I think it speaks to many of the points that Dennis has explored with regard to finding capital and building his business.
I just bought it, so I haven't read it yet. Looks quite promising.
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G0ddard B0lt
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Book recommendation for several people here: Dan Kennedy's "No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs" |
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I just found this book at Barnes and Noble this evening.
I think it speaks to many of the points that Dennis has explored with regard to finding capital and building his business. I just bought it, so I haven't read it yet. Looks quite promising.
Last Edited By: G0ddard B0lt 10/12/09 12:02:54.
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pm4hire |
Here's the book on Amazon... | #1 | ||
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Tom Welch
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G0ddard B0lt |
My studies - about 1/3 through it now | #2 | ||
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This is a valuable book for anyone who is looking to improve their internal game in order to do better at business. My initial posting recommended it to
Dennis: I thought that the book was literally about attracting capital and investment.
It's actually more like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" in terms of self-help, but minus the hype and the questionable specific advice. I think that a lot of people on this board can use it effectively to at least see what they're doing to themselves. I'd call Dan Kennedy's book here is almost a "Kohlinar" like regimen for sharpening your senses to your internal dialog about money and success. Quick summary of the chapters I've read so far (there is FAR more to each chapter than my summary. Just buy the darned book if it doesn't add up.) 1) No guilt - don't believe that wealth or doing well is correlated with one's morality and don't feel guilty for using any advantage you can. Also, knock off the BS that you're deliberately poor with integrity and the like. 2) Belief in abundance - no matter what anyone says about money being "hard earned" there is a lot of money always sloshing around, and claims of poverty by customers are just that, chosen reluctance to spend - people spend when they want to. 3) Break free of fairness 4) Accepting your role and responsibilities - own your failures and successes - no predestination 5) No fear (this speaks to me personally with my own reluctance to cold-call) 6) No excuses - kind of a repeat of (4) but from a different angle 7) Speak money - watch yourself repeating "poverty thinking" mantras to yourself 8- Be somebody - create the image that you want, don't default it 9) Be somewhere - connect with others (difficult for me, I am used to a diet of 17 years of telecommuting and remote work.) 10) Do something - persistence - try things - experiment - do not do nothing There's lot of depth to his advice and observations. For example, he recommends picking up a few issues of The Robb Report, Millionaire, and Town and Country magazines, and attending events like racing horse auctions, in order to grok the culture of the wealthy. If you want to argue with me that any of these points are overly idealistic - well, Dan Kennedy would say, and I agree, I should ask what you know about the subject matter. If you aren't rich, I shouldn't listen to you if my goal is to do better than I am currently doing. I probably shouldn't listen to myself, either, which is why I am reading this book. The one line item above that made me uncomfortable to apply was to take responsibility for my foray into the computer service business. He even listed a couple of the failure excuses ("people here are cheap" and "nobody understood or appreciated my service") that I used here in explaining it. While I still think that business format is a total loser, I think it would take a lot more effort to earn a lot less money than I am used to at it - I bear responsibility for not conducting better due diligence of the actual prospects for computer repair. As one example of something from the book that I applied immediately to myself. Anyway, this book makes me step out of my comfort zone and get used to the idea that there are other economic games around than the commodity-driven crap where you do exactly what everyone else is doing and you're complaining about it the same as everyone else is. I'll even relate this book to one forumer here. I think David Randolph here channels much of the thinking of this book in his comments. |
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John Masterson |
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Thanks for the excellent summary and comments.
I honestly define "rich" as: having enough money to do whatever I want with my time. And with my natural interests being what they are, I don't honestly NEED as high an income to be totally satisfied. My main thing is to ENJOY what I do all day long. It's essential to me. I hate "work": i.e., anything that you would only do if someone gives you something quite valuable as compensation for the drudgery! My end goal is happy contentment, day in and day out. Money is only a means to that end, and it is necessary, but not at all sufficient by itself.
"To those who believe, no explanation is needed.
To those who don't, no explanation will do." |
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G0ddard B0lt |
What makes success-thinking very difficult for most of us: (my opinion) | #4 | ||
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(BTW, thanks, JM.)
