Starting a Small Business, Part I: What Successful Entrepreneurs Have That Others Don't

Well guys, let's start now. Some of you taking this class walked around the room a little bit just a few minutes ago, and I can see that you're coming at this from a lot of different angles. Some of you

have

had a

successful

business

before or more or less

successful

Some of you

have

an idea of ​​the type of

business

you want to start Some of you are clearly looking to do a business someday, but you don't really have an idea of ​​who exactly it is I know

what

kind of business it would be and I think some of you are probably here for the networking and dating opportunities, which I wouldn't blame you at all if that was your motivation for coming here, but that's also good because

what

ever your The motivation is that I think we can do something in this class to help you get where you want to go, since you're coming from all different angles, although I think the best way for me to start is to go 5,000 feet up. on the air and talk about something you didn't really come here to learn, but I feel the need to teach anyway and that's what makes a business person successful.

What does it mean to be a successful entrepreneur? What does it take to be successful? entrepreneur What kind of person do you have to be to be successful when running your own business? Is there a certain personality type that predicts you know how successful you will be? That's what I want to talk about about the psychology, if you will, of

entrepreneurs

. For the next 45 minutes or so, I want to talk about what makes, like I said in my introduction, I've worked with between 15 and 20,000 people who have started their own businesses, you know some have been successful, some have crashed and burned, but when you work with so many people you see patterns you see patterns and those who make it and you see patterns and those who don't and I really believe first of all I don't think there is an entrepreneurial personality, let's do it right the table right now no. there is an entrepreneurial personality type.

I don't care what type you are or not, it doesn't matter, this is one of the great myths of

entrepreneurs

hip when you think of an entrepreneur, you think of someone who is the macho type someone confident of themselves you know you know very self-confident and that's not always true at all some of my most successful entrepreneurs are very those that I've worked with over the years are very meek, soft and calm people. You are not a macho nor are you a guy at all. There is no type. I love the magazines you get, magazines like Entrepreneur and Inc.

They do this from time to time. They have a questionnaire. Know? Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Ten True/False Questions I love these quizzes because they are so fake that they mean nothing at all. Would you rather read a book B take a class C start a business I mean come on I mean how hard is it to find the right answer? When you do these types of tests, I'm not going to do that to you because I don't think there's an entrepreneur out there if I were to bring in some of my most successful entrepreneur clients and have you talked to them for a while?

They look like you. Take a look at this room. This is what a successful entrepreneur looks like. There is no type of personality. There is no specific set of skills you must have to be successful. entrepreneur successful people successful business people come from all walks of life all nationalities man woman I don't care what you are you know that your personality will not be an obstacle to becoming a successful entrepreneur let me give you that good news to start Okay, I've never seen it in my practice, but there's a big problem with saying that there are certain qualities that I see in my successful business clients that I don't see in the ones that fail, in the ones that fail and Burn, there are three things specifically that I see happening with my successful clients that I don't see in my unsuccessful clients.

It's gotten to the point where I can almost predict a client's success or failure based on how many of these three things I see. what happens in them I don't want to call them personality traits because it sounds like you were born with them. I don't think you're born with these things. I think these are things you learn and that many of my successful clients have. improve as these things have made it known in the business world, but I believe that these three things, more than anything else, predict whether someone will succeed or fail in running their own business and because I see it.

Very often I feel the need to start this class by talking about what those three things are and what they really mean. Now I'm going to have to put some words here on the board and I can tell you right now some of these words you're not going to like spoiler alert for those people watching the video you might see some words on the board that you don't You agree, in fact, there's one word in

part

icular that I know you won't agree with, but that's okay, this is not a semantics course, this is a course on how to survive in business.

I feel like I need to use the words that best describe these three qualities I'm describing, but also two. I don't like to beat around the bush either. There is a lot of mythology in this whole area of ​​how to be successful in business and the reason there is so much bad information is because people are too politically correct sometimes when they talk about these things. I want to talk about these things like they really are, hopefully without offending anyone, but without sugarcoating them to the point of whether the information is not good or not, so again try to ignore the words if you can think of a better word to describe the things I'm doing. speaking of which, of course, choose whatever word you like, I don't care, these are the words that I think best describe these three qualities, that I think will help you succeed in business, okay, then, cliff, shut up , stop talking, start putting these words. the board we want to go home, okay, there you go, okay, let's start with these words, here are the three thinking qualities that successful entrepreneurs have and those who are not successful do not say the first word cynicism, successful entrepreneurs They're cynical people, that's not a good word, right?

We're at a cocktail

part

y nine point two someone you've never met before and that person over there being a very cynical person doesn't sound like a compliment right? Doesn't sound like it's a compliment, does it? saying something nice about them, but look up the word seriously next time you're online look up the Wikipedia article look at the online dictionary definition and see what it really means doesn't mean what you think it means doesn't mean pessimistic or negative, this It's a part of the entrepreneurial myth that I highly believe in successful people and the successful clients that I work with aren't people, they tend to be positive people that they tend to look up to. glasses half full instead of half empty you've heard that expression.

