Success in business isn’t about being right; it’s about being committed. So, do you want to be right or do you want to be successful? I pick success. (Location 188)
Launching and building a company is freaking hard. It is scary, time-consuming, frustrating, and sometimes life-draining. (Location 194)
But financial disaster is unlikely if you relentlessly commit to your own success. If you exploit your strengths, you can create a company that feeds your wallet and your soul, a company that exhilarates and frees you. If you have the destination, this book is the map. (Location 195)
If you can’t get yourself to grab the first $100 toward your millions when it is literally waved in your face, what makes you think you will behave any differently in business? If you are going to succeed, you need to destroy your limiting beliefs and create enabling beliefs. (Location 292)
you try to get rich by doing the next big (Location 304)
thing, but it isn’t your passion, the competitor who really is passionate about it will eat you up and spit you out. Passion begets persistence. And persistence begets success. (Location 305)
When I started out I had this belief that entrepreneurs should do what they know, not what they want. (Location 308)
What would you volunteer to do simply because of your love for it? What activities bring you the most happiness, energy and satisfaction? What makes you lose track of time, complete tasks almost effortlessly, and come out even more energized? When you are talking with friends, what is the one subject you can just go on and on and on about, until they are rolling their eyes? (Location 320)
Owning a business is NOT about working your ass off for the sake of trying to squeeze out a living. It is NOT about making tons of money at the expense of losing tons of life. It IS about maximizing life, bettering your life and the lives of others, which, not so ironically, fattens your purse. (Location 335)
That was then and this is now. Today’s successful businesses are growing because they are truly great. They are providing unmatched services and products, and the word is getting out, virally. (Location 348)
In this one example I have explained the difference between an entrepreneur driven by passion and someone who just has a job. (Location 366)
“Excuses are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink.” I don’t know who came up with this quotation, but I have a feeling I would really like the guy. (Location 370)
– Anything that you go into without preparation and knowledge is risky. So go in prepared! The funny thing is, you are already mostly prepared and don’t even know it. (Location 378)
Let’s settle this once and for all: IT’S NATURE. No one can teach you to have entrepreneurial passion. You can’t learn how to grow a burning, unquenchable desire for business. No one can train your attitude or make you intelligent. This is all stuff that nature has either given you or hasn’t. (Location 446)
What’s your heart’s desire? What gets you totally juiced up, so much so that you think you could be happy doing it every day? Write it down in as much detail as possible, paying attention to what you really get out of it. Sometimes we think we want something tangible when really we want to feel a certain way or experience something over and over again. (Location 456)
So he decided to try again. Over the next few months David changed his business model, targeting retail stores that needed antiques for merchandise displays. (Location 506)
He realized retailers were using his antiques for differentiation, and that he was not in the antique business but the brand identity business. This realization would make him millions. (Location 510)
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to train your mind and your heart to have enabling beliefs. Just as when you have an off day and come back harder and stronger the next day, your enabling beliefs have created a path that moves you forward toward your goals, even though things went awry. (Location 578)
Knocking down your Wall and building your Channel is big, powerful stuff. But how do you hold fast to your beliefs past that first inspiring day? (Location 635)
If you are saying out loud, “I will succeed,” but your gut is saying, “You can’t, ‘cause you suck,” your gut will win out, and you will suck. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this. (Location 639)
Early entrepreneurial success is defined by surviving, not thriving. Set out with the beliefs, focus, and actions to grow rapidly and strongly, knowing that initially it is all about just getting up off the ground. (Location 663)
The foundation to any TPE’s success is listening to and following her heart, traveling where it insists she go. Your heart is simply the map to your company’s destiny; your head is the navigation system. (Location 709)
What is the chance of interruptions? Pretty high? Not good. Does the door lock? Shit! It doesn’t! Son-of-a-bitch, the door doesn’t even close completely. (Location 713)
Do something that you want to do because you love it, are passionate about it, and because it has a positive impact. (Location 721)
If you aren’t passionate about your vocation, you will have a real tough time sustaining a startup, let alone living through the dark days. (Location 725)
Your long-term success requires a growing number of customers, consistent cash flow, and your ability to outmaneuver the competition (Location 727)
