Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

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of a

SerialEntrepreneur

C onf essions



M A R K B R U N O

of a

SerialEntrepreneur

Published By Zion Publicationswww.zionpublications.com

C on f ession s



To my lovely wife Jane, my son Nicollo and mydaughter Daniella, thanks for all the love and

support.



Introduction 1

Build A Credible Bridge 7

Create Value 13

Choose the Right Market 21

Build A System 29

Don’t Trust the Bookkeeper 39

You Must Own Or Control 43

Stick With What You Know 49

A word On Negotiation 51

Begin With An Exit 55

Don’t Risk It All 59

Opportunity Search 63

Networking 65Know Yourself 69

Know Your Enemy 73

Focus 77

A Word On Mindset 81

Energy 87

Putting It All Together 93

Acknowledgements 97

ContentsConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

Copyright © Mark Bruno 2009

Cover Art And Layout Copyright © Zion Publications 2009

First Edition, First Impression, 2009

ISBN 978-0-9814290-4-5

____________________________________________

Contact information:

Mark Bruno

Email: [email protected]

____________________________________________

Published by Zion Publications

Cover Design, Layout and Typesetting by Zion Publications

Contact information:

Zion Publications

Fax: +27 86 567 ZION (9466)Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.zionpublications.com

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copyright holder.



“Raise up a child in the way he

should go, and he will not depart

from it when he is old”

Proverbs 22:6

The world today is in the midst of what is for many, a terrifying economic

downturn. Thousands of highly and not so

highly qualified men and women are faced

with the difficulty of having to provide for

their families in an environment where the

traditional sources of income are evaporating

at an alarming rate.

The answer for many of us, is to apply our

energy into new areas; to forge opportunities

out of an old and shifting economy. To do

this takes courage, creativity and action.

I have been described as a serial

entrepreneur. An individual, who for the

Introduction

1



For every star salesman and beauty

queen who succeeds, there are at least two

or three shy, normal people who have made

it as successful entrepreneurs.

The key to succeeding in any business,

is to build a proper foundation and to take

the steps necessary to ensure that you survive

the start up phase. If you lay the wrong

foundations you will fail.

I have laid out in this book, what I believe

to be the key elements of surviving. I havelaced it with many personal experiences,

both good and bad, to try and give you an

understanding of the internal game. As

well as those aspects not normally taught in

business school.

I have attempted to give you tips and

processes that I have used successfully

several times.

I have made it my process to build and

sell businesses because I do not consider

myself a great manager. I, like many of

you, am what I would consider an internal

personality. I love the intellectual challenges

Introduction

3

past 25 years, has made his living continually

going from the pan into the fire and back out

again.

I began this journey long ago because

my self esteem would not allow me tobelieve that I could ever be hired by anyone;

and since I didn’t figure I could get a job, I

had to create one.

Having successfully created one, I

realised I didn’t even want to have myself

as a boss, so I sold and started over. The

journey continues.

I started this book because I wanted to

give insight to new entrepreneurs that would

help them to overcome the many hurdles

that face anyone starting out in the world of

business alone.

Many people are afraid to strike out ina new business venture because they believe

that it takes a certain type of personality, or

look, and lots of money to begin a business.

Although the right type of approach is

necessary, what it takes to really make it is

often misunderstood.

Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

2



As a wise man once said to me “there is

no such thing as absentee ownership”. This

is so true. To own a business is in some

ways to be a slave to the business. Not in

a bad way like a servant, but in a good waylike a parent. Parents have the responsibility

of training their children up in the way they

should go. Business owners have the same

burden for their business. If you turn over

the responsibility of raising your children to

someone else you are likely to end up with

very confused children. If you turn over the

raising of your business to a third party, your

business model will in all likelihood end up

in the same condition.

If you are convinced of starting out in

this world alone, I support you. I offer you

the following as my view on the importantissues you need to be aware of, and to employ

in your activities.

It is my sincere wish that you prosper in

your efforts and that what I have written here

can help you along the way.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Introduction

5

but have difficulty relating to people at the

superficial level that is so often required.

I am not a great salesman, nor was I

blessed with the consistency of huge capital

that allowed me to make mistakes. I amprobably like many of you. I struggle to take

the steps and I work very hard through the

process.

I have learned to really enjoy certain

aspects of the game and I would highly

recommend that you do the same. Learn to

enjoy the process and you will be 80% there.

The other 20% is what I hope to offer you.

Just for the record, I do not believe that

being an entrepreneur means creating lots of

businesses that I turn over to other people to

run.

I myself have never been able to do this.To be honest I have never seen anyone do it.

The issue of “entitlement” too often creeps

into the minds of those you have trusted, and

before long they believe they are responsible

for all the success and you no longer deserve

to own it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure

out what happens next.


4



“Let everyman praise the bridge

that carries him over troubled

waters”

English Proverb

About 15 years ago I sold a business I

had developed and found myself with a lot

of time on my hands. Of course I was bored,

so I spent a lot of time at lunch. One of the

people I spent a lot of time with was a very

well known speaker with an international

clientele. Occasionally, he would meet a

speaker overseas he really liked and would

agree to promote them to the local market.

On one such occasion, he asked if, because

I had so much time, I would be willing to

act as host to this overseas speaker that was

coming to town. I agreed. The speaker in

question was actually not very remarkable.

Build a CredibleBridge

7



Once again the speaker recorded the

current situation on the overhead projector,

this time on the left. When he had finished

writing, calmly and gently he asked the

young man to draw him a credible bridgefrom where he was to where he wanted to

be. Needless to say he couldn’t.

Of course my purpose for telling this

story is not to discourage anyone, or put up

false barriers to success such as educational or

capital savings requirements. My purpose is

to point out one of the most important things

you can learn when starting a business. If

you cannot build a credible bridge between

where you are and where you want to be; in

other words if you can’t see a clear path to

the money, DON’T START. This probably

sounds like common sense to most of you,but I assure you the streets of entrepreneur

hell are paved with the bodies of people who

couldn’t do this simple thing. And I don’t

mean just theoretically see it either. I mean

a real business plan with detailed analysis of

what you need to get done. How the business

will roll out and be managed. How the sales

Build a Credible Bridge

9

In fact today I can’t even recall his name, but

he did show me one thing that changed my

life. One night at one of his shows, he asked

a young man sitting in the front row onto

the stage. While on the stage he asked theyoung man what his goals were. Of course

the pressure of standing in front of several

hundred people must have had something

to do with his answer, but nonetheless, his

answer was as follows:

“Within five years I want to have a

plane, a yacht, a Rolls Royce and a seven

figure annual salary. “

With great courtesy the speaker wrote

each of the goals on the right side of the

overhead projector. After a few minutes he

asked the young man to describe where he

was in his life. Was he working now? Did hehave any savings? Did he have an education

or special training? Was there anything that

separated him from the crowd? The answers

were pretty predictable. The young man

wasn’t working, had no savings, education

or other special skill. In fact nothing to set

him apart from the crowd.


8



No sooner had he dropped my hand from

the limp and half hearted hand shake, that he

turned the egg timer to five minutes and told

me I had five minutes to prove to him that I

belonged there. Needless to say I was a bitoverwhelmed, but I jumped in nonetheless.

