must grasp and must acquire the necessary business and
personal knowledge in order to grow. When you grow from an
entrepreneur to a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR then you
change as a person and when you change as a person then your
business changes with you and when your business changes
with you for the positive then you will start to achieve your
business and personal goals. Being a MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR then will entail that you be an EXPERT
ENTREPRENEUR. How sad it is to me to see so many good
people throw money away by failing at business because they
think that they dont need to be qualified to be an
entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is why some people never
succeed however those that succeed are MASTER
ENTREPRENEURS and this is clearly evident in their levels
of professionalism as people and their clear ability and
knowledge within the marketplace and industry within which
they operate.

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2. Mastery.
As a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR you will have complete
control over who you are and over your business. In other
words you will be known as a master entrepreneur who has
outstanding expertise and skill over his/her life and business. It
is this expertise that allows you to accept the responsibility for
all areas of your life and your business and thus you are not
one to shun the saying the buck stops here. You will thus
have complete mastery over all aspects which affect the
success of your business.
You will have a professional command of your identified
weaknesses and the fact that you have identified these means
that as a professional you will learn through whatever means to
overcome these to the point where you become the master of
your weaknesses and not a slave to them. Remember, as we
have said on many occasions now knowledge is not
knowledge until you put it into practice. The idea is that once
you have completed an introspection exercise, and have
identified those areas that even you agree are a source of
weakness for you, then you must draw on the knowledge
presented in this book in order to overcome them. This action
will turn you into a true entrepreneur in that you will then
comprehend and grasp what it will take to make the changes
necessary and the ability to finally grasp and comprehend what
constitutes a true MASTER ENTREPRENEUR. Becoming
proficient in business, and not just any business, but your
business and your industry, will make you capable in more
areas than you are able to comprehend. As you raise the levels
of business proficiency you will raise the levels of your
mastery as a master entrepreneur. Only when you have a clear
mastery over all aspects of your life and your business can you
then claim that achieving success is but one more hill away.
Thus mastery as an entrepreneur will mean that you are an
expert with great skill as a MASTER entrepreneur.
It is imperative to realize that unless you know who you are
you may never reach your true potential. May I suggest
another important consideration? You are only able to use
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yourself as an effective asset if you are conscious of whom you

are (strengths and weaknesses) and rather using yourself as an
asset will mean that you are then less likely to becoming more
of a hindrance to yourself. While the following list is not
exhaustive by any means I would like you to have a clearer
definition of who are you!

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When you grow from an entrepreneur to a MASTER

ENTREPRENEUR then you change as a person and
when you change as a person then your business
changes with you and when your business changes
with you for the positive then you will start to achieve
your business and personal goals.

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1. Discover and understand your personal strengths.

There is an old historical story of a man known as Samson.
The man grew but never cut his hair. His nation at the time had
natural enemies who wanted to see Samson destroyed as he
was powerful and defended his nation by using his immense
strength against the opposition armies. A lady, by the name of
Delilah, caught Samsons eye so to speak and he was soon
smitten. The problem with Delilah was that she was a part of
the nation which utterly despised Samson and together the
leadership plotted the demise of Samson by using his love for
his lovely lady. It was given to her to discover the source of
Samsons immense power. Over a period of time, and using
every sales technique in the book, and of course her amazing
beauty, she managed to get Samson to reveal the source of his
strength, and as we all know, it was his hair. As time went on
Delilah, after putting him to sleep one night, cut his hair and
the enemy pounced upon him and bound him. The only reason
that they could do this was by cutting his hair he became weak.
A planet was about to explode and the entire inhabitants
destroyed. However, before the event a loving and caring
father placed his baby boy into a pod and programmed the
navigation system with the destination as earth. The pod,
according to the story, landed in a mid-western farming
community and in particular on the farm of a deserving, loving
and caring couple who were barren. The child grew but it soon
became apparent that the little boy had unusual powers and
was able to move and lift vast weights, look through objects
and destroy items by simply looking at them using a beam of
light from his eyes. The boy grew and became a man and the
savior of mankind by defending the earth, and its population,
from evil in all forms. The young man had no idea that he had
a weakness as he had never focused on the fact that he may be
weak in some or other area. However, while visiting his mancave one day he came across a substance which we all have
come to know as Kryptonite which was apparently deadly to
our hero. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous villain discovered
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the young mans weakness and dread and managed to use the
Kryptonite against him in order to accomplish some evil deed.
We are all happy that the super hero lived through the ordeal
and won the day due to his ability to overcome his weakness.
In both of the examples above our heroes had amazing
strengths but in order to use the strengths they had to discover
them and nurture these to the point where they could be used
for good. When you understand what your strengths are then
you know what you have to use for the good of your family
and your business; however, I say again you will have to
discover them. While our super heroes use their strengths to
conquer evil and protect mankind you and I can do the same
thing for our families and as master entrepreneurs in our
businessesso discover what makes you be the hero as a
master entrepreneur.
2. Discover and understand your personal weaknesses.
Samsons weakness was short hair. Supermans weakness was
Kryptonite. What is your weakness? In order for Samson to
regain his strength he would have to re-grow his hair and
Superman would have to avoid Kryptonite at all cost if he
wanted to live and continue to save the world. Thus identifying
our weaknesses does not only give us a way to overcome them
but the discovery also provides us with awareness, and
awareness, ensures that we avoid our weaknesses for fear of
failure. Why would Superman deliberately and willfully go
near Kryptonite after he identified the substance as deadly to
him? Samson re-grew his hair not because he thought that it
was cool to do so but because he knew that having short hair
could get him killed and probably would have had he not
grown his hair again and be given back his power for one last
time. Samson destroyed his weakness by destroying his own
life as he brought down the buildings upon himself and his
enemies. Identifying your weaknesses also helps you to
understand your ability of either allowing your weaknesses to
destroy you or, as with Superman; he decided to manage his
weaknesses by steering clear of Kryptonite thereby saving his
life and allowing himself to be a perpetual hero.
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3. Discover and understand your personal growth opportunities.

Three words stand out in the above sentence and will need to
be considered namely personal growth opportunities. The
connotation and context of personal is that you must come to
realize that this means that you will have to dig deep so to
speak. The word personal in this instance also means that you
have to go to a place where you or anyone else may not have
gone beforeyou have to go to the place where your deepest
secrets live. This is your private & confidential place, your
exclusive place where you have never let anyone in to and this
includes your wife and/or your business partner and even your
very best friend. You have to understand where you need to
grow and how you must grow and one of the best ways to
accomplish this goal would be to sit down and address a
personal letter to yourself with a view to being perfectly honest
in your self-discovery process. If you are weak in managing
business finances then say so and identify this as an
opportunity for personal growth. If you are honest enough to
identify your out of control temper as a weakness and as a
personal growth point then get working on the solution to
overcome this serious weakness. If you are unsure of you
becoming an entrepreneur then ask yourself why and write this
in the letter to yourself. Personal also refers in this context to
your individual, exclusive, special, peculiar and particular
inner thoughts which belong only to you and those areas and
items of weakness which you are aware of but have willfully
and deliberately chosen to ignore over the years and it is these
very thoughts and ideas which have held you back for so a
long time now.
Growth refers to development, increase and expansion. The
opposite of growth is to decline and/or decrease. Growth
means a forward motion and most certainly has nothing to do
with either going into reverse mode or stagnation. As
stagnating water draws all kinds of poison and renders water
undrinkable so will a stagnating entrepreneur draw all
unnecessary negative emotional and intellectual poisons
which will undoubtedly render much needed abilities null and
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void within the business environment and enhance failure in

the business and personally. Personal growth has to start
somewhere! Identifying personal weaknesses is the first step
though and this discovery then becomes the benchmark from
which all future growth and change is measured. The statement
may be that I have grown! the logical response however is
then to ask from what have you grown? The answer is that I
have grown from and away from my identified weaknesses!
What we dont want to see is decline! Personal growth then
must be seen as some form of positive expansion, personal
development, progress and of course, personal advancement
both intellectually and emotionally.
Opportunity within our context then is an indication that you
and I are seizing the moment! Personal growth whether
emotionally, spiritually or intellectually is an opportunity. We
have clearly identified our deepest inner weaknesses and this
action is now wonderful opportunities to change the things
which have made us weak and which will most certainly make
us fail should we attempt entrepreneurship. An opportunity
represents a chance, a possibility and a moment to change all
weaknesses into strengths. Opportunity gives us a gap so to
speak, an opening and a moment within which to change the
status quo a time out if you will to regroup and assess. The
idea then is to have a clear understanding of ones personal
growth opportunities within the context of what we have to
offer in light of what the business will need by way of
leadership in order to succeed.

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Personal growth whether emotionally, spiritually or

intellectually is an opportunity.

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4. Discover and understand how others VIEW who you are as a

person.
Part of understanding who you are as a person to your family
and your business partner and to your clients, is discovering
how you are viewed by these people. Your family are your
support base, your business partner is critical in that he/she
assists in maintaining focus and discipline within the business
environment and your clients/customers are key in maintaining
financial stability within the business. The one thing that you
and I need to understand then is that a big part of
understanding who we are is to understand what the key
people in our lives think about us. In other words, we simply
must try to understand how others view who we are as people
and who you are as a person. The one thing that must exist in
order for you to make this discovery is trust. It will not be easy
for you to extract the much needed information from those that
love you and those that have a vested interest in you. The
biggest obstacle that these people will have in assisting you is
not honesty but the fear of hurting you emotionally. It is
imperative that when you make an approach to those that are
your support base for a view as to how you are perceived that
you understand how these people will feel about your request
for information about you. They will be nervous and reluctant
and you will have to reassure these good people that you are
serious about receiving their opinion of you and that there will
be no negative feelings or animosity once the truth about you
has been revealed. When you ask someone to give their view
of how you are perceived looking from the outside in then you
will also have to understand what you are asking them to do.
When you ask someone to give their view of you they will be
required to assess what they see in you generally in the
following areas: (1) Emotionally, (2) Intellectually and (3)
Spiritually. The sense here then would be likened to a
panoramic view of your life as they have been around you long
enough to know what you are like in all of the areas mentioned
above. As one would view (at a distance) the scene of a battle
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or a scene of an African escarpment with all of its detail so you

will be scrutinized and viewed by those critical to your
success. The thing to remember is that the pre-conceived view
which you have of yourself may in all likelihood not be the
view and feedback which you will receive from those looking
in. We all have positive and negative aspects to our
personalities whether we want to admit to these or not and
people see these in us each and every day. You may either be
viewed with some level of dislike or with the utmost respect
(and/or something in between) and this scenario may change
from day to day and month to month depending on your
stability or erratic behavior. In order to obtain this information
from those who care for you it may be best to consider one or
more of the following options:
1. Have a face to face and open discussion with the person.
2. Set out a questionnaire whereby you seek very specific
questions answered about your personality (emotions,
intellectual and spiritual).
3. Prepare a written questionnaire to be answered in private and
not in your presence make sure that you have space for
additional comments.
4. Another option (or in conjunction with some or all of the
above) would be to invite this key person to write you a letter
(email will work) detailing at least between 5 and 10 positive
things about you and also between 5 and 10
weaknesses/negatives about who you are as a person and
leader.
5. Discover and understand how others EXPERIENCE the real
you.
Experiencing the real you will have to do more with
interaction with you on a daily basis than with anything
intangible or perceptions. In other words this refers to both
your actions and reactions within the business environment or
as a father/mother and a spouse at home. Experiencing you is
an active phenomenon and has to do with everyones
involvement with you on a personal and interactive level. It
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has to do with the level of personal involvement, participation,

familiarity and day to day observation of who you are and how
you react to both the people around you and to the challenges
which you face in both your business and personal life. Do you
come across as confident or unqualified? Are you an expert in
your field and skilled or do you wonder about what comes
next? Are you qualified, trained, knowledgeable and
professional? Are you experienced of inexperienced when
dealing with or around others? The one question to ask then
would be to want to know whether people have a pleasant
experience when in your company or would they rather not
associate with you.
6. Discover and understand your curiosity to always learn more
about YOU.
In my opinion, and as has been stated before (in an entire
chapter on the subject matter) one of the best ways to discover
who you are, and to keep on discovering who you are, is to
perform a values analysis on a consistent and regular basis.
However, in order to keep on discovering who you are you will
need to understand that who you are today will not necessarily
be who you are in three to five years from now. You will
change as time marches on and you will change as your
environment changes and you will change as you are
influenced by your success and/or failure. In other words you
are in a constant state of flux throughout your life and this is
why I recommend that your curiosity for understanding who
you are must change accordingly. Please remember, the main
theme of the book is entrepreneurship, and your ability or
inability to qualify as such, so your curiosity for understanding
who you are should be considered within this context. The idea
is to always ensure that you understand who you are with a
view to making necessary changes-Which, in your person, will
keep you ahead of the game in business.
The idea is to have a healthy (not selfish or self-centered)
curiosity about the reasons you fail and the reasons why you
succeed and the impact which you as a person has had on the
result either way. Be inquisitive, be intrigued and be interested
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to know who you are and because of this what impact you are
having on those around you and those whom you love. Being
an entrepreneur is never easy but what will make a greater
challenge is if you think that you know it all and that there is
nothing left for you to learn the age old saying goes: you are
never too old to learn! The idea is that you affect what
happens around you at all times either negatively or positively
so you must develop an eagerness to know who you are and to
learn more about yourself on a daily basis if your
circumstances dictates such a need. You need to know what
makes you tick and you will always need to know what your
off buttons are as well as your on button. Learn what you
are capable of and what you do well and then learn the
opposite and what you can do to make the changes for success.
Be aware! Monitor your level of interest in learning more
about yourself on a consistent basis as the day may arrive
when you develop a low tolerance for this learning process and
develop an incurious nature or an indifferent nature and an
unconcerned philosophy of introspection which will forever
remain vital to you becoming a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR.
7. Discover and understand your curiosity to always learn more
about OTHERS.
What is your current level of interest in other people at this
very moment? You and I will understand as entrepreneurs that
people are our business. People buy services and products not
companies. People receive and accept quotations and tenders
for products and services not companies. People pay your
invoices not companies. Companies and businesses are made
up of people and we are to deal with people on a daily basis
who are capable, in most instances in business, to make or
break the entrepreneurs dreams, goals and desires. If you
dont like people then stay out of business! People are critical
to your success! Understand who you are dealing with and
never stop understanding who you are dealing with! People
will enter into legally binding agreements with you and then
break these soon thereafter understand why? People will tell
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you that they never read your agreement so you will need to
understand why people behave in this way. The
agreement/contract contains agreed upon payment terms but
people dont settle your invoices accordinglyyou simply must
understand why they behave in this fashion as not paying
invoices is a serious threat against your business. Your staff
underperforms which affects the good name of your business
but it is your job as the owner and entrepreneur to find out why
such behavior exists so that you are able to correct such
detrimental behavior you have to understand your staff and
why they behave the way that they do. There is no point in
burying your head in the sand like an Ostrich when it comes to
understanding people as they are your life-blood as this
relates to your plans.
8. Discover and understand your eagerness to receive feedback
from those who care.
Feedback is the food of champions! Criticism in any format is
always better than no criticism at all! It is unfortunate that both
the media and society in general have led us to believe that
there is only a negative side to feedback/criticism. Within the
context of business and entrepreneurship there can be nothing
further from the truth. Master entrepreneurs have long since
embraced the concept of valuable feedback and criticism
whether negative of positive as a means to understand the
direction of their business and the effectiveness of services and
products. Criticism of sales staff, services staff and
administration staff is vital in order for correction to take place
any negative feedback which is used to change behavior for
the good of the business must be embraced with open arms and
a warm heart. Personal feedback and/or criticism of the
business owner, partners and any other area for that matter is
worth more than gold so to speak as only after the same has
been received can changes be made either way.
Constant feedback is considered so vital in the retail sector that
many have opted for IMMEDIATE feedback by providing
various electronic means by which to give immediate feedback
of service at all critical areas throughout the store. The
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information is fed through to the marketing department by the

minute and is used for praise and reprimand purposes of store
staff nationwide. Criticism is feedback in whatever format!
Dont be fooled, as are the rest of society, that feedback is
always negative as even negative feedback may be used for the
good of you as an entrepreneur and for your business. Never
be afraid to seek criticism or feedback from your staff, family,
clients, suppliers and bankers and the like. You need to know
what you are doing right and you need to know what you are
doing wrong and in many instances this may be the difference
between success and failure. Feedback then is good because it
allows you to improve performance on so many levels
including your own personal performance levels.
9. Discover and understand your willingness to make life altering
changes in:
a. Levels of professionalism
Study to show thyself approved I will never understand
people who truly believe that entrepreneurship is an activity so
easily undertaken. Good men and women who feel that the
easiest way to be free of a boss is to start a business. They have
no training and neither do they bother to assess themselves in
order to insure professionalism within the field of business. I
can tell you that in most instances businesses fail simply
because very little critical training has been undertaken for the
task. The attitude seems to be that I know it all and any way
how difficult can it really be to start a business? Foolish!
Foolish indeed! I want to encourage you to ALWAYS be
developing your levels of professionalism and this means that
you should read books (like the one which you are reading
right now), take a course and attend key seminars to boost your
personal levels of business expertise. I have said this before, if
you want to obtain the necessary theory on any subject then go
out and purchase three good books on the subject and absorb
the contents. By the time that you have finished your study of
these books, and applied the principles in a practical setting for