Polarizing people is a major key to success because it brings recognition from both sides. (Location 741)
Backing it up with positive answers to all of these fundamental market-demand questions increases your chances for success tenfold. (Location 746)
We all have our own mix of unique internal rules we abide by. It is these values that we constantly adhere to, deviating from them with rare exception, that I call our Immutable Laws. (Location 774)
Who should you hire? What should you sell? How should your customer service function? What vendors should you work with? Who are the customers you want to service? Any question you have about your business must pass through the filter of your Immutable Laws. If they don’t match, don’t do it. (Location 781)
The bad news is that they still exist at an emotional level and not as conscious thought. To find them, you need to reflect on your past and consider every situation that pissed you off and every situation that made you feel happy. (Location 788)
After looking back over his whole life, Simon saw a pattern to his success. He realized that he felt the most successful when he was most inspired and when he inspired those around him. Simon had discovered his calling, his purpose. (Location 855)
From the previous section you should know how nature’s calling you, where your passion is, and have an established mindset to ensure you reach your goals. But there is much more to being a Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Now you must have a maniacal focus. All your attention must be on the job at hand. (Location 877)
They inevitably become dust-collectors, or, if you’re resourceful, toilet paper. Annual goals and five-year projections aren’t worth squat, either. What separates the successes from the sloppy disasters all boils down to a few concise, extremely effective plans coupled with decisive action. Which outcome are you gunning for? (Location 885)
The invention introduced a level of quality the market had never seen before and was at a price point that couldn’t be touched by the competition. (Location 899)
Ford did it on the Model T. Procter & Gamble struggled with candles and then launched when it focused on soap. I challenge you to find any company that grew exponentially by selling a large, varying mix of offerings from the get-go. (Location 911)
Wal-Mart, too, had an absolute focus in its offering. It was lots of stuff, but all at cheap prices. Everything it carried had to be absolutely the cheapest price anywhere or they did not carry it. (Location 913)
To be a market leader, your company must excel in one laser-beam-focused area. Be better than anyone else, and continue to focus on improvement in that area, or you will be left behind. (Location 921)
The power of focus may be best explained through an experience I had driving a powerful car ridiculously fast. For a second, imagine the TV subtitle scrolling by: Do not try this at home. Closed course. Very unprofessional driver… (Location 934)
Again, it was all about focus. I had to focus on where I wanted the car to go and not focus on the wall I was trying to avoid. (Location 942)
The same is true for your business. Narrow your focus on the best products and services you have to offer. Make those few things extraordinary. Focus on and exploit your strengths. Look at where your business is headed, not where it is at this moment. (Location 946)
The Focus Five is a strategy I developed that allows you to focus narrowly enough to dominate a niche, yet broadly enough to make substantial revenue. The goal of The Focus Five is to find the sweet spot for as little direct competition as possible with the greatest market potential. (Location 963)
Maybe your aspirations are different. You may aspire to make $1M in five years, which will change the formula to succeed. (Hint: it makes it easier.) Or you may have other numbers. The important thing is to find the balance of focus with potential to achieve your goals. (Location 985)
An entrepreneur launches a business that makes someone else feel better. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur ensures that he is always better at providing “better” than any of his competitors. Here are some “better” examples: (Location 997)
If there can be only one thing, what are you going to be known for? Inevitably, to lead an industry – or even to have a single sale for that matter – you need to be better, faster, or cheaper. (Location 1017)
Once you find it, pick just one and stick with it for the life of the company. HINT: You must pick the category that fits seamlessly with your beliefs and your Immutable Laws. Then do everything in your power to be the best at it and always, ALWAYS improve on it. (Location 1021)
They couldn’t be more dead wrong. Starting a company is all about serving your needs, your beliefs, and your values first. By this point you should have a strong knowledge of yourself and a clear vision for what you want. (Location 1059)
Many entrepreneurs get in the habit of saying, “I can do it” to everyone and everything. I call this the “I Can” syndrome. (Location 1104)
Accounting System – Intuit’s QuickBooks Simple Start offers a free, basic accounting system. When you go big time it is easy (but not free) to upgrade to the professional version. For more free accounting software, try GnuCash. (Location 1163)