After listening to my pitch for about 35

minutes, he looked over at me and said “I

like you. You came prepared and you didn’t

waste my time. Now I am going to give you

the greatest advice of your life. Whenever

you find yourself in the offices of someone

from whom you are seeking money. MAKE

SURE THAT THE ONLY THING YOU

NEED IS THE MONEY.” At then he bid

me good day and told me I would hear from

him. The next day I received a call telling

me that my numbers and my informationhad checked out and they would do the

underwriting. The company was listed 9

months later, but not with that underwriter.

New York was just too expensive. I found

someone in California to do it. The point

of the story is that a credible bridge makes

it easy for you to prove that you only need

Build a Credible Bridge

11

team will be organised, how many sales calls

they are going to have to make and what your

expected closing rate is. Real detail. Down

to the smallest cost and the simplest activity.

It is not uncommon when I write a businessplan to have over 100 pages of numbers that

represent my three year plan.

There are lots of reasons for doing this,

not the least of which, is making sure you

have thought it through and can build a

credible bridge. If you have built the bridge,

everything else comes easier. Including the

investors you will need.

When I was in my twenties I made my

way to New York City, to pitch the listing

of a company I had helped develop. I had

never been to Wall Street before and I

must admit I was a little intimidated. I hadan appointment on Broad Street (next to

Wall Street) to meet an investment banker

and try and convince him that he should

underwrite this listing I was proposing. At

precisely 2:30 I was ushered into the offices

of this powerful financial god. I noticed as

I entered he kept an egg timer on his desk.


10



“The great personal fortunes

in this country weren’t built of

a portfolio of fifty companies.

They were built by someone who

identified on wonderful business”

Warren Buffet

I love Warren Buffet. His light-hearted

approach to such a difficult business is awe

inspiring. I began studying the works of

Warren Buffet, and those who wrote about

him, around five years ago. His approach

to value fascinated me. Not only was I

fascinated, I was challenged. Much like the

bible, the Warren Buffet books I read only

hinted of what was underneath it all. The

idea of value investing was much deeper

than simply finding a brand monopoly

and putting the money down. I became

Create Value

13

the money. And, I can absolutely guarantee

you. Every time you look for money, if all

you need is money, you will get it. There

is far more money around than well thought

out deals.


12



2. Have fitness of purpose- The end result

must fit the purpose for which it was

made. Using the above example, paper

is fit for the purpose it was created.

3. It must involve moving something

from a disorganised state to an

organised one (entropy)- I must admit

this was a very hard concept to grasp. I

am not really sure I do now. However

I have personal experience that I

think will help. “If you want to makemoney, do something that results in the

concentration of a fragmented market”.

I have always believed this and have

used that maxim successfully many

times.

Let me give you an example. I havealways been amazed at how easy it seems

to get a power plant financed. It seems as

though anyone with a location and a license

can get financing. Just for fun I decided to

apply the above formula to electricity, which

is the end product produced by a power

plant.

Create Value

15

obsessed with trying to discover a scientific

view of value creation; one that laid out the

parameters of value and made it possible for

me to replicate.

After lots of false starts, I found a workthat pretty much answered the questions I

had (I wish someone could do the same with

the bible for me). The book was called the

“Origin Of Wealth” by Eric Beinhocker. I

highly recommend this book to any of you

who like scientific backup to basic economic

questions like, what is wealth and how is it

created? There is a great deal within the book

that I need not cover. What was important to

me was his definition of value.

According to Beinhocker, for something

to have value it must:

1. Be the result of an irreversible

process- The example given in the book

is great. One of the reasons why paper

has value is because as much as it cost

you to make the tree into paper, imagine

what it would cost to turn the paper into

a tree.


14



3. It must involve moving something

from a disorganised state to an

organised one-

This is a little harder to see but

still present. The currents that resultin the electricity are certainly in a

disorganised state. The potential to

generate electricity is there but must be

directed, organised and captured before

it can have value. The process therefore

of directing the flow onto the blades can

be seen as organising the disorganised

state in order to perform work. Again

we meet the criteria.

Now I am sure that there are those of

you out there that may want to challenge the

above premise. Perhaps Mr. Beinhockerhimself, who right now must be wondering

how I came to those conclusions from what

he wrote. Scientifically correct or not, agree

or disagree, there is some good stuff there.

Throughout the years that I have done

business development, there has always been

the niggling fear of “what if it doesn’t work”.

Create Value

17

1. It must be the result of an irreversible

process-

The process of converting the

movement of water into electricity is not

very complicated. A turbine is placedin the way of flowing water which

turns the blades of the turbine thus

transferring energy from the flowing

water to the turbine. The overall energy

of the flowing water is reduced by this

activity, if only a small amount.

So is the process reversible?

Could the reduction of flow of the

water resulting from the conversion be

reversed? The answer is a theoretical

yes, but it would cost much more to do

so than it did to create the conversion

in the first place. Thus the process isirreversible.

2. It must have fitness of purpose-

Not much to say here. Electricity

is a perfect fit for the purpose it was

intended.


16



(the Canary Wharf developers) had just

filed for bankruptcy. The Canary Wharf

was a ghost town. You couldn’t give space

away. Anyway, Mr. Swart had me looking

at condominiums in the area to buy as aninvestment, he was talking about taking head

leases on empty buildings. I thought he had

lost his mind. One day I challenged him. Had

he not noticed that Olympia and York were

bankrupt, that the area was a ghost town.

How could he believe there was ever going

to be money made there. A kind man, but

not one to suffer fools, he walked me over to

the main Canary Wharf building. The tallest

(and most expensive) building in England.

He told me to look up and tell him what I

saw. Not wanting to look stupid I began to

describe the building. “Well” I said “I see

glass and metal…”. “No” he said “you’ve

missed it”. “What I see is over a billion US

dollars invested. This complex will never

fail. There is too much value created”. In

the end he was right. The property slump

passed and Canary Wharf became a huge

success. I don’t know if he ever bought the

Create Value

19

I mean, I know I have built a credible bridge

and all my research says it should work, but

life has a way of beating you. Some things

just can’t be predicted. That is where value

comes in. If, in the process of building abusiness, you are focusing on the creation

of value, and not making money,; if it does

fail, your money should still be in the value

you created. It doesn’t mean you can never

lose money. It just means that if you plan

well and don’t go too far out on a limb, you

should never lose the value.

This point was driven home to me by a

great man by the name of Cornelius Swart.

Mr. Swart was a very successful business

developer that I had the pleasure of travelling

the world with. A man of many talents,

his greatest talent was being able to create

value, and to see it where others did not.

Back in the 1990’s Mr. Swart and I were

involved in the development of a gym group

that looked to expand into England. One

day while looking for locations we found

ourselves at the Canary Wharf complex in

London. At the time Olympia and York


18



“Good execution isn’t enough. A

bad idea executed perfectly is the

very definition of disaster”

Office of the President of Botswana

That saying was spoken to me by a seniorstaff member of the President of Botswana

while visiting the Botswana equivalent of the

White House. His purpose was to describe

the culture of “DO THE RIGHT THINGS”

that the new president had hoped to instil in

his cabinet.