I have encountered no shortage of entrepreneurs and people who are relatively (deliberate emphasis) successful in business - many of whom I have worked for as a contractor - who violate many, if not most, of the principles that Dan Kennedy is setting forth. I think in the context of this book, people who have poor internal dialogs basically got lucky in life because a) they knew someone who promoted them (promotion by marriage counts for this, as does being given a family business, a type of "promotion") or b) they just stumbled into good fortune. But the catch is that stumbling into success isn't predictable and it doesn't happen very often. And it doesn't provide a lot of upward momentum. Those flukes tend to be many of the lower rung stories of success, who are the lower rung successful people that many of us encounter. Those people tend to be hideously poor success models, because they couldn't possibly replicate their success without special external conditions, nor could they explain their success objectively. Most of them think it's purely them. So, I think this is why the messages in this book may not resonate with a lot of people. We get "success" shoved in our faces by individuals who had one "lucky" break. IE: I've known cowardly, backstabbing corporate toadies with no integrity who blame everyone else for their failures, and they get promoted because someone else like them. Then they look down on me and everyone else that they rose above. I have known company owners (several) who lucked into one good selling product, not because they studied the space, but because someone asked them to write an application on contract and the client didn't ask for rights to the IP. I have known several second generation family based business owners who are basically spoiled brats. Any of this type will be happy to dispense completely misleading, skewed advice. I think listening to these types and internalizing their "message" is what leads to intense frustration for most of us who are striving.Basically, most lower tier well off people are poseurs. Lucky. Dan Kennedy is in the big leagues. I will give his book some space in my head because it's a plausible sounding and holistic approach. It rings truer than most of the crap I've heard from other consultants, most mISVs, most mom and pop biz owners, and most of my clients. |
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Richardk |
#5 | |||
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Taking responsibility is one thing but knowing when to get off a sinking ship is different.
I agree with JM about what being "rich" means. As for the mindset, I think he's right. |
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John Masterson |
#6 | |||
Richardk wrote:I wasn't trying to hijack the thread. I thought it was germane to the discussion to define how much money you need to make as an entrepreneur to be a total success. I figure the less you need to make, the easier it is to succeed!
"To those who believe, no explanation is needed.
To those who don't, no explanation will do." |
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Richardk |
I know | #7 | ||
John Masterson wrote:That's true in absolute numbers but it's also true from a relative point of view as well. I know a few couples that have so much stuff, while not millionaires I consider to be pretty well off yet they constantly whine about not having some new toy. New vehicles, new or remodeled homes, swimming pool, campers, boats, 2nd homes, cottages, etc. Life isn't good enough for them while I'd feel quite comfortable and maybe even a bit guilty of having too much. So while the book says there's an abundance of wealth to be had, I don't want it to feel like "if I just get a little bit more then I'll be successful". |
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G0ddard B0lt |
Final "Book Report" | #8 | ||
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I finished the book over my vacation and the rest of the book is pretty much an extension of the first 10 chapters.
Chapter summaries: 11) Follow up - focus on opportunity rather than outcome, in other words, don't just let the "big score" happen - use good fortune to position yourself for later. And focus on "process" rather than "incident" - make a habit of follow up rather than cashing the customer's check and saying you're done. 12) Integrity - doing exactly what you claim is good (for) business, not just good ethics. 13) Ask - ask for favors; ask for exposure; ask for testimonials; ask for partnerships, collaboration, citations, etc. 14) Domino opportunity - "pimp" an opportunity for exposure to new prospects or to new business for all it's worth. Examples include a voice coach who was brought in to coach contestants for The Apprentice TV show and capitalized on this with her own media blitz referencing the gig. 15) Passion - as he puts it, passion by itself is nothing. But so is doing something you hate. Find the intersection of your passion with a genuine market need. 16) See what isn't there - look for market voids - either niches in undiscovered businesses, or underserved positions in established niches at the bottom, the top or in the middle. 17) No boundaries - do not limit your business to the local area - avoid provincialism. 18) Clarity - make clearcut plans and formulate clear business goals and objectives. Even if you miss by a large margin you will be better off that if you don't do so. 19) Independence - avoid debt, avoid being, thinking and acting needy, and avoid business expansion that renders your business dependent and which creates a bad mental framework that forces you to compromise your goals. 20) Think value, not time - focus on factors that truly increase your worth to others, and not on "marking time" and thinking like a blue collar laborer type who expects to be "rewarded" for multiple years of employment. 21) Think equity, not income - introduces the idea of the building value in your business. 22) Marketing prowess - he says that you absolutely have to become good at marketing yourself and/or your business in some effective way in order to be successful. You cannot be cowed into being demure, you have to be unabashed. 23) Behavioral congruency - model your attitudes and your on individuals achieving results that you want. 24) Act wealth to attract wealth - he says to literally throw your money around and to spend money in certain worthwhile or beneficial ways. Do this to stop thinking "poor." 25) Energy from people - mercilessly jettison professional acquaintances, employees, etc who drag you down and who inhibit progress toward your goals. Cultivate the people and associates who want to help you succeed. 