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a while you will have the necessary knowledge needed to

perform successfully. Study to show thyself approved !
b. Attitude
Changing ones attitude for the best is in most cases the
difference between success and failure both in life and in
business. A key component in achieving MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR STATUS is a positive personal and mental
attitude. I once met with a man, who considered himself an
entrepreneur, who had a struggling business and could not
understand why. I spent 10 minutes with the individual and
told him that the biggest problem in his business was him. He
wanted to know more and I bluntly explained that his attitude
was the biggest stumbling block to the success of his business
and in his life. I went on to explain to him that unless he took
his attitude from extremely negative to extremely positive then
he would lose his business and his family. In all my days I
have never met a man that complained about everyone and
everything as I have this want-to-be entrepreneur. I then went
on to help him to understand where his personal problems
were and how he could change the status quo. The quickest
way to change your attitude is to change who you are listening
to every day. Best friends may turn out to be your worst
enemies as this relates to ones attitude. Listening to negative
people on a constant basis will make you negative and
listening to positive people on a constant basis will make you
positive. The best way to stay positive is to produce positive
results meaning that you will only have positive things to talk
about right? No matter the temptation make sure that you place
yourself with positive influences in all spheres of your life as
to do opposite may lead to eventual failure and there is nothing
more negative than deliberate and willful failure in business.
c.

Behavior.
As human beings we have been handed a gift from on high
which allows us to determine within a moment someones
behavior. With this in mind then may I ask you as to what
behavior your clients are seeing in you? When your partner has
to approach you on issues what does he read in your behavior?
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When you and your spouse have had a tough day what
behavior do they see in you and how does this behavior affect
your relationship with your spouse? People read our behavior
and in reading our behavior they make certain assumptions
about who we are as people and as entrepreneursno wonder
many entrepreneurs struggle to succeed throughout the world.
When people review our behavior, and make up their minds
about us in a split second then they are reviewing things such
as: (1) Personal conduct, (2) manners, (3) attitude, (4)
demeanor, (5) deportment and our (6) reactions. The other
aspect worth pointing out about behavior is that behavior can
be put on. This is prevalent for arguments sake in a new
relationship where the one party wants to present only the
good side of the personality for fear of termination of the
relationship by the other party or the loss of interest due to a
poor attitude. The one thing about an attitude, though, is that it
is always true to itself! Eventually what is on the inside will
reveal itself on the outside only a matter of time. What you
portray may affect your business either way so make sure that
it is never the wrong way.

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The quickest way to change your attitude is to change

who you are listening to every day.

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d. Communication habits.
Communication comes in many forms and is as easily
misunderstood or understood as is a poor attitude. Again, we
have been endowed with the ability to understand another
individual without even saying a word. May I ask you then
what are you saying to those around you without even saying a
word? Communication may occur by means of writing, verbal
and body language and may manifest itself in personal contact,
a letter, one-on-one meeting with business associates, advice,
relationships, messages, associations and other interpersonal
dealings. If you use any or all of the above means to
communicate then have you asked yourself as to whether you
feel that you have developed certain habits (good or bad) when
doing so. You and I have both met people who seem not to be
able to help themselves in talking down to people no
matter who they are. Others are inappropriate in their language
and have a limited vocabulary of words with which to
communicate. Some have a habit of overemphasizing a point
to the point of boredom. What are the habits which you have
developed over the years? Communication must be
professional at all times in business with clear goals and
objectives for the communication. What is your attitude in
your communication process and is a bad attitude coming
through in your communication process or do you impress
those around you with your ability to be professional in all
spheres of the communication process? My advice to you is
that if you cannot spell then use the spell-check application on
your computer and if you have no talent when it comes to
writing then take classes that will help you to present a more
professional attitude in your communication. Study to show
thyself approved There is nothing worse than an
entrepreneur who cannot present himself/herself in a
professional manner when it comes to written communication
and much can be said of a person when they resort to writing.
Whatever you do never assume that the person to which you
are communicating will have a tolerant attitude toward you or
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your business if you presume that he or she will accept

uneducated and unprofessional correspondence. Furthermore,
consider this as well would you? At times, and in many
instances more regularly, as an entrepreneur you and I are
called upon to do formal presentations introducing our
respective businesses and the associated services and products.
May I ask, if you do such presentations (maybe using Power
Point), what are you communicating if the presentation
package is flawed and filled with errors? It thus becomes
imperative that you and I always have a willingness and ability
to assess and to make changes in our communication habits.
e.

Habits (from what will destroy you to what will save or build
you)
A habit is a habitual tendency and/or action which will result in
either negative or positive results over time. You and I are
aware that certain habits are hard to break once they have
taken hold. The habit of alcohol and drug abuse is certainly a
negative habit with severely negative consequences. We will
also agree that cigarette smoking is a nasty habit with ultimate
life threatening consequences. The one habit which has been
responsible for many entrepreneurs destroying their businesses
and families is that of gambling. If you are an entrepreneur or a
want-to-be entrepreneur or a prospective entrepreneur and you
already have a gambling challenge then my advice is that you
stay away from entrepreneurship as you will not have the selfcontrol in order to avoid gambling houses and casinos for the
sake of your developing business and for the sake of your
family. Because a habit is considered a practice of something
on a constant and consistent basis and has a pattern and a
routine such a phenomenon can be used for good and for bad.
While the results may vary from one person to the next I am of
the opinion that in order to turn a bad habit into a good habit
the practice must be repeated for around three weeks without
fail the opposite may also be true.
A habit means that this is the persons way, the persons
tendency and generally a rule for this person whether the
action is negative or positive. Your habits need constant
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appraisal in order for you to assess the extent of the negative or

positive effect on your professionalism and how you are
perceived by those around you. Habits can be seen by others
and if negatively perceived it will produce negative results
with those associated with the success of your business.
Having a habit of using filthy and foul language will be
detrimental to you and your business. Having a habit of
professionally communicating with your clients/customers on
a regular basis will yield positive results. Having a habit of
spending much time drinking coffee at the office each day
instead of out doing sales calls will not grow your business and
thus you will produce negative results. Raising your voice to
your staff in an unprofessional tone on a daily basis will yield
low payout results. However, motivating your staff through
praises when needed will ensure happy staff and a positive
result. Bad habits can become costly while changing these may
lead to a better life for you and your family and will most
certainly affect your business in a positive manner.
Negative Habits to Destroy Your Business and Dreams (No
particular order and not exhaustive)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Gambling in any form.

Accommodating clients who dont pay.
Spending many hours in a coffee shop.
Confusing golf with business.
Walking the malls to kill time.
Not realizing that administration, service activities, operational
requirements and activities, and any other activity for that
matter is LESS IMPORTANT than SELLING ACTIVITIES at
any time and at any stage in your business.
Not performing time management tasks regularly.
Not setting goals and assessing these on a regular basis.
Not performing regular introspection of oneself and ones
habits.
Being distracted on a regular basis by loving and well-meaning
family members.
Not understanding the concept and difference between WORK
and PLAY.
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Positive Habits to Enhance Your Business and Dreams (No

particular order and not exhaustive)
1. Make sure you have a REGULAR exercise program and
STICK TO IT DAILY.
2. ALWAYS focus on SALES, SALES and more SALES.
3. Once you have a plan then STICK TO IT NO MATTER
WHAT.
4. Do not allow ANYONE to distract you from your chosen
course.
5. Employ staff for their TALENT and not their POTENTIAL.
6. Choose to do business with clients/customers that actually pay.
7. Be prepared at any time to walk away from poor or non-paying
clients/customers.
8. Develop an EMERGENCY BUSINESS FUND from day one
even if the contributions are small to begin with.
9. Do not spend money BEFORE its in the bank and neither
must you spend MORE money than you makecommon sense
but costly if not followed.
10. Do not make excessive debt and if needed ensure that the
business is able to service the debt which may be in any
format.
11. Insure your business property against theft and loss at all
times.
12. Always hold staff accountable for company property.
13. Insure the business against claims due to staff negligence
Public Liability Insurance.
14. Take your family to church as you will need to talk to someone
that will listen.
Conclusion
While there are many more habits for you to consider, both
good and bad, as you understand more of whom you are as a
person my personal feeling is that the absolute key to
understanding who you are as a person is always to be aware
of your inner-most thoughts and actions and how these are
perceived by others.
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When you make a concerted effort to fully understand

yourself, in truth, this will lead to self-correction without the
need for outside intervention such a therapist. In my opinion,
others have a right to disagree; you are your very own best
therapist and personal manager. Going to a therapist of any sort
will simply mean that this person will help you to uncover
things about yourself that you already know. However, as I am
not against a good therapist I tend to take my troubles to my
Father instead and the results are phenomenal. This being said,
it will be important, if you are serious about growing as a
person and professionally, that you realize that it is actually
impossible for you to lie to yourself you may be able to fool
yourself for a short time though. You MUST in all honesty
identify the issues which are good for you and those which are
bad for you, your business and your family, and then, most
important of all, make a concerted effort to CHANGE for
good. It is a proven fact that most people who finally
understand themselves, and make positive changes to negative
revelations
experience
success
as
a
MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR over the long-term.
When entrepreneurs start (not AFTER making the decision to
become an entrepreneur but most definitely BEFORE) with a
solid understanding of who they actually are as a person, and a
strong business foundation, they will soon reach the IDEAL
ENTREPRENEUR CHARACTER required for success. This
in turn will allow them to build on this IDEAL and develop
professional skills and techniques which are sorely needed for
successful business development. Please always remember:
1. YOU are your greatest asset!
2. YOU are many times your own worst enemy!
3. YOU are the very FOUNDATION OF YOUR OWN
SUCCESS!
4. YOU could be in the hands of the great Master Himself!
Never be guilty of saying NO I CANT rather be
absolutely guilty of saying: YES I CAN!

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9
Loyalty: Exceed all Expectations
1st Secret: PASSION
2nd Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
5th Secret: VALUES
6th Secret: GOAL SETTING
7TH Secret: SETTING OBJECTIVES
8TH Secret: SELF-DISCOVERY
9TH Secret: LOYALTY
Introduction
Superior client service is one of the major separators
between serious competitors. There are many ways that a
business is able to compete but the most difficult way to stay
ahead of the game is by superior standards. In corporate
business today many millions of dollars are being spent on
major advertising campaigns, and the promise of:
Outstanding customer service! I have witnessed the false
advertising as much as you have and can tell you that there is a
huge difference between the talk and the walk. What the
customer is promised on television and what actually happens
at the business interaction level is vastly different, and in my
opinion, represents false advertising. However, one could
argue then that while it is the goal of executive management
within the corporate environment to provide superior service it
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would seem that top management and grassroots staff are not
on the same page and in fact are miles apart on the subject. My
feeling is that when one faces this scenario, whether in the
corporate world or your very own business, you should
understand why this difference exists and what needs to be
done to get the parties to practice the very same thing when it
comes to fulfilling promises of superior service. You may be
saying at this juncture: up until now you have been dealing
with the development of the entrepreneur so why the sudden
shift to superior service? This is a very good question, my
dear friend!
It always has been my goal in this book to ensure that you have
all the necessary information with a view to enhancing the
prospects of success for you, your family and your business. I
can assure you that my goal has not changed despite the shift
from you to the client/customer as we approach the end of the
book. You see, my dear friend, should you have implemented
everything else which I have presented to you through all the
previous pages, and forget the fundamental reason for why you
are in business, then you will fail in any event and this will
disappoint me to no end. Providing superior customer service
will set you apart from your competitors and the wonderful
thing about this business phenomenon is that it is not necessary
for such a policy to cost you any more money at all. In fact,
providing superior customer service will most certainly
increase profit and promote business growth. Companies that
decide to do business with you have been made false promises
year after year so I want you to be different so when you go in
and challenge the client/customer to test your resolve as far as
great service goes that you are actually able to fulfill your
promise in all service areas. Great service will satisfy the client
and will most certainly justify the cost of the product or
service.
Our goal in this chapter then will be to understand a satisfied
client. We need to understand that while we provide great
service there is another reason why the client/customer will
keep on coming back time after time. There are many ways to
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get a client to keep coming back over and over again but the
one that I believe is the most over looked business activity of
all is that of building client LOYALTY. The question then is
am I saying that great service and customer loyalty go hand in
hand and that even in the unlikely event that your great service
fails on any given day it will be the loyalty which you have
built up that will save the client from moving to a competitor?
This is exactly what I am sayingBUILDING CLIENT
LOYALTY MUST WORK HAND IN HAND WITH THE
PROVISION OF GREAT SERVICE!
According to some top business men and women whom I have
had the pleasure of interacting with in the business
environment I am led to believe that when taking on a new
supplier the expectation is that three criteria should be met at
all times, namely:
1. A friendly atmosphere during the business relationship.
2. A positive attitude by the companys management and its
entire staff.
3. A professional and superior service.
The three keys words apparently are then (1) friendly, (2)
positive and (3) professional. As a potential entrepreneur or
young entrepreneur I want you to understand that what I have
just given to you is not taught anywhere. The business gems
as I refer to them come directly from the mouths of some of
the most powerful business people in the world LISTEN TO
THEM!
Friendly Atmosphere
It has been said many times throughout history: In order to
make friends you must show yourself friendly! Clients and
customers alike have often shared with me the great battle
which they face with company representatives in that it would
seem that they are more friendly than the people who approach
them for business and that this makes them extremely
uncomfortable and the situation unpleasant. Being friendly is
not difficult surely unless you are a miserable person in that
case I will refer you back to the previous chapter in this book.
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If you have identified yourself as being an unfriendly person

then this must be considered as a weakness and one that may
cost you your business. Let me help you here just so that there
is no misunderstanding people in business do not like
dealing with unfriendly people because they come across in an
untrustworthy manner. The word and concept of friendly is
not difficult to understand as we all instinctively understand
the difference between someone who is friendly and someone
who is unfriendly. To be friendly then it is assumed that such a
person has certain characteristics such as a pleasant demeanor,
a pleasant person to be around, many times a kind and gentle
person, likeable and approachable. In other words they are
usually identified by a huge smile which is also the first thing
that one would notice. The friendly person is usually a social
individual who is always willing to listen and communicate to
the benefit of the client, customer or recipient. Being friendly
means many times, within the context of the business
environment, that you are outgoing and certainly approachable.
The best thing about a friendly person in most cases is that
they are usually trusted.
Creating a friendly atmosphere takes some work for most
but not for the friendly business representative. He or she
quickly realizes that breaking the ice is the most important
aspect of a new meeting and initial introduction. Creating a
friendly atmosphere may start with a simple thing as a smile or
an appropriate comment accompanied by the smile. The
friendly person will understand then that meeting a
client/customer for the first time (and every other time after
that) will entail being cordial (warm and friendly), amicable
(friendly), warm, welcoming and good-natured. The best sign
of a friendly atmosphere is when the client/customer seems to
be enjoying your company and it looks as though they want
you to stay on. In other words you and the client/customer
seem to be enjoying one anothers PRESENCE. You are
receptive, congenial and amiable in all the true meaning of the
word friendly!