Spoken in the words of business

development this converts to, CHOOSE

THE RIGHT MARKET. The right market

can go a long way to overcoming a bad

business plan or even poor execution. In

fact choose the perfect market and there isn’t

much you can do to stop success. Far be it

Choose the RightMarket

21

condos or not. But I can tell you one thing I

know for sure. If he did, he made a fortune

on them.

As long as you focus on the creation

of value, you can’t go wrong. Not only areyou spending your money wisely, you are

aligning yourself with a universal principal.

The value of money goes up and down, but

value lasts forever.


20



This type of play offers a lot of

advantages. To begin with, you are not

creating anything new. It is much easier

to take over someone else’s market space

(assuming they are weak and the market innot cohesive) than it is to create a new space.

Just make sure there are no big dogs ruling

the market, and that the market will benefit

from a big dog being created. Generally

customers in this type of market are already

buyers and don’t have any real preference.

There is no strong brand ruling the territory.

I used this strategy in the early 1990’s to

create an international gym business. At the

time in South Africa, the gym business was

made up of one fairly large player and lots

of small players. I took over as chairman

in a young and dynamic group that had

3 gyms. Although small, we built good

systems (see later chapter) that enabled us

to scale the operation and went about buying

up all the individual players. Because the

group had better operating dynamics and

sales synergies, the purchases became self

funding. In three years we went from 3

Choose the Right Market

23

for me to try and pass judgement on one of

the most successful companies ever, and the

progenitor of the richest man in the world

(well maybe not this year), but Microsoft

did and still does a lot of things wrong. BillGates said so in his book. What Bill Gates

did right was choose the right market. A

market ignored by many computer giants

such as IBM. No matter what Microsoft did

wrong, the market was still going to grow at

a phenomenal rate. All they had to do was

keep up and the market would do the rest.

I am sure that if I really tried I could

try and sound very intelligent and technical

when offering advice on what constitutes a

good market, but I won’t. What I am going

to offer is examples of markets that worked

for me.

Fragmented markets- I like this one

the best. If you can find a market that has

a lot of little players selling every day, that

offers advantages from consolidation and

hasn’t been fully absorbed, then you’re

really in business.


22

Ch h R h kC f f S l E



Tandon opened a new factory to pump out

these drives. Then one day I remember

being at one of the Tandon warehouses’

and seeing mountains of unsold inventory.

It didn’t take long for that to translate intocatastrophic reductions of our sales. The

law of economics won out. When big money

starts being made in a market, competition

enters. Not only competing on a product

level, but also introducing new technology

to compete with. As quick as the market

expanded, it contracted. I sold the business

to a Chinese manufacturer that intended to

make floppy drives for the Chinese market.

China was still in the Stone Age back then. I

was lucky to get out with my shirt.

A Market You Love- I do really

believe that the very best type of business

development is one in which you are able

to combine your hobby or passion with

making money. When, in my life I have

found people working at what they love, I

am always envious. The drive to succeed

seems so much stronger because they really

love the process and don’t want to lose the


25

gyms to 36 and were expanding into Europe

when I exited.

Fast growing markets- If you can’t

find a market to consolidate, look for one

that is growing off the hook. Demand inexcess of supply in the market is a good way

to look like a genius. Almost anything you

do wrong will be overlooked as long as your

customers need more of what you supply

than they can find. Just be cautioned that

what goes up must come down. These types

of markets often collapse without warning.

In 1984 I was a partner in a company that

was building components that went into what

was then called floppy disk drives. IBM had

just entered the PC market and demand for

peripheral devices like floppy disk was huge.

Our little factory was running 7 days a week,

24 hours a day. I thought it would never end.

Our big customer at the time was Tandon

Magnetics. Juggy Tandon was the creator

and patent holder to a double-sided floppy

disk (in other words high density storage),

and virtually owned the periphery storage

industry. Every day it seemed as though


24

Ch th Ri ht M k tC f i f S i l E t



However having said that, Coca Cola

was a start up once and so was IBM. If you

are lucky enough to identify an unexploited

potential consumer monopoly and are

looking for a partner, please do not hesitateto contact me.


27

day to day experience. This type of market

may not have any of the fundamentals, but I

would not tell anyone not to go for it. There

is more to a business than just creating

monetary value, sometimes the value youcreate can be in other peoples’ lives.

A COMMENT

I would be remiss at this time if I didn’t

at least address the published ideas of Warren Buffet towards markets. Mr Buffet

has written often that he looks for stable

growth in some sort of consumer monopoly.

And I have to agree that the best market to

have is a 100 year old stable growth market

that consistently produces a 25% Return on

Capital Employed.

The problem is that for entrepreneurs

these types of market rarely exist. As

business developers we are forced to enter

markets where we have the resources to do

so. Unfortunately that is rarely stable.


26



“Differentiate-Select- Amplify”

The Origin of Wealth

I mentioned earlier the Eric Beinhocker

book “ The Origin of Wealth”. Well here

again Mr. Beinhocker has something to addto our growth. The formula above is given

in his book as the way to create wealth.

Differentiate- Make sure people don’t

confuse you with others in the marketplace.

In other words, make sure they have a

definable choice to make.

Select- This goes back to choosing the

right market in the first place. Select the

path of least resistance.

Build a System

29

Build a SystemConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



know that in ancient Rome they didn’t allow

their prefects to stay away from Rome for

more than a couple of years. After being

outside of Rome for a while, they made them

come back for a few years. They didn’t wantthem to forget what being a Roman meant.

Rome took its systems very seriously. The

proof of the pudding in Rome’s case, was

the fact that they were one of the largest

and certainly longest lasting empires of all

time. Britain was pretty much the same

under Victoria. Being British in those dayshad a very certain meaning. It helped them

conquer and control three quarters of the

world.

Today we tend to call this Branding, but

it is pretty much the same thing. A system

of delivery giving the customer a consistent

product.

Now, as to how. Well this can be very

problematic. To be honest, I really struggled

with this over the years. I knew I had to do

it, but I wasn’t very sure how. Well, I still

struggle, but I have settled on a methodology.

In every instance, I try and find an applicable

Build a System

31

Amplify- To amplify you have to have

systems.

Systems make a business scalable and

able to grow without coming apart at theseams. Lots of entrepreneurs like to wing it.

Wing it and you die. You will never survive

growth and it is doubtful if you are creating

value without systems. In fact a lot of the

value you create should revolve around

systems.

I am pretty sure that most of you haveheard this before. Anyone who has read

“Rich Dad Poor Dad” has read about the

need for systems.

Maybe it was just me but I found two

things missing from Mr. Kiyosaki’s books

relating to systems. The first was why, and

the second was how.

The why I think is obvious now. One

of the best things you can do to create value

in a business is to codify the processes of

doing your business. This gives the business

sustainability and scalability. It allows you

to take what you have and repeat it. Did you


30

Build a SystemConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



structure and the processes to do what you

say. ISO helps you prove that. Just don’t do

what so many do, download a system from

the internet that means nothing to you. In

the end you will not use it and the value willbe lost. Having a framework to build on

can be helpful, but make sure the heart of the

system is yours and that it reflects the culture

and objectives of your organisation.

Build a System

33

ISO (international standards association)

standard that I can implement.