I am sure that negative people are not usually pessimistic, they are not usually very good entrepreneurs in general. I think that to be an entrepreneur you have to have a little faith in the path. in the world and the way they look and the way the world works, I think you have to have a more positive way of looking at the world. but a cynic a cynic is something different a cynic is neither an optimist nor a pessimist it is something very different a cynic is above all a cynical realist people have no illusions they see the world as it really is and what really happens and what really motivates to people a cynical person is someone who is not romantic a good way to define a cynic is what is not a cynic is not a romantic a cynic is not someone who falls in love with illusions a cynic is not an intellectual by the way, an intellectual is someone who falls in love with ideas for ideas sake, this is why university professors tend to be terrible entrepreneurs and therefore the intellect, seriously, have you ever wondered why some of the entrepreneurs The most successful drop out of college or are people who just barely got out of high school, this is the reason why if you are an intellectual, if you are a professional, a student, you got there because you fell in love with ideas for ideas' sake, you you fell in love with theories and explanations and things like that, and that's great if you're a university professor that's great if you want to be an outstanding student get a doctorate properly if I want to get a doctorate in sociology what I have to do is invent a completely new theory about why people do things and defend them in front of a panel of experts, that's what I have to do, but I'm not going to get a PhD in sociology.

I just want to run a business. I don't need to know the explanation of why things are like this. are I don't need to know those things I just need to know saying that Sinneth Attis Enix are stupid people. I'm not saying they're not smart. I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is that they don't love theories, they don't love the whys and wherefores of how the world works. In fact, I'll give you an example right now from my own legal practice. I happen to work with a lot of dentists, you know, dentists, you know, DDS. or DMD.

I have about 30 to 40 dentists on my client list. I don't do health care law. I don't do any of that, but I help them with their business affairs, so when an older dentist sells out to a younger one, I do it. the purchase and sale of the purchase and sale procedures and when they go out to hire a new assistant I make the employment contract. I do that kind of thing for dentists. I am actually very well known, in fact the local Dental Association has me on their website. as a resource for legal services for dentists, I am very well known within the dental community in this state, there are other types of doctors, however, I don't know, I know, I have almost no podiatrists, no internists, no surgeons, almost none and It is not for one.

I try to speak at medical conventions and I talk to doctors and they laugh at my jokes like dentists do but that's okay I don't get business if I go to a dental convention I get 10 business cards I get 9 of those people as clients I go to a convention medical and nothing happens now why was this thought of here if I have an older podiatrist who is looking to sell his practice to a younger one. I can use all my dental documents. What I have to do is take out the DDS, put a DPM in there and boom, I'm done, it's the exact same paperwork, so here's a situation where two identical groups of people have the same needs, but one group buys and the other group does. no why answer I don't know I'm honest and I'm honest about it I have no idea why Cliff Eneco dentists and doctors don't do it I have no idea I don't know but you know what I don't care here there is other information about my practice at any given time my practice tends to skew slightly toward women at any given time my client mix is ​​55% women 45% men for most

small

business attorneys in the state that would probably be the contrary, but for some reason I tend to attract more women than men, at least as a lawyer, not otherwise, but as a lawyer I appeal more to women than men, why is that what is the problem ?

The secret of my appeal again I don't know I have no idea If I were pursuing a PhD in sociology, this could be a very interesting thesis question, don't you think? Do you know why under the same set of certain stimuli groups buy things in a certain way, and that is a classic sociological exercise. Know? I'm sure there has been some research done on all of this. Something is not aware of it, but you know what I don't care. I'm not going to look for it. a doctorate in sociology I just need I want to make money I don't care why and why I just need to know dentists yes, doctors know women a little more than men, that's all I have to know, This is how it works in practice.

Then I receive two phone calls from two groups of people who want me to speak on behalf of their association, their organizational group. There's a group of doctors who want you to talk to them after your Wednesday afternoon golf game at the Country Club Group. B is the low and bean local chapter, the National Association of Women Business Owners, given what I just told you, who should I say yes to? A clearly normal, so women business owners, women business owners tend to buy from me more than men and the Doctors don't buy, oh, maybe I want to consult with doctors, maybe you'll know another time, but because to these two groups for me to speak at the same time, I can't say yes to both, I have to say no to one of the groups. and it's doctors that I'm going to rule out right now, women business owners are much more likely to give me business than doctors and that's why I have to know, I don't have to know why, that's why Intellectuals tend to be very terrible at being entrepreneurs because they get too caught up in the whys and don't feel comfortable doing anything until they know why you don't need to know why you just need to know that it is soLet someone else take care of it. discover the why the whys and the whys Gilbert and Sullivan say it doesn't matter the whys and the whys comes from hms apron it is one of the most successful songs of that operetta cynical people are realists and they also do not judge what is happening in the world around them They don't make moral judgments about these things They don't say this is good or this is bad They take life as it is Oh that's where society is going Well how can I make money? how can I exploit that that's what a cynical person does liquor stores all have it I spent some time in one.

I'm sure some of you more than

others

. I'm sure I can. I can usually tell these damn jokes. You can't tell yourself. I can't say those things, but you know, liquor stores, there's one here. statistic by the way, this comes from the alcoholic beverage industry because of the way the alcoholic beverage retail industry on average in the United States what percentage of a liquor store's revenue comes from serving alcoholics people who are addicted to alcohol from one way or another now I don't know I know how they measure this because of the way there are some standards, as I understand it, in the UK they have stated that someone who is an alcoholic is someone who on average has 28 drinks or more per week, which which means you can drink a bottle that rattles a bit.

It's strange to me that that means you can drink a bottle of wine a day and not be considered an alcoholic. Don't know. I'm not so sure I believe that research, but there are ways they quantify it. Don't know. I know how they do it to be honest with you, but this is actually a statistic that I read a while ago on average what percentage of a liquor store's revenue in the United States comes from serving alcoholics. Well, the answer will surprise you depending on the region. In the United States it is between 30 and 35 percent, which is quite interesting now, that should not surprise you, although everyone has heard the saying that 80% of the cost of your business comes from 20% of your customers. linking to a liquor store that buys a bottle of Jack Black every other day.