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BUILDING CLIENT LOYALTY MUST WORK

HAND IN HAND WITH THE PROVISION OF
GREAT SERVICE!
People in business do not like dealing with
unfriendly people because they come across in an
untrustworthy manner.

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Positive Attitude
I have advised you before STAY AWAY FROM NEGATIVE
PEOPLE AS THEY WILL BRING YOU DOWN TO THEIR
LEVEL BEFORE LONG! Again the understanding of negative
and positive and negative and positive people around us is one
of the most natural things in the world. For some reason, while
people assure us that snakes are good for the environment we
still detest them and the natural instinct is still to kill them or
run from them. The same sentiment seems to apply to negative
people and while most of us realize their place in society we
would rather not associate with them at all. Clients/customers
love dealing with positive outgoing entrepreneurs and
company representatives.
I recently followed a sequence of events in my own business
which intrigued me but did not surprise me in the least and will
probably prove the points which I made above. We have been
looking to take on a second supplier for one of the services
which my company provides to our client base. I had
instructed my staff, assigned to this task, to set up the
necessary appointments with a view to allowing the
introduction of the new lines and suppliers. All of this was
done and two potential suppliers were chosen and the meetings
were set up. I had been notified of the times and date of the
meetings with the two potential suppliers but had decided to
allow the staff to control proceedings without me being present
and was I glad that I made this decision. I sit in an office just
above the boardroom downstairs. I could not help but overhear
the proceedings which went on below and was most certainly
intrigued to say the least. The first appointment was set for
around 09h00 and the other for around 10h30.
The time for the first appointment arrived; however, I could
hear very little as this related to the activities below me. In
fact, I was quite surprised as to the low noise levels as I know
my staff and they are usually animated and vocal. However,
time marched on and before I knew it the second interview
began. The one thing that I can tell you is that I heard more
laughter during this meeting than I had heard coming from the
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boardroom in a long time. The meeting seemed to go on and

on and it seemed to me that much fun was being had by all to
the point where no one was interested in terminating the
presentation. Knowing that I was going to write this chapter
eventually, and understanding the need for friendly and cordial
presentations, I eventually called the team together who were
present at the meetings with the prospective suppliers. My
question was simple in that I wanted to know what happened
as I heard nothing during the first interview and then heard
almost everything during the second. I could hardly contain the
enthusiasm of the team as they all wanted to inform me of their
experiences at the same time.
However, the story goes as follows. I was told that the first
prospect came across as boring and unfriendly and simply did
not know the product range the way that they should have. The
feeling was that the overall presentation was a bit negative
despite the product range being superb. Then I sat back as one
after the other told the story of the second prospect and how
this person was a most friendly and outgoing individual who
made many mistakes in the presentation but had the ability to
cover these up by using humor. In fact, throughout the
presentation humor was used to make friends and friends who
would forgive the errors made, love the product range and buy
from the person and not the company. Apparently, this
company representative had made a lasting enough impression
to get the nod. She created a friendly atmosphere from the very
first moment she opened her mouth and ensured that her
presentation was professional and positive (maybe not perfect)
a winning combination time after time.
The worst and clearest trait and/or characteristic of a negative
person are they are perpetually pessimistic. Pessimism creates
uncertainty and mistrust. Having a positive attitude means that
the entrepreneur feels everything is possible and all obstacles
are there to be overcome. Optimism as opposed to pessimism
is a key characteristic of such an entrepreneur as are
confidence, hopefulness and assuredness. These are the
characteristics which should be evident in you, my friend, and
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this is what your prospective client/customers should see in

you when you open your mouth to smile. The prospect should
see your friendliness and positive attitude in your smile before
you even get the opportunity to say a single word. A positive
attitude can be seen a mile away and takes the form of
outward mood, posture, your stance and behavior. I am
probably the only person that will tell you that ice-breaking
does not start when you open your mouth. Ice-breaking starts
already when the client takes an outward look at you for the
first time and when you grace them with your great smile. By
the time you open your mouth the ice-breaking is cemented by
what comes out of your mouth next, and most certainly, what
the client/customer sees on the outside will come from what is
dormant on the inside.
Professional
No matter what your prospect looks like and no matter what
the business premises look like never make the mistake of ever
believing that your obvious professionalism will not make an
impression. After all, the client has the challenge and you are
the person with the solution. Imagine going to a medical doctor
who does not come across as professional? I have no doubt
that you will walk out of such a doctors rooms and go find
one that talks and behaves like a professional. Professionals
also have a way of dressing the part and if you want to be
taken seriously when meeting with your bank manager then
you would do well to take my advice here-DRESS FOR
SUCCESS! What prospects want to see as this relates to
professionalism is someone who looks and behaves in a
conscientious manner, is businesslike, responsible and
therefore obviously proficient within the entrepreneurs field
of expertise. Professionals are therefore noted for their
expertise, for their skill and for their competency and all of this
gives a prospect a great deal of confidence. Confidence is
projected when the entrepreneur has clear and concise product
knowledge and is able to communicate such authoritatively.
We now conclude this segment by an understanding of what
the prospect and/or the client/customer expects, and in fact
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demands, when the entrepreneur arrives at their place of

businessfriendliness, positive attitude and professionalism.
Should you understand this secret and implement this into your
business and place this on your list of good habits to develop
then what we discuss next will cement your success as a
MASTER ENTREPRENEUR.
The idea with business is not only to have satisfied clients but
to also have these same clients come back for additional orders
over and over again. You may well be asking well how do we
ensure that this happens? In turn then, let me also pose a
question at this point: What would you need to do as an
entrepreneur in order to ensure that your client/customer is not
only satisfied but keeps coming back for more? The answer is
a simple word but has major repercussions both negative and
positive if ignored LOYALTY! The idea now is that you
have secured a new client so the very next thing to do in order
to ensure that the client remains on your books is to BUILD
CLIENT LOYALTY. What is loyalty within the context of
business? In my opinion, loyalty is started after you have made
your client/customer a promise and your business has
exceeded their wildest expectations. The idea is to create the
WOW FACTOR! The idea would be to surprise the
client/customer and to keep on surprising the client/customer.
They look forward to the so called extras which you and your
team keep on coming up with and it is these unknown
quantities which keep them interested as they have no idea as
to how you will exceed their expectations the next time
around. Just when they think that you will not respond
professionally to continued complaints you not only respond
positively but you respond in the most pleasant of ways
YES I CAN! When you respond in this fashion you must
understand that the client/customer can only respond with
WOW! THAT WAS A GREAT RESPONSE! WOW! THAT
WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE! They will return to your
business when the need arises yet again, and the greatest news
of all, they will tell others of their experience with you and that
is already a proven fact within marketing circles. My friend,
never underestimate the power of loyalty and brand loyalty.
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Millions are spent every day by the large corporates to ensure

that you and I remain loyal to a brand. The more positive the
experience and the more the positive experience can be
repeated, the more loyalty will be built. Once loyalty is
secured and cemented then there will be business flowing for
as long as your doors remain open for business. Loyalty is a
forever faithful mistress, unyielding, unrelenting and is the
pinnacle and/or crux of any business success if your goal is to
ultimately become a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR. Loyalty
then is the business glue which binds client and supplier and
the greater the quality of the glue the deeper the bind.
Developing Client Loyalty
Before we consider HOW TO develop customer loyalty we
must first understand HOW NOT TO develop client customer
loyalty. Understanding how not to develop loyalty is a similar
exercise to understanding what your bad habits are with a view
to changing them. In this case though, I feel it prudent to build
the loyalty foundation on a clear understanding of how not
to do it. Although I am sure that we could find many other
reasons how not to build loyalty I do want to focus on at least
eleven of the most prevalent negative ways and they are now
presented as follows:
1. Display no genuine or personal interest in the client/customer
or his/her goals for wanting to do business with you.
2. An unprofessional response to a query and/or legitimate
complaint in any format.
3. Constantly out of stock items resulting in frustrating back
orders.
4. Unavailable or unresponsive management to communication
(whether email, landline or mobile).
5. Consistently unfriendly demeanor by staff and management.

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Loyalty is started after you have made your

client/customer a promise and your business has
exceeded their wildest expectations.

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1. An unfriendly Receptionist responsible for answering the

company landline first impression?
2. Argumentative staff members who want to win an argument
but lose the client/customer.
3. Promises that cannot be met or keptclients/customers are like
elephants they do not forget what you promise.
4. Poor product knowledge meaning that the company
representative does not have the necessary answers to satisfy
the clients questions and/or concerns.
5. Lack of trained staff and insufficient staff to handle daily
challenges.
6. Poor company image which does not match the professional
image of the brand.
7. Many excuses for non-performance, failure and poor
client/customer management.
As explained the above list is but a drop in the ocean as to
what some unprofessional entrepreneurs are using to destroy
their business relationships with their clients all over the
world. Excuses for non-performance in all sorts of areas can be
found in many poor performing businesses. Many of these
businesses remain small and never seem to grow, the owners
remain frustrated and they never seem to achieve their business
and personal goals and all because no one ever shared with
them the idea of building client/customer loyalty. I can tell you
from today on you too will be left without excuse for not
understanding how to build client/customer loyalty and how
this may be affecting your current business in the negative.
One cannot build loyalty by willfully and deliberately
offending the person paying the bills on a regular basis!
Notwithstanding this sentiment we must now focus our
attention on a much more positive section of this chapter and
this is also a critical part of developing your goal of becoming
a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR. We will now discuss and
consider how do develop client loyalty in a professional
manner.

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How to Create and Develop Client/Customer Loyalty

AND KEEP IT!
After you have mastered your own emotions and actions and
after you have set a course for success and after you have
become a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR before you open your
doors for business you must also understand what follows.
NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A SALE! If you
understand that sales is likened to, if you will, to having a
luxury cruise liner but the ship has no engine/s. Without
engines the propeller will not turn and the function of the
propeller is just that to PROPEL the huge ship forward so
that it can successfully complete its course and safely arrive at
its destination.
Recently, I had dealings with a seriously confused would be
entrepreneur. The man that I am referring to has everything
going for him in life but he desperately wanted to achieve a
life-long dream (like so many people?). He wanted to become
his own boss and was desperate to start his own business.
When he called me I set up an appointment and flew to his
place of business where I met the man. The first impressions
were good and the business was set up professionally in every
aspect. I could honestly not find fault with what I saw. The
staff were in place and very pleasant indeed. All the necessary
office equipment and materials were set out as it should be in
any professional business. I was taken through the warehouse
area and was once again astounded as to the set-up and again
the impression which I received was that this was a seriously
professional organization. You will now begin to understand,
as I did, why I developed a curiosity for me being there.
Eventually the moment came and I was ushered into the
boardroom with an offer of some sort of beverage. While I
dont drink too much of it for obvious reasons I happen to
enjoy a good cup of coffee and so ordered the same.
My client and friend (all my clients land up being my friends)
began to talk and I stopped him mid-stream. I briefly explained
what my initial impressions were and cut to the chase. I
stated that I had seen his business and was obviously
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impressed with what he had put together but I explained that

the only department which he had not shown me was his sales
department. This, he exclaimed, is why you are here! He
made a statement which shocked me to the core, obviously
based upon my first impression of the business and the man, he
said: I cant sell and neither can anyone else Ive hired.
Really! Really! Really! We have discussed this before in this
book. Who says you cant sell? I exclaimed. My curiosity
was now at a peak and I wanted to know, of course, how he
was able to set the business up and not be able to sell? The
question was how was this dear friend able to keep the doors
open for business without a total focus on sales? He then
briefly explained that he had started the business based upon
the encouragement of a friend who had given him a three year
contract to provide certain key services to a corporate
environment WONDERFUL! The obvious question, which
you will understand Im sure, is so what happens after three
years and what happens if anything happens to his benefactor?
My friend (whose business ability I am seriously questioning
by now) goes on to tell me that he feels that this is the very
reason that he has invited me to his business. By now I am
thinking that this man has more money than sense and that he
must be realizing that he is living on a knifes edge from day
to day. He carries on explaining to me that he has had the
contract for around twenty-four months leaving a year for him
to change the way he thinks about sales. He has been stressed
about the serious threat to his business (as I have seen many
times before largely created by the inaction of the entrepreneur
who eventually becomes his/her own worst enemy and
destruction) as he currently has no sales capability in the
business whatsoever.
The goal was to get him to see the need for developing a sales
force of sorts as soon as possible given that he has
inadvertently placed an expiry date of twelve months on the
life of his business and goals. Who would do such a thing, I
thought!? When I asked him why he had not employed at least
one or two professional salespeople to date he gave me another
answer that will astound you as much as it did me. I am
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currently living from hand to mouth and cannot afford to hire

salespeople at this time. Wow! Wow! Wow! Really! The
current business structure is overloaded and unbalanced with
staff that does not produce income. There are administrative
staff and service staff all over the place and my friend does not
have the funds to put into income producing staff. I also asked
the entrepreneur (whom by now I am losing faith in) as to why
he has never identified this as a personal weakness in his own
life and why he has not sought training courses as a means to
overcome his weakness? He shrugged his shoulders at me!
Before I blow a fuse I think that it is best that you and I
move on other than to say I managed to get him to see reason,
he made some staff changes, and decided to also receive some
professional sales training eventually. His business started
growing after a re-focus campaign which I had set up for my
friend. He realizes his challenge/s and has vowed never to lose
focus on sales ever again.
I must be honest with you I cannot for the life of me
understand good well-meaning people who want to become
entrepreneurs but never catch that business is ALL ABOUT
SALES! Most failures in business come about because there is
either a limited focus on sales or no focus on sales at all. A
sale, my friends, is what blood is to the bodythe life is in the
blood! What keeps the blood flowing is the heart and the
heart, in this analogy, to me, is likened to client loyalty in
business. You see, the blood will flow throughout the body but
can only get back to the heart if the heart is strong enough to
get it there. Thus the circle is completed. In business, it is
imperative to have sales (the life of any business) but the
challenge now comes in ensuring that the lifeblood
completes a full cycle each and every time. It should work like
this: sales in-loyalty completing the cycle or circle. Sales from
a single client may be repeated for many years as long as there
is loyalty. Loyalty is what ensures a continuous supply of sales
no loyalty equals very little or no future repeat sales/orders.
As an entrepreneur you may not understand this concept so
that is why I am encouraging you to become a MASTER
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ENTREPRENEUR as only master entrepreneurs have the