For those of you who don’t know about

ISO, let me help you out. According to

the ISO website, the ISO standards areestablished to “ help a company manage their

processes or activities , so that its products

or services meet the objectives they have set

for themselves…”

In short ISO provides a framework

for setting standards, measuring activity,

reporting information and improving. If youhave nowhere else to turn, or don’t know

where to start, find an ISO standard that will

apply to your business. Since ISO standards

are intended to be generic , like ISO 9000-

2000, I guarantee you will find something

that works for you. Trust me, it is a great

place to start when building a system.

I do want to issue a warning however.

Make sure that you implement a system you

intend to use. Lots of companies I have come

across implement an ISO standard because

it helps them get business. People doing

business with you, like to know you have the


32



“From birth to age 18, a girl

needs good parents, from 18 to 35

she needs good looks, from 35 to

55 she needs a good personality,

and from 55 on she needs cash.”

Sophie Tucker

At least a woman can rely on good

parents, good looks and good personality.

Businesses don’t have those things. THEY

NEED CASH FROM DAY ONE. To ensure

success you will have to manage your cash

as diligently as you do the heartbeat of adying patient. Make a mistake with the cash

and you will die.

Just as an example, consider a seller

of materials who has a 20% mark up on her

product. A mistake that cost the company

$100 requires the capital and effort to affect

Cash Management

35

Cash Management Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



the bank”, the third person says “I tell the

employees they have to wait”. Looking a

bit uncomfortable, the business man turned

to me. “What do you have to say?”. My

answer was “I never let it happen.” This wasthe answer he was looking for.

Now I don’t tell the story to show how

smart I am. I tell the story to illustrate a

truth. Payroll isn’t just missed. If you miss

any payment it means you did not plan

well enough. Especially bills you know

are coming, like payroll. You have to planahead.

I make it a policy to set up a spread

sheet predicting daily cash in the bank six

months ahead of time. I update it with every

event that is likely to change it. Sales that

weren’t made for example, or extra cost. It

is amazing how accurate this can be and how

it helps you to avoid trouble. Creditors will

wait a few days to be paid if you absolutely

positively pay them on the day you promise.

They are in business after all. However,

tell a creditor they will be paid Friday, and

Friday comes and goes without payment and

g

37

$500 in additional sales just to get even. That

is a lot of effort. I will tell you the same thing

I tell my son about his soccer, preventing the

other team from making a goal is as good

as making one yourself. You never want towork from a deficit.

Long ago I was sitting in the board

room of a very successful international

businessman. I had been working on a

development with three brothers and was

looking to put the growing business into a

larger structure where it would have thecapital and support necessary to reach it’s

potential. All of the individuals on my side

of the table were young and aggressive.

The businessman was older, very wealthy

and a little nervous of getting into business

with us. As a way of testing our metal he

posed a question to everyone at the table.

“It’s payday” he begins “you don’t have the

money for payroll. What do you do?.” Each

person is called on in turn to give an answer.

Starting with the youngest member in his

early twenties. “Borrow on my house” he

replies. The next person says “borrow from

f f p

36




“You cannot delegate responsi-

bility, only authority. In the end

the buck stops with you”

One of my business school

professors

At the risk of sounding like a

traditionalist, I strongly recommend

that anyone who hopes to make it as an

entrepreneur take a bookkeeping class. Not

accounting, bookkeeping. Why you may

ask, I hate the numbers. Because as I said

earlier, the numbers are what determinesyour future.

I have a relative of mine who built up

a thriving business over 30 years of his life.

Everything was great. He had big sales,

showed a big profit and had a woman he

trusted with his life doing the books.

Don’t Trust theBookkeeper

39

you have trouble on your hands. You have

to plan for profit just like everything else. If

sales aren’t what you planned, you have to

cut cost. Either that or grab the salesperson

and instruct them on what needs to be done.Adjustments to the sales mix, pricing and

sales promotions are all there to help you over

the hurdle. Just don’t let it sneak up on you.

This attention to the detail as to what actually

makes up the profit and loss statement is

what makes the difference between success

and failure. Neither success nor failure justhappen. It takes time and effort to fail, just

like it takes time and effort to succeed.

Take my advice, pay attention to the

money. In the end it is the only measurement

of success or failure that matters.

right market in the first place. Select the

path of least resistance.

38

Don’t Trust the Bookkeeper Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



bookkeeping savvy boss, I credit cash and

debit assets. When the boss looks at the

Profit and Loss statements he will still see

a profit, even though the hard earned money

has been stolen. Why? Because instead of debiting an expense which would have shown

as money spent, I debit an asset. Everything

still balances. No harm no foul. Who will

know? Well eventually the bankruptcy

court. And don’t assume that your auditor

will pick it up. Auditors are there to verify

your accounts. If you put the numbers downin the wrong way, they are likely to verify

the error, not find it. I don’t mean this as a

slight to auditors, but fixing entry mistakes

is not how most of them view their job. As

long as the balance sheet balances their job

is done.

In the end it is YOUR money. You must

know how it is accounted for and be able to

pick up problems. In my relative’s case, his

fear of not knowing how to keep the books

caused him to delegate the guarding of the

chickens to the fox. She ate him alive.

41

The one thing he couldn’t understand

was where was all the cash going. I mean he

showed a profit, but the cash never seemed

to be there in the amounts he figured should

be there. Every month he looked at thefinancials and saw a profit. What could be

wrong, he figured, there was a profit. Sooner

or later the cash had to show up. WRONG !!!

His trusted bookkeeper of 20 years had been

forging his signature to cover the gambling

problem he never knew she had. Over one

million dollars had disappeared. He neversaw it coming. In the end it cost him his

business and over 30 years of his life.

Had he understood the in’s and out’s of

bookkeeping hell, he would have understood

that debits and credits just need to balance

for the accounting equation to work. They

don’t have to be in the right place. Let me

give you an example.

In accounting you increase expenses by

way of a debit. You also increase assets.

You also decrease cash by way of credit.

So if I am a clever bookkeeper and I want

to steal some cash and hide it from my not

40



“There are no such things as

comrades, only rivals”

Alexander the Great

Let me take this opportunity to

recommend a great book to you. It’s called“How to Get Rich” by Felix Dennis. This is

one of those few ‘get rich’ books written by

someone who was rich BEFORE he wrote

the book. It is full of wisdom and practical

advice. One of the things he talks about in

this book is making sure you keep as much

of your business as you can. I agree whole

heartedly. But I would like to add one point.

Make SURE you own or control. If you

don’t, you’re in for a battle.

Owning or controlling means that the

final say as to how and when money gets

spent is yours. It means that there will

You Must Ownor Control

43

You Must Own or ControlConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



own business, even if it is with someone

else. No one ever started a business to be in

someone else’s shadow. Think about it. All

the things that make you successful will tear

you apart. One or more of you is going toget tired of looking in the mirror and seeing

someone else’s face. Or worse, worry that

the girlfriend thinks all this success is due

to another person. Don’t think it won’t

happen. You could be the best of friends or

even blood relatives, put enough success on

the table and knives will be drawn. Divorceis always messy. Better not to start.

Having said that if you are bound and

determined to get into partnership let me

offer some advice.

1. Make sure each of you knows what

you expect from the other party.

I am convinced that most

relationships, including marriages,

end because the parties were not clear

on what they were exchanging. Put

another way you thought you were

marrying Cinderella and she thought

45

be only one marketing strategy. It means

engineers that never want to finish a project

will finish or lose their jobs.