You probably know someone who has a little problem. Oh, let's say it's okay. By the way, what I just told you totally ruins the liquor store experience. completely open the next time you are in your liquor store you will look at the people around you and say you know statistically what Cliff is saying is that one in three people in this room is right. now he's an alcoholic, he there mm-hmm and he definitely owes her a mm-hmm yes, she definitely does, and you know what you don't realize, everyone has seen this video too, so they're looking at you saying about her. out there, uh, if she does, you know that kind of thing, you know, Emile.

I know who has seen this video. You know you don't know about this, but think about it now. How do you feel about that information? You know some of you were. looking at me like, oh boy, I didn't think I was that tall, that's pretty bad, you know, that's nice, but you know what happens if you own a liquor store? That's very valuable information if you think about it, I mean, let's put it this way. If you own a liquor store, the last thing in the world you want to do is disabuse people of their drinking habits.

You don't want to do it, having a booth right next to the cash register at a liquor store is not it. It's going to get you a lot of business, it's going to scare the hell out of a lot of your customers, so the cynical liquor store owner says to himself, you know, that's the interesting information that Cliff gave me, what he just told me. That's it for me. To have a successful liquor store, I had to be located in immunity in a community that has a relatively high percentage of alcoholics and a relatively low number of competing liquor stores that serve those alcoholics.

My knees are now brushing my chin, where is there a community like that in this area that would be suitable for my liquor store that's like a cynical liquor store oh interesting information let's see how I can exploit that they don't make judgments they don't say it's good they don't say that It is bad if you are a crusader if you are a revolutionary if you are a social activist that is something very important for you but for an entrepreneur that is not at all what is important what is important is the behavior of people since they are perfect people they do not buy things.

I hate to say that it is one of the most disappointing things you will encounter when

starting

your own business. There are some people Q. Perfect people. People should do many things that they don't do. People should drink. less people should be eating more organic produce, but I'll tell you two things at least in this part of the country and I'm pretty sure this applies nationally in my community, we haven't had a liquor store close in 20 years. In fact, we usually add a new liquor store every year or two and every time I go to my supermarket, the organic section is always very well stocked, it's the non-organic products that sell out again, people should do these things , but isn't he a cynical businessman who sees the world as it is?

Not how it should be. Not how they want it to be. And don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we shouldn't show that we have a better world. I think you Absolutely should, but if you're looking to make money as an entrepreneur, you shouldn't make money by selling to people who don't exist. Perfect people don't exist, except maybe in novels. That's what fiction is about. Okay, this is what a cynical person is. Is it someone who is not a pessimist but someone who looks at the world around them from a brutally realistic world and is not fooled by illusions, dreams, fantasies, desires or hopes to see what they see and figure out how to exploit that?

FDR, the former president, said this well: He wants to find leadership as the art of finding out where the crowd is going and then jumping in front of them and

starting

waving a flag, that's how he defined leadership, finding out where the crowd is going. and then I stood in front of them and said, "Okay, guys, this way, okay, people this way," is a beautiful quote that is the perfect expression of cynicism and, as I'm trying to define it here, okay, second quality of successful security entrepreneurs, fear of security, now this is bullshit. When you think of an entrepreneur, you think of someone who is very macho, confident, very sure of himself, let me tell you that is not true.

If I brought in ten of my most successful clients and you asked me some questions, let me. Do a question and answer session with them. I guarantee you all would come and tell me next week. Cliff. These are 10 of the most erotic people I have ever met in my life. I don't think they are sure of anything. You know this. It's not what I expected and you would be absolutely right successful people tend to be nervous about what they don't know they are always looking for problems even when none exist you never get to the point where you feel like you know what you are doing and that is a point hard to say for a lot of people and okay, let me tell you, let me give you a gluon, a test, okay, you want to take the test, here's my test, okay, I'll give you some. pop quiz, you know, since you're a bit of a revert, have you ever seen a bunny quote?

I'm not a cartoon rabbit, but a real, breathing one in a petting zoo or a you-know-you-know-in-your-backyard or whatever. When you look at the rabbit, what is the first thing you notice about the rabbit? What are you doing? It's like vibrating, isn't it? A part of the rabbit is always in motion. So the nose is treated beautifully the way you just did it. wink like that I love that love towards Sheamus not in the video but you did the whole house all the nose thing you know but these Weir are cheating the things are that the fur is coming back and a rabbit is never really a date unless it's killed Of course, if it is a live rabbit, this thing is constantly moving, it never stays still and the reason is that the rabbit knows where it belongs in the food chain, its evidence is that this is not an animal that prowls around the forest. , killing and eating.

Every animal that crosses its path is an animal that is generally at the other end of the Darwinian stick and knows that it knows that it is more of a eater than a eater and it knows it and that is why this thing is hypersensitive to its environment, if it is sitting eating a leaf and you see a leaf moving at ten o'clock, your little rabbit brain says, you know, that could be any of a number of things that could just be a leaky faucet or something, but you know what? That could be a hungry animal coming to eat me.

I won't wait to find out. I leave here and he sinks into his hole. This is how rabbits survive. Until now, let's change the subject. In the animal kingdom, have you ever seen a lion up close and personal? A real one again, not a cartoon one, not the Lion King. Isn't it the biggest disappointment in the world? I mean, you go there expecting to see this majestic roar, you know, King. piece and what does he do, you know half the time when you get to the lion's cage, is he sleeping? You have to throw a rock at Athena to get her to do anything, by the way, don't do this.

I'm not recommending throwing a rock and bestowing sleeping lions on a Rockette, it's not the smartest thing to do, especially if there's no cage between a lion uml, it's a very dumb thing to do, but do you do it and by the way, aren't they like that? because they've been overfed or drugged or whatever, they're like that in nature. You know, lions spend most of their time sleeping, frankly, you know? And why does the lion look so much like the rabbit? He also knows his place in the food chain, he knows that if he wants to take a nap in broad daylight in the middle of Iraq, you know, exposed to the world there aren't many animals that will come up and say hello buddy.

