The Simple Truth About Why Businesses Fail – and Why “Modelling Others” Is The Quickest and Easiest Way to Avoid It.
The more you learn and the harder you work, the “luckier” you get.
Dear Friend and Subscriber,
What I am about to tell you is probably the most important message I’ve ever written … or will ever write again.
For a number of years now, I’ve been wracking my brain to figure out why some people seem to reach the pinnacle of success in life and in business … while others with the same opportunities and information don’t.
Why is it that some people go to a seminar, read a book, listen to a tape and it seems that miraculously, overnight, their business and their lives are transformed. Is it an ‘act of God’ or has someone cast a mysterious spell over this person, or maybe it was luck!
Luck, by my definition, is a combination of good planning, opportunity and action!
So, why do some people seem to turn everything they touch into gold?
Well, I think I may have an answer.
Recently, I read a study which revealed some interesting statistics. It said that less than 10% of people who buy a book read past the first chapter. That less than 3% of Australians are financially independent. Less than 10% have written goals. That almost 50% of Australians are overweight and about a whopping 84% suffer some sort of medical ailment (headaches, backaches, sinus, cramps, indigestion, muscle pain, . . . etc.)
Statistically, it would seem that only a very small percentage of people really live the life of their dreams.
Why is that?
After all, we have all come into the world equal, we are all born the same way . . . naked. And many very successful people have overcome immense struggles and difficulties to get where they are.
I met such a person recently. His name is John Coutis and he was introduced to 2,000 information hungry people who attended the recent Vision seminar, at the Burswood Convention Centre. Brad Cooper of F.A.I. Security fame brought him on stage at the end of his talk. Guess how he got there. On his hands!!
John Coutis is an exceptional person. Born 26 years ago with a severe disability that rendered his legs useless, John defied medical opinion by refusing to die.
John’s boundless love for sport has helped him to achieve what many would believe to be impossible, despite the fact that he stands only 78cm high, his legs having been amputated many years ago. Today, John plays representative Indoor Cricket and competition Table Tennis and is training for the Sydney Para Olympics.
John has an infectious attitude and an amazing enthusiasm for life. His story is truly inspirational.
So, why isn’t everyone successful?
Simply because success in any field of endeavour, whether it’s your business, your health or your relationships with others, takes effort! But, more importantly, it has to be the “right kind of effort”. As well as that . . .
SUCCESS IN ANYTHING TAKES CONSISTENT ACTION!
Michael Gerber, who wrote the “E-Myth” ( if you haven’t read it please do!) was back in Perth last year, at $600 a day, I might add. His opening comment when he walked on stage, was “If you guys have come to hear something new . . . you’re not going to! You see the problem is you guys ain’t doing this sh-t!!”
The simple fact was his message hadn’t changed. It was right then and it is now. The greater percentage (98%) of us do not make the effort or take the action!! Ask anybody who has reached any significant level of success, happiness or achievement.
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
There is a basic formula for getting exactly what you want in your life and in your business.
- Decide what it is that you want and be specific. Write it down in detail and read it 3 times a day. Make sure you cover every aspect of your life, including business, health and relationships. In the last newsletter, we talked about the power of thoughts and that we tend to attract what we think about or focus on, the most.
- Believe that you can actually achieve what you’ve written down and be willing to pay the price. ( Any sort of change in your life means thorough reassessment)
- Take action to make it happen! And of course, the best way to get the results you want in your business (and in your life) is to model someone who is already doing what you want to be doing. To model somebody who is already successful, who is already super-healthy, wealthy and wise. (These qualities may not all come to you from one person, you may have to model several individuals.)
I was once in a precarious position, where I found myself unemployed with a pregnant wife and a new home, which of course brought with it a new mortgage. What to do next??
Well, I modelled someone who was already successful. His name is Owen McGrath and he was then and still is the owner of High Wycombe Hardware. What set Owen apart, was the fact that his shop was jam packed to the ceiling with stock. If you wanted it, Owen had it (and only he could find it). He is also a real character and last I heard, was the President of the Kalamunda Shire.
Owen is one for getting the job done and that is reflected in his business, in his life and at the Kalamunda Shire, too.
I finished up owning two stores and being very successful in the hardware industry, largely thanks to the encouragement I received from Owen and because I modelled his style, making him my mentor.
So, if you’re not successful right now, or want to improve on what you’re doing, find yourself a mentor and model them.
These days, I go to seminars and workshops and ‘model’ myself after people like Jay Abrahams, Bob Proctor, Anthony Robbins, Napolean Hill, Earl Nightingale and Dennis Wheately, and on others who have studied and live their lives to their fullest potential.
MODELLING OTHERS WORKS
Actually, everyone ‘models’ all the time. As children, we model our parents to learn how to walk, how to speak, how and what to eat, how to treat others, and how to perform everyday acts such as tying our shoelaces. How do you think you learned to drive a car? You modelled someone. What about your local butcher? He was an apprentice once, learning his trade. And then there are our sports men and women; Tiger Woods was surely modelled from a very young age.
The trouble is, when it comes to modelling we often model whoever is handy or close to us, rather than looking for the best. Or we go and model (or take advice) from certain people simply because that’s what everyone else ( our parents, friends etc.) are doing.
And this is often a BIG mistake
I mean if you want health, does it really always make sense to go to a medical doctor when almost 18,000 people die in Australia each year from medical operations and medical drug “accidents” (as quoted in the Who Weekly Nov, 1995 issue)
Just as alarming, 21 doctors have committed suicide in NSW in the past 5 years, due to the pressure of their professions. (As reported in the West Australian Newspaper, Sat 31st May ‘ 97)
Does it really make sense to ask doctors who have a below average life expectancy (due to the stress of their jobs), above average drug and alcohol abuse and doctors who are often dying from the same diseases they are trying to fix, to get you into peak health?