I am sure there are millions of people

who will argue that this type of leadershipstyle is archaic. That in order to succeed it

takes a team of people all leading together.

BULLOCKS. The Roman empire was

not built by teams of people leading together.

Napoleon was not known for his democratic

ilk. Oh I am sure there are those among you

who will say, sure but where are they now.We all know where they are. That is the

point. EVERYONE knows who Napoleon

was, but I am pretty sure only a few can tell

me the name of his chief of staff or three of

his staff general’s names.

Democracy in business does not work. I

will agree that an enlightened and ingenious

despot is better than a Hitler, but Hitler still

conquered all of Europe.

While we are at it, let’s talk a little about

partnerships. In short, they don’t work.

Let’s face it, it takes a certain amount of

ego to break from the crowd and start your

44

You Must Own or ControlConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



knows what needs to happen and has a

measuring stick to see how effective the

partnership is. In addition to all this, it

alleviates a lot of the jealousy that will

arise. The end is known before you getthere so everyone can keep their eye on

the ball.

3. Put a time limit on the relationship.

Although it may not seem logical

to limit something in the beginning,

especially when all the hope in the worldis present, but believe me this is mission

critical. If you limit the relationship

upfront you give it a chance to take

form. You can always move or even

remove the time limits later, but upfront

it is important that everyone know there

is only so much time to get things done.

47

she was marrying Prince Charming.

When she turns out to be more like the

wicked step mother and he more like

the mouse, things turn ugly. Every

failed business partnership I have hadhas been the result of not taking enough

time to discuss what is really expected

from me, or me from them. If your part

of the bargain is to bring money, make

sure you state exactly how much that

is. Most importantly, make sure you

have it. Sure as we are sitting here if you fail to make clear what you and they

are bringing to the table there will be a

dispute. Someone is always bound to be

disappointed. Especially when there is

money on the table.

2. Determine the end state that

represents completion.

It is very important that you begin

by knowing where you are going and

what the end looks like. This helps

you focus your attention and relieves

the relationship of pressure. Everyone

46



“Be sure the business you buy can

be run by an idiot, because sure

enough one day it will be”

Warren Buffet

If you haven’t noticed I am a bigWarren Buffet fan. Who wouldn’t be.

Warren always talks about staying within

your circle of competency. I read it but I

didn’t understand it. That is until I got into a

development that was heavily dependent on

software engineers.

Now I knew from past experience thatmost engineers are like arists. They never

see the painting as finished. Their superior

intelligence and creativity keeps seeing more

and more to improve. This may be true, but

enough has to be enough sometime. The

problem is that if you are not an expert, or

Stick with what You Know

49




“Kid, there is no such thing as a

good deal, it’s a good deal or its

no deal”.

Tony Sannucci

Starting from when I was 12 years old myfather used to insist that during the summer

holidays I spend time working for some of

his friends. He did this to expose me to other

successful people who might be able to teach

me a thing or two. One of the greatest was

a man by the name of Tony Sannucci. Tony

was a Sicilian ( like me) who had grownup in a poor part of Buffalo New York. A

genius when it came to business, he was one

of the best negotiators I ever met. One day

while sitting in his office I listened to him

negotiate a movie distribution deal for one

of his friends. I was amazed to see him in

A Word onNegotiation

51

able to finish what they started, you could be

in for a long hard ride.

I was involved in a software banking

solution company once. Among the

many mistakes I made (like not owning orcontrolling) was not being able to finish

what someone else started. Software

engineers are very expensive and they are

highly intelligent and creative. So creative

sometimes, that they cannot give a straight

answer or an accurate timeline. And because

I did not have a clue as to what needed to bedone or how, I just had to take it. The end

result was an overdue and way over budget

development. Not to mention a few new

holes in my stomach.

At least I can say I now understand

what old Warren was saying. You only can

afford to delegate duties that you are able

to perform yourself, otherwise you are not

delegating you are abdicating. And when

you abdicate you lose.

50

A Word on NegotiationConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



detail. One of the big mistakes I see people

make in negotiation is that they never get

down to detail. Now it could take a whole

book on its own to discuss the timing of

negotiations, the strategy of location etc. Iam not suggesting that everything take place

at one time. There is a negotiating strategy

called nibbling, that makes a point of leaving

some details for later discussion, with the

hopes that the other side will develop an

emotional attachment to the deal that will

force them to give up little concessions laterin the detail phase. What I am suggesting is

that whatever you do, make sure you cover the

details. The little foxes spoil the garden and

untied details ruin otherwise good deals. Do

whatever you think will help you, but make

sure you do it with intent, don’t leave things

out because you forgot, or were worried the

other side might object. Whatever you leave

undecided on a table, is likely to be picked

up by the other side, whether you wanted

them to have it or not. Make sure the table is

clean before you get up from it.

53

action. He spoke so loud that he had to hold

the mouth piece of the phone about eight

inches from his head. When everything was

done I asked him “Did you get a good deal

Tony”. He looked at me kind of confusedwith his coal black eyes and told me “Kid,

there is no such thing as a good deal, it’s a

good deal or its no deal.” Words to live by.

The cold fact is that in every transaction

you are acting for yourself. You are not there

for the guy across the table. Let him or her

negotiate for themselves. Most of all makesure the end result improves your position.

Understand fully upfront what you get and

what it will cost .

Now don’t misunderstand me. I firmly

believe that a good deal is one that will be

implemented. If you squeeze a guy too hard

he will do anything to get free, includingchewing his leg off. The problem is that

in chewing his own leg off, he often takes

yours with him. A good deal, is one where

everyone is equally unhappy and equally

enriched.

I would be remiss in talking about

negotiation if I didn’t mention attention to

52



“Affairs are easier of entrance

than of exit; and it is but common

prudence to see our way out before

we venture in.”

Aesop

Intelligent business people always plan

their exit. Not only does it give you a very

precise goal it helps motivate you.

The other day I was visiting a very

wealthy friend of mine at his offices. As

we sat talking, he called my attention to

a program he had recently had created forhim. The program told him the day he could

afford to die based on his current investment

portfolio, insurance and wealth attainment

goals. I was amazed. This little program

allowed him to put in various interest

rate scenarios, stock and property market

Begin with an Exit

55

Begin with an Exit Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



will have to fit the profile and be sitting in

the proper position to motivate action.

To do this effectively you need to apply

your strategic mind. You need to understand

the market you are in, to understand whatmakes for value, and most importantly

understand what makes you valuable to the

leaders in the market. Try to understand

what the big guys would want to do, but

can’t for some reason. Then do it.

A great example of this is Pixar and

Disney. Now it is no secret that Disney isa world leader in animation and has been

producing successful animation films for

a very long time. So why on earth would

Disney pay $7.4 billion for an animation

studio?

This is the question a lot of people asked,

not the least I am sure Disney’s board. The

answer lies in the way Pixar was positioned

relative to Disney.

Disney had many years as a classic

animation studio. Beginning in a time when

cartoons where drawn one frame at a time.

57

assumptions etc. and literally print out a

date at which he could die having achieved

all of his goals. He obviously made light of

it, but the principal was deadly serious. He

had planned his exit.Now for most business people planning

your exit may not be quite so detailed. This

particular man is particularly bright and

focused. However let’s not lose the lesson.

