2.5 million people.

That was the population of the United States at the time of the Revolutionary War in 1776.

During that first year of the war, the citizens of the new country were excited, patriotic and strongly supported the war.

But that didn’t last very long.

When it became apparent that the war would drag on indefinitely, popular support waned.

Most people were able to go back to life as normal and they did. The Continental Congress was weak and did little to raise troops, money and supplies.

But the small army, usually less than 10,000, marched on.

They followed their Chief even when wracked with disease, lacking shoes, blankets and even the most basics of food.

They followed him across the icy Delaware, late at night in the middle of a snow storm.

The snow was colored red by blood from their feet – wrapped in rags because they had no shoes.

Washington was furious to see his troops sacrifice so much for the nation – with so little reciprocation, acknowledgment or appreciation.

But he fought on. And his people followed him. And the world was forever changed.

Today is Washington’s Birthday.

It’s a good time for every entrepreneur to remember the story of George Washington and his small but stubborn army.

You, too, are out there every day. You know that there are many people who will benefit greatly if they’d follow your lead. If they buy your product or invest in your service.

And some do. But most don’t. And they never will.

History shows us a remarkable pattern: Leaders with character who had the best interests of their followers at heart; who sacrificed tremendously and selflessly, were almost always unappreciated and even vilified by the very people they worked so hard to set free.

Washington’s story should encourage us all.

He was a man with an idea. With beliefs about what was right and what was wrong. And he was willing to sacrifice his own comfortable home life and spend years on the battlefield for what he believed was right.

A few followed him. Most stood by and watched.

But in the end, today we recognize his greatness, foresight and sacrifice for we who came later.

Remember this:

Washington’s army was small, but his impact was monumental.

You don’t need every sale. You don’t need every customer. You don’t need every client. Most will never appreciate what you can do for them – and that you really do care.

March on.

Your guiding ideas must be clear in your own mind. What you believe is right and wrong. What and who is worth fighting against and sacrificing for.

Today let’s remember that nothing great is achieved without tremendous effort and sacrifice. You’ll be called upon to do all sorts of things that the people around you will never do.

But in the end, you’ll also have a story to tell. And your story will be told, often by the very people who failed to recognize who you really were.

I invite you to share your reflections and experiences in a comment below.

Dov Gordon

I read biographies of great men and women.  Do you?

If you admire them, you probably see some of their qualities in yourself. Your potential for similar greatness.

And when you learn how they navigated the nettles in their lives, it helps you navigate your own.

Take Theodore Roosevelt, for example. To me, the man was amazing.

I envy his ability to speed through thousands of books and remember everything he read.

His physical stamina. His moral clarity. His knowledge and expertise on a dizzying number of topics.

His ability to express himself in a vivid and enrapturing way. His tremendous output as an author, both in quantity and quality of books and articles.

It’s easy to conclude that such a person was gifted and us mere mortals can’t hope to achieve at his level.

Until you read Edmond Morris’ biography and you get to a paragraph like this one:

“As always, he found it difficult to marshal his superabundant thoughts on paper. A perusal of the manuscript of Volume One [Ed -of his book "The Winning of the West"] shows what agonies its magnificent opening chapter, ‘The Spread of the English-Speaking Peoples,’ cost him. A veritable thicket of verbal debris—interlineations, erasures, blots, and balloons—clogs every page: only the clearest prose is allowed to filter through.

“DURING ALL THE SPRING and summer of 1888 Roosevelt complained about the slowness of his progress on The Winning of the West: ‘it seems impossible to write more than a page or two a day.’”

- from “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” by Edmond Morris

And you read about how his first public speech was a flop. And that he also had days when he just couldn’t get himself to write – so he went hunting.

Sure, he was brilliant and talented. But he was also human. He struggled with his limitations, like you and I do.

Once you see how he was in fact human, you want to know how, then, did he do it?!

It was his discipline. His persistence. With physical exercise. With study. And with everything else he did. (Including pursuing Alice Hathaway Lee, who became his first wife.)

You are reminded that the rules of personal growth and success really do apply to everyone. They are just rules. You can harness them if you choose. Or you can break yourself against them.

And you realize that those are things you can imitate – in your own way.

Most quit because they feel there must be a shortcut being kept secret from them.