Move over, this isn't this isn't your Iraq, you know they'll leave them alone and that's why, except for those two annoying little two-legged things with pith hooves and shotguns, a lion doesn't have much to worry about. terms of predators in nature, okay, now that I have given you this information, here is your pop quiz when starting a business from scratch, are you more like a rabbit or are you a lion? rabbits, this is why insecurity is your best friend, fear, while not pleasant, is one of your best friends, every time you start to think that you know what you are doing, you are probably overlooking something there in the environment.

I tell Klein so everyone can say it. I cliff, it's taken me a while, but I finally figured out this business, I know what I'm doing, my answer to that is, you poor fool, there's a brick flying at your head at 90 miles an hour right now and it's going to destroy you. . because you can't see it you're not looking for it I don't know where it is but it's coming towards you and you don't know where it is we all know we could all give examples of big companies that went under because they missed a change in the market, you know, very often Large companies feel very satisfied with themselves, they become complacent, they become like that lion on the rock and that is when they lose changes that are more agile and that competitors can exploit and erase. put them out of business, we now live in a world where business models that have existed for hundreds of years are disappearing because of the new challenges of foreign technology and all that and the companies they have are very powerful companies.

They have all the money in the world, they didn't see it coming, complacency is worth being too sure of yourself kills you as an entrepreneur the insecure rabbit lives longer fear is one of your best friends if you have nothing to worry about find something to worry about, it's probably out there because I'll tell you what if sometimes you're paranoid enough, it's just that I've seen it happen in my practice, sometimes you not only see threats looming before they become serious, but you also spot new opportunities to your business because no one else is looking for them you know that people are satisfied with the status quo and they're not looking.

I'll give you a very quick example. I think I have time for this, but several years ago I met someone who worked today they are called ups stores years ago they used to be called mailboxes etc. They were franchises, they basically offered private mailbox service. If you work from home like I do, you can open a mailbox there and instead of just opening a box. one two three you actually get an address your one two three main street suite number four or five six very useful when you have a business out of your home but you don't want it to look like you are working from home UPS took care of many of them for everywhere in 2002, they were called UPS stores in the 1980s.

I met a lady who ran one of these UPS stores or, sorry, mailbox franchises, etc., it was a very tragic situation. she was from the Philippines, she was a war bride, she had married a marine who was stationed in Subic Bay, we used to have a big naval base in the Philippines in Subic Bay, she married a marine, They came to this country, she had three

small

children and her husband had worked in a corporation. Bay didn't like her, so she bought a franchise of mailboxes, etc. and she started managing it and everything went well for a while until she, unfortunately, she passed away verySuddenly, he contracted pancreatic cancer.

He was diagnosed in April. He died in June, I mean, it was so fast that he was gone, you know, this wife and three young children, now the wife, of course, was distraught, the franchise, although he did something very nice, they basically gave him an option, they said , look if you want we can find someone to Buy the store for you, you know we will definitely try to help you make that happen or if you want we will train you for free and you can run the store now, here is a person who doesn't speak English , well she is new to this country, she has three young children, you know what you would have done if you were in that person, shoot, well she did a very brave thing, she decided to learn the franchise and run it because some friends of hers told her she would probably earn more money doing that so she started running this business and at first she was paranoid, she didn't know what she was doing, every time a customer came into the store she knew and she would like me to pepper them with questions cliff well tell me the copier Are you going to use it in color?

Will anyone use it? I don't know if I should spend the money on the color copier you know I don't know if I, what I should be doing here, she was constantly asking her clients for advice, so it got to the point where after a while, a group of us said , you know, stop doing this, write down your questions, copy them and put them in people's mailboxes. You know, doing a weekly quiz for your clients was a good idea, so she started doing this, she started asking for quizzes to be put in our boxes every week and of course we all loved her, we all knew her very well. husband, so we tried to make this happen.

Okay, and you know she did well for a while one night, well, she was putting her kids to bed, she went to read the newspaper and you know in every newspaper there's a list of new businesses, new businesses in town, right? have you ever seen that? she saw something in the new business section that made her blood run cold at that time there was a franchise that used to compete with male bosses etc. and what they did was they didn't spend money looking for locations, what they did was I looked to see where the mailboxes went etc. and then they would move down the street and offer the same services for a significantly lower price and by the way there's a name for that, we call it the Burger King strategy because that's how Burger King King Gossaert in the 1950s and 1960 they went to see where McDonald's was going and they opened right down the street with fire-grilled hamburgers and everything, so it's a very recognized and very legal strategy, nothing illegal, immoral or fattening, it saves you. a lot of money in real estate research, if you're touting a business like that, then she saw someone opening right down the street from her and the name was suspiciously similar to this other franchise, so that night she couldn't.

Now I can't sleep, someone else could just look at that, she said NO I'm going to worry about it, but she didn't, she would remember that she was paranoid because she saw enemies every day, she saw problems behind every bush, she couldn't, she couldn't even rest. For a moment she thought she knew what she was doing, so the next morning she went to the store, she went next door and asked to use her phone, why did she want to use her phone? her phone? because she wanted to make a call and she didn't. wants to be tracked to the store, she called the competing franchise, which was the competitor, and pretended to be a new new person who said, "Hi, I live in such-and-such city.

