read it and write down things to implement 9
SECRET
Learn Every
Detail of Your
Business
If you become very good at what you do,
there is nothing that can stop you from
getting paid more and promoted faster.
—DAN KENNEDY
THE MARKET PAYS excellent rewards for excellent
performance. It pays average rewards for average performance
and below-average rewards, failure, and frustration for
below-average performance. Your goal should be to become an
expert in your chosen field by learning every single detail about
how to do your work better and better.
Read all the magazines in your field. Read and study the latest
books. Attend courses and seminars 33
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The 2 1 S u cce s s S e c re t s o f S e l f - M a d e M i
l l i o n a i re s given by experts in your field. Join your
industry or trade association, attend every meeting, and get
involved with the other top people in your field.
The Law of Integrative Complexity says that the individual who
can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in
any field soon rises to the top of that field.
If you are in sales, become an aggressive, lifelong student of
the selling process. The top 20 percent of salespeople earn, on
average, 16 times the amount earned by the bottom 80
percent of salespeople. The top 10 percent of salespeople earn
even more.
If you are in management, resolve to become an outstanding
professional manager. If you are starting and building your own
business, study entrepreneur-ial strategies and tactics and try
out new ideas every single day.
Set a goal for yourself to become the very best in your
business or profession. One small detail, insight, or idea can be
the turning point in your career.
Never stop looking for it.
L e a r n E ve r y D e t a i l o f Yo u r B u s i n e s s
35
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
Identify the trends in your business.
What are the core competencies or key skills that you will
need to lead your field in the future? Make a plan today to
develop those skills and then work on them every day.
◆
SUCCESS
10
SECRET
Dedicate
Yourself to
Serving Others
You can get everything you want
in life if you just help enough
other people get what they want.
—ZIG ZIGLAR
YOUR REWARDS IN life will always be in direct proportion to
your service to other people. All self-made millionaires have an
obsession with customer service.
They think about their customers all the time. They are
continually looking for new and better ways to serve their
customers better than anyone else.
Keep asking yourself these questions, What do my customers
really want? What do my customers really need? What do my
customers consider value? What 36
D e d i c a t e Yo u r s e l f t o S e r v i n g O t h e r
s 37
can I give my customers better than anyone else?
Why are my customers buying from others today, and what
would I have to offer them to get them to buy from me?
Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do
after you do what you are expected to do. Always look for
opportunities to do more than you are paid for. Always seek
ways to go the extra mile for your customers. Remember,
there are never any traffic jams on the extra mile.
Your customers are those people who you depend on for your
success in your work. This means that your boss and
coworkers are customers as well as the people who buy your
products or services. Your customers are also those people
who depend on you for their success or satisfaction.
Here is the question that you need to ask and answer, every
single day: What can I do to increase the value of my service
to my customers today?
Look for ways to add value to what you do and to the people
who depend on you every single day. One small improvement
in the way you serve your customers can be a major reason
for your financial success. Never stop looking for those little
ways to serve your customers better.
Today, customers value speed more than they’ve ever valued it
before. Whenever a customer asks for anything, you should
say, “Sure, right away!” These are the sweetest words your
customers can hear.
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l l i o n a i re s
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
Identify your most important cus-
tomers, both inside and outside your company. Who are the
people you
most depend upon? Who are the peo-
ple who most depend upon you? What
could you do, starting today, to take better care of them?
◆
SUCCESS
11
SECRET
Be Absolutely
Honest with
Yourself
and Others
Thought is the original source of all
wealth, all success, all material gain,
all great discoveries and inventions,
and all achievement.
—CLAUDE M. BRISTOL
PERHAPS THE MOST valued and respected quality you can
develop is a reputation for absolute integrity.
Be perfectly honest in everything you do and in every
transaction and activity. Never compromise 39
40
The 2 1 S u cce s s S e c re t s o f S e l f - M a d e M i
l l i o n a i re s your integrity. Remember that your word is
your bond and your honor is everything when it comes to
business.