ability to decipher and to practice this vital business secret.
We will now consider the following loyalty building actions,
but be warned, the list is by no means exhaustive and you will
find new and different ways to build loyalty in your own
environment.
1. Create a memorable experience by going the extra-mile.
We have come to expect that when someone has gone the
extra-mile we feel that they have done more and over and
above the call of duty. The connotation is that whatever the
initial benchmark for expectation you have managed to go far
beyond this point in any given action. The extra-mile would
mean to you and me then that we have managed to do and to
provide to and for the client/customer far more than what was
initially expected of us and this action/s was performed
without coercion from the client/customer. The idea here is that
you act instinctively and out of sheer impulse in order to build
the business relationship with acts which are over and above
what will ever truly be expected.
2. Surprise your client/customer with random acts of kindness.
The world in general but the business world in particular has
become a very aggressive arena. The dog-eat-dog mentality
that exists in business today has influenced many
unprofessional entrepreneurs in that an attitude exists with
some that by serving the client they are actually doing them a
favor. Clients/customers will be more than willing to explain to
you and me of some of the horrific experiences which they
have had with business people who are not only negatively
aggressive in their attitude but also rude in their speech-what is
on the inside is manifested on the outside. Kindness then in
business, according to the client/customer is fast becoming a
lost art and business consideration. Kindness will entail you
and me having an attitude evaluation with a view to changing
our negative actions of rudeness, selfishness and selfcenteredness to that of consideration, generosity and
benevolence toward the people who could assist in helping us
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achieve our personal goals or destroy our business

relationships-which are vital to our success. Goodwill,
benevolence and understanding the client/customer will
change the way we do business and the way the
client/customer reacts to us in general.
3. Make clients/customers feel important.
More and more in todays times we are treating
clients/customers with disdain and the past recognized
importance and magnitude of the client/customer and the vital
role which they play is being minimized. Customers MUST be
made to feel important! We understand that certain people are
impossible to deal with and are extremely demanding to say
the least but they are not all the same and even the most
difficult client/customer will have a change of heart if they are
treated with just a little kindness as opposed to usual
aggression. The meaning of importance then is ensuring that
your client/customer feels significant and not insignificant.
You must do whatever you can to make them feel crucial and
critical to your operation, your business and your life. While
they most certainly (some may give you this impression I
know) will not expect you and me to bow down to them in
worship at all what they will expect though is that we at least
make them feel as though they are vital to our plans and that
they are prominent in our business.
4. The old adage: Under promise but over deliver.
Whatever you promise make sure that you give more. In my
own business I have a policy (be careful!) that if the client is
not satisfied with his/her last service I will have the service redone at no additional charge. The action I decided on next is
that I will also give them the very next service at no charge as
my way of saying that Im sorry for the poor quality of
service-I will obviously investigate the client/complaint and
ensure that they are not disappointed again. I make sure that
the client/customer understands that his/her business is so
important to me that I am more interested in building a longterm business relationship (loyalty) as opposed to sacrificing
the permanent on the altar of the immediate. My initial
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promise at the time that he/she was considering our proposal

was that all work is guaranteed and thus will be re-done if a
poor quality service was produced but I said nothing about the
second service being done at no charge as an apology. To date,
our clients have been pleasantly surprised at our ability to
under promise and over deliver in many other areas of our
business.
5. Exceed the clients needs and wants.
Client/customer needs usually represent their basic
requirements. The needs also are taken to clearly state their
essentials for the service and/or product and the prerequisites
which are usually made clear at the very first meeting and
generally at least before the proposals are presented. In fact,
generally, all proposals are based upon the clients/customers
basic requirements. Wants have more to do with the future
actions and is stated in terms such as hope, wishes, desires and
or a yearning for. In other words the wants are the
client/customers way of telling you and me that his/her desire
is that his/her needs are met. While this is their only
expectation at the outset you and I build loyalty by meeting
their needs in such a way that they are totally surprised and
pleased beyond the initial expectation. For instance, if the
client has a need for the services to be implemented and wants
this to happen within the next four days then perform the
service within the next two days and follow-up once the
service has been completed.
6. Start every response on a positive note and dont use the word
NO!
The standard response to client/customer requests nowadays is
well I dont know if I can do that for you!? Whatever
happened to YES I CAN! No matter how seemingly
impossible the request is from the client/customer you must at
least give yourself time to think it through so how is it possible
that the word NO is the first word which comes out of the
mouths of the entrepreneur. When you and I immediately
respond with the word NO we are telling the client/customer
that his/her idea is not even worth contemplating and that we
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dont have the energy, mental capacity and capability to

consider the request. In my business we have a YES I CAN
response to any request by our clients/customers. When we
receive the request the standard response has got to be positive
such as that is a great idea I am going to take that back to the
office with me. No matter how impossible the request it is my
feeling that there is ALWAYS a way to satisfy the
client/customer and build loyalty.
7. When dealing with client/customer complaints use EMPATHY.
A simple definition for the term empathy is that you and I
have mastered the ability to understand our clients/customers
concerns or challenges as though they were our very own.
When an entrepreneur has mastered the art of viewing his/her
clients complaints from the position of the client then a new
world opens up and he/she is well on their way to becoming
MASTER ENTREPRENEURS. Having this gift is rare but
does not have to be like this. The problem with the
unprofessional is that he/she considers complaints as a
personal attack and this then clouds their judgment as emotion
takes over while logic walks out the back door so to speak.
When you deal with client/customer complaints, from an
emotional point of view, your reactions will most certainly be
unprofessional and an affront to the client/customer. Learn the
art of viewing the client/customers concerns from the other
side. When you are able to understand the complaint and the
reason for the complaint then you will also feel the
clients/customers levels of frustration and disappointment,
and when you understand this, you will be in a better position
to resolve any and all issues presented to you.
8. When dealing with challenges/complaints turn a negative into
a positive.
Recently, an entrepreneur shared with me that one of her
clients started complaining about bad service and poor
timekeeping by some of her Housekeepers (one of the
multitude of services offered by this entrepreneur is
housekeeping). I made arrangements to meet with her and she
explained to me that the client was being unnecessarily
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difficult and most unreasonable and she was finding that

managing this client was taxing her emotionally and
physically. Apparently she has six Housekeepers which were
performing cleaning duties on a full-time basis throughout the
daytime hours. I asked her to set up an appointment with the
client with a view to resolving the current situation amicably
between the parties. We met with the Financial Director of the
corporate entity and I listened to his complaints using
EMPATHY. When I put myself in his place I not only
understood him but I was also able to think of a solution
pleasing to both parties. What I identified was that the
Housekeepers were without daily supervision and they seemed
to feel that because of this they could do as they pleased
including producing below standard cleaning results. To me,
this was the main issue and mentioned this to the parties and
received a fantastic response. My recommendation was that a
Site Supervisor be added which should take care of the issues
faced by all. The client accepted the proposal on a trial period
for three months, after we gave certain performance
guarantees, and the entrepreneur was happy for the additional
income as a result of the solution. I heard later that the client
was impressed enough with the solution to make the
arrangement permanent.
9. See complaints in a positive light as this could be an
opportunity to build more loyalty.
One of the great secrets about building client/customer loyalty
lies in the understanding that complaints are actually yet
another opportunity to serve and to impress the
client/customer. A complaint simply means that the
client/customer is not satisfied with one or more aspects of
your service or product and instead of taking the complaint
personally you would be wise to spend that same amount of
time and energy into finding the solution as soon as is possible.
Once the complaint has been lodged you will not only be
judged and measured as to your ability to satisfy the client but
on the response time. The best way to deal with a

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client/customer complaint, AND BUILD LOYALTY, is as

follows:-

Acknowledge the clients right to complain.

Do not take the complaint personally.
Listen carefully to the issue as presented.
Repeat the challenge in less objectionable terms.
Consider the complaint carefully.
Apply the solution immediately.
Implement a non-repeat strategy for your staff.
Follow-up to gauge client satisfaction.
Apologize for any inconvenience caused.

10. Quoting your company policy is an excuse for poor service

dont be guilty of this common practice.
Like you I have often heard in the past we cannot achieve
satisfaction with a supplier because their system wont allow
it or company policy will not allow me to do this for you.
You must understand something about this ridiculous attitude
in that it will frustrate your client/customer to no end and you
will most certainly not be building lasting loyalty, in fact,
exactly the opposite will happen-DISLOYALTY! As an
entrepreneur you may allow your employees to use the above
excuses (this is all they are: excuses which will cost you dearly
in the long run) but be assured that this will speak volumes for
your inability to satisfy your client/customer and your
seriousness about developing long-lasting and fruitful business
relationships through loyalty from the client/customer. Be
smart, using company policy or the IT system as an excuse
for not being able to satisfy your client/customer is overused
and one of the most abused statements in business today. A
MASTER ENTREPRENEUR will not tolerate this abuse of
his/her clients/customers by anyone.
11. Understand that the most important person in your
organization is the CLIENT/CUSTOMER!

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The customers loyalty, needs and spending patterns allows the

entrepreneur to be in business. The clients loyalty means that
he should take priority within any business. A business cannot
thrive without sales and a company cannot achieve sales
without the client. The idea is then that without a person
(client/customer) who employs your services or buys your
product you will not survive in business. This will mean that
ALL of your goals, dreams and desires will not be met as
without the customer/client you will not have the finances to
continue. You will now understand that you will lose your
business, your home, your possessions and the respect of all of
those good people who have been supporting you and
watching your progress to date. The client/customer must have
a preeminent place in any business as without the
customer/client YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS! Always
understand who gives you the ability to become a MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR THE CUSTOMER IS KING IN THE
BUSINESS WORLD!
Conclusion
While there are many more areas within which to build
client/customer loyalty I can confidently tell you that the most
neglected of these has got to be client complaints. The question
is then: Is there any value in client/customer complaints at
all? The answer is a categorical and resounding YES! Most
people, including your customers or clients, will not complain
if they are happy with a product or service so when they do it
means that they are not satisfied which in turn represents an
opportunity to build loyalty. Like you and me the
client/customer goes through various traumatic stages when
making the decision to voice their dissatisfaction and thereafter
and these are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

A bad experience.
Dissatisfaction sets in.
Confront the source of the bad experience.
Wait in anticipation for the response.
Personal and business recovery only if result is positive.
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6.
7.
8.
9.

Satisfaction is restored.
If dissatisfaction is not resolved the result will be negative.
No loyalty building would have been achieved.
A positive experience after a complaint will result in
loyalty/brand building.
Many clients view complaints in a negative light as much as
the businessperson does. The client/customer does not really
want to lodge a complaint or non-conformance as this makes
them feel uncomfortable and takes them outside of their
comfort zone. This may astound you but many people who
complain are actually madder at having been forced to
complain than the actual reason for the complaint itself. No
one likes to complain and no one likes to be labeled negatively
because they do so it upsets them to no end. The question
should be asked then: Why do we place well-meaning people
in a position whereby they have to do something they actually
hate
doing

COMPLAIN?
As
a
MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR you must understand the politics of
complaining and surprise your client/customer by your
professional willingness to assist in all matters and then see
how quick you develop long lasting loyalty with the same
person. Instead of viewing complaints in a negative light why
not use these to your business advantage at all times? Never
shy away from client complaints or challenges as this
represents a clear opportunity to show what you can do with
the sole purpose of satisfying your client/customer. Once you
have taken the time to resolve a challenge or a complaint you
and your staff should do all in your power to prevent the same
instance from happening yet again.
The long and the short of building loyalty is that the
client/customer does not spend his/her time making up stories
about you and your business YOU DO! Whatever you do
never give your client a story to tell about you and your
business and if you do you had better make sure that it is a
positive story. If you are good at building loyalty and
satisfying your client then this will be the only story that they
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can spread about you but not achieving client satisfaction will
be the story that YOU force the client/customer to tell about
you and your business. The biggest issue with stories which we
create as entrepreneurs is that our clients/customers repeat
them to all who have the time to listen. If your story is positive
then how can a negative story be told to others? However,
when the story is negative then the word will spread and the
result will be a termination of a service or a cancellation of an
order. This way no brand loyalty would have been built but
rather it will be broken down. The idea is that you realize that
in your own business the truth of the matter is quite simple and
that is that true brand loyalty will only come from SUPERIOR
CUSTOMER SERVICE!

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10
Listening: An Art That Could Save You
1st Secret:

PASSION

nd

2 Secret: OPTIMISM
3RD Secret: ATTITUDE
4TH Secret: SELF-IMAGE
5th Secret:

VALUES

th

GOAL SETTING

TH

Secret: SETTING OBJECTIVES

TH

Secret: SELF-DISCOVERY

TH

Secret: LOYALTY

6 Secret:
7
8
9

10

TH

Secret: ART OF LISTENING

Introduction
My mother was a wonderful woman (I am sure that you will
say the same about your mom?) and had a very direct way of
communicating which generally would be referred to today as
shouting. While it is now too late for me to ask her why she
thought that it was necessary to shout at us siblings all the time
I am sure that I can use my own imagination to answer this
question. My feeling is that she was utterly convinced that we
simply did not listen when our mother barked out orders for us
to complete our chores. Obviously we did not agree with her
and felt that it was virtually impossible not to hear our dear
mother if you consider the volume with which the orders were
communicated by mom and received by us. The key hear
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though is that while we had no problem hearing our mom the

communication broke down because we simply did not take
the necessary time to listen to her and such a deliberate action
on our part would most certainly have completed the
communication process one would think.
There are many ways to communicate but only one way to
listen. I will never forget how I used to frustrate my mother
back in the good old days. Trevor, sweep the pathway! The
order was barked out while I was playing with my brothers or
a friend: Yes mom! Was my standard reply and I truly
thought that she was stupid enough to swallow my false
promise of actually sweeping the pathway. My playing with
whomsoever at the time was far more important but not so for
my mother. You see, I thought that my motivation for
HEARING but not doing was stronger than my mothers will
to actually getting the job done. Time went by and I continued
to play and the pathway was not as yet swept. Now, if you
know anything about mom dearest you will understand that she
was not the kind of woman to go around in circles so she will
not repeat the instruction. However, what she would do is sit
and she would stew and build pressure just like a pressure
cooker on the stove. Eventually the first sign that my mom had
enough of my disobedience was a grunt, low in pitch, but a
grunt nonetheless just the opposite of the high pitched
pressure release of the pressure cooker but a certain pressure
release and that was a fact.
The first sign for me to get moving was the sound of her feet.
Somehow, when mom was mad she walked differently. It
seemed so much more determined! Together with the walk of
death came a shrieking sound which, to me, signaled the point
of no return. You see, the other thing which my mother
demanded was that obedience was never enough as obedience
needed to be like the coffee of today INSTANT! With mom
there was no reprieve. If you disobeyed there was no reasoning
with her and you got what was coming whether you liked it or
not. To say sorry to my mother or to reason with her at this late
stage of the disobedience and miscommunication process
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(usually deliberate from my side) could not be done IT WAS