When you let the air out of the illusion that others have it easier, my, you suddenly remember what you could achieve.

Dov Gordon

PS – Who’s biography inspired you? Did reading about someone else help you become aware of what you’re capable yourself?  Share with us in the comments section below.

I switched on the AccuRadio comedy channel for a few minutes yesterday and heard a comedian tell this story:

O’Donald liked to hunt.

And he was going to hunt, gosh-darn-it, no matter what the law said.

And on this bright day he was hunting in a protected area where killing game was not allowed.

Before long, he had killed himself a mighty fine “female-doe-deer” and was dragging its carcass back through the woods when he came up to a fence.

That’s when he got that uneasy feeling that something, or someone, was staring at him.

It was a someone.

A big, tall and very strong looking game warden watching his every move, with a big frown and arms crossed.

“What you got there?” asked the warden.

“A female-doe-deer. A mighty fine, beautiful doe-deer,” replied O’Donald. “Now you help me get it get ‘er over this here fence!”

The warden uncrossed his arms and started to help.

“Who killed this?” the warden asked.

” I did,” said O’Donald, as they heaved and shoved the “female-doe-deer” over to the other side.

“And I’ve got another beautiful one just like right down over there,” he said, pointing back to where he’d come from.

Then O’Donald looked the warden right in the eyes and said “You wait right here while I go get it and you help me get it over this here fence!”

With that, O’Donald turned and headed back into the woods.

The game warden waited. And waited. And waited.

Eventually, he realized that the wily hunter had outsmarted him. And all it took was a bit of audacity.
—

When you’re the little guy, you can’t play by everyone else’s rules.

If you’re a one person consulting firm, you will not get clients by pretending to be a big firm.

The first thing on your website should NOT be your mission statement.

Don’t list the industries you serve or the practice areas.

Don’t put an About Us page with a link to “Our team” where you mention no names.

Don’t fill your website with corporababble copy about engagement or sustainability or blather about your proprietary initiative based brand awareness publicity marketing.

Don’t talk about your methodology.

No one cares.

You don’t need any of this.

What DO you need?

A bit of well directed audacity. The kind that my friend Daniel Levis will be teaching on a webinar we’re doing on Wednesday, January 9th. It’s called

“Audacity Training: The secret to higher income with fewer clients who demand less.”

Go here to register.

If you know you’re meant to attain true financial independence for yourself and your family, to eliminate money worries, then make sure you are on this webinar.

Audacity, properly directed, will help you instantly attain expert status and command the respect, trust and compliance of your ideal clients – those who will be ready to pay you premium fees. Daniel will be sharing how to do this – including specific examples of how he quickly rose to the top of his industry by following his own advice.

Daniel Levis knows audacity. And how to use it for marketing that attracts clients who will happily pay you premium fees.

See you on the webinar,
Dov Gordon

Here’s the link again.

So as you may have figured out, the ‘strange’ boy I wrote you about the other day was the great Theodore Roosevelt.  And the quote is from his exceptional biographer, Edmond Morris in “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.”

One of TR’s greatest strengths was that he really didn’t care what anyone else thought about him. He believed he was here to leave a mark and he set out to do so at every possible opportunity.

And most of all – he knew that to get what you want in this world, you need to take a bit of a risk where the people around you choose “security.”

And this is where most entrepreneurs get stuck.

Often without conscious awareness, you do not jump at the opportunity before you because it scares you!

It costs more than you budgeted.

Or if you fail, you might let down your loved ones. Your ‘normal’ (read: average) friends will snicker and say “We told you so.”

If you reflect on the actions you have not taken, the investments in yourself you have not made, it almost always comes down to fear of a bruised ego. Perhaps a little discomfort or inconvenience. But not much more.

Hopefully you and I won’t need to charge up a hill into gunfire as TR famously did.

Nor do you need to strip to your birthday suit and dive, by choice, into icy waters. TR would do that, too.

The lessons from TR that apply to all entrepreneurs is you can’t let your worries about security prevent you from making your mark.

The truth, you already know, is that there really is no such thing as security.

The closest you can come to security is learning how to package and sell your products, skills and smarts.

Consistently. Predictably. Confidently. And profitably.