I'm thinking about buying one of yours." franchising, would you franchise me and the company came back and said no? I'm sorry, I feel bad. All we know is that we just sold your territory for our franchise. Oh, really, where will it be right down the street? She was absolutely right. This was the competing franchise that was moving into the territory of her being terrified, you know, absolutely terrified, let's face it, and she even said, I remember she was crying at this, how can I compete with these people? They are Americans, they speak better English. They have a better model, they're cheaper than me, you know, I mean, they're going to wipe me out here, you know, my husband's money, all my money is going to go up in flames, that's all he could think about for three weeks, but then he calmed down. a little bit and she had an idea and this was the idea remember those questionnaires that she put around the boxes one of the questions if you are a new customer how did you find out about us and it turns out that 90% of the people who answered these things all said same thing they said we learned about you through Val packs, you know what Val packs are, those are those ayahs that come in the mail, they point out that some of you probably won't get them.

If you're only here if you're an exchange student I don't understand them, but they come in the mail, they're like a bunch of three by five cards with different ads for different types of companies, there's like 30 different companies and things like that, all the companies locals looking for business and they get together and ship these things when you do a package Val, have you ever noticed that you never see two of the same thing, you never see two Chinese restaurants, you never see two Italian restaurants you never see two plumbers you know the answer is when you buy a package Val they give you what they call category exclusivity you will be the only one of your type of business in that package Val and she knew the valve The packages were where her new customers came from so she had an idea and the idea was this.

She's out. Her husband had a line of credit that she was on. She went out and borrowed thirty thousand dollars on that line of credit and bought. ads in every Valpak in the state, not just in your area, enemy area, in every Val Pack in the state. Her reasoning was this: all my new customers come from Val Packs, which means the new store, the competitor that is moving in on the street they are headed to. to have to get into the val packs, I'm going to block them, I'm going to place an ad on all the val packs and since they only offer one of each type of business, I will be able to block that competitor out of the val packs and they spent more than twenty thousand dollars buying these ads because you have to buy them one or two years in advance.

How many of you would also do something like this if you felt it was a competitive threat? Something very interesting happened when she did this, she took out all these ads. I thought she was crazy. I'll be honest with you. I thought she was crazy, I guess, but when he's wasting all that money, there are much more effective ways to do it. she could do something, but she really felt like this was going to work out well. The same thing happened, suddenly, a lot of people started coming into the store and buying mailboxes. She had a flood of new business in the store that had No explanation for what's going on here, she got to the point after a while where she sold out of the boxes of her.

Fortunately, the store next door was empty. She called the owner. I will never forget that she called the owner and actually said the store next door. I'm going to buy it I'm going to rent it Send me the lease I don't care about the rent I'm going to rent the store I didn't even negotiate the lease I didn't even care about the rent How many of you? As a lawyer, I mean, I am furious with this woman. They are doing this. This is crazy. Youtube. She knew it. Cliff. I need the space. I need the space.

She broke the wall. She put in all the new boxes in three months. She had filled that out. she picked up all the boxes in that space and then another store became available. She got that space. She did exactly the same thing within a year. She had one of the largest and fastest growing mailboxes, etc. throughout the national chain. Okay, so what happened here? What happened well. Do you know what those damn packages of Val's were? Now it turns out let's be real if you live in your city A and work in city B. Okay, what newspaper do you read?

Do you read the newspaper where you live or where you work? live right there that's where you read your newspaper and that's where all the other mailboxes etc were advertising but if you have a side business and you want to have a mailbox etc. for that business, would you prefer it to be closer to where you live or where At the job where you work there were a lot of people who lived outside of your area but worked in the area who wanted to have a mailbox there and Val's packages were getting their message to all these people across the state.

That's what happened, she tripled her business. Because of those Val packages, what about that competitor? By the way, the one that was going to open on the street never happened, it never opened its doors. I can't imagine why the insecure rabbit lives longer. How many of you would do that? How many of you would do something to make her pay all the debts? I understand that she had three children, the three children that she was able to put through college with this business, you know, she did very well and, as far as I know, I understand that I haven't seen her in a long time.

She still gets neurotic every time she gets a new client. She asks certain questions about: Do you know why you chose this door? Why do you do what you do? She never stops because she still considers herself to be That little immigrant woman, she doesn't consider herself a successful business person, she can, she can't accept that you know she will always be like that and that's why probably no one will beat her in that business. at least in that particular area where she's the insecure rabbit who lives the longest, well guys, we've talked about these two so far, you haven't given me much rejection, okay, and there really isn't much rejection to give.

Okay, but now I have to talk about the third one and the third one is a bear. I have to tell you, this is where the rubber meets the road. I have a word that perfectly describes the third quality I look for in my successful business. clients but I guarantee you that it is a word that you are not going to like I guarantee you that this is again another word like cynicism that has a bad image although it does not mean what you think it does well, here's the deal, I mean, look, no No No I want to make you angry, this is only the first night of school, so I don't want them.

I don't want all of you asking for your money here again, so I'm going to put four. words for this third quality, this third thing, you can choose the word that you like best, but I think you already know me well enough to know which one I think is the best for this third quality and this is the most essential. How many of you here consider yourself ruthless people? This is an ugly word, isn't it? It's not a nice word at all. Yes I'm going to party, but I point out someone you don't know. It's really ruthless. follow the ruthless is generally not a very nice word, true, but I want you to do me a favor.

I want you to go home and I want you to look up this word. It doesn't mean what you think. It doesn't mean evil. Vicious unethical or something like that is just another way of saying negligent or reckless, someone who goes through life without worrying too much about the consequences of their actions is a ruthless person and if you think about it, that's exactly what we mean when we say That someone is ruthless When we say that someone is ruthless, we are saying that when that person sees something they want, they get it, they try it. a two-year-old is a perfectly ruthless, perfectly ruthless human being and some of you stay here.