In any business it is best to understand that

things will change. Even Bill Gates in his

book “Business @ the Speed of Thought”indicates that he does not expect Microsoft

to last forever. It is prudent then to plan for

an exit.

What this means in practical terms, is

that building a business cannot be only about

more sales and higher profits. If you really

want to get the most from your business

you will have to spend time and effort

positioning it. Position is always relative

to some fixed point. In this case, the fixed

point is that vehicle you have chosen to exit

on. Whether that vehicle is a company to

sell to, or a market to list on, your business

56




“In a fight between you and the

world, back the world”

Paul Dirn

I know that doesn’t sound very positive.

Society is permeated with heroic storiesof Generals who ordered the boats they

arrived in burned so that the army would be

motivated to fight and having nowhere else

to go, bravely defeat the enemy.

Bulldust I say. Life is a long term game.

The most important thing you need to do to

be able to win at life, is to first survive. If you watch predators in the wild they always

go for the weakest animal and they always

back off when counter attacked. Why is

that? Because a lion with a three inch hole

in its stomach from an angry buffalo isn’t

likely to win the battle of survival. Predators

Don’t Risk it All

59

Pixar grew up in an era of computer

animation and was quite frankly way ahead

of Disney in this area.

Pixar learned to piggy back on the

strengths of Disney by using the Disneydistribution system and genius in character

product marketing to build its own brand.

Disney in the end realised that they were

earning a lot of money off of characters that

could only be created with the expertise

of Pixar and acted to exploit that situation

as well as guarantee that Pixar couldn’t goanywhere else.

Did Pixar plan from the beginning to be

bought out by Disney. Only a few people

could know that for sure. What I do know

is that Pixar was co-founded and driven by a

business genius by the name of Steven Jobs.

It would take a particular type of genius,like Steven Jobs, to arrange that a giant like

Disney become dependent on Pixar. Steven

Jobs, by the way, is now the single largest

shareholder in Disney. Did he plan it that

way? You be the judge.

58

Don’t Risk it AllConfessions of a Serial Entrepreneur



This is the best, really the only, reason to

share your business with others. To provide

capital to hedge your bets, so that if it goes

bad you are not wiped out.

It is said that no plan survives contactwith the enemy. In business I would say that

no plan survives contact with the competition.

No matter how perfect your planning, no

matter how good your market, stuff happens

and businesses fail. Just be sure you don’t

fail with it.

61

can’t afford to get hurt and neither can

entrepreneurs.

Too many people do not understand the

difference between risk and uncertainty. You

see risk is the probability of a specific rate of return where uncertainty is the probability of

an event at all. You can measure risk and you

can hedge against it. There is almost nothing

you can do to ensure against uncertainty.

Business development is often not

only risky but uncertain. That is why it is

important not to risk it all. Look at yourbusiness as any investment. Forget what

you have already spent, and instead focus

on what the return is, on each investment

you make within your business.

I really want to express this strongly.

Business is at best risky. Don’t go so far in

that there is no coming back.In my travels I have seen dozens of

broken families and suicidal entrepreneurs

because they risked everything on the toss of

a dice. If you only lose what you can afford

to lose, you always have the chance to fight

another day.

60

O



“Just take the order”

Joseph P. Bruno

My father was a great entrepreneur.

Over his lifetime he made and lost more

money than some small countries. I alwayswanted to be like him so I spent a lot of time

watching. My father had one major rule that

dictated the starting of a business; take the

order. What that meant was that the only

criteria he had to spend the energy and the

money to start a business, was whether or not

he knew someone who wanted to buy whatthe business produced. It really didn’t matter

what industry or product it was. If someone

he knew was buying a lot of something, he

was going to supply it.

I know that may not sound very much

like the industry analysis you would expect

OpportunitySearch

63

h f A b I




“Play Golf”

Donald Trump

I myself do not play golf and I have

found this to be a great handicap (pardon the

pun). I tried. My father was a great golfer.He had a company that manufactured clubs

and even started his own tournament. I took

golf lessons for a little while. After a week

the pro called my father and suggested I take

up tennis. That is the last time I had a club

in my hand.

If you don’t play golf you need tofind another method of arranging social

interaction with other business people. This

interaction is key to being able to get where

you want to go. No matter how smart you

are or how great your idea, at some point it

is a human being who says yes or no to your

Networking

65

to hear from an MBA, but I can assure you

that it makes for a much smoother take off.

Having a buyer in the pocket allows you to

define your product, work out the logistics

of delivery and set the limits of productioncost all in one go. It also guarantees market

penetration. And of course if one person

is buying it is much easier to sell to other

people.

Now don’t take this to mean that

this is the only way to decide what to

develop. There are lots of good ways tolook for a business to develop. If you have

accumulated capital and have made a science

of the activity the world is your oyster. At

that point development becomes a matter

of trends in the economy and identification

of unexploited markets. It is only that I

have assumed that most people reading thisbook would not consider themselves expert

entrepreneurs. For those people it is best to

take the easiest and surest route so as to have

the opportunity to accumulate capital and

expertise. If you are one of these people,

take my advice; start with an order.

64

d l t it h J t d t d th t ll

Networking

f di t t It i l h




and let it happen. Just understand that all

relationships demand energy. If you hope

to get anything out of them you are going to

have to invest in them.

67

funding or your contract. It is always much

easier for people to say yes to someone they

know.

Now I recognise that there are people

reading this who consider themselves as anti-social, or shy, or a maverick that doesn’t fit

it. I understand this, in fact I am one of you.

Nonetheless, no matter how hard you find it

to network, it is critical to your success.

If you find it hard to make contact

yourself, or to develop the characteristics of

a networker, befriend one. I said befriend,not make a partner of them. I have a couple

of really good friends who are excellent

networkers. I find it much more sincere

and a lot easier to put my energy into them.

They in exchange, connect me across a wide

range of personalities and power bases.

You don’t have to be a used car salesmanto connect. Be yourself. Find people you

relate to and put energy into them. If you exert

the effort, over time you will find others you

connect with and your network will grow. It

doesn’t have to be some sort of “singles bar”

manic drive to meet and connect. Be sincere

66



“Know yourself, know your enemy;100 battles, 100 victories”

Sun Tsu

Military strategist like Clauswitz like to

call it Morale. Alexander Leighton definesmorale as “the capacity of a group of people

to pull together persistently and consistently

in pursuit of a common purpose”.

Morale is what defines how quick and

how far an army can travel and still maintain

the will to win.

Morale defines at what point in thebattle the desire to be done with all the pain

is greater than the will to live.

Morale determines who will win and

who will lose.

In business we fight a battle every

day. None more than the entrepreneur who

Know Yourself

69

I just want to say that just keeping a

Know Yourself

depends on the accomplishment of his or her




I just want to say that just keeping a

winning attitude or staying positive isn’t

enough. Just like simply moving the enemy

isn’t enough. A good warrior shapes the

enemy into a configuration they know theycan defeat. A good business person shapes

his or her own personality to fit the end state

that represents victory in the environment

they are in. An old friend used to say “the

right horse for the right course”. It doesn’t

do any good to become Napoleon if victory

is represented by an end state that Napoleoncould never achieve.