If a consistent, predictable flow of ideal clients is the one thing between you and the impact you were born to make – and the profit you know should be yours – go now and request a free “Consistent Flow of Customers” strategy session with me.

Each month I give away about 5 – 7 of these.

If you’re ready to cultivate the fearlessness in you, TR style, go request your session now. 

It’s your ticket to TRUE security.

If you’re over thirty, you’re accompanied daily with that feeling – life moves fast. And it gets faster with every birthday.

To deal with it, most people put their heads down and work harder. And longer. But it doesn’t seem to help.

Vladimir Vysotsky, an iconic Soviet-era Russian singer, poet and actor sang it like this:

On a rugged cliff, the very edge, above the endless chasm
I keep lashing at my horses with my whip clenched in a spasm
But the air is growing thinner, I am gasping, drowning, crying
I can sense with horrid wonder, I am vanishing, I’m dying

Slow your gallop, oh my horses! Slow your gallop I say!
Don’t you listen to my stinging whip!
But the horses I was given, stubborn and so unforgiving,
Can’t complete the life I’m living, can’t conclude the verse I’m singing

Time marches on. That we can’t control.

But riding out-of-control horses? That’s often our own making.

We whip our horses – while we yell for them to slow down.

I will perish, as a feather that the hurricane has swallowed,
In a chariot they’ll pull me through the snow in blinding gallop
All I ask of you my horses, slow your pace but for a moment
To prolong the final seconds of approach to my last comfort.

We’ve come in time: there is no such thing as being late for God, -
But why are angels singing with such fiendish scolding voices,
Or is it that the horse bell ringing in a frenzy drenched with tears,
Or is it I the one who’s screaming for my horses to shift gears?

Tomorrow I’ll share a life-altering lesson I’ve learned about slowing your horses.

For now,  watch Vysotsky singing this song.

A friend who grew up in Moscow told me that while the Soviets hated this guy, the people loved him.

You could often walk down the street and his singing, heard through open windows, would accompany you the whole way.

It wasn’t his voice they loved, I’m sure of that. It was something else.  What do you think it was?  Tell us  in the comments section below.

—

Clear thinking is your most valuable work. Period.

This means lots of things. But at it’s most basic, it means you must see things as they are, not as you wish them to be. Self-delusion makes life and business painful and frustrating.

And when deluded people are in power, they create pain and frustration for millions of others.

Yesterday a friend sent me an audio clip of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin issuing a prediction:

“The nightmare stories of the Likud are well known. After all, they promised Katyusha rockets from Gaza as well. For a year, Gaza has been largely under the rule of the Palestinian Authority. There has not been a single Katyusha rocket. Nor will there be any Katyushas.” – former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, July 24, 1995

Well, as you may know, since 2001, more than 13,000 mortars and rockets came screeching over the border from Gaza. Something no sane country would ever tolerate.

Another example:

Back when Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in early 2011, a colleague pronounced a prediction of her own. “The Muslim Brotherhood is not a force. Egypt is not in danger of becoming fundamentalist.”

Just over a year later, the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic organization, is leading Egypt.

Why do people make these predictions – and with such confidence?

It’s because they confuse the way things are – Reality – with they way they’d like them to be.

And this line of thinking isn’t limited to politics and war. It applies to business just the same.

This is why the first principle of The Alchemist Entrepreneur is:

“Embrace Reality.”

Most people see only the superficial level of what’s going on – in business or in life.

A protester in California tells the TV reporter “If Israel isn’t the aggressor, then why are more Palestinians than Israelis dying?”

That’s taking a narrow, superficial look at things.   The broadminded, open-minded thinker doesn’t look only at what is visible right now. He also looks to see what came before. And what forces are at play that may not be immediately visible.

To see Reality you need a few things:

1. You need to honestly want to. There was a time when I didn’t want to look at my bank account because I was afraid of what I’d see. That’s avoiding Reality. My account was at what it was at, whether I knew the numbers or not. That was delusional thinking and behavior.

2. You need structured thinking skills. When you go to a doctor, you expect he’s going to look to find the underlying cause of your symptoms.

In business, when you conclude “I can’t charge any more for my expertise” or “My customers don’t want to buy in this economy,” or “We don’t have enough money to run a proper marketing strategy,”  you’re not seeing what’s really going on. You’re seeing prospects turn you down, but you’re not seeing the Real reason why.