I know what I'm talking about, okay, that's why I said before that couples and m

others

of young children have an advantage in the business world because you know how to deal with this mentality. A two year old is not bad. A two year old is not unethical, he is not old enough to make a moral judgment, but if you have ever been around a two year old, you will know that when they see something they want, they go for it without a filter. and they know that sometimes they're going to have a time out, they know that you know, I know mom is going to give me a time out, you probably know that if I do this, you know, but I know well that I'm here long enough to know that she doesn't.

She's going to kill me for a place called prison. She watches this show called Orange is the New Black. I don't think she wants to end up there, okay? And if she is an au pair they will send her back to her country of origin. so forget it, I can get away with those people you know, but that lamp is so cool, I'm going for that lamp, that's how a two year old thinks now, we were all two year olds at some point. we were all like this at some point what happened answer we were socialized away from this our teachers our parents our employers society has taught us to suppress our natural impulse to say I want I'm going to go for it to be a successful entrepreneur I strongly suspect that I strongly suggest to all of you who have to go back to our two year old childhood.

Entrepreneurs cannot afford to worry too much about the consequences of their actions. If they see an opportunity worth pursuing, it will only be there for a very short period of time, when they wait for everything to be perfect and all the stars to align. correctly, that opportunity will no longer be there, the way to get there is to simply sharpen your elbows go for it and clean up any mess you make thereafter sometimes and sometimes what is in your way the obstacle is not something but someone thisWell, you all know about Uber, you know the ride-sharing service, you probably mean the newspapers.

Madam, many taxi drivers are very unhappy with Uber and in some cities they are doing something in Europe, they are doing really violent things to fight against Uber because they are shooting pits that pose a real threat to their livelihood and several states are going after them. You're complaining now because they think their drivers are employees instead of independent contractors. We're going to talk about that during the legal portion of the program. Let's talk about the fact that not everyone likes it very much. Customers love it if there is someone here. Do you know that someone here uses your wonderful strawberry?

The service is very convenient, many things, but many people hate when you start a business on your own. The worst way you could think is: I'm going to start this business. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. Everyone will love me. If you are an entrepreneur, there will be one, especially many people will hate you for what you are doing and will try to put obstacles in your way, they may even try to kill you. I hate to say it. I've seen situations where you know some of my clients were threatened with physical and bodily harm because, again, everyone's comfortable, everyone's doing things they're comfortable with in the local stores and all that, and now you're advancing like a bowling ball. through ten pins and you're just shaking everything up and throwing everything in 50 different directions, you're going to make some enemies and you're going to have to learn how to deal with that situation, by the way, anyone here doesn't know what. hood bun means, the way I wrote this, it's a good word, it basically means shameless audacity.

I'm told you can't really explain it, but you can illustrate it: someone murdering both of his parents and then, when they catch him, he jumps. at the mercy of the court, she is an orphan, she is someone with something that is right, someone seems brazen, bold, it's a Yiddish word, you can look at her. I hope I wrote well, but this is, don't get me wrong, your personality can be. meek, gentle and modest, but shrinking violets don't make very good business people, you have to be aggressive, you have to spread your message and you have to put on a face if this is a great way of thinking, this is probably a much better one metaphor you are the grain of sand in an oyster an oyster receives a grain of sand and that is irritating, it does not like the grain of sand, so it keeps trying with its muscle to remove the grain of sand and sometimes it does. but sometimes it's not like that and when it's not like that, that grain of sand forms a shell of mucus basically around it and it becomes a pearl, something beautiful, something precious, something valuable, but something that starts out as an irritant to a person. oyster, that is. trying to expel for dozens of years and so it happens the pearl that is what you are you are the grain of sand that is altering things and if you are good what will come out of that conflict will be a beautiful pearl that the world will recognize as a successful business such Maybe it's a better, more positive metaphor for what I'm trying to talk about now.

This is a difficult message, okay, I can see some of you looking at me saying yes, I know what Cliff is saying and he's right, but I don't have that, no. I am this kind of person, don't underestimate yourself. I've seen some of my clients do amazing things here and find the cruelty within them. You all have the potential to be absolutely ruthless. of you I don't care who you are I don't care what your background is, in fact I can think of a situation where all of you in this room would be perfectly ruthless and not even think about it.

It doesn't even occur to you that you are being ruthless, okay, this is my example, you are in a supermarket with a small child under the age of five, son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandson, whatever the pair one of your clients, okay, the children and you leave. to the supermarket they are in the basket playing you leave the shopping cart for a second to look at the price of something when you turn around you see a complete stranger let's say it's me I'm holding the child under my arms and I'm walking quickly towards the exit with this child in my arms, tell me some of the things you're going to do to be quick, go kill, throw things right, scream, scream, bloody murder, by the way, this is terribly hulis behavior on your part, you know?

How do you know I didn't just make a mistake? How do you know that my little niece is sitting in a shopping cart in the next aisle because Uncle Cliff forgot her glasses? I truly believe this is my son. Even that fun crosses your mind, everyone is smiling at me like I'm an idiot, of course, of course, no, maybe what if you think that all your friends and all your neighbors are in that supermarket right now and they are listening to this crisis and when you come across, when you look at this, what do you see?

You see this man holding a child and you're littering, Adam, for a moment. Here you see yourself as the aggressor. You don't even do it here. Think about that, no, of course, no, how about the fact that if I'm a kidnapper, if I'm a professional, I do this for a living, I have some money, I have some weapons of mass destruction, a gun, a knife or something? They're going to hurt you, it doesn't even cross your mind. Does he do it pretty well? the old couples, of course, are there a little bit too, they're a little bit different, they're saying, well, you know some of the kids, you know some of them.

