No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy. Dan S. Kennedy
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Название: No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy
Автор: Dan S. Kennedy
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Экономика
Серия: No B.S.
isbn: 9781613080009
isbn:
There’s a legendary book you’ve hopefully read by Napoleon Hill, titled Think and Grow Rich. In that book, he enumerates 17 success principles adhered to in common by the hundreds of history’s greatest entrepreneurial achievers he studied, interviewed, and worked with, like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and so on. Of the 17 principles, the one everybody seems to like the least and ignore the most is “Accurate Thinking.” I believe it to be the most important one. So this book, my book, is heavy on that principle. It is medicine without the accompaniment of sugar.
Finally, let me say that, when I graduated high school, my parents were flat broke. I started with no family money. I didn’t step into a family business. No one handed me anything on a silver platter. At age 55, I am semi-retired, a multi-millionaire, free to live precisely as I choose, indulging my interest in horseracing, all made possible through the kind of thinking, attitudes, habits, and strategies I’ve laid out in this book. I have been blunt, forthright, and held nothing back.
With that said, I still hope you not only profit from this book, but enjoy reading it. And I welcome your comments, thoughts, or questions. You can communicate with me directly by fax, 602-269-3113.
Best,
Dan S. Kennedy
Other Notes from the Author
1. For those of you who are gender or political correctness sensitive, an explanation to head off letters: I have used “he,” “him,” etc. throughout the book rather than awkwardly saying “he or she,” “him or her.” I do not mean this as a slight to women, only as a convenience. I’m not getting paid by the word.
2. In many instances, I’ve been able to use the names of actual companies and individuals, the details of actual case histories and examples throughout the book. In a few cases, individuals’ names have been withheld on request.
3. The first edition of this book was published in 1993 by another publisher, Self-Counsel Press. A revised and updated edition was published in 1995. The next edition, published by Entrepreneur Press in 2004, preserved approximately half of the original text with only statistics or time-altered information revised, but also has about 50% brand new material. Now this FOR THE NEW ECONOMY edition has preserved all that was evergreen but again revised or added about 50% new material.
A Look at the Author’s Business Activities
Dan Kennedy is a multi-millionaire serial entrepreneur who has started, bought, built, and sold a number of businesses, and developed a large, loyal international following as an author, speaker, consultant, and coach.
His business adventures have included ownership of an advertising agency; interests in a cosmetic company with retail locations and independent distributors; an award and trophy company conducting all its business via mail-order and selling in volume to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Boy Scouts of America, and over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies; and a seminar company training over 20,000 dentists and chiropractors. He once bought a publicly held custom manufacturing company “no money down,” took it through a nearly successful turnaround and Chapter 11 Reorganization, and ultimately sold its manufacturing operations to a competitor while retaining its publishing assets for a new business.
His publishing business based around his NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER was sold in 2003, and now operates as Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle LLC, providing information and membership benefits to over 20,000 business owners; online information to over 250,000; publishing his NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER, the most widely subscribed to newsletter about direct marketing, marketing, and entrepreneurial strategies and a portfolio of other newsletters, audio programs, online courses, and other resources; and supporting over 150 local Chapters and Kennedy Study/Mastermind Groups throughout the United States and Canada. Information about this organization can be found via the Free Gift Offer and website on pages 272–273.
As of this writing, Dan is easing his way toward semi-retirement. He has one elite, private business coaching group of his own—with 20 participants each paying a $34,000.00 yearly fee; a reduced schedule of 20 private consulting days a year; and he continues creating marketing campaigns and writing copy for ads, direct-mail campaigns, websites, infomercials, etc. for a stable of clients, many with him for 5 to 20 years, and occasionally accepting a new client. He very selectively accepts equity in startup companies. He rarely accepts speaking engagements anymore except at Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ conferences for its Members.
CHAPTER 1
THE DECISION AND DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances,
but are unwilling to improve themselves.
They therefore remain bound.
—JAMES ALLEN, AS A MAN THINKETH
Contrary to a great many textbook assertions, having the best product, the better mousetrap, a whiz-bang new idea, the top location, the best market, the smartest accountant, the neatest bookkeeping system, or a ton of capital—or all of them together—does not ensure success. On the other hand, having the worst product, a mediocre mousetrap, a silly idea, a bad location, a weak market, an accountant who can’t count, a shoebox and paper bag bookkeeping system, or no money—or all of these things together—does not ensure failure.
I have seen people succeed under the most improbable conditions. I’ve also seen people who have everything going for them still manage to screw it up. In all of these cases, it’s the person making the difference. That’s why there really are no business successes or failures; there are people successes and people failures.
For an extended period of time, the incredible dysfunction and dereliction of duty of CEOs running some of America’s corporations and business institutions as well as literally hundreds of thousands of small business owners was concealed by a wildly over-generous economy fueled by stupid credit. Businesses that were manufacturing debt far more than anything else seemed to be prospering and the buffoons and criminals running them were widely accepted as successful. The inevitable bursting of multiple bubbles—unchecked, outrageous real estate appreciation, easy money and foolish credit, and public corporation values so far out of whack with incomes or legitimate assets they seemed to defy all laws of economic gravity—replaced a Santa Claus economy with a violently angry Grinch one. People who only appeared to be successful because it was just about impossible not to appear that way were stripped naked and shown to be losers. If you strip away all the layers of deceit, of stupidity, or irrational exuberance, of poor business practices, of abusing customers and investors, what you eventually get to, behind every business failure, is a person who has failed himself and those around him, by failing to adhere to fundamental principles of successful achievement.
In short, every outcome is the product of someone’s decisions.
We’ll get to the decisions about marketing, sales, СКАЧАТЬ