And so when you don’t see Reality, you attribute the reasons for your problem to the wrong causes. This leads you to make poor decisions about how to use your time and money. And so you continue to get poor results.

It’s as simple as this: When you misdiagnose the illness, you’ll treat it with the wrong prescription. When you treat it with the wrong prescription, you suffer side effects even as the original illness progresses.

Just as a doctor learns a thought process that helps him make an accurate diagnosis, you, the entrepreneur, need to learn accurate thinking skills.

3. You need to master timeless wisdom. 

King Solomon observed “The bird sees the net and thinks it’s there for naught.” And so he lands to eat the bait.

Haven’t we all been that bird one time or another? And doesn’t it help when you learn to spot the trap so next time you can avoid it?

Study the ways of the world, how people think and behave, the patterns that repeat themselves and you’ll be studying Reality.

I believe that Yitzhak Rabin meant well.  He would not have knowingly put millions of people in harms way.

I know that my colleague, who predicted the Muslim Brotherhood would not win in Egypt, has a good heart. She very much wants the world to be a warm and loving place. And so she’s looking for evidence to prove that it is.

Both were wrong.  Both were naive; choosing to believe things were one way when Reality was something else.

If your marketing plan isn’t working with $500, it’s not going to work with $50,000.  It’s not the money.  It’s the way you’re thinking about the whole project.

The first principle of The Alchemist Entrepreneur is “Embrace Reality” because until you know the truth about how things are, you can’t possibly hope to change them to the way you’d like them to be.

Where have you noticed people choose naivety over Reality – and what were the consequences?  Please share below in the comments.

Dov Gordon

You let anything slide for too long, and sooner or later, you’ll be picking up the pieces.

You push anything too far, and sooner or later you’ll pay the price.

I’m sitting in my local coffee shop and writing. Neighbors who see me here so often joke and ask me if this is my office. “Do you pay rent?”

It’s not my office, but it’s where I get most of my most valuable work done.

Not far away rockets fall randomly. Some in fields, some on cars and some in homes, killing innocent civilians.

It’s kind of bizarre to be sitting here going on with life as usual when you know that over a million people in cities and towns, some as close as a 15 minute drive, are living in fear. Because any minute, a rocket may slam into their homes.

I’m fortunate – at least for now – because the city where I live is just outside the range. But that can change at any moment. (And thank you to those of you who’ve written to ask how we’re doing over here.)

A quick check at the official “Rocket Counter” shows that our neighbors in Gaza fired 822 rockets over the border at us in 2012 alone. 630 in 2011. Since 2001, close to 13,000 rockets and mortars have been launched into Israel. That’s about three a day.

How many of those did you hear about on your local news? I imagine not many. The international  press usually has little to say until Israel says “Enough!” and starts to fight back.

So how long do you put up with it? When do you say Enough!? Any sane country would say “Enough!” the moment it’s clear the first one was no accident.

I hope you are in a safer location. But you still need to ask the question.

What are you letting slide for too long? What are you putting up with? Settling for?

I often speak to entrepreneurs who know they should be achieving and earning much more. They have it in them to give more. To serve more. And to earn more. Much more.

For things to change, you need to change some things.

First and foremost, you need your very own marketing system that brings you a consistent, predictable flow of ideal clients.

When you feel that it’s time for a real change, a permanent upgrade, say “Enough!” and request a free “Consistent Flow of Customers” strategy session with me. I give away 5 – 7 each month.

You qualify if you believe you should be able to add $100,000 or more to your income in the coming 12 months – and figuring out how is your top priority.

After you request your free session, use the comment box below to tell me what you think of these rockets. You don’t need to agree with me, but no hateful or slanderous comments will be tolerated.

There are two types of failure:

TYPE A: You try. You fail. You learn from it. You try again. This isn’t really failure. This is Learning and Growing.

TYPE B: You try. You fail. You don’t learn from it. Or you learn the wrong lessons. THIS is Failure: Trying to make the unworkable work.

The hard part is this: When you’re in the thick of it, with muddy boots, a scratched up face and torn coat, it can be hard to tell if you’re Learning or Failing.

So here are some of observations from my own experiences both Learning and Failing to help you do more of the former and less of the latter.