I have made this mistake many, many

times. I spent so many years shaping my

personality to fit an American, confrontational

style of business, that when I started to do

business in much more subtle environments,

I was considered a thug. This process taughtme to prepare for each situation. Much like

a method actor preparing for a part. Don’t

ever give up your unique identity, but you

must shape your strengths to survive in the

environment you are in.

71

depends on the accomplishment of his or her

goals for a paycheck.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses,

your passions, your failings and limits,

helps you to shape yourself in the midst of a battle.

For those of you who are not military

people, shaping is a battle concept. Military

planners use things such as bombardment,

strategic withdrawal and propaganda to

move (or shape) the enemy into a weaker

position.In an individual’s case we must

constantly be shaping ourselves into a

winning posture. Some people call it a

winning attitude. Some call it positive

thinking. I call it war. The enemy, who may

be my competitors, a jealous brother-in-law,

or just the randomness of life, is constantlytrying to shape my position. To combat this

I must actively shape my own attitude.

How you achieve this is a personal

choice. There are literally thousands of good

books on how to stay positive etc.

70

Know yourself know your enemy (your




“No battle can take place in theabsence of an enemy”

Unknown

As important as it is to understand

yourself and your limits, it is just as importantto understand the enemy and their limits. The

above war maxim highlights that business

like war, does not take place in a vacuum.

Business is competitive. Companies vie

with all their might and strength to ensure

that the battle is theirs. It is the foolishness

of high thinkers to try and convince theaverage person that life and business is not

about competition. Never forget that every

action has a re-action. Every action you

take to please the customer will be matched

and exceeded by your competitor. Your

responsibility is to understand the competitor

Know Your Enemy

73

Know yourself, know your enemy (your

environment or market), 100 battles, 100

victories.

72

enemy’s strengths and weaknesses as well

Know Your Enemy

and position yourself relative to them and the




enemy s strengths and weaknesses, as well

as some scenario planning as to how the

enemy will act in battle.

The battle is yours to win or lose.

Remember what Sun Tsu said, “Knowyourself and know your enemy; 100 battles,

100 victories”.

75

and position yourself relative to them and the

customer. If you can use your knowledge of

the competitor to shape them into a weaker

position, you will have a better chance of

winning. Winning ensures survival, survivalis your goal. You will never sell a business

that does not survive to be sold.

To do this you will have to commit

the time and resources into getting to know

your competition. By knowing, I do not

mean from a distance. I mean up close and

personal. This may entail getting to know theCEO or the Head of Marketing personally.

Whatever you need to do, I suggest you

do it. It will serve you to know what the

competition is planning, or having a personal

understanding of how they will react to your

moves. Remember what I said, you cannot

AFFORD to lose money. Before you startthat new sales push or promotion, figure out

how the competition will react and prepare.

How they react is as important as how the

customer reacts. Business is a battle for

the mind of the customer. A well prepared

battle plan always includes an analysis of the

74

F



“A laser beam without focus is just a really expensive flashlight”

Mark Bruno

Laser is an acronym for light

amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation.

Although not scientifically the same

thing as a flashlight, without focus the end

result is pretty much the same thing. The

ability of a laser to cut flesh in surgery or

steel in a factory, is the result of the ability

to focus the energy of the beam on a minute

space. This focused energy then exerts a

tremendous amount of light energy onto a

small space, resulting in the cutting we are

all so familiar with.

Life is very much like a piece of steel;

a flat sub-straight waiting for someone to

apply energy to it so as to give it form.

Focus

77

focused. I cannot and will not have the energy

Focus

As a young man I was strongly




gy

in this lifetime to accomplish everything I

want. I have to focus.

A wise man once said “you can have

ANYTHING you want, you just can’t have

EVERYTHING you want”.

This I believe is one of the major failures

of entrepreneurs. Especially really smart

ones. God in his wisdom has created some

people to have the vision to see what others

don’t. Perhaps it is his way of advancing

society. The problem is that gift alwayscomes with responsibility. Just being able

to visualise something does not mean you

will have the time or the resources to build

it. You need to learn to choose. I find this

my single biggest weakness and one I have

struggled to control. Unless I limit the

options of my life I exhaust myself runningbetween them.

The bible says that a wise man considers

whether or not he has the materials to

complete the building before he begins

(paraphrased from proverbs). This is very

sound wisdom. Make sure you finish what

79

y g g y

influenced by a book written in 1938 by

Napoleon Hill. That famous book is called

“Think and Grow Rich”. I studied that book

for years. I even took passages from it and

pasted them to the walls of my room. The

bad news for me was that the book could

not penetrate me. I constantly repeated the

words of the book. Visualised the concepts

and told myself to believe. It didn’t seem to

work. It was only much later that I decided to

look at Napoleon Hills work from a differentperspective. What if I took every chapter in

the book and put the word Focused in front of

it. The chapters would now read something

like this:

Focused Desire

Focused FaithFocused Auto-Suggestion

And so on and so forth. This proved to

be a key for me understanding a universal

truth. In order for all that faith, desire and

suggestion to have meaning, it has to be

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A Word onyou start. More importantly, make sure you




“Mindset- A fixed mental attitudeor disposition that predetermines

a person’s responses to and

interpretations of situations”.

Wikipedia

I am often asked by young entrepreneurs

what the proper mindset is to ensure their

success. This is obviously a difficult

question to answer. By definition, a mindset

is a fixed mental attitude or disposition. I

think that this mindset changes according

to circumstances and thus cannot really bedefined.

When asked this question, if I find

myself, as I am now, not discussing mindset

but Will.

Napoleon Hill said “anything you can

conceive and believe you can achieve”. I

A Word onMindset

81

y p y y

stay focused on what you started or else

you will turn a very expensive laser into a

flashlight.

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Unlike a lot of other books of this nature,

A Word on Mindset

believe this. Every great structure, business




this book seemed to take both a scientific

and practical approach to the concept of will.

To me, one of the most important things

pointed out in the book, is the true function

of will in our lives.

I quote, “The true function of the will

is not to act against the personality to force

the accomplishments of one’s purpose. The

will has a directive and regulatory function;

it balances and constructively utilizes all the

other activities and energies of the humanbeing without repressing any of them”.

This was freeing to me. As I said earlier,

I always struggled with the concept of will,

or willpower. The use of will to accomplish

goals just seemed to take too much energy. I

always saw will as the energy that moved the

car. Not as the energy that steered it.If I take this example a little further,

imagine how much energy you would expect

to exert pushing a car up a hill. Now imagine

how little energy you would have to spend

steering it.

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or institution began as an illusion in the mind

of its creator. Even this world in which we

live began as a thought form in the mind of

God.

Credendo Vides- Believing is seeing.

All creation is an act of will. No matter

what other aspects you bring to the creative

process, if you do not bring a dedicated will,

you will not complete it.

But what is this thing we call will. Well

we all think we know what will power is,and we talk about having free will and the

will to live, but what is “will” really?

I have always been challenged by the

concept of will. To believe that my life is

really just an act of my own will puts me under

a lot of pressure. To think that willpower

is some sort of power that allows me toreach my goals by way of, out powering

my adversaries and my own failings, is just

exhausting.

Some time ago I came across a book

entitled “The Act Of Will” by Roberto

Assagioli M.D.