We’re not suggesting that there are not times in your life when doctors may be the only ones who can help you. What we are suggesting, is that you take responsibility for your health now and lessen the need in the future.
According to Anthony Robbins (The USA personal development guru and lifestyle coach to presidents and famous actors) the way to get the best health is to find the healthiest people we can find and ask them what it is they are doing and thinking to be so healthy.
The way to make your business fire is to find the best people in the business world and ask them how they do it!
So to get the results you want in your business you must “model”
what is already proven to be successful
One way smart people make a lot of money is to take a business that’s successful in one area, city or country and set it up in another.
If someone has set up a way to get customers for a lawn mowing business in Adelaide, the same technique will often work in Sydney. If someone starts a business delivering singing telegrams or making hamburgers in the USA, it’ll probably work in Australia (both of these businesses actually did better here).
That’s how the smart (and rich) people do it.
This is OK if you like working like a slave, or have bucketful’s of cash, but if you’re looking for maximum results in minimum time, modelling is definitely the way to go in business and in your marketing efforts.
Of course successful business ads and marketing strategies that are duplicated from a particular country, area or industry to another may not always give you the same results. . .
Often they’ll work much better!!!
Many successful marketing concepts from the USA work better in Australia because people haven’t seen them here before.
So don’t try and create something new and different. It may work, but the chances are that if you find something that is successful, copy it and ADD VALUE (greater value than do your competitors) you will win hands down.
So all you really have to do to succeed in business is to take a proven system
and duplicate it. Or better still – improve it.
If you do this you are virtually guaranteed success.
It’s become obvious to me that the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t, isn’t what resources they have – but rather what they choose to do with those resources and the life experiences they’ve had.
In fact, success in anything has a lot to do with how you think. Because it’s your thoughts that determine your actions.
THE STEPS YOU MUST MAKE
So let’s look at how we can apply this to marketing your products. It all starts with a few simple steps. And there are three of them. . .
Step 1 Determine who your market is and what they want to buy. Usually they are the same as the people who have already bought from you. Or people who bought something similar to what you’re selling, from someone else.
The mistake most people make here is they say to themselves, “I’ve got this great idea/ Widget or this great new pizza. Who can I sell it to”. When in fact, what you should do is to say “There is this group of people who want or need a widget. How can I produce widgets or find a supplier who can? Now what I need is a distribution method (retail store, mail order, party plan, wholesaler, distributor, telemarketing etc.).
Put simply, identity first
what people want and then provide it.
Step 2 Determine the message you are going to give them. What you are going to say about your product, your business and your service. Why you are different or better. Why they should buy from you rather than from your competitors.
This is more commonly known as your unique selling proposition (USP) and this is the most important thing to develop not only for your customer, or your staff, but most importantly yourself.
Suddenly you will know exactly what your company stands for. If you don’t stand for something you will fall for everything. More on USP’s, in a later newsletter. It is a huge subject and also one of my favourites.
Modelling your marketing message after something that’s already successful is time well spent. But on the other hand, a little bit of imagination doesn’t hurt either. Look at these examples of marketing imagination in action;
It used to be that oranges were only eaten. Until some smart marketer told people that drinking oranges was good for their health. Now people drink 100 times as many (oranges). The story of vitamins in tomato juice placed tomatoes in millions of cans and glasses instead of only in salads.
Learning about how public opinion is affected by marketing is a fascinating story that you really should hear. Did you ever hear that. . .
“Lemon juice is good for colds?”
You should have because this phrase made lemons best sellers in supermarkets.
Once-upon-a-time Pizzas were only ever eaten in. Or you had to go and pick it up at the pizza shop. . . until Dominoes said. . .
Your pizza delivered piping hot to your door in 30 minutes or it’s FREE!
This simple statement built an empire of pizza stores all over the world. Of course now they no longer use this statement, leaving the field wide open for someone else to use it.
Smoking was once a habit practised only by “savages”. In 1947 an ad for cigarettes read that 20,000 USA doctors recommended “Lucky Strikes” as the healthiest cigarette. And the headline slogan. . . .
“Light a Lucky and you’ll never miss the sweets that make you fat”
……… influenced hundreds of thousands of women to take up the smoking habit.
What I am saying is . . .
There are always opportunities for you to create another use for your products. Appeal to a different emotion or simply just
Do or say it better than anyone else.
Step 3 The method of delivery. This is the media you use to get your message across. Are you going to use TV, Billboards, Newspapers and magazines? Or are you going to use direct mail, the telephone and/or salespeople? Retail or wholesale?
I suggest a combination of methods. Why? Because if some day they put a freeway around your shop, or if someone who is bigger and stronger decides to open next to you and steal all your clients, it won’t be good but at least you will have other methods of distributing your product or service to the end user.
So don’t build your business on one pillar of distribution. Build it on many and the likelihood of failure will be greatly reduced.
So the way you have to do your marketing, is to first find the market for your product or service. Then create the message and thirdly choose the method of delivery.
Almost everyone ends up “modelling” what in reality doesn’t work.
At least not as well as it could. Coupled with the fact that most businesses don’t measure their results and have no written goals or plans, you have a recipe for business failure. And with the consumers being smarter and the economy being tougher, it’s no wonder that 80% of the businesses that exist today will be gone in 5 years time.
Don’t be one of them. Information (the right kind) is power. Model the successes of others. Don’t be too proud to follow in someone else’s footsteps.
Personally, I’d rather be a “wealthy business copier” than a “broke original thinker”.
Happy Modelling!