- When you pride yourself based on who you associate with, you’re Failing.
- When your pride flows from an Inner Knowing that you’re doing what you should do when you should do it, you’re Growing.

- When you’re trying to automate a sales process you can’t do manually or one-on-one, you’re Failing.- When you’re failing to convert prospects again and again, but each time you reflect and try something new, you’re Learning.

- When you’re trying to be the person other people expeect you to be, you’re probably Failing.
- When you’re slowing down and figuring out what you really want first, you’re Growing.

- When you’re looking for the Right Way to Succeed, you’re probably Failing.
- When you’re studying the principles to understand why things work when they do and don’t when they don’t, you’re Learning.

- When you’re flitting from one info product or teacher to another, and never really mastering what any of them can teach you, you’re Failing.
- When you read, listen, and apply what you learned from one teacher before going on to another, you’re Growing.

- When you’re worried that you are inadequate in some important way, you are Failing.
- When you know that the mind game is to see how far you’ve come – and not how far you still need to go – then you’re Learning.

- When you compare yourself to someone who’s been in the game much longer than you, you’re Failing.
- Again, when you compare yourself to where you’ve been yesterday, you’re Growing.

- When you expect it should be easy, when you seek ease over excellence, comfort over mastery – you’re Failing.
- When you expect to be challenged, to be chewed up and spit out a few times before you conquer that next hill… you’re Learning.

- When you’re trying to make big leaps, you’re probably Failing.
- When you’re putting one foot in front of the other, setting targets you believe are achievable and pursuing them relentlessly, you’re Growing.

- When you’re trying to do it all yourself, you’re probably Failing.
- When you surround yourself with people who are on the same path as you and you learn from each other and hold each other to a higher standard, you’re Growing.

- When you believe the talking heads on Bloomberg TV, you’re probably Failing.
- When you ignore them and believe those who have done what you want to be doing, you’re Learning.

- When you avoid conversations that make you uncomfortable, you’re probably Failing.
- When you take a deep breath and confront people with respect, you’re Growing.

- When you think the problem is your wife, you’re Failing.
- When you realize you’re probably guilty of the same and more, you’re Learning.

- When you take responsibility for things you can not control, you’re probably Failing.
- When you take full responsibility for the things you can control, you’re Growing.

- When you’re trying to sell to people you don’t deeply understand and don’t honestly care about, you’re Failing.
- When you care so much that you can’t help but be deeply, passionately interested in the people you’re selling to… you’re Learning.

- When you fear man and forget God, you’re Failing.
- When you remember that you are here to serve God by helping your fellow man, you’re Growing.

- When you hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself, you’re Failing.
- When you hold yourself a higher standard than you hold others, you’re Learning.

- What you think that selling is something you do to others, and that your job is to ‘get’ them to buy, you’re probably Failing.
- When you understand that sales is nothing but leadership, you’re Growing.

- When you’re busy, busy, busy and not making time to think deeply about what you really, really want… you’re Failing.
When you regularly make time to reflect. To think. To ponder. To question. You’re Learning.

I’ve made all these mistakes and more.

And the greatest gift is to become aware of them, so we can learn the lessons and keep on moving.

Your comments, reactions and experiences are welcome below.

Dov Gordon

Can you turn a lousy prospect into a great customer? Of course not.

But I bet you’ve tried – more than once.

I have. Who hasn’t?

So why do we waste our time talking to people who will never buy?

To answer that, I’m afraid I need to get a tad philosophical.

We humans have a problem. We tend to put our attention and energy in all the wrong places. We tend to spend time and money on the many things that achieve little rather than on the few things that achieve a lot.

The older I get (heh, heh) the clearer it becomes that we live in a Personal Fog and there is nothing more important than learning to see beyond it to… Reality.

Whilst lost in our Fog, we try to control things we cannot and we neglect to control the things we can.

And that, I postulate, is why we fool around with lousy prospects instead of fleeing from them — to talk to the ideal ones standing right next to them.

In our Fog, we think that our job is to ‘get’ someone to buy. To ‘convince’ someone that we have the best product for them. And when lost in that delusion, you look for sales tricks and closing techniques. Anything that will push the right buttons and ‘get’ the sale.

That, my friend, is silly.

Why?