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car in two directions at once. You have to

A Word on Mindset

Will and willpower is really a matter




choose the highest and best choice for you

at the time. Choose to steer the path that is

most consistent with your chosen destination.

A path that gets you there in one piece and

ready to compete.

If you always maintain the mindset that

you are the captain of your ship and make

choices that use the least amount of energy

(will), you will get where you are going.

A latin proverb says “a drop of water

makes a hole in the stone, not by its force,but by its constant falling”.

The key to overall success is consistency,

this requires the will to stay on course. The

best mindset to have in any venture is the

one that gets you to the exit.

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of staying on course. Consistently making

decisions in the same direction. This is a

very important concept to understand. To

consistently make decisions in the same

direction, you have to limit yourself.

You cannot do everything you want.

The more options you allow yourself, the

more WILL you will have to apply to stay

on course.

Maybe you are smart enough and wilful

enough for that, but I am not.All aspects of creation are a function of

limitation. Take the book you are reading.

That book is there as a result of limitations.

The pages and print are constrained to a

certain size that allows them to have function

for you. If they were not constrained in their

current form you would not be able to readthem.

I am not trying to limit your vision, or to

stop you from going where you want to go. I

am merely pointing out to you that to create

is an act of will. An act of will is by itself

is an act of constraint. You cannot steer a

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Energy



“It takes as much energy to wishas it does to plan”.

Eleanor Roosevelt

While we were on the subject of WILL,

I thought that I should mention another of my favourite topics, ENERGY.

I am not what you might consider an

extremely energetic person. My wife can

work circles around me and so can many

others. I have always felt a bit guilty about

this. After all aren’t entrepreneurs supposed

to be these highly energetic, workaholictypes that never stop achieving. If that is so,

I am in big trouble because, to tell you the

truth, it doesn’t take much to wear me out.

So how do I find the energy to do what I

need to do. Read on.

Energy

87

the energy in such a way as to give us the

Energy

When I was a kid, I remember my math




desired output.

If you think about this practically you

have plenty of examples of this in your own

life. What you apply your energy to you will

succeed.

Now if that is true why do we not have

what we think we want? Well the answer

is easy. We have come to believe in our

modern world that energy is a free and ever

increasing resource. This is just not true.

Not even for your body and mind.Each individual is born with a certain

capacity for energy, much like a generator

that is built. The generator has a certain

capacity for output that will not change. If

you push the generator for more power or

run it for too long without a rest, it burns out.

And so will you.The secret lies not in finding ways

to increase your energy, the secret lies in

learning to allocate the energy you have

correctly.

If we look again at the above attributes

box and think about the energy, output

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book had a picture in it that looked something

like this:

>> X + 3 =

The idea of this picture was to show

the attributes of the box and how the output

changed as you changed the input. For

example if I put a 3 as the input for the above

box, the attributes of the box converts theoutput to a 6. If I put a 4 as the input, the

output is 7. So on and so forth.

Life is also pretty much like this. Our

will is made up of several attributes that fit

into the box. I would put the following into

the attribute box of my will.

>>Focus DirectionDrive ResolvePurpose

=

What we put into the box as an input is

energy. The attributes of our will then direct

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do an energy audit before you begin. Figure

h h f fi i i

Energy

equation, we will see a truth that may have

b i d N i h I l k




out how much of your finite energy capacity

is allocated to things that can change and

how much is allocated to things that can’t

change. Then and only then will you have

a clear view of whether you can finish what

you start. If you make the mistake of thinking

you will just generate more energy, you are

headed for a breakdown.

Remember the use of focus, will and

energy are all choices. Choices you will

have to make. Rather make them up front,so as not to fall down just as you reach the

goal line.

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been missed. Neither you nor I lack energy

to accomplish our goals. Our energy is just

misused.

Take the above attributes box and put

different inputs into the front. Instead of applying the energy with the goal of making

money, apply the energy with the goal of

attracting the opposite sex. The box still

works, however your generator has used a

portion of its allocation toward attracting

the opposite sex and so has less for making

money. This may not be a bad thing, I meanall work and no play makes Johnny a dull

boy. But the truth exists nonetheless. How

many people have you known that were

horrible sales people, but excellent pick up

artist. There is not defect in the attributes

of their will, nor is there a lack of energy.

The problem is a misuse of energy. If thoseindividuals put more energy into sales than

picking up women, they would be rich as

well as good looking and it would take a lot

less effort to achieve their original goal.

If you are going to succeed in building

your business make sure you take the time to

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Putting it AllT



“That’s my story and I’m stickingto it”

Collin Quinn, Saturday Night Live

What makes a great entrepreneur has

been a hotly contested question for aslong as they have existed. All of us have

a vision of perfection and are driven by the

existence of men like Steven Jobs or Bill

Gates. These men, like shining beacons,

show us what is possible when an individual

combines timing, talent and dedication

toward a focused goal. The search for whatmade them what they are, can be a long one.

Entrepreneurs are complex individuals that

come from all walks of life. Not all of them

fit into the Steven Jobs mould. Some are not

what we would call attractive, or articulate,

or even powerful. Some entrepreneurs are

Together

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My greatest gift in life is to know and

have known some amazing entrepreneurs

Putting it All Together

very simple people, adding value along the

way and working diligently to fill the role




have known some amazing entrepreneurs.

Some of them scaled the heights to become

billionaires; others have had much less

success. All of them learned a lot along the

way and were kind enough to pass it on to

me.

It is my greatest desire that the path I

have laid out here is of benefit to the reader.

That the experiences I have highlighted add

value to your life and that the wisdom of my

teachers is passed on to you.

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way and working diligently to fill the role

they have been given.

The road of an entrepreneur can be

tough. Much like a missionary, we strive to

convince the unbelieving and to convert the

hostile.

Just like missionaries, some

entrepreneurs fall along the way, losing

all in the pursuit of the inner belief in their

concept.

My purpose in writing this book wasto aid you along the path. To put on paper

the lessons I have learned along the way.

Lessons taught to me by great people and

horrible circumstance. If I have done well, I

will have kept some of you from making the

same mistakes myself, and others like me

have made. Others I will have encouraged tokeep going. Perhaps I have even convinced

some not to begin. I hope so. To begin

means to commit, to commit means to give

up something. Better not to begin, then to

start and not finish, thus giving something

up for nothing.

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Acknowledgements



There are many people who deserveto be acknowledged in my life and in their

contribution to this work.

First and foremost I have two

beautiful children named Nicollo (yes after

Machiavelli) and Daniella. Thanks to them

for their love and motivation.

I also have what I consider the perfectwife, beautiful, smart, aggressive and

supportive. Thanks to her for allowing me

the down time to actually write something.

To my mother whose grandmother was a

Clemens and has passed on to me, the genes

of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). I long to

be as witty as he was.

To Duane for your insightful critiques.

To Amanda Forrow for insisting I write

this.

To Anita for all your support and help.

Acknowledgements

97

To Kim for adding her editing

expertise




expertise.

To Mike and Adonnlee Milligan for all

their support and help and for showing all of

us the true purpose of wealth.

To all the individuals who have

contributed so much to my life.

To anyone who reads this. You’re the

reason it was created.

Should you have any comments

or questions you can reach me at

[email protected] luck to all of you.

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Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur

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