As thoughts of his life drifted through his mind, Brian reviewed his past ten years of entrepreneurialism. He had built a small rubbish removal business in the past decade, and it was generating a respectable but small $1M plus in annual revenues. (Location 1169)
He started writing a “Painted Picture,” as he came to name it, describing what the future of his company would be like. The document contained grand statements, “unrealistic” goals, and unheard-of expectations. But the document was extremely real to Brian. Every time he read the document, his heart beat faster and his emotions soared. He kept on improving it and improving it. Within a day he had prepared a document that was so compelling to him, so true to his hardwired purpose in life, he just knew this had to become his reality. (Location 1172)
He set to action immediately, and slowly but surely hired only those few people who believed in the same vision; the nonbelievers went their own way. (Location 1179)
A Prosperity Plan is the overarching, never-changing (but often tweaked) document that describes what your company is all about. It is your written commitment to your company goals and the standards you will abide by to achieve them. The Prosperity Plan replaces the most powerful part of a business plan, the section that often gets ignored; it establishes the foundation of beliefs for your company and generates excitement. (Location 1184)
The Prosperity Plan for my company is powerful; it speaks to my emotions, and I believe in it emphatically. When you read it you may feel that it is lame. (Location 1198)
Life Mission – What is your life’s purpose? Not your company mission, but your LIFE mission. One informs the other, so as we discussed in Part One, figure out what your heart screams for you to do first. Then figure out how that mission can be played out in a profitable business. If you relentlessly commit to doing what you love, your business will be a force to be reckoned with. (Location 1205)
Destiny – Once you know your life’s mission, you need to identify your Destiny. This is the “Painted Picture” that Brian Scudamore wrote on that day he was fishing, or the vision document that many business minds talk about. The name you give it is irrelevant. The fact that you have a crystal-clear image of what your company will be is the critical part. Pick a date in the future when you see your company achieving its most notable successes. In my case, I picked ten years out from the day I wrote it. (Location 1225)
Destiny, you WILL still achieve them if you truly believe them to your inner core. But if you write lofty ideas, unrealistic claims, and unachievable targets and believe them to be lofty, unrealistic, and unachievable, you don’t have a chance. Go back to the drawing board and redo your Destiny until you believe it to your inner core. (Location 1233)
Area of Innovation – As we discussed in the previous chapter, your company can lead in only one Area of Innovation: Quality, Price, or Convenience. Pick the category that intrinsically feels right. Then dig deep into that category and define exactly how you are going to be remarkably different than the competition. What is the area where you just can’t be touched? What specifically do customers rave about when they talk about you? (Location 1241)
Immutable Laws – You have certain hardwired beliefs that can’t, won’t, and shouldn’t be changed. These beliefs are something we are all born with, and they continue to intensify over time. (Location 1248)
Community – Finally, at this stage we start talking about someone else besides you! Well, not really. The community is the people you are serving. You will be delivering something to them that is 100% consistent with YOUR Life Mission, is 100% moving YOU toward YOUR Destiny, is extraordinary because of YOUR Area of Innovation, and is consistent with YOUR values. Well, shit, who better to consume this thing than you and people just like you and people who want to be like you? Exactly! (Location 1264)
1. Overarching Goal – Write down Overarching Goals for the quarter. These are the overall goals you intend to complete before the end of the quarter, those that get you closer to your Destiny. The goals are not tasks; throughout the quarter there will be many tasks related to the accomplishment of Overarching Goals. Generally, you will have three Over-arching Goals every quarter, such as revenue increases, reorganization, or improved employee morale. (Location 1324)
2. Overarching Goal Description – Clarify your goals by describing each one using a few sentences. Again, this is not a list of tasks; it is simply a full description of what needs to be accomplished in the next ninety days. Any colleague at your office must be able to read the description and know exactly what needs to be accomplished. (Location 1327)
3. Tasks – Jot down a sequential list of the macro tasks that need to be accomplished in order to achieve each specific Overarching Goal. Each task must be specific enough so that there is a clear and measurable expectation, yet leave room for the person executing the task to exploit his or her own strengths in accomplishing it. I strongly recommend using S.M.A.R.T. tasks – tasks that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Responsible, and Time-specific. (Location 1330)