Because any time you take responsibility for something you can’t control – such as another’s decision to buy – you’re setting yourself up for frustration. Disappointment. Stress.

Far wiser is to focus on the few things you CAN control. And master them.

I’ll be teaching just those few things in “How to Master the Elegant Sales Conversation.”  The training goes full speed ahead this coming Tuesday, August 28th.

If you value your time, then all this training needs to do is save you from wasting a couple of hours with the wrong prospects and it will have been money well spent.

Of course, you can expect a lot more than that. Like to earn 10x your investment. Guaranteed.

Go here for details and to register:
http://dovgordon.net/elegant-sales-conversation.php

—

Use the comment box below to share your reactions.

Dov Gordon

Don’t set big goals. Big goals keep you small.

I know that’s not what you hear from many, but here at the Alchemist Entrepreneur we’ve learned that the herd is usually wrong. And every now and then they run themselves off a cliff.

Also, we’re practical. And big goals don’t work. Even when clothed in charming corpora-babble and called a BHAG – big goals keep you where you are.

For years I followed the classic advice and set big goals. And it was during those same years that I found myself spinning my wheels. And whenever someone shares their really big goal with enthusiasm and faith – I know the wine in their cask has some maturation to go through.

What does help you move fast in the direction you want is a little secret prescription called “Rapid Growth Through the Optimization of Greed.”

Sounds sinister, I know. But that’s because most people assume that greed is evil.

But is it?

The ancient Jewish sages observed that “He who has 100 wants 200.”

That’s brilliant because in one simple statement they’ve described the reality of human nature and also prescribed a process for growth.

They didn’t say “He who has 100 wants 1,000,000.”   That would simply be stating the obvious: People want more.

They also didn’t say “He who has 100 wants 110.” That would have lacked the powerful prescription I’m about to spell out for you.

We humans are wired to want more. To be more. To create more. Wanting more is neither good nor bad. It is what you make of it.

Who doesn’t want to win the lottery? Instant riches. The ability to do what you want. When you want. With people you love and care about.

We imagine that more is always better. But the statistics of lottery winners and those who inherit sudden wealth are pretty grim.

More money is only better when anchored to more maturity.

Why big goals don’t work.

Big goals don’t work because you don’t really believe you can achieve them. And so our Tragic Hero says “I’m going to earn a million dollars this year.”  But it is so far out, that he doesn’t have a clue how to make it happen.

A goal without a simple, clear-cut plan, a process, for its achievement is a mere fantasy.

And “fantasy goals” take a very tangible toll.

Since he doesn’t really know what to do, and lacks the true belief that he can achieve it, he’s afraid to act. This non-action (busyness is not action) erodes his self confidence. Which further increases his fear. So he doesn’t invest in himself and in his ideas. He says “When I get results, then I’ll invest.” But the way of the world is “When you sow, you’ll have something to reap.”

Without the guidance of a mentor and without the requisite tools, nor a clear plan for how to get to the 1,000,000, our Tragic Hero stays stuck.

He starts with 100. And he remains with 100. Such is the fate of “He who has 100 and wants 1,000,000.”

The secret prescription for Rapid Growth Through the Optimization of Greed:

Now let’s look at our Triumphant Hero – the person who has 100. And all he wants is 200.

He honestly knows it’s attainable. He also may not know exactly how. But he knows that if he commits to it fully, eventually, he’ll figure it out.

He’ll seek out and hire mentor. He’ll invest in training. He’ll make sure he has the tools – the ingredients to bake a 200 cake.

Sure, he is afraid. But fear is part of growth. And it’s a different fear. He acts in the face of this fear. He builds a real plan. And every step he implements builds his confidence.

Pretty soon he’s at 200. He’s grown. He’s more mature, too.

And here’s the magic – now he wants 400!

Our Triumphant Hero repeats the process. And before long, he’s at 1,000,000.

And that’s the Secret Prescription for Rapid Growth Through the Optimization of Greed.

Be careful who you share this with. Most won’t understand. They’re looking for something flashy and this sure ain’t flashy.

But if you ‘got’ what I’m sharing, hold it tight and live it. And as you ascend from 200 to 400, and from 1600 to 3200, you’ll attract other Triumphant Heros who are earlier in their journey. And they’ll be grateful for your wisdom.

—-

So, what do you think?  Please share below.