TOO LATE FOR SORRY! At the very fearsome sight of my
mother, who was by this time out of control, I immediately got
up and ran. I had a savior! In the middle of our back yard we
had a beautiful and wonderful apple tree. I did not only love
the tree for the fruit it gave I can assure you. The most terrible
and fearful sight in my life was my mother after me when I
disobeyed her commands. Most people, who knew my dear
mother, would tell you the exact same thing. I can tell you that
Mrs. Whittaker was feared in the entire community so what
chance would a little disobedient runt like me stand against
this woman of true motherly character? You could do almost
anything in life but the one option you never had as a child in
our home was not to listen to our mother, and the problem was,
we all knew this and yet I seemed to be the only one stupid
enough to push the envelope. With mom bearing down on
me, broom in hand I want to tell you, I headed directly for my
trusted friend the apple tree. I remember so clearly how I used
to have my mom go round and round the apple tree with me,
broom in hand, and this was no game my friend this was to me
at that particular moment in my life a serious life and death
moment. You have no idea what my mother looked like with a
broom in hand and foaming at the mouth. I ran! I continued to
run! The aim would come when she thought that she had me in
her sight and she would let go of the broom if it were not for
my apple tree I would have looked like a tree with the amount
of broom hits I would have sustained in my young life. Around
and around the apple tree my mom and I would go I am sure
that this is how I became so good at running! I would continue
around the tree and my mom would continue to foam at the
mouth, and oh, how she would love to have been able to catch
me. I used to run around the apple tree with the very thought of
what mom would do to me if she could ever catch me.
Eventually she would get tired as I simply could not afford to
as I seriously had my life to consider. I took the broom and
swept the pathway IMMEDIATELY!
The scenario never happened every day you will understand
but take it from me that I remembered the chase for many
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weeks thereafter and ensured that I heard my mom, I listened

to my mom and I obeyed my mom IMMEDIATELY. However,
as naughty boys go (I will admit, in my neighborhood there
were few boys that were more destructive than me and I
dont know how but my mother knew this) we have what is
commonly referred to as a lapse. In this one particular case my
lapse cost me dearly and my pride was shattered to the very
core. My mother, as many will attest to, also had a good sense
of humor and as I contemplate this story in my maturity I can
confidently say that in this case a sick sense of humor. My
memory was short and I paid the price-maybe this is also why
I am told today that I have a brain like an elephant! My
mother, through a truly sick lesson inadvertently triggered
the start of new and advanced memory cells which would
never let me down again as things continued between my dear
mom and me.
One of my many chores was to babysit my young sister. I was
the oldest son in the house and of course many things were
handed to me due the very constant absence of our dearly
departed father. Having the responsibility to babysit ones
youngest sister (technically a baby at the time) was demeaning
to a young boy. My friends played soccer on the park adjacent
to our house and soccer was my life back then. Changing my
young sisters diapers was simply not cool back then. One hot
summers day I was indulging in a game with the boys on the
park and left my sister alone on a swing-not the right thing to
do when your mom is only a few feet away. My sister cried
and I did not hear the noise for the sake of enjoying the
beautiful game. However, my mom heard the noise! I was
called in and the apple tree saga repeated itself yet again. The
very next day, after I arrived home from school, I could see
that my mother was still not happy about me leaving my baby
sister on the swing in a dirty diaper and she began to foam at
the mouth yet again. My first instinct, as per normal, was to go
to my friend the apple tree; however, mom was waxing
eloquent at this point and made sure that I was paying attention
to her rather long lecture. In order to calm things down
between us all I remember saying that fateful day was yes
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mommy, no mommy, and three bags full mommy! I was

surprised though as it seemed that for some unknown reason
she got worse instead of better. I knew my moment had
arrived-I heard the grunt and pressure began to release.
The one thing that I have deliberately not mentioned up to this
point is that my moms favorite thing to do when chasing me
around the apple tree, and in light of the fact that she could not
catch me, was that she would take aim with the broom and
throw it in my direction desperately hoping for a direct hit. The
apple tree saved me from this missile many times over hence
my fondness of my friend. On this particular warm day my
entire world came crashing down upon me. I ran! My mother
ran! I headed for my friend and she was after me with her
friend the broom. To my dismay, when I got outside of the
back door, lo and behold, the apple tree was GONE! I could
not believe my eyes and immediately developed some serious
cramping in my posterior region. I knew that I was done for as
I saw my mother take aim with the most gleeful look on her
face that I have ever seen on her face or anyone elses for that
matter since that day. My mom let go of the broom and for the
first time in years she actually connected me well and truly. I
still have a serious dent in my pride to this day for the brilliant
way in which my mom taught me true humiliation. I will
NEVER forget the lesson, and sad to say, neither will my
siblings to this very day. The one thing that I can say in all
honesty, the look on my face must have been priceless as I
have never ever seen my mother double over with laughter as I
did that day. In hindsight I have no idea that she planned the
entire event as her personal revenge. Needless to say our
family reminisces about that fateful day, over, and over and
over and over again-you get my drift Im sure.
I can think back of many bitter lessons which I have learned
growing up. I was naughty and very mischievous in my young
day and much of the trouble which I got into was largely
brought upon myself because I had trouble listening. Oh, there
was nothing wrong with my hearing at all I just had trouble
listening. I learnt bitter and needless lessons throughout my
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young day because of this. One such incident also happened in

the same house (my mother lived in our small home for many
years up until her passing) but this time with a brother which
was next oldest after me. I must tell you that I was surprised
out of my shoes!
I do remember the incident as though it happened yesterday.
The three brothers and our friends were playing in the back
yard. As brothers and friends go there is bound to be a
disagreement or an altercation at some stage of the playing
game. My two younger brothers, as I remember the matter,
were not happy with each other and I made the mistake of
sticking up for the youngest. Obviously the next oldest brother
was not happy with this and instead of placing his attention on
the source of his frustration he and I began an argument-the
first mistake for me. The more I tried to reason with him the
worse things got to the point where a fist fight (please
remember we were only around twelve to fourteen years of age
at the time) was inevitable. I usually won any fight between
the brothers and so I was expecting the same to happen this
time although fists were involved for the first time I would say.
So there we were, facing one another, and I distinctly
remember hearing my brother say that he is going to hit me
just before he did so. When I got up from the ground I realized
that I had made a fatal mistake. I had no idea that my brother
was left handed (a southpaw)! I mean come on! I heard him
say that he was going to hit me so I heard him but chose not to
listen to his warning. While he never caught me that way again
the lesson was learned. This is another one of those moments
which my wonderful family will not allow me to forget even as
we are all much more mature in life at this stage. You have
simply got to love them!
Listening to warnings can save us much trouble and help us to
avoid the consequences of not doing so. Like me, many
entrepreneurs have no problem hearing but the challenge
which they face happens to be in the most critical part of the
communication process namely, LISTENING. In fact, I want
to help you to understand that in my opinion, a major
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contributor to the failure of business today is the inability and

unwillingness of entrepreneurs to LISTEN. Not having the
gift of listening is also the prime reason why managers of
people fail and why client complaints and challenges cannot be
solved. When we cannot manage people or resolve client
issues then we develop demotivated staff and dissatisfied
clients which in turn leads to a loss of business which applies
undue pressure to the business cash-flow. The sad thing is that
pride tends to play a part as many unsuccessful entrepreneurs
truly believe that only their opinions matter. The failure comes
in the form of a forceful opinion or attitude thereby excluding
the possibility that anyone else may be right. There is a strong
belief and urge by the unprofessional entrepreneur to press an
opinion and to force their dogma at any and every turn. We all
know these types of forceful people!
The sad result of all of the above is that these entrepreneurs are
so self-engaged that they are not able to provide simple and
effective solutions to the most mundane of customer
complaints and challenges. This then leads to frustration on the
part of staff members, in particular, which in turn will
undoubtedly affect morale which in turn will have a negative
effect on productivity. When a staff member does not perform
according to standard the entrepreneur is usually quick to build
up animosity toward such a person and apportion blame. The
staff member is then marked as a non-performer and a troublemaker. The point here is that if an entrepreneur is not prepared
to practice the art of listening in every instance then he or she
will develop negative staff and will not be able to resolve
client/customer challenges for the good of the business.
LISTENING well is what separates the unprofessional
entrepreneur from the MATSER ENTREPRENEUR! Not
LISTENING professionally to those who have a message for
you will eventually impact your business to the point where
you will be under constant threat of closing your doors.
Why is Listening so Important to the entrepreneur?
1. The more effective you listen the more you will learn.
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The opposite of listen is to ignore. When you ignore a person

who is trying desperately to get a serious point across to you
then you are technically speaking snubbing them. Do you
like to feel that you are being snubbed? When you ignore
someone they WILL feel that you have disregarded every word
which they have just tried so desperately to get into your head.

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Not LISTENING professionally to those who have a message

for you will eventually impact your business to the point
where you will be under constant threat of closing your
doors.

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To willfully and deliberately ignore someone is one thing and

most people can understand this action; however, to look
someone in the face while they are communicating with you as
your client/customer simply means that you and I are not
taking any notice of them despite the fact that we have eye
contact. Listening takes effort and concentration and usually
most people can see clearly whether you are concentrating on
what they are saying and the listening effort is easily gauged
and judged. When people are deliberately ignored they come to
an internal realization that because of your obvious lack of the
concentration their complaint or challenge will not be solved
by you and they will most certainly be contemplating taking
their business elsewhere. To ignore someone talking to you,
whether you do so willfully or inadvertently you are spurning
and snubbing the communication directed at you.
Concentrating on the communicator (whoever they may be but
more so if this is a staff member and greater still if this is a
client/customer) takes effort and is considered an active event
and most certainly not passive from the receivers point of
view. To concentrate during the listening process is taken to
mean that you focus all of your attention on the communicator.
To concentrate during the communication process also means
that you direct your attention to the communicator and a clear
sign that you are not receiving what is being said is when you
start looking around and become distracted by matters and
unrelated issues around you. The desired sign that you and I
are actually actively listening to any communicator has got to
be the fact that we are clearly and unequivocally ABSORBED
by what is being said. To put it another way we are
ENGROSSED with what the communicator is saying and it is
thus clear that active listening is taking place for the very
purpose of solution production.
In order to learn more from listening one will have to be in a
position to assimilate what is being communicated. The more
one assimilates (absorbs) the more knowledge one acquires
and the more knowledge at ones disposal it then stands to
reason that we will have much to draw upon when formulating
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a long lasting and amicable solution for the sake of your

business. When you listen with a view to actively
understanding then you and I learn and when we learn we
understand more and by absorbing and retaining what we learn
we are able to assist more and more people with solutions that
make them happy and build loyalty.
2. The more effective you listen the better you will communicate.
Listening does not only have to do with what you hear but also
with what you see by way of body language and gesturing
from the communicator. The ideal is that you will learn to
communicate in response at the same intensity levels with
which the communicator has sent the process through to you.
When the communicator transmits his/her message they use
many ways of doing so, and while a personality plays a role in
how we communicate, the return message (your response)
must be sent by using similar (done naturally by the way)
methods of the communication process. The art of effective
communication does not necessarily entail you becoming a
public speaker any time soon; however, it most certainly
means that you will be able to communicate your message
with a certain amount of authority and clarity and that your
message will be received with confidence. Effective listening
will enhance your ability to make mental contact with the
receiver in that the shear clarity and sense of your ideas and
words will impress enough to be received with open arms.
Now add to this your very own hand gestures, body language,
sincerity and concern and you have a winning combination to
be able to communicate with authority as opposed to doing this
pride-fully as is the practice of some. The idea is, if you will,
that you and I become MASTER ENTREPRENEURS through
our listening techniques that we literally infect someone with
our ability to communicate in a humble but professional
manner.
3. The more effectively and actively you listen the more adept
you will become at providing solutions.
Solutions come in many forms. Some solutions offer only a
temporary reprieve from the challenge while other solutions
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may make no sense at all particularly when we do not actively

listen to the transmitter of a message. However, as a MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR, and with what is at stake for our families
and business, we want to communicate long-lasting and
permanent solutions to what the client/customer has
transmitted as a challenge and/or complaint. Being one which
offers a long-lasting or permanent solution means that YOU
become the key to solving and overcoming obstacles. You will
be the one who settles disputes and differences of opinion in
any given situation and you will also be the one to resolve a
seemingly insurmountable challenge. You will become known
for sorting out the most challenging of issues with the
foundational goal of dealing with and resolving issues (as
opposed to running from them) and putting matters right with
your staff and clients/customers alike. The word adept refers
directly to your and my ability to be proficient in the skill of
listening with a view to solving problems by means of
effective communication. After all, selling pervades our lives,
and even you and I must consider and contemplate every
solution to a challenge before it is accepted and if not, we will
fail.
4. The more effective you listen the more caring and concerned
your response.
The professional practice of empathy (placing you in someone
elses shoes) comes to mind as we consider this point. You are
listening carefully and pick-up through the communication
process that the client or staff member is serious about the
point which they are trying to make. These people or this
person is now looking to you for an answer and the way in
which you respond will either assist you in building loyalty (by
the way loyalty must be built with your staff as well) or it will
destroy the possibility of any future long-lasting business
relationship. When someone is serious about a challenge then
you had better be professional enough to see this in the
communication process and then respond appropriately.
Responding in a caring and concerned fashion will send a clear
message that you understand how they feel and this
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understanding of the senders feelings will help you to sell

your solution.
The thing I think about when someone says that they care
about how I feel is what I would like to receive in turn is some
form of interest in me and concern for my situation. In other
words my problem must be taken on by you as though it were
your very own challenge so how would you deal with my
challenge if it were yours? Caring for my situation will also
mean that you become bothered about it, be troubled about my
challenge and lastly worry about my complaint until you find
the correct permanent solution to it. You showing concern for
my predicament on the other hand means that you show this by
wanting to get involved to the point where you want to affect
the outcome in the positive. This is you relating to your clients
complaint or to your staff members challenge in the
workplace. Showing concern will also entail you and me
making the client/customer feeling important during this time
by showing a pronounced interest in both the person and the
problem. As a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR you have no
problem being genuinely bothered by what the staff member is
facing as this is causing him/her a great deal of stress and
distress and this most certainly disturbs you to no end.
5. Effective listening will make you smarter and a more informed
critic.
You will be absolutely amazed as to the capability of your
brain to retain what you GENUINELY listen to! Lets face it, if
you listen carefully to the clients concern/s and effectively
deal with it my feeling is that the next time the same complaint
arises through a different client surely you will remember the
last solution, and if it applied once, then why will it not work
the second time around as long as it is with a different
customer. Remember, solutions should be permanent or at the
least long-lasting. The more you listen and the more workable
solutions you provide the greater the satisfaction levels of the
client/customer and your brain has the capacity to reject what
does not work and to retain working solutions.

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The opposite of smart I am told is a word known to us all as

STUPID. This we can conclude is what you and I will remain
if we choose not to LISTEN! If by listening we become smart
then it is assumed that by not listening we will become stupid
within the business environment anyway (you can apply this
wherever you like) and being stupid then has some of the
following connotations and meanings: foolish, foolhardy,
empty-headed and half-witted. Wow! Wow! Wow! All of this is
ascribed to people who prefer not to be smart? In the context
of our discussion here I would prefer to simply LISTEN!
However, if being able to listen effectively makes me smarter I
am ascribed some of the following characteristics, and this, all
because I make a concerted effort to LISTEN: clever, bright,
intelligent, sharp, shrewd and astute. The people whom you
will listen to will usually make sense, when communicating,
unless they are two years of age so take them seriously. Learn
by what you listen to! Being in a position to criticize someone
has got to mean that you know more than they do or you will
have no license to voice an opinion on any matter surely!
When we criticize a person or an opinion the idea is that the
criticism is based upon superior knowledge or criticism will
simply be put down as mischievous. In order to be considered
good enough to criticize someone it would imply that you have
both the knowledge and the experience which supports your
right to voice an opinion. After all offering a view or an
opinion can only come from some form of a judge and this
then means that this judge has the ability to appraise both
words and ideas within his/her area of expertise. The
MASTER ENTREPRENEUR, through professional listening
practices has mastered the art of obtaining knowledge through
this action and thereby has qualified by virtue of the
knowledge gained over the years to evaluate, to analyze and to
review any given situation, and in particular, with complaints
and challenges which are presented to him/her.
What kind of listener are you as an entrepreneur?
1. Active listening is generally poor in most people.
The three key words in the above statement are:
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a.