A bit more of a different calculation happens with old couples, but let's say you know that of course you'll love the kids too and they'll let you support you if you don't do something to them, at least to them, so no. Seriously, but why isn't it good? Of course you are right. Why don't you think this is ruthless? Why it's easy because you love this child. You would take a bullet for this kid. That's why you would do it. You don't even consider it ruthless, okay, so if you start a business, things don't work out, we meet on the street, no, and I'm like, well, you know, you could have done this, you could have done this.

I could have done that to save the business. Don't tell me right, Cliff. I just didn't feel good about those things. I just wasn't feeling it. You know, comfortable to be able to do that kind of thing. Do not lie to yourself. to yourself and don't lie to me tell me the truth you didn't care enough about your business you didn't love your business the same way you love that child in the supermarket that's what makes cruelty easy if you love this baby yes Love If you're passionate about this business If you're determined to make it successful Cruelty is easy I've seen my clients get into some scrapes and they had to do some really crazy things to save those businesses, um, take my friend to the UPS Store, by the way , mailboxes, etc., how did it feel to accept all those packages from Val only to shut down a competitor before they could open their doors?

It's pretty ruthless, isn't it? Yes, I'm sure she thought about that. That way, but it was, I mean, here you don't know, we really are a capitalist society, we believe in giving companies a chance, at least giving them a fighting start. Hell no, if you can crush that fool and his crib, do it like that. is what and legally by the way, you never break the law, okay, I'm a lawyer, I think I have an ethical duty to say that, but other than that, there's a lot of room to be ruthless and you might have to go to that wall that I have.

I get a lot of calls from clients that my clients have never asked me, Cliff, what's the law, what's the law on this, I've never, I don't think anyone in my 35 years of practice has ever asked me if you know what they do. They say even though I get calls every week, Cliff, I just did this and such, how bad is it going to be. Well, you know the saying. I'd rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Have you ever heard that expression which is a perfect example of What I'm talking about here I think I have time for one more story before we finish and to show you that cruelty is not just about dealing with competitors, that's when you think about cruelty, you think about outbidding the competition and that's In one area where it comes up, we'll look at other areas as well, but it also comes up in marketing and it also comes up in sales.

I'm going to tell you a story and this person personifies that he is the sweetest and most charming person in the world. world, but she personifies this third category. I won't mention names, but she runs a local jewelry store here in the area and I'm going to tell you how she sold me a very, very expensive tennis bracelet for my wife a couple of years ago, okay, I buy a lot of jewelry from this person. She is very conveniently located. She is right next to my local supermarket. She also has a husband who is a designer, so she has many unusual pieces of jewelry.

I see things there that I just don't see anywhere else everything is beautiful so I tend to do a lot of my jewelry shopping there. Well, Thanksgiving 2009, you know, in the depths of the recession I decided that I wanted to, I went through the storks that I wanted to get something from. my wife for Christmas, okay, I go into the store, she's alone, you know, the stores are empty, she looks at me, cliff, hey, thank God, you show up, hey, Christmas is getting too close, I want to buy something for Your wife, okay, look here, I have this I have this I have this I have a thing of goods the other day I have a complete thing I take a look at it is that she looks great because she looks great magically yeah, stop, stop, you know, calm down, he know, stop, stay, you know, no, no, no, don't do this to me and by the way, the sheets there's a reason they're like that, by the way, jewelry people, especially seriously, do you?

Have you ever been to a jewelry store where you had to wait to be served here, you read that most of the time you're not likely to be the only person in the store, right? I mean during the holidays when you're at the mall you go to the jewelry stores because we get away from all the crowds, normally not, there might be a young couple looking at engagement rings in the corner or a kid looking at Pandora, you know , but most of the time you have the store to yourself, this person sells to me. There are days when the doorbell rings only once or twice throughout the day.

The cold brings one or two customers a day to that store. Sometimes when you're in a business like this, every customer has to walk out with a box or in one. I don't have to take prisoners in business, every customer counts and that's why they tend to be pretty aggressive in their sales tactics, so I say look, you know me, I've shopped here for years, you know, you know my wife. , you know I like it. your stuff, let me do some zen shopping, let me look around, so for sure, it'll let you see if it comes down, so let me do this, and of course, I saw two things that throughout the meal were at opposite ends. from the store, that's what happens, so I was like go here and look at it and I was like go here and look at it and after the third pass she says let me just let me take the two things out, put them next to each other, you're getting I was getting dizzy looking at it, so I took out both things.

One Piece A was a rather beautiful diamond and opal ring that she had on sale for a very good price. I'm going to call it I won't go into specific numbers if that's okay. Don't know. My wife. My wife may be watching this video, so. Don't I have to be careful with that? Okay, so she looked at me and left. Well Cliff, forgive me, you're normally a pretty determined guy, but it's definitely the bracelet, there's no doubt about it, you're absolutely right, it's a fall. wonderful piece gemstones great carat weight your wife would look spectacular with it I don't understand normally you are a very determined guy I mean it's the money I said well it's partly the money it's not a cheap piece of jewelry he said but it's not just that but What else could Cliff be if it's not the money I said well here's a situation you know me I'm going to call her Mary it's not her real name Mary look here's the situation my wife and I both work, you know, to make a living, she works in an office environment, every time I buy her jewelry, I always want to get her pieces of jewelry that she can, that she can wear, you know, every day, you know the opal ring, you know it's a piece of the piece .