26) Courage - to trust your own judgement, to act, to make demands, to set rules and boundaries, etc. The rest of the book is mainly worthless chapters from "guests" and most of them are advocating some kind of pre-2008 housing meltdown real estate arbitrage. Some bottom lines that I perceive from the good parts: I don't really think that most of what Kennedy teaches here is going to benefit most IT contractors. We have to accept standards of practice and conduct (like dealing with borks and with commodity driven pseudo-employment practices) that don't allow a lot of leeway to imaginatively leverage your time or market yourself or your work product. In like manner, employment and work culture - contractors aren't really immune to it - is quite contrary to almost all of the points that Kennedy makes in his book. It would take most of us a lot of work to transcend the self-serving "hypnosis" that employers, clients and brokers have subjected most of us to in IT contracting. As he notes, dedication to passion alone is overrated and is dangerous to your economic pursuits. He pretty much says what I thought - find something that people will pay you for that is close enough to the kind of work that you want to do, and make that work your passion. #16, "see what isn't there", is kind of the mantra of most IT product businesses and SaaS. If there is one lesson in this book that most mISV aspirants grok, it's that. #18 - we're all bad at this. #19 - the key problem shared by most wage slaves and many contractors. How many near-bankrupt guys do we have here? And most people I've worked around in offices are always, without exception, leveraged up to their eyeballs, somehow. Well, you can't accomplish anything if you're in fire fighting mode all the time. #20 - I think most of us who understand market dynamics that run squarely against IT contractors have internalized this message and most of us expect no or even negative recognition for our work and our merit. For heaven's sake, DON'T assume that just because you have worked for 10+ years in the field that you are "better" than a new guest worker being hyped as your replacement. #22 - marketing prowess - I always say that middle class people are trained to be bashful about self promotion, and we tend to jeer at it when a peer does it. We really shouldn't do either (except - I say it's OK to jeer when someone obviously doesn't deserve any success. #23 - "behavioral congruency" - probably one of the best lessons in the book. Model yourself on someone who is doing great things, don't drift along doing the same crap that every other wanna-be is doing. #25 - "energy from people" - I have already implemented this. I have no use for idiots and for detractors in my own circle. #26 - "courage" - basically, act on it, even if it feels wrong and others are telling you "no". ALL IN ALL: This book is a great, easy read and is quite eye-opening and "consciousness raising". I have nothing bad to say about it, only good. 4.5 out of 5. |
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John Masterson |
Excellent. Thanks! | #9 | ||
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Thanks for taking the time to summarize this book. I got a lot out of your book report.
"To those who believe, no explanation is needed.
To those who don't, no explanation will do." |
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I D Shukhov |
Passion and business success | #10 | ||
As he notes, dedication to passion alone is overrated and is dangerous to your economic pursuits. He pretty much says what I thought - find something that people will pay you for that is close enough to the kind of work that you want to do, and make that work your passion.Bruce Eckel, one of my favorite language instructors, blogged about the following book recently: In What Should I Do with My Life? Po Bronson manages to create a career book that is a page-turner. His 50 vivid profiles of people searching for "their soft spot--their true calling" (Amazon editorial review)http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=269972 I've gone over this many (way too many!) times. No matter how I analyze it, I always decide that I should direct my development and marketing effort to something I really believe in. But I agree, it has to be something that has a good chance of success.
He that would live in peace and
at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. - Benjamin Franklin
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G0ddard B0lt |
Passion dies off eventually | #11 | ||
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Case in point: I used to practically dream in code and I couldn't wait to try new things.
My current tech project is a hard core techie's "wet dream". I couldn't care less about it. I am just going through the motions. Even 10 years ago, but more like 15 or 20, I would be saying "ARE YOU NUTS? THEY ARE PAYING YOU TO DO THAT!!????" Not now. I think that as soon as you do something for money, it eventually becomes a chore. Now, doing something that you really believe in. That possibly has legs. But I had that same feeling about software development also. It died out, too, as I realized that every project I've done is someone else's property and "glory" and bragging right. No matter how good I make things, it simply doesn't matter even in 5 or 10 year's time frame. The harder the projects I've worked on, the more that some other programmer will mess things up, and/or claim my groundwork as his own. Or, the company will mothball the project or the company will get sold off and the product gets killed. And/or even if the product survives, the client company will treat me like a hired hand, not like a mensch who breathed life into nothingness. The degree to which I have been personally disrespected after I helped a company stay in business for several years, or helped clients not get sued for non-performance, is mind blowing. So, in my view - finding a thing to do that aligns with your ideals is a fool's errand, in the longer run. It lasts for awhile. But not for a career's length. In general. Perhaps there are genuine exceptions. So, what do I want to do? Something that provides me with a good living. And which is not repulsive to me. I'm flexible.
Last Edited By: G0ddard B0lt 10/13/09 13:17:46.
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Dennis Nedry |
#22 | #12 | ||
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I think marketing prowess is the most important. It doesn't matter if you're selling vacuum cleaners, if you are good at marketing, you can succeed.