Active
The opposite of active listening then has got to be inactive
listening a general state for most people one would say. Ask
me, I know! My mother often spoke and I did not listen
because I was not listening. As simple as that! Inactivity refers
largely to our ability to have no action at all a state of
limbo while we are being spoken to. I have often tried an
experiment (which you may or may not agree with sorry if
you dont) and this happens very seldom and only when I am
in the mood. I will be discussing an issue in a meeting in the
boardroom and will notice that one of my managers seem far
away and deep in thought, and while looking at me and
playing his part well, I can see that he is not paying attention
and that he is distracted for some reason. In the middle of my
sentence I will shout out the word SEX! At that moment
even the managers paying attention to what I am saying sit up
straight. However, the one inattentive manager actually
undergoes a total metamorphoses in that the usual response is
something like this: What did you say? In a flash he is back
to reality and I can move on with my session. While I do agree
with you that the way a message is delivered is sometimes the
message killer I have no sympathy for managers and
entrepreneurs who cannot control their thoughts and attention
span for the time it takes to ACTIVELY LISTEN!
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view,
your client/customer will not say the word SEX in order to get
your focus back on to the matter at hand but will simply move
his/her business to someone who will both listen and act upon
a complaint and/or a challenge.
Being ACTIVE in listening will then mean that you and I
become busy listeners and this in turn meaning that we are
intense and energetic (actually expending energy in the
listening process) and get ourselves ready for a lively
response within the communication process. Being active will
also entail you and I being diligent, hard-working and
dedicated to the entire listening process (including body
language). The word which I can think of to best describe the
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action of listening is industrious as this word is all

encompassing of the process meaning that you listen actively
with the clear intent of formulating a clear and concise
response which happens to be in the form of a solution. Being
industrious means that you and I are working hard at all
aspects of the listening and overall communication process.
Within this context the activity may also be taken to mean that
you are committed to your client/customer and that you are
also devoted to all aspects of the communication process and
your sole motivation surely must be that of client/customer
satisfaction?
b. Listening
Taking the word active into account I want to present you
with something astounding (tongue in cheek, of course). A
simple, and yet somewhat amazing definition of the word
listening has got to be this: to concentrate on hearing
something. Not too difficult to do? Dont fool yourself! Many
would be entrepreneurs will never reach the pinnacle of
entrepreneurship because they will simply never understand
this very simple and yet astounding statement one must
actually concentrate if one is to hear what is being said. The
inability to master this key aspect within the communication
process is why entrepreneurs fail at business and why they
never ever become MASTER ENTREPRENEURS. To listen
then also means that you and I must then pay attention and
take notice when someone is talking. Our parents have done
their best to teach us this over the years and so have our
teachers at school throughout our learning careers. I can tell
you after having studied for many years that my personal
listening levels, while at school, (if I were truthful) varied from
between 25 to 50% at the most. I know, as I had to study
harder because I never understood the time-saving secret of
listening at the time. Had I been able to identify my weakness
earlier I may have produced better results with less hard-slog.
If you think about it, not rocket science, what activity within
the communication process will take up more of your time
than any other? Exactly! Listening! One would think that we
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would be good at this skill, because that is exactly what

professional listening is to me, a skill, and getting better at
listening. However, I can tell you that my experience has led
me to believe that one major contributing factor for business
failure around the world is the inability to recognize the
importance of listening and then the inactivity which takes
place after the message has been received.
c.

Poor
The worst thing to be guilty of (after not listening at all) is
poor listening. To the client/customer and to your staff, this
must be at that moment the lowest form of contempt. Showing
people contempt during the listening stage will cost you and
will assist you in developing a reputation as a poor business
person and an unprofessional character to say the least. Poor
listening will be perceived as a deliberate attempt to ignore the
transmitter and/or messenger. One of the words used to
describe poor in the English language is impoverished. Now,
if you and I understand the context of the use of this word in
the business environment, and in particular within the listening
stage of the overall communication process, then we must
conclude the following. To be listening impoverished will be
taken to mean that we actually do not have the capacity to
listen. By the use of the word capacity then you and I
understand that this will entail (within the context of our
discussion remember) a mental capacity, a focus capacity, an
interest capacity, a willingness to listen capacity and a caring
capacity. Not to have the capacity to include any or all of the
above in the listening process is how we become labeled as
poor listeners. We are thus incapacitated and/or impoverished
to listen through either a willful act or a mental and emotional
incapacity to listen. Which of these will apply to you? Place
this on your list of weaknesses if you must and do something
about it before you lose everything that you own including
your self-respect.

2. People do not understand the difference between LISTENING

and HEARING.

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Let me explain! In my opinion then the ability to hear has

more to do with the science of sound while listening is the
cognitive ability to receive and to make sense of what we are
hearing. Each and every one of us has the ability to record
and/or remember hundreds of thousands of various sounds
each and every day depending on where our ears are taken
along the way. As I am writing this book I am listening and
recording some of the following sounds: me typing, the fan
cooling the laptop, the thousands of sounds emanating from
the TV which I have on in the background, I move my chair
and hear that sound, birds in the trees outside, my pool pump
going, the pool cleaner sucking, the builders mixing concrete
next door at my new neighbors house, dogs barking, the wind
blowing, a multitude of other building sounds, cars driving by,
planes flying overhead, my mobile phone ringing, text noise
and email notification sounds, my daughter moving around in
her bedroom upstairs, a fly buzzing in the window, the
refrigerator motor softly on, a fan blowing and so I can go on
and on and so could you. So we hear sounds and vibrations and
these are both recorded and then processed. How else would
we identify each sound as in recording what we hear we
recognize the sound the very next time we hear it and as it is
recorded under a name which society has assigned to the sound
we recognize it? The ability to hear and identify a sound may
save your life as you understand that a loud bang, distinctively
that of a pistol, means that a bullet may be coming your way.
The cognitive ability to compute this information at lightning
speed means that we are told to get down! Getting down
instantly may save your life if you happen to be faster that the
bullet. In conclusion then, hearing to you and me means that
we have the ability to record the sound vibrations all around us
each and every single day which are transmitted constantly.
Listening is the amazing ability given to us to make sense of
what we are hearing and to apply ourselves (action) to
whatever conclusion our minds arrive at. It thus becomes clear
that hearing someone talking to you is only a part of the
communication process. However, in order to listen one must
hear first so that the sounds may be recorded and correctly
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processed. Focusing on hearing a conversation is important as

not to do so may mean that in your listening action you may
not make sense of what you heard and this will produce
nothing but miscommunication leading to frustration for both
parties.
3. People give the impression that they are listening.
We are dealing with entrepreneurs however what we are
discussing may apply to anyone. Entrepreneurs and managers
deliberately (and are quite good at this) give the impression
that they are good listeners but generally face three challenges:
a. They are not able to understand the communication.
b. Not able to accurately give feedback.
c. Not able to remember what they hear in the first place.
Now that I have made the abovementioned disclosure, lets
discuss this in more detail in the section that follows for a
better understanding of these challenges.
Five reasons entrepreneurs may be prevented from
listening effectively
1. One may totally miss what the sender is saying.
While we have discussed at length the importance of active
listening other areas which will present a challenge during this
process will be noise. Our company provides workplace
services to many corporate, mining and industrial sites and the
one challenge which I face personally is when we are on a
noisy industrial site and the client/customer feels that this is
the right time to be making a serious point. On top of the noise,
as you are aware, protective earplugs are a requirement on
these noisy sites and in the noise zones. Production machinery
on the move or the noise of loaded conveyor belts will make it
virtually impossible to have a reasonable conversation. It is
inevitable under these circumstances that much of and possibly
all communication will be lost. Many other areas will also
influence the process such as traffic noise, severe wind, people
noise and the like. It is also possible to miss the
communication through ones focus been drawn away to some
or other activity in the area. My advice is that knowing the
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above, and now understanding the dangers of missing what

your client/customer is saying, that you ensure that the area is
conducive for a discussion and that both parties are able to
hear the conversation, and this, in particular, if the
conversation revolves around reasons which make your
client/customer unhappy. Whatever you do make sure that
serious discussions are done in a serious environment at all
times as the cost and result may leave you disappointed and
frustrated.
2. The entrepreneur may hear the communication but not
understand a word.
Some people talk differently what can I say! For instance,
English is spoken in many countries around the world either as
a first language or a second or third and so on. However, a
Mexican talking English is just not the same and one would
have to pay serious attention in order to communicate
effectively. Many countries in Africa, while communicating in
their traditional tribal languages, also speak English but I am
able to tell you first hand that you will be forgiven for
constantly uttering the words excuse me, would you repeat
that slowly please! Pronunciation, inflection, tone,
vocabulary, volume and diction all play a part in you and me
understanding what the sender is trying to communicate. So
while many nations are able to communicate in English, this
does not mean that we can assume that we will understand
each other and that is why, in these international instances, that
we make a concerted effort to listen intently or the meaning
will be lost in translation and miscommunication and
frustration are inevitable consequences. The unprofessional
entrepreneur may lose the meaning for a more simple and
logical reason HE/SHE WAS NOT LISTENING TO BEGIN
WITH?
3. Hearing may in fact take place but one could assign a different
meaning to the one intended.
This is commonly referred to as a misunderstanding. On a
lighter note, have you ever told a joke and people simply dont
get the joke and you land up having to explain it? For instance,
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a friend of mine once told me that his wifes cooking is so bad

that they pray AFTER they eat! I have shared this joke from
time to time and have had mixed reactions. I have also, on
occasions shared the joke in order to illicit a response in
general. Some of the responses which I have received will
astound you. I was once taken to task for coming across as
being a male chauvinist and blamed for bringing down women
who were never taught to cook by their moms when they were
younger. I was also taken on as an individual thought that the
joke was in poor taste but on most occasions, from both sexes
the joke is usually accepted for what it is and so I get a laugh
which was my original intent. The client/customer may lead
you to believe that the current challenge is that the services
which you provide are not up to standard but what she actually
communicated was that the service technician was not
professional. I have had salespeople go on an existing client
visit based upon the request of the client thinking that the
customer wants to terminate a service. However, the
Receptionist misunderstood the meaning of the communication
in that what the client/customer actually wanted was to add
another service disastrous when we get communication
wrong!
4. Receiving and meaning may be clear but could be lost over
time and your mind may change the meaning.
Believe it or not your mind is capable of storing vast amounts
of information and never forgetting a single thing. The
problem which we have as people is recalling or retrieving the
information which has been stored. In not being able to recall
all of the information stored we seem to be able to remember
the information but only in pieces but not enough of these
pieces to complete the original picture. We then try to put the
pieces of the puzzle together and many times fail miserably.
Instead of going back to the client/customer in truth and admit
to the information being lost in space somewhere the
unprofessional entrepreneur will allow pride to take over a
destructive force indeed. By trying to put the pieces together
we inadvertently get the story wrong and make assumptions as
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to the original meaning. My advice, never try to recreate a

communication which you have lost over time as the
consequences may not have the desired result. For instance,
when you visited the client/customer before the holiday
started, and was told about a certain challenge; however, as the
holidays went on, no matter how hard you tried to remember
the communication presented by the client/customer you forgot
the majority of the detail by the time you returned from
vacation. The professional thing to do, if you want to save the
client/customer and your reputation, is to either go and see the
client/customer again or confirm the previous conversation by
explaining that you want to ensure that you have your facts
straight and if she could help you to fill in the gaps. This is a
much more professional approach which will most certainly
win favor and ensure an accurate solution.
5. The entrepreneur may receive accurately but soon thereafter
the communication may be forgotten in its entirety.
Recently, my wife and I had a serious discussion which
centered on the company finances and how certain of the
business funds should be allocated. After the conversation we
set a time later in the day for final review and decisionmaking. All was set so I thought. Soon after this exercise my
wife received a call to say that her sister-in-law was admitted
to an Intensive Care Unit of a local hospital suffering from
severe fits. The shock of the news which came her way forced
her to prioritize her life and actions. To her, at that moment in
time, getting to the hospital became her main priority and so
all tasks, whether high priority or not, were shifted down and
in fact were blocked out of her memory temporarily. As I saw
her leave the office I commented about our planned meeting
and her response was: I am so sorry, honey I completely
forgot! The good thing was that all the work done was in
writing so technically there was no loss and we were able to
pick matters up again the next day resulting in a successful
conclusion.
The first part of this chapter deals with the issues and
challenges which the entrepreneur will face in the listening
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part of the communication process. Just before we move into

the help section of the chapter where we discuss ways to
enhance your ability to listen, I want to deal with one
remaining critical section which is as follows.
Key factors that affect an entrepreneurs ability to listen or
level of listening are:
1. Hearing acuity.
Hearing acuity deals with the physical side of being able to
hear. In order to actually hear what is being communicated by
the client/customer we need to catch what is being said
audibly and while we are most certainly equipped to read lips
the risk of miscommunication is high and in this instance it
would be better to resort to written communication should the
listener be hearing impaired for some reason. The goal in
listening is to make out what is being said and this must be
done clearly and unhindered by distractions of any sort
(including physical impairments) and not being able to hear
would be considered a major obstacle in the communication
process. It is only possible then to discern urgency, to perceive
the intensity and concern of the sender and to detect the
complaint or challenge if you and I are able to hear what is
being said clearly and unfortunately this cannot be fully
achieved if the entrepreneur is not able to hear due to a
physical challenge in this regard. In order to listen then one
needs to have hearing acuity meaning that you will need a keen
sense of hearing and while focus in this area will help having a
physical challenge with regards to an ability to hear will not.
2. Vocabulary.
Vocabulary has to do with all the words which you and I know
about our language and use to communicate our intentions.
You and I are aware that some people have a limited
vocabulary due to the fact that every second word is a swear
word or a curse word. However, while I will assume that many
entrepreneurs are not stupid enough to use these words when
dealing with the client/customer most of us have at least the
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basic amount of words needed for effective communicationone would think! The challenge which an entrepreneur may
face will have to do with the lack of the technical vocabulary
needed in the case of technical products and/or services. Not
being able to keep up with the sender due to a limited technical
term vocabulary will most certainly cause miscommunication.
Some of my sales staff, at the beginning stages, seems to
struggle a great deal with increasing their personal vocabulary
to include some of the new terms which we introduce to them.
Our clients use the words daily and consistently communicate
these terms being used between us all over the years. For
instance, one of our services happens to be what we have come
to term as a Hygiene Service (mentioned previously in this
book). A team of highly trained service technicians perform a
service which includes decontaminating, descaling and
sanitizing the washroom area in order to reduce the risk of
cross-contamination between staff members. Thus you will
understand that it is vital that the salesperson have the ability
not only to add these words to their technical vocabulary but
that they clearly understand the meaning of each word just as
the client/customer does. If the client/customer uses and
understands the terms as mentioned above, and the salesperson
does not, well then you have a perfect recipe for
miscommunication. The entrepreneur must understand that it is
not enough to simply know the word and pronounce it
correctly but that the meaning of the word must also be
understood in order to avoid miscommunication.
3. An ear for the language.
The idea here is that you and I must be tuned in to the
language. In other words it will help a great deal to have had a
good few years of experience in sending and receiving a
second language before one feels proficient and confident in
actually communicating in the language. As an example, I
speak a second language which is an evolution of the Dutch
language spoken in Holland. Having been exposed to the
language since a young boy I am able to read, write and speak
the language fluently. The very same language though not only
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has a Dutch tone to it but also German and Belgium. Does this
mean that I am fluent in German and the language spoken by
the Belgians? NO! I know my limits! I will not even venture
into the languages associated with the Afrikaans language
which I am able to communicate in effectively as I know for a
fact that this will create a great deal of confusion if I am after
closing a business deal with a German, Belgian or even
someone from Holland for that matter. Having an ear for the
language then must be taken to mean that you and I are totally
familiar, in all aspects; of a language should we choose to
communicate effectively therein.
As stated before, up to this point I have spent time in helping
you understand the dangers and the challenges as far as not
being able to communicate effectively. Our focus has largely
centered on our perceived inability to listen and while the
communication process has many aspects I am of the opinion
that a major cause for miscommunication is because
entrepreneurs (and people in general) do not listen effectively.
The frustration which arises from entrepreneurs who never
consider their level of listening skill will cause
clients/customers to feel that they are not being heard. When a
client/customer feels this way the result is easy to predict. Prior
to this point I have spent a great deal of time in trying to reveal
the challenges which many face when it comes to listening but
now I would like to focus our attention on the solution to the
problem.
How do we change the entrepreneurs listening behavior
and attitude in the communication process?
The client has a right to compliment and he/she has a right to
complain. This statement is a basic customer fundamental right
in any business environment and if you and I can understand
this concept then it will change the way we listen. The problem
with many unprofessional entrepreneurs is that they either
dont want the client to complain or compliment and/or they
refuse to recognize a fundamental right in business. The initial

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The client has a right to compliment and he/she has

a right to complain. This statement is a basic
customer fundamental right in any business
environment and if you and I can understand this
concept then it will change the way we listen.
The greatest attribute which a good listener displays
is his/her ability to never lose focus of the actual
WORDS which are being transmitted after all this is
the true message.