You could definitely wear that in an office setting, but the tennis bracelet that's not really an office piece, it's the kind of thing you wear when you're going to a charity ball or something, you're getting dressed, you're dressed to the nines. white. and we don't really do a lot of that kind of stuff we're not really that kind of socialite people we don't do that kind of thing I don't mind spending the money but I want to spend the money on something I know she's going to use, not something you know which you can use once every two or three years right now, excuse me, you're Mary, what do you think is pretty good?

I gave him a pretty good defense. I did a good job, didn't I? Now, what would you do if you were married? What would you do? You'd probably start talking around the ring. You know, I'm letting you only get one sale, right? I definitely will. interested in the ring or maybe you try to do something like two for one where you try to do it right but you're not Mary Mary is the epitome of this, this is what she did to meand to me. I swear to God, that's exactly how it happened, by the way, you shouldn't try this with people you don't know very well, first of all, she likes this with glasses, you know everything, you know, thick, so thick like him, like the busy one.

Like Buzzard's kind of thing, she does that thing with the glasses the minute someone does that to you, you know you're in trouble, you're going to have a bad time and this is what she told me, she goes crazy, you know, it's cute. We've known each other for a long time. I know his wife very well. I see them as both friends and clients. Do you mind if? I ask you a very personal question, no, Mary, ask, are you two workaholics? I said, okay, personal question, you nailed it, no, seriously, because I heard this from you before you knew what you said about being in an office environment.

I want jewelry to be practical and misunderstand me. I'm sure your wife has loved all the pieces of jewelry you've bought her, but let me tell you something about your wife. You don't know she's a woman. Well, Mary, I'm not the brightest person in the world, but I think I realized this, no, no, I'm not talking about women being romantic. Women like to fantasize. We do it, it's part of who we are. You know, don't get me wrong. I'm sure she is she loved every piece of jewelry, but I'm sure deep down in her heart she longs for you to buy her a piece that is totally impractical.

All the women in the room are smiling, you know? Because you get something totally impractical that has nothing to do with the everyday or the practical world, something that you know she will love just for this rather than something she has to wear in the office and will be, I guarantee you if you buy that tennis bracelet for Ella, when she opens that box on Christmas morning, she won't be able to talk for 10 minutes because it's the most romantic thing you've ever done in your marriage and it's the last thing she expects from her boring, boring boyfriend. workaholic husband.

By doing this, she is hitting me on the chest and pushing me against a wall, seriously, she takes no prisoners, she takes no prisoners at all now, how was she reacting to this farce? and she calls me a loser to my face, she says no. I understand my own life forgave me, they don't teach you that by selling 101, should they do this? Okay, so how am I reacting? I'm laughing like a child. I know exactly what she's doing. You know, I'm not offended at all. Again because I am a good customer. She know exactly what she's doing now.

If she had been a complete stranger, she might have offended me. She could have called the police and sued for assault or something, but I know exactly what game she's playing. He said, "Okay, I'm sorry, Mary, if I buy the tennis press, she doesn't like it, I can return it, yeah, no problem. I bought the tennis bracelet. Christmas morning, my wife opens the box and she couldn't talk for at least 15 minutes. Mary was one hundred percent true, if she really said anything else during this to read, she says, you know what I'm saying, something you guys can use, let me distract you from work, if you buy this tennis bracelet, they're going to start joining organizations and you're going to start joining charities and things like that where they have charity dances because looking for her gave her the opportunity to show off this bracelet, which you're going to start getting more involved in your community, which you know. you haven't been doing, you're going to make the world a better place because you buy this tennis bracelet that was part of her sales pitch and you know something we have since we bought this tennis bracelet a couple more pieces than her. recommended.

We have joined more organizations. Now we are more harassed in our community, we are doing things because now we have occasions where we can show those types of pieces. Okay, she was absolutely right, so I'll probably always buy my joy. What she did? Did you force this? Not at all, she did me one of the biggest favors any salesperson has ever done me because she knew me better than I knew myself, okay, whatever you call that, what she did, that's what I'm talking about here. that thirst you don't settle for X when with a little effort taking a couple of risks you can get 3x three times How do ethics influence all this?

Does it play a very important role? I'm not saying you should ever be unethical. Being ethical is essential in business if people can't trust your word. If people can't, you can't know if people can't trust your word. If you do the right thing with them as customers or as suppliers or as employees you will not have a successful business but many people make the mistake of confusing being ethical with being kind being kind is not being ethical those are two very different concepts being ethical is essential in the business being nice and especially being nice to the wrong people can get you killed the trick is knowing the difference between being ethical and being nice those are two very different concepts so these are the three malicious are the three qualities I look for in successful clients I'm looking for a cynical attitude towards life.

I'm looking for someone who really isn't too sure of themselves because I know they'll make fewer mistakes and I'm looking for someone who absolutely gets what they want no matter what obstacles come their way, no matter what things or people get in their way, they will overcome all obstacles to get where they want to go and, hopefully, they won't end up in jail. These are the three qualities that define the successful entrepreneur and what separates them not only. from other entrepreneurs, but from the big you, which is probably the reason we admire them, although sometimes we admire them reluctantly, we don't always like successful entrepreneurs, but we sure respect what they have done, right? it's great? my little coal, I call it my cold shower speech, by the way, this is what you came here to learn, probably not, but I think I gave you something much more valuable a moment ago, I hope I did, this is what it takes , let's get going.

We're not going to spend the entire class here, you know, we're going to spend a lot of time going over marketing, business operations, finance, and all the other things that you normally know to get into, but as we go through everything. the material, you'll see these three things emerging in the background, you'll see where these things relate to each area, that's what we talk about in this class, these are the foundation stones upon which everything else is built. Some of you won't be able to sleep tonight. I know from this, but think a little, especially about the part about ruthless cruelty being easy if you care enough.

That is the most important.