There is one more thing, being able to "clear your mind" and cut through the crap, and see what actually needs to be done. And then to follow through on it. And I think that's all you need to do. One other thing, being highly organized and detail oriented is very important. You need precise measures of everything you do. This goes with being clear and uncluttered. I agree there are plenty of "successful" people out there that really tripped into some good luck. One guy I met who sold his company for 30M (initially a mail order business) hit success on his first mailing. He got enough return to hire some people, and was on his way. Most successes can be pinpointed to single fortuitous events. But you had to be there and set up first. But deliberately setting out to create it takes a lot of continual adjustment. As far as the measure of wealth, I agree that being happy is the main thing, being free. But hell with it, I want to see if I can make a few million, just because it's there, there's plenty of money sloshing around, and why should it be so difficult? It's very much like solving a puzzle. Plus I just had a 2009 BMW 5 Series as a loaner for a week, and I have to tell you, that is one nice car. |
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datagirl |
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GB,
I hear what you are saying about long-term passion for one's profession. I've been mulling this over quite a bit lately. If it's something I *have* to do everyday, even for money, it is a chore. I try to attack it in as cheerful a manner a possible, but in the end it is *work*. I'm seriously thinking that my next entrepreneurial venture will be a non-profit that can pay me a living wage salary, but be something with a mission that serves the greater good. Do you have any tendencies toward community service (aside from managing this board) that can feed the need to be passionate about something someone else will appreciate? Or even a hobby. I know you have extra family responsibilities that take up your time, energy and generosity - as do I, so you may not have anything else to give right now. Just thinking out loud. No pressure, no worries. Regards,
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pm4hire |
Why many folks on this forum are not succesfull | #14 | ||
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they despise authority to the point where they can't focus
on a goal. I can point to one recent thread where folks got off posting reasons why it is better to work from home than in a corporate environment daily. Working from home is a loser if you're goal is be to an IC and grow a business. If you're not an established authority in your MARKET NICHE, don't even think you can promote a business by sitting at home. Many folks here do not have the social skills or business acumen to be in business and make a profit. Another long thread started by the poster talking about business model, when in fact, he should have been 1st focused on the market niche, namely size and characteristics, and how to reach key decision makers. So my real point is that many have such deep seeded personality flaws that reading all how to books in the world will not make a difference. Save your money! Tom Welch
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John Masterson |
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pm4hire wrote:pm4hire, What you are describing are not "personality flaws". They are just wrong strategies. Lighten up.
"To those who believe, no explanation is needed.
To those who don't, no explanation will do." |
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G0ddard B0lt |
It is not necessary to trash people on this board, PM | #16 | ||
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You come in and yell like we're all supposed to just agree. You're stating "absolute" laws of physics as you see them, anyway.
Do you even intend to start a dialog? I get the idea that I'm now supposed to close the topic because pm4hire told us what we need to know. I posted this review to show anyone who is interested that there is a different way of looking at business, and life. If you want to take the position that people here are not worth helping, then why post anything? |
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DG9 |
We just keep doing the best we know how at the time.... | #17 | ||
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I'll keep doing things wrong until I get it right, not sure of another way. That said, I do appreciate the reminder to put market niche before business
model, heck it took me long enough to shift from focusing on what I wanted to produce to what someone would actually buy. Some of us just might make it in
spite of ourselves.
If You're Not the Lead Dog, the Scenery Never Changes... |
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Richardk |
Still some good points | #18 | ||
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I would call this the 'getting back to basics' talk.
You want to be onsite so the client sees you working and doesn't have to wonder who you are again, when he gets your invoice. Granted that doesn't mean you have to be there every day.
Business and social skills can be learned though some are better at it than others.
I'll agree that sales needs to come first even though without code, you have nothing to sell.
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G0ddard B0lt |
I'm highly skeptical of the importance of onsite | #19 | ||
Richardk wrote:You may be onsite because you're "told" to be onsite (effectively, a sort of temp role.) You may be onsite in order to stay in continuous contact with management and keep your brand in the forefront. (supposedly what uber-consultants do.) I have never really found owners or executives who cared to meet with me every day and to stay in continuous contact. As far as the value of working onsite in promoting your brand & image, being onsite all the time mainly makes you look like one of the employees. So I can see why it is supposed to help, in the abstract. But in the modern IT workplace, people are busy and they just don't have time to gaze at the onsite consultant with warm admiration for his hands-on presence. My client remembers me when he receives one of my invoices. I think that's plenty enough reminder that I'm out here doing his project. |
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Richardk |
It depends on your role | #20 | ||
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As a developer, it's not so important. As part of management or some business role, I think it helps.
Again it's not everyday and if you charge enough, the client will be glad that you're not there for all their internal meetings. Like you said, you're not part of the staff. Lastly as you summed up, building your brand. I agree that being onsite like an employee reduces you to being no more than a contractor. |
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