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attitude and behavior, in the listening stage of the

communications process, is critical and conducive to customer
relations and your ability to listen effectively. While we have
been through a chapter highlighting the challenges which we
face around our attitude, I want to once again bring to your
attention that you cannot listen effectively to your client if you
have a bad attitude going into a meeting or discussion. You
will now understand that your attitude will most certainly
affect your behavior and it this very behavior (whether
negative or positive) which will seriously affect your ability to
listen effectively. A negative attitude which has set in prior to a
customer conference will inevitably lead to a negative
outcome. Having a negative attitude prior to listening will
negatively affect your ability to hear this in turn leading to
ineffective listening.
In order to understand what we need to do in order to
overcome our challenges in listening effectively we will need
to understand and practice the following five steps:
Step 1 Recognize differences in listening difficulty.
Recognizing the differences in listening means that you must
understand the mood of the conversation at all times. The
mood of a conversation may vary and consist of any of the
following three areas namely:
1. Enjoyment.
Instead of a client complaint the customer is praising you so
who would consider this anything but an enjoyable
conversation? We tend to listen more intently in a conversation
where we or our business is receiving praise. A conversation
considered enjoyable will be one where we like or appreciate
the words being spoken and our egos are being stroked. We
may even be fond of the sender and are keen on listening to
what this positive and favorite person is trying to
communicate. In fact, because of the message and the person
as a combination we are pleased to take in the words coming
our way and have both delight and pleasure during the hearing
and listening process and the energy expended during this
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process is enjoyable as opposed to mundane. We indulge and

actually relish this type of listening which makes it easier to
focus, absorb and to formulate a response.
2. Understanding.
We also listen for understanding as do students on a daily
basis. In order to understand one needs to listen intently.
Listening to understand means that we need to comprehend
with a goal of having the need to remember and to repeat that
which we have heard and this should equate to new found
knowledge which will hopefully make us smarter. The
opposite of understanding is ignorance so the idea when
listening effectively is most certainly not to become more
ignorant (or stupid if I may?). However, in listening to
understand we make it clear that that our goal is to perceive
what we are hearing and listening to and the goal of perception
surely is to grasp and comprehend with the intent of being able
to use the information into the future-called knowledge.
3. Evaluation.
Many times, and more times than we care to admit for fear of
being labeled a judge, we listen to evaluate. The client is
making a statement and in your listening you are trying to
evaluate whether the message is positive or negative and then
what to do about the result either way. We evaluate other
people all the time and this happens whether they open their
mouth or not and we are all capable of this action whether we
do so with a good heart or a deliberately evil one. However,
keeping within the context of our subject at hand we listen to
evaluate for very specific reasons. In this instance we listen
because we have a need to assess the senders message with a
view to discovering a way forward. In a sense we are
appraising so many words, attitudes and the body language of
the client/prospect and all of what I have just said is happening
at break-neck speed. During this type of listening process we
will have a need to appraise and value and gauge what is being
said at a rate which allows us to calculate a suitable response.
Step 2 Get yourself ready to listen.
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There are only two types of listeners (in my book anyway) and
they are POOR listeners and GOOD listeners. Obviously, and
unless there is something seriously wrong with you, your
desire and goal should be to lean toward the good listener side
for the sake of your business and family.
What are the obvious signs of a poor listener? The first thing
noticeable about a poor listener is that she/he will generally be
found to slouch in their chairs. Slouching when sitting can be
traced back to an attitude problem and this behavior makes it
clear that the attitude is most certainly not positive but that of
I dont care! Slouching within the business environment (and
most any other environment) is deemed to be arrogance. With
such a person there is always a challenge in that they come
across as though they just simply dont care what you have to
say, and even when they respond, it is minimal just to show
you and me that they simply dont want to participate. They
will not look you and me in the face but will not look at us
directly in the eyes. One would be mistaken for believing that
such a poor listener has something to hide and may even be a
criminal. The impression given to us is that the individual
simply cannot be trusted. An obvious sign that a poor listener
is not listening to you is when their eyes wonder all over the
place and that they are very easily distracted. I can tell you I
have had business meetings with this type of a listener and it is
the most frustrating thing in that you have a distinct feeling
that you will not get anywhere with this person. Another
obvious body language sign is that they most certainly give
one the impression that they are utterly and totally bored with
the conversation with you.
The good listener mold belongs to the professional and
MASTER ENTREPRENEUR. This professional sits upright as
a sign of confidence and invitation. The invitation is taken to
mean that the client is welcome to our ears so to speak. In
fact, the impression that the customer will receive when
dealing with such a person is that because they sit on the edge
of their seat they immediately take this to mean that they are
interested, concerned and are sitting in the office, or
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boardroom, for business. A no nonsense approach and a serious

about business attitude! The good listener will ensure that
his/her eyes are absolutely fixed on the sender and will remain
that way throughout the conversation other than when taking
copious notes another way within which they show interest
and concern. The client in turn will then recognize the good
listener as a professional and the attention will be interpreted
to mean that the MASTER ENTREPRENEUR is alert and
attentive to the current discussion. Getting ready to listen then
also means that the good listener prepares himself/herself
mentally meaning that they refrain from thinking about the
thousand other things they should be doing at that point in time
and they direct all of their attention to the client leave your
mobile in the automobile it WILL be a distraction.
Step 3Withhold evaluation and judgment despite all
temptation not to do so.
NEVER make up your mind as to the final outcome or
conclusion of the matter before and until you have gathered
ALL the evidence and listened to ALL the facts. Whatever you
do, as a professional, you must withhold arbitrary judgments
about any subject to which you are listening and the potentially
emotional responses which may follow this will cost you
dearly within the business environment. The first thing that
you must understand here is that the speaker will always have
a personality. At times your personality may agree with that of
the sender but many times it wont and the result may be a
clash of personalities and this, too, is never good for business.
Listen to facts rather than focusing on an aggressive
personality. In other words, separate the issue from the
personality! I always teach my managers to separate the
actions from the person and then deal with the actions as
opposed to the person as this way you get the problem solved
without destroying the person, and after all, our function as
entrepreneurs is to keep our clients happy and our staff
motivated at all times no matter how great the challenge. The
admonition then is that you must never respond to a speakers

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personality but rather listen to the clear intent of the message

and focus on this only.
Poor listeners allow the senders looks and the sound of their
voice to turn them off whereas the good listener is able to look
past these distractions and focus on the listening aspect with
a view to formulating a solution. The old adage applies:
Never judge a book by its cover! I can tell you that I have
managed to close large and profitable business deals
throughout my lifetime because I have always given the sender
the benefit of the doubt no matter what comes out of their
mouths and what they look like. Some of the wealthiest people
I have had the privilege of doing business with walk around in
sneakers and shorts and most certainly dont look or sound the
part. Be careful! Be very careful before you become judge,
jury and executioner as it may be your own death sentence that
you will be pronouncing. Remember, you do not want to be
guilty of making quick unsubstantiated value judgments about
the quality of the communication of the speaker based upon
physical appearance or stature a big, big mistake!
As a good listener it is imperative that you hear the sender out
to the fullest extent no matter how he/she looks or sounds. This
will assist you in controlling your emotional responses and
allow you to much rather focus on the words that are being
transmitted as opposed to what you are looking at which may
or may not be pleasing to you at any given point in time.
Remember, stay away from personalities but focus and act
upon what you are listening to and you will not only solve
challenges but also unlock the key to closing business deals
through your professionalism. Poor listeners will focus more
on the negative aspects of the person and the message whereas
the MASTER ENTREPRENEUR and the good listener will
not receive an emotional shock when the sender touches on
sensitive issues and/or touches on a nerve so to speak by the
things they utter.
Step 4 Listen for IDEAS and for MEANING
The good listener will spend time and energy in listening for
IDEAS and MEANING as opposed to meaningless
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idiosyncrasies which are not able to help them overcome. As

an example, you are invited, as a respectable member of the
business community in your town to a public hearing with the
subject matter being juvenile crime. The speaker is nothing to
look at and has a slightly annoying high-pitched male voice. At
the beginning of the meeting, and as a part of his introduction
the speaker makes his theme known: Today I want to share
with you three causes of juvenile crime: (1) poverty, (2)
permissiveness and (3) broken homes! Immediately the poor
listener will judge the looks, stature and the voice of the
speaker. The judgment will not end here and instead of
focusing more on what is to come they have already leaned
over to the person on the right to share their negative thoughts
and impressions of the speaker and his message. They are
usually shocked when the person to whom they have shared
their pathetic view responds with I dont agree with you, so
why not give the man a chance to get his message across
first?
The good listener will always understand the key idea/s of the
communication for example the words and the details. It is also
important to clearly understand the non-verbal aspects of the
communication process namely BODY LANGUAGE. A good
listener will also be sensitive to voice tone and inflection.
Facial expressions and hand gestures together with body
actions play a vital role in what we see, read and hear from the
speaker. The greatest attribute which a good listener displays is
his/her ability to never lose focus of the actual WORDS which
are being transmitted after all this is the true message.
Step 5 Listen actively (have we not heard this before?)
To placing energy into the listening process means to listen
actively and when one understands this concept then it
becomes more valuable than a gold nugget. Please understand
this as a good listener surely does and that is that listening is
not a passive exercise. You and I need to focus and place all of
our attention on the sender. You must understand, as I do, that
active listening is hard work (ask any student if you cant
remember these days anymore) which will require constant
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and unabated concentration during the process of hearing. How

about this statement?! Active listening also requires that you
and I actually consider the content BEFORE responding
meaning that we will expend MENTAL energy to formulate
our response based upon what we have just heard and
absorbed.
Active listening may also be assisted by repeating (constantly
if needed) what you have heard for the sake of clarity. Did I
hear you correctly John, you want delivery of the consignment
to take place next Wednesday? If you are uncertain of a
statement then ASK! You may also want to question any
uncertainty which may have arisen during the listening phase
in order to alleviate miscommunication which in turn will
reduce the risk of a disastrous result. May I suggest that you
also consider paraphrasing as a means to confirm your
understanding of a statement or the entire communication?
Paraphrasing as a simple definition means to restate a
communication in your own words and as you feel that you
have understood it. Lastly, as we have done throughout our
school careers and business careers (I hope!) TAKE NOTES!
Taking notes during the communication process serves two
purposes (1) it ensures accuracy and (2) it shows that you are
paying attention and because of this you show obvious signs of
caring. When you act in this manner you clearly show that you
are willing to develop the business relationship and develop
credibility. In my opinion then I want you to know that the
better you are able to take notes the better and the more
professional you will become at listening-a vital skill for
success.
Conclusion
My friend, the very essence of professional communication is
effective listening. It is almost impossible to solve staff and
client challenges (whether positive or negative) if you and I do
not understand what is being said. I have found, on many
occasions, that miscommunication and misunderstanding is
brought about by the inability of the listener to adequately
understand the message in its true form people want to talk
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more than they listen and everybody seems to believe that their
opinion is more important than the next and are fixated on
getting this across at the expense of the sender. My own
managers tend to read into what may have been said as
opposed to focusing on what is actually being said. As an
entrepreneur, your customer expects you to get results when
they are not happy and your staff will need professional
guidance and this can only happen if you hear and understand
through effective listening. Not being able to resolve a client
complaint due to a lack of clearly understanding the intended
message will cost you dearly and will ruin your good
reputation as a professional person and that of your business.
Guiding and training staff to perform based upon the incorrect
assumptions brought about through a misunderstanding will
not help your staff or your business in the long term.
One of the most critical times for ensuring that professional
listening takes place is during the selling process. As you will
see in my next book, the ability to listen will allow you to
identify all the buying signals being transmitted by your
prospect. Your inability to pick up on any and all buying
signals will result in you not closing the sales process, and
those of us that truly understand the importance of sales in any
organization will tell you that not using a buying signal
correctly will retard the selling process and/or lose you the sale
altogether. For instance, as an example of the point which I am
trying to make, I had a client who had mentioned that a paper
towel dispenser (which the company were renting from a
competitor on a monthly basis) up in the washroom area was
old; however, the biggest problem was the course paper which
the competitor supplier was providing each month. I was
asked: Are you able to provide a better quality paper and in a
softer paper with your units? By not picking up, due to poor
listening and sales skills, that this question, as was posed by
the client, is considered a buying signal, an unprofessional
entrepreneur may answer with a simple YES! However, the
alert entrepreneur would immediately consider this as a
moment to do a trial close as he or she will be aware that
most sales cycles are closed only after six and more attempts. I
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answered the client this way: Susan, if I could upgrade the

unit to one that would fit into the dcor and provide you with
softer paper would you be prepared to move ahead with our
services today? The answer which I received never surprised
me as this has happened to me many times before YES! I
say again then! The essence of professional communication is
effective listening!

