5 Secrets to Becoming Successful Entrepreneur

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FIVE SECRETS TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR By Harvey Mackay

Transcript of 5 Secrets to Becoming Successful Entrepreneur

Page 1: 5 Secrets to Becoming Successful Entrepreneur

FIVE SECRETS TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR

By Harvey Mackay

Page 2: 5 Secrets to Becoming Successful Entrepreneur

Five Secrets to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

By Harvey Mackay

Published by:Early to Rise

245 NE 4th Avenue, Suite 201BDelray Beach, FL 33483

Phone: 800-718-2269 Fax: 561-819-0336Website: http://www.earlytorise.com/

E-Mail: Visit us on the web at http://www.supportatetr.com/helpdesk/

Jason Holland - Managing Editor | Jessica Kurrle - Associate Publisher | Lauren Bunker - Graphic Designer

Copyright © 2010 by ETR, LLCAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or

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All material herein is provided for information only and may not be construed as personal medical advice. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this information; instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. The publisher is not a licensed medical care provider. The information is provided with the understand-ing that the publisher is not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other healthcare profession and does not enter into a healthcare practitioner/patient relationship with its readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy, reliability, effectiveness, or correct use of information you receive through our product, or for any health problems that may result from training programs, products, or events you learn about from this publication. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions. The FDA has not evaluated these state-ments. None of the information or products discussed in this publication is intended to diagnose, treat, mitigate, or cure any disease.

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If you think quitting your day job and starting your own business is easy, think again. Luckily, we know the secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur… These are the things they don’t teach you in business school. Read on to discover how to turn your business into a raging success…

Sometimes turning your dream into reality is one of the toughest jobs of all.

But, I promise you, it’s absolutely worth it.

Renowned business speaker and best-selling author Harvey Mackay has been through it all. He purchased a tiny, failing envelope company in 1959 and turned it in to a $100 million business with over 600 employees?

So, how did he do it?

He has a degree from the University of Minnesota and graduated from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Program. But, he says he learned the most important les-sons far outside the classroom.

Luckily, he’s here to share some of the secrets he learned as he turned his business into a success…

Read on to discover the 5 secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur… and, as an added bonus, find out the one thing that they actually do teach you at Harvard Business School!

Jason Holland, Managing Editor, Early to Rise

Success Secret #1:

Make Yourself the Happiest Guy (or Gal) in the Place

If you aren’t, you shouldn’t be running it!

But, of course, no one is able to be up every minute of the day. So, how to you fight the inevitable drag of doing tasks you hate but that have to be done?

Harvey Mackay likes to play a trick on himself. If he has to do some-thing he doesn’t like, he makes it a point to be especially nice to himself later by doing something he really does like. The same day.

“I think about the possibilities all the time I’m plowing through the monthly reports on loading-dock shrinkage and ninety-day-plus re-ceivables of more than five thousand dollars from accounts outside the metro area. Then, four hours and six aspirins later, I’m ready to give myself a new tennis racquet, dinner out, or whatever mad and

capricious delight strikes my fancy at the moment,” says Mackay.

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After all, you’re doing a great job. Reward yourself. No one else is going to do it.

Success Secret #2:

If It’s Your Company, Then It’s Your Problem

Some people who go into business for themselves fantasize that they’ve finally been able to escape from the drudgery of whatever they’ve been doing.

Don’t kid yourself. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

You’ll be doing more dog work your first few years of running your new business than you ever did in your previous corporate gig.

There is nothing that you should be unwilling or unable to lay hands on if you have to. Phillip Pillsbury, of the Pillsbury Pillsburys, wouldn’t have needed to work a day in his life, but he served as president of the company that bore his name. He accomplished a good deal in his eighty-one years. Yet one of his proudest accomplishments was losing the tips of three of his fingers. That marked him as a journeyman grain miller. His hands carried the unmistakable brand of a man who had been employed grinding flour, and whose fingers had been caught – more than once – in the giant rollers. Phillip Pillsbury knew what it was like to do a tough, hard, dangerous job. More important, everyone at Pillsbury knew that he knew it.

Until you get up and running, you’ll do everything. You’ll learn every job you have to hire for and trace every dollar that goes out. You’d better be the best-informed, best-qualified person in the place. Otherwise, you should be working for the one who is.

Success Secret #3:

Don’t Confuse Charisma With a Loud Voice

Some of the most effective corporate leaders are corporate mumblers.

They’re barely audible. People have to strain to hear them. That’s the idea.

S.I. Newhouse, the media magnate, claimed to have given only three public speeches in thirty-five years. And he declined to submit to the essential transaction of his publishing empire: He wouldn’t be interviewed.

This is just one of dozens of examples. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, makes a splash in the media during Apple product

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launches, but that’s the only time he appears in public.. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is notoriously reclusive… despite running one of the most successful firms on Wall Street. The list goes on.

Harvey Mackay has an example closer to his home:

We used to have a police chief around here who hardly uttered a sentence without making some wisecrack about his alleged poverty of intellect. It drove his enemies nuts and helped make him one of the most popular men in town. He was also one of the smartest and most vain, but he man-aged to keep it beautifully hidden under his self-effacing speaking style.

What’s the point of all this?

One simple lesson: The bigger they are, the less they have to do to prove it.

Success Secret #4:

The Pat on the Back is Back

Your employees shared your dream. Give them their share of the rewards.

Give them an incentive to perform with profit sharing and stock-ownership programs.

Hutchens Over the Road Suspension Systems doubled its profit-ability with only a 10 percent increase in sales when management gave employees a stake in the company.

Rubbermaid is known for its superior quality. Line employees are the key to maintaining that quality. They’re constantly on the lookout for defects. Do you think it’s a coincidence that Rubber-maid has had a profit-sharing plan in place since 1944?

It’s a win-win approach to labor relations. The employees benefit; the owners benefit.

Success Secret #5:

Your Employees Usually Have the Answers

When you have a problem, ask your employees for the solution.

“Time after time,” says Jack Shewmaker, former president of Wal-Mart, “I have seen struggling

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businesses where the solutions to problems were know by employees.” And they were the one group of people that management didn’t ask for the answers.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, your employees are in the trenches. They experience a company’s prob-lems first-hand and know every nuance of how the company works. Who better to ask?

Be sparing of building walls between management and labor. It isn’t necessary to make class distinctions based on the corporate hierarchy. Perks should be awarded for performance achieve-ments at all levels, not just management.

The more means you have for staying in contact with your people, the more quickly you’ll be on top of their concerns and your problems.

Bonus!

The One Thing You Do Learn at Harvard Business School

There you have it, five secrets to becoming a great entrepreneur that you won’t learn in business school. But, Harvey wanted us to share one last secret:

Harvey Mackay once attended a seminar on entrepreneurship taught by a Harvard Business School professor. The professor told the class the ten things he tries to teach students who want to be entrepreneurs.

First on the list was “Don’t run out of cash.” The last thing on the list was “Don’t run out of cash.”

“I’d have to say, whatever the eight were in between, you really only have to remember that one thing,” says Harvey Mackay.

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Published by:Early to Rise

245 NE 4th Avenue, Suite 201BDelray Beach, FL 33483

Phone: 800-718-2269 Fax: 561-819-0336Website: http://www.earlytorise.com/

E-Mail: Visit us on the web at http://www.supportatetr.com/helpdesk/