The Narrow Path

The Narrow PathGovernment does not work because it is more about royalty remaining royalty than it is about results, so the only time it gets anything of real importance accomplished is in moments of severe crisis, when all the royals are equally threatened.

Business works – when it works – because of an opposite operating system. Small business works better than big business because its leaders have little fear of being deposed; they are the owners, a status actually higher than royals (which is why royals despise business owners), so they can act without political considerations.

For that reason, they are often proactive instead of only reactive. Because they deal in real rather than fictitious numbers, have a limit on debt they can get their hands on, and eat profit, they often make intelligent and rational decisions. Many work at defusing problems at their tiniest, in their infancy, rather than postponing doing so as long as possible, until the monster has grown big enough to eat them.

If you stand back and observe all this, you can see what works and what doesn’t work quite clearly, and make your personal behavioral and business practices choices accordingly. If you will.

Felix Dennis is a Renegade Millionaire – actually worth about $500-million, which he manufactured for himself, entirely on his own, from scratch. He is one of Britain’s richest citizens. In his newest book, The Narrow Road, he tells more blunt truth about what works in the making of money, more succinctly than any other credible person I’ve ever read on the subject.

I am more simpatico with his conclusions than I am with anyone else’s. Like me but more so, Dennis is offensive to many and frightening to many more. Truth is rarely pleasing or reassuring, except to the very tiny number of people who prefer it to being pleased or reassured. I suggest getting and reading this little book, but in a well-lit room, not in gloom inhabited by scary shadows.

Unlike most authors of most success genre content, he makes no attempt to deliver ideas that will be popular with a large audience. This mirrors my own approach as an author, spanning, now 32 years and more than 20 published books. (www.NoBSBooks.com), My scariest is No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits.

One very big difference between the path most are on versus The Renegade Millionaire Way is mixed agendas vs. laser-focused dedication to what works. The Renegade Millionaire Way is simple: find what works and use it. (That’s what being part of a great mastermind group is all about. Why coaching is important.)

Others’ way is far more complicated. It is cluttered with: what will people think of me? am I permitted to do this? but we’ve never done it this way. we should do get more consensus. my peers are all rushing off to do the new thing and I don’t want to be left behind. will this make me popular? liked? or gossiped about? what if it sparks criticism about me on Google?

Ordinary business owners are trying to run fast through a dense forest of all these concerns, thus bumping into trees at every turn, spending a lot of time lost and confused. Renegade Millionaires have left that forest and are running on a clear, paved path.

– By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series, and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit: www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com

Being About Something More Than Chicken

More Than ChickenEach year, the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain, famous for its tongue-in-cheek ads featuring cows urging folks to “eat more chicken”, has a Cow Appreciation Day. Customers who come in dressed up as cows eat and drink for free. Anybody wearing anything with a cow pattern – hat, cap, shirt – gets a sandwich free. Last year, 400,000 people came in dressed up as cows.

The guy who started this chain was a bona-fide Renegade Millionaire. Even though many of their shops are in malls, they’re all closed on Sundays nationwide because he believes in rest and time with family on the Sabbath. If a mall won’t let them close, they don’t go in the mall at all. Hasn’t hurt them. In 2011, at mid-year, they were up system-wide by about 12% in same store sales vs. prior year. The chain is growing; the company is profitable. I believe it’s the founder’s son running the show now. I saw him on Fox-Financial, cheerfully and goofily dressed up as a cow, pitching Cow Appreciation Day.

A lot of people let ego, often undeserved ego, stand in the way of achievement. They envy others their wealth, but aren’t willing to totally put themselves out there to get it for themselves.  On the other hand, a lot of people operate without underlying principles and a strong navigational system, so they are easily blown off course.

The folks running this particular company have clear, firm values. One is that customers have fun. That’s something missing from too many businesses: nobody’s having any fun. The experience of being a customer is, at best, ordinary; at worst, terrible.

I like to ask business owners what their business is about. What they’re doing. Small-thinking shopkeepers always answer in terms of core deliverables. We clean carpets, we cut hair, we sell insurance. Slightly more sophisticated students of marketing tend to give boilerplate marketing message answers: we help people protect their financial futures. Executives at big dumb companies usually quote the vaguest of mission statements. But there’s little juice in any of that.

At one point, Trump set out to change the skyline of New York City. Well, that’s something. When you tell people that’s what we’re all about here, you can capture their imagination. That has juice. I set out in 1975 to introduce more people to ‘success education’ than any other person or company ever had, and I believe I’ve done that, although I’m not quitting just yet. That has juice.

And it’s navigational; you can ask about everything you might do, is it fulfilling that purpose?  It’s good to be about something significant and inspirational. Then, when somebody asks you what you do, and you tell them, they get that you’re about something interesting and will want to know more about it, may be interested in helping you, or being a part of it somehow, if only as a customer.

One of the essential ingredients of the Magnetic Marketing® that I’ve taught is creating something that is magnetic. Most businesspeople are thinking too much about how to sell their stuff – not enough about to make it and themselves magnetically attractive, so the selling of stuff occurs naturally.

– By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series, and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit: www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com

Maverick Business Insider Summer Extravaganza 2011 Recap

MBI Go Ape Group ShotThis was the 3rd annual Summer Extravaganza event for Maverick Business Insider members to meet face-to-face and celebrate everything MBI stands for…namely making more money, having more fun and giving more back!

Like the last two years, the first half of the day was a seminar where Yanik himself shared his latest business insights and strategies, as well as all-new content. Then, we had an awesome mastermind session and hotseat.

After “working” all morning, we provided a catered BBQ Maverick-Style lunch before transporting everyone over up to Maryland for “Go Ape” for hours of fun and charity fundraising. Go Ape is a one-of-a-kind chance to swing from the defy gravity 40 feet in the air, with ziplines, balance challenges and more. MBI Charity Chimp

Of course we added a Maverick competition to it (the more “dangerous” you made it…the more points you got), so everyone competed for donations to their favorite charities…and also raised money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by throwing water balloons at the Charity Chimp!

With members in attendance from all over, this event was another smashing success!

Then on Saturday, we rolled out from the hotel early in the morning…this time to downtown DC for our optional “Segways, Symbols and Sushi” small-group adventure.

The gang got suited up for a private Segway tour with a 32nd level freemason, who gave us the “hidden” history of DC and pointed out all of the hidden masonry symbols around town (inspired by Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol book).

MBI Segway GroupThere was only one near fatality on the tour. (A first for the Segway company!) Prompted by Chris Zavadowski, Adam Summers decided to ram into our awesome event planner and VA, Lara. She was thrown from her Segway and had to chase it down into the intersection. They are, in fact, as far away from each other as possible in the picture to the left. We all got back safely in spite of Adam Summers’ best efforts.

Instead of just going to a sushi lunch, we booked a private sushi-making class with one of DC’s top sushi chefs (and serial entrepreneur)…Kaz! Chef Kaz really knew his stuff and was very entertaining. He had only the freshest ingredients, so everything was delicious.MBI Group with Chef Kaz

And before calling it a day, and wrapping up another successful Extravaganza …one final group shot!

Thanks to everyone who attended — we look forward to seeing you again at future Maverick Business Insider events! 🙂

To see the full recap and pictures from the event, please visit: http://facebook.com/MaverickBusinessInsider

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