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Conclusion

When considering the reason and motivation for writing this

book for entrepreneurs I must say that one of the greatest
threats to the institution of marriage between man and woman
has got to be the mismanagement of their finances. In fact, I
am convinced that many of the breakdowns in marriages
leading to divorces which take place around the world today
has its origin in the inability to manage finances professionally.
You might correctly ask what this has to do with
entrepreneurship and my explanation to you would be as
follows.
My heart absolutely breaks when I come across a struggling
entrepreneur who should not have been in business in the first
instance. What makes it double trouble is when both
husband and wife are in business together, which they may not
be qualified to be, and the business is failing. While the
husband or the wife may be the entrepreneur, and the
remaining spouse is developing a career elsewhere, there is
some chance that the home finances may be managed to a
certain extent due to the separate and additional income. The
idea here is that they will not then have all their eggs in one
basket so to speak. However, even in this case there is no
guarantee that the familys finances will be protected in the
event of a business failure. In many instances, there is a chance
that both husband and wife have entered into loans which may
be called in should the business not succeed. With the husband
and wife team entrepreneurs there is virtually no safety net at
all as both are involved in the business and both would have
offered up collateral security and personal surety in the event
of start-up financing. When such a business goes bad then the
results are immediate and corporate within the family unit. The
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results of business failure are high and the damage caused to

personal finances and the family immeasurable.
Thus, my motivation for bringing this book to you must be
stated in the most emphatic terms possible. My friend, you are
admonished yet again to read this book carefully BEFORE you
enter the business world either on your own, or with a partner
or with your wife (who may in fact be your business partner).
There is no excuse! What you have in this book is the
information which you will not receive during a course of
business 101. In fact, the contents of this book is never brought
up at all when contemplating going into business for yourself
or studying for a business qualification so the only way to help
entrepreneurs is to present the ten secrets in this book for your
most serious consideration.
I have exposed ten areas for you to consider BEFORE you
start a business read them all and ponder them all with a
view to ensuring that you feel qualified as an entrepreneur. My
goal here is not to put you off but rather to inform you of the
dangers and expectations for entrepreneurship. Why is it that
we feel the need to be university qualified for working life, and
allow our parents to spend a great deal of money on our
education (for those of you fortunate enough to have parents
capable of financing your education), and yet, we feel
absolutely no need to qualify ourselves to be entrepreneurs?
Many well-meaning people spend their life savings on going
into a business with no qualification whatsoever and they have
no clue as to what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Being an
entrepreneur, my friend, is most certainly not for the faint
hearted. Being a successful and profitable entrepreneur is
given to only a few while the majority of would be
entrepreneurs fail dismally, and this, due to willful and
deliberate ignorance of what they are about to face when the
doors open.
Research! Research! Research!
research is critical for successful
book and for the very first time
will have a basis upon which to
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The lack of professional

entrepreneurship. With this
prospective entrepreneurs
ensure that they qualify as

entrepreneurs. While your idea has to sell you have to also

ensure that you are the person capable of selling the idea.
Business consists of many aspects such as financial
management, a service department, a sales department,
administration and operations to mention just a few of the
critical parts of business. Many would be entrepreneurs enter
into business and blatantly admit that they cannot sell or they
have never liked sales. If you cannot sell or never want to sell
or refuse to sell your service or your product then stay away
from being an entrepreneur as I can tell you now that at the
start of your business you must sell! SELL! SELL! SELL!
Until you develop a sales department that can actually sell
(many salespeople cant sell so be careful who you hire later
on). Many entrepreneurs have no clue as to how to manage the
business finances and this stems from their inability to manage
their personal finances. In fact, many people are what I
commonly refer to as debt-mongers. Together with their
inability to manage finances they never think twice before
securing more debt. In fact, I have seen entrepreneurs who get
going and at the very hint of any form of some initial success
they run up debt by way of new automobiles, additions to the
home or even the purchase of a new home. These people
remind me of some of my staff members which are currently
on my payroll and who are always struggling because they
love debt.
The moment I give my staff an annual salary increase the first
thing that they tend to do is to go out and create debt to the
point where they automatically, through their own greed, wipe
out the salary increase almost instantaneously. Some of my
staff, who cannot manage their finances well at all, are always
in debt and always in trouble for it debt collectors knocking
at their door on a daily basis. Before you judge people like
this you must understand that the unprofessional entrepreneur
has the same problem so the minute a large customer cancels a
lucrative order then the entrepreneur is in a cash-flow crisis
mode.

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Becoming an entrepreneur takes a special person so find out if

you are ready for business or not BEFORE you spend a cent.
The price of this book should be all that you spend until you
have read the entire contents from the first chapter to the very
last. You will need to assess at the end of it all as to your
worthiness to be called an entrepreneur. However, you must
understand that the goal is not to simply ensure that you
qualify for entrepreneurship. The ultimate goal, if you are to
ensure business success is for you to ensure that you have the
talents, as described in this book, to become a MASTER
ENTREPRENEUR because as such your success in business
will rely more on your talents than your potential. In business
you need talent and as an entrepreneur it will be your natural
business talents which will ultimately assist in your overall
success as a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a long and
successful career as a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR no matter
the choice of business. I appreciate you purchasing this book
and I most certainly hope, for you, that you find your purchase
to be the best investment which you have ever made as far as
your business education is concerned.
God bless you!

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DO YOU QUALIFY?
Please consider the following questions and your answers
BEFORE you decide to become an entrepreneur. The results, if
negative do not mean that you will never be a successful
entrepreneur but will most certainly highlight your weaknesses
BEFORE you make one of the biggest mistakes of your life.
Work on turning your weaknesses into strengths and become a
successful entrepreneur dont do so at your own peril.
Score: 0 to 5 (0 being POOR and 5 being GOOD)
QUESTION

SCORE

1. Does your business idea excite you?

2. Will your excitement be long-lasting or short-lived?
3. Will your excitement translate into a consuming passion?
4. Do you more often than not view the glass as half empty?
5. Do you more often than not view the glass as half full?
6. Do you focus more on the problem than the solution?
7. Score your overall level of pessimism.
8. Score your overall level of optimism.
9. Do you view an obstacle as a mountain and difficult to
overcome?
10. Do you view a business challenge as a means to success?
11. In any client/customer interaction are you more likely to
say NO?
12. In any client/customer challenge are you more likely to say
YES?
13. Do you have a positive attitude?
14. Do people see your positive attitude?
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15. Are you most often negative?

16. Are you most often positive?
17. Do you consider yourself a moody person?
18. Score yourself as a peoples person.
19. Are you convinced that you will succeed?
20. Do you have a written plan to succeed?
21. Do you consider the client/customer important to your
success?
22. What impact will an unhappy client have on your business?
23. Score your ability to deal with difficult clients/customers.
24. How happy are you during business hours?
25. Do you demand constant attention?
26. Do you have a DAILY exercise program?
27. Do you have a loser mentality?
28. Rate your opinion of yourself?
29. Rate your opinion of others within the business
environment.
30. Score your current level of confidence.
31. Do you have unmanageable debt at the present moment?
32. Do you see yourself bankrupt within the foreseeable
future?
33. Are you considering starting a business to get out of your
debt?
34. Do you believe that you can achieve?
35. Right now do you know what it is that you want to
achieve?
36. Do you believe in yourself?
37. Do you believe in your abilities at the present moment?
38. Is it important to have a high self-esteem?

384

39. Is it important for success that you correct a low selfesteem?

40. Rate the strength of your handshake.
41. Do you easily admit to your mistakes?
42. Rate your level of revenge against others.
43. Score your ability to make constant eye contact when
communicating.
44. Do you take jokes and innuendoes directed toward you
personally?
45. Rate your ability to use empathy.
46. Do you blame your upbringing and early environment for
your failure?
47. Rate your ability to remember things.
48. Rate your enthusiasm levels.
49. Score your personal motivation level.
50. Rate how you see the importance of your written core
values.
51. Rate your organizational skills.
52. Do you often find your life in a chaotic state?
53. Are people inspired by you?
54. Are you able to motivate people to perform?
55. Rate your ability to prioritize.
56. Score your true ability to delegate.
57. Rate the importance of written goals to you.
58. Are written goals critical to your business success?
59. Do goals give you purpose?
60. Does planning represent failure to you?
61. Are you currently in a personal slump?
62. Are you or will you ever become satisfied with the status
quo?
385

63. Do you find it difficult to get back to work?

64. Are you currently an achiever?
65. Rate your current level of confidence.
66. Do you believe in keeping score?
67. Are you able to work to a plan?
68. Score your level self-discipline.
69. Are you able to focus on the big picture?
70. Is keeping your family together less important than being
successful in business?
71. Do you easily break your commitments to yourself?
72. Do you easily break your commitments to others?
73. Rate your TRUE understanding of who you are?
74. Do you often blame others for your failure?
75. Do you take personal responsibility for results produced by
your actions?
76. Does your family trust you at this point in time?
77. Are you in control of you?
78. Rate how others perceive you right now.
79. Rate how others experience you right now.
80. Are you able to self-correct bad behavior?
81. Do you ever fool yourself?
82. Are you currently your own worst enemy?
83. A satisfied client is a better asset than a loyal client?
84. Do people find you friendly?
85. Do clients/customers see a positive attitude in you?
86. Rate your current service to your client/customers.
87. Developing loyalty is how important to you?
88. Will poor service develop loyalty?
89. Will excuses for failure develop loyalty?
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90. What is your level of understanding of using empathy?

91. Are you able to use client complaints to your advantage?
92. Rate your willingness to assist your client/customer in all
matters.
93. Rate your ability to listen effectively.
94. Is your opinion more important than listening effectively?
95. Do you talk more than you listen?
96. Do you understand what you hear most times?
97. Rate your ability to remember what people say in a
conversation.
98. Do you slouch in your chair?
99. Are you most often bored with someone elses
conversation?
100. Rate your ability to prepare mentally for the listening
process.
Please note: you are not forced to take this assessment, and
neither will you reveal the results to anyone so perform this
task for you and in all honesty. The results of this assessment
will not seal your fate or prevent you from becoming an
entrepreneur as this decision will always remain with you. BE
HONEST! BE TRUTHFUL! BE YOURSELF!

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RESULTS
1. 0 to 50: identify weaknesses; make critical changes DO
NOT MOVE FORWARD! IMMINENT FAILURE!
2. 51 to 65: identify weaknesses, make needed changes DO
NOT MOVE FORWARD
3. 66 to 80: identify weaknesses, make necessary changes
WORK TOWARD ACHIEVING 80% PLUS AND MOVE
FORWARD WITH CAUTION
4. 81 to 90: turn weaknesses into strengths soonest MOVE
AHEAD WITH CONFIDENCE
5. 91 to 100: SUCCESS IMMINENT
Final admonition regarding your participation in the above
assessment: BE OPEN AND BE HONEST OR DONT
WASTE YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!
The results above must be taken together with the context of
each chapter in this book and at no point must your results
dictate your desire for entrepreneurship. However, the results
as produced by you must be considered carefully and as a part
of your overall decision making process as you consider the
major commitment needed for business success.
All the best!

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Action Stations!

May I take this opportunity to say yet again that

KNOWLEDGE IS NOT KNOWLEDGE UNTIL YOU PUT IT
INTO ACTION!
You may be good at reading and thereby absorbing the theory;
however, in order to be a MASTER ENTREPRENEUR you
must transform all the theory into practice. You see, it is only
when you apply what you having read in this book that you
will see results. It is only when you seriously consider the
admonitions contained herein that you will determine whether
you qualify for MASTER ENTREPRENEURSHIP or not. It
may seem to you that I am not happy for everyone to be
entrepreneurs and this is the furthest thing from the truth. Of
course, like you, I believe that more and more people should
own their own business and I promote this daily. However,
what I am not in favor of is the continual failure of both
businesses and homes.
It is now your turn to act! It is now your time to shine!
To now call YOU to action I mean that you must ACT. You
must ACT on the information now in your head for the sake of
your own future and the future of your family. It will now take
DEEDS in order to assess whether the contents of this book
have helped you in any way at all. It will be easy to criticize
what you have read and experienced between the covers but as
they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I admonish
you to exploit your new found knowledge and measure your
results to those entrepreneurs around you. Become enterprising
and endeavor to apply the principles BEFORE you enter into a
business of your own. Learning is a process and any process
requires ACTION!

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I do not want you to fail at business and this is the very reason
why I recommend that you seriously consider acting upon the
contents before you.
ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS!

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Spreading the Word

Nothing will drive home the realities of this book more than a
personal appearance and motivational discussion by the author
himself. Trevor K. Whittakers passion for the entrepreneur
and business people around the world is evident in his lively
and enthusiastic approach to public speaking.
The message is spread and is clear, concise and hard-hitting.
What the listener will come away with are the clear and
present dangers which they will face BEFORE they enter the
much sought after title of Master Entrepreneur. Many will also
understand that entrepreneurs are needed worldwide but that
the need relates to Master Entrepreneurs that remain in
business and grow the business. The world community and
governments are concerned about the mounting new business
casualty rates and the statistics which reflect the high failure
rates of entrepreneurs.
It is time to face the reality that the blame for the high failure
rates with start-up businesses may have to be laid at the door
of the entrepreneur. The world needs start-up businesses that
actually stick around this is the secondary message! The
primary message is that losing ones life investment due to a
failing new business may destroy more than just the business
THE FAMILY! The best way to save the business, the
investment and the family is to ensure that a prospective
entrepreneur considers what qualifies such a one for the
position. This reality is communicated and brought to bear
during a session with Trevor K. Whittaker.
Trevor K. Whittaker is a highly motivated speaker with a
passion for getting his message across for the purpose of
assisting the struggling and potential entrepreneur. His sense of
humor makes his presentation fun while maintaining an
391

inspirational flavor. Life lessons, which are highlighted during

his presentation, cement the reality of possible business failure
but his passion and solution-minded approach to challenges
leave the audience with hope and determination and the will
power to succeed.
Please
contact
Trevor
K.
Whittaker
at
trevor@trevorkwhittaker.com for availability and bookings
regarding workshops, seminars and conferences worldwide.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevor K. Whittaker has had more than thirty-five years of

personal experience in business and has gained his experience
in the United States, Canada and South Africa. His passion, as
a long-term entrepreneur, is passing on his many hard learned
lessons to those who believe that they no longer want to work
for a boss a noble wish but a dangerous desire.
Having lived, studied and worked in North America for at least
sixteen years of his life he has gained valuable insight into the
international business environment and has used these skills to
assist and mentor entrepreneurs throughout his business career.
While much of his personal experience has come from the
international service and supply industries he has also owned
business within the retail and restaurant environments. Many
mistakes were made and many lessons were learned, some
costly and others simply valuable lessons.
Trevor K. Whittaker is currently the Founder and President
of his own workplace services company located in
Johannesburg, South Africa and the business has an
international footprint. Trevor has commented as follows on
many occasions: Starting a business in North America is one
thing but being an entrepreneur on the most southern tip of
Africa takes pure determination and genius! South Africa has
often been referred to as the America of Africa and is the
richest country on the continent. During the year in 2010
Trevors business namely Crystalmount Workplace Services
(www.crystalmount.co.za) was nominated out of more than 32,
000 businesses who were invited to participate as the business
of the year finalist. At a gala dinner during November of the
same year the business was announced as the BUSINESS OF
393

THE YEAR 2010. As the MASTER ENTREPRENEUR for

Crystalmount Workplace Services, Trevor received numerous
rewards, awards and national praise for the success of his
business. The country is filled with geniuses, talented and
highly motivated people who remain hungry for business
success. Trevor is proud to be associated with his long standing
business partners in the USA and his university associates in
Greenville, South Carolina.
While much of his time is taken up by his passion for business
and remains actively involved he also has a long standing
passion for writing. Trevor has authored many pertinent sales
training modules and has presented these to many audiences
throughout the years. He has also authored Operations and
Procedures Manuals (OPMs) for the franchise community
most of which are still in use today. Entrepreneurship
(minus) 101 is Trevors latest work and has been born out of
the disturbing statistics relating to the rampant demise of startup enterprises by well-meaning but misinformed people. The
financial devastation of families based upon business failure is
Trevors main concern hence the completion of:
Entrepreneurship (Minus) 101.
Trevor K. Whittaker is a successful entrepreneur, author and
motivational speaker in his own right and currently lives with
his wife Sunly-Ann in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has two
sons namely Donovan and Ricky and three beautiful daughters
in Kristen, Natasha and Shamarie. About two years ago he was
blessed with two gorgeous granddaughters Savannah and
Taylor-Reece with a third grandchild now on the way.

394