All successful business is based on trust. Your success in
becoming a self-made millionaire will be determined solely by
the number of people who trust you and who are willing to
work for you, give you credit, lend you money, buy your
products and services, and help you during difficult times. Your
character is the most important asset that you develop in your
entire life, and your character is based on the amount of
integrity that you practice.
The first key to integrity is to be true to yourself, in all things.
Be true to the very best that is in you.
Being true to yourself means doing what you do in an
excellent fashion. Integrity is demonstrated internally by personal
honesty and externally by quality work.
The second key to integrity is to be true to the other people
in your life. Live in truth with everyone.
Never do or say anything that you do not believe to be right
and good and honest. Refuse to compromise your integrity for
anything. Always live up to the very highest standard that you
know.
Here is a question for you to ask and answer on a regular
basis: What kind of a world would my world be if everyone in
it was just like me?
This question forces you to set high standards for yourself and
keep raising the bar. Act as though your every word and
action were to become a universal
B e A b s ol u t e l y H o n e s t w i t h Yo u r s e l f
a n d O t h e r s 41
law. Carry yourself as though everyone were watching you and
patterning his or her behavior after yours.
And when in doubt, always do the right thing, whatever it is
and whatever it costs.
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
Almost every problem in your life can be resolved by a
return to your values.
What are they? What do you believe
in and stand for? Whenever you expe-
rience stress of any kind, it usually means that you are
compromising one
of your values. Whatever it is, resolve this very minute to
be true to what
you really believe to be important in your life.
◆
SUCCESS
12
SECRET
Determine
Your Highest
Priorities and
Concentrate on
Them Single-
Mindedly
“A double minded man is unstable
in all his ways.” Do what comes
to your hand to do.
—BRIAN TRACY
WHEN YOU DEVELOP the habit of setting priorities and
concentrating single-mindedly, you will be able to accomplish
virtually anything you want in life. This core 42
D e t e r m i n e Yo u r H i g h e s t P r i o r i t i e s
43
strategy has been the primary reason for high income, wealth
creation, and financial independence for thousands and even
millions of people.
Your ability to determine your highest priority and then to
work on that high priority until it is completed is the primary
test and measure of your willpower, self-discipline, and personal
character. It is the hardest habit to develop but also the most
important if you want to be a big success.
Here is the formula. Make a list of everything you have to do
before you begin working toward any goal.
Set priorities on that list by asking yourself four questions, over
and over.
Question number one is, What are my highest value activities?
What do you do that is more valuable than anything else to
your work and your business?
Question number two is, Why am I on the pay-roll? What
exactly have you been hired to accomplish?
Focus on results, not activities.
Question number three is, What can I and only I do that, if
done well, will make a real difference?
This is a particular task that only you can do. If you don’t do
it, it won’t get done. But if you do do it and you do it well, it
can make a significant difference in your business or your
personal life. What is that task?
Question number four is, What is the most valuable use of my
time right now? There is only one answer to this question at
any time. Your ability to determine the single most valuable use
of your time
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The 2 1 S u cce s s S e c re t s o f S e l f - M a d e M i
l l i o n a i re s and then to start on that task is the key to
high productivity and financial success.
Finally, commit to working single-mindedly on one task, the
most important task, and staying at it until it is 100 percent
complete. Persevere without diversion or distraction. Push
yourself to keep working at the job until it is done.
The good news is that by continually setting priorities and
concentrating on your highest value tasks, you will soon
develop the habit of high performance.
This habit will then become automatic and will virtually
guarantee you great success in life. This one habit alone can
make you a self-made millionaire.
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
Identify the most important thing that you can do right
now to achieve your most important goal and then
discipline yourself to do that, and only that, until it is 100
percent complete. Your ability to do this, and this alone,
can change your whole life.
◆
SUCCESS