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We bought a washer/dryer at Sears. The salesman came round to my house in his own time to disconnect the water pipes at no charge, the night before delivery of the new appliances. He had a great, friendly, helpful attitude. He recommended I buy longer pipes and a longer drainage pipe so that it would fit better, which I did. When the machines were installed, the installers forgot to remove the supports, so when we turned the appliances on, they leapt around like kangaroos. The salesman came over, fixed everything, and arranged a $100 discount.

This salesman used his own, private time, got his clothes dirty, never complained, went the extra mile, and made sure we were happy customers. Amazing service. Would I want to help him, send him business, and support him in any way I could? You bet I would. Did he have to sell me anything, pitch anything, or ask for anything? No. My daughter is about to buy a new fridge. I called her and suggested she give this salesman her business.

I have an amazing insurance / financial planning guy who has been a great benefit to me and to strong businesspeople for who I have lots of respect. I refer him to people and he gives them a complimentary consultation. He saves me thousands in tax – why would I not refer him? He didn’t have to ask me to do so, because he went the extra mile. He’s reliable, honest. Astute, professional, always on time, and responds fast. You will probably e-mail me and ask for his telephone number. I’ll be glad to pass it on (if you’re in Canada.)

When you take the time to go into the forest to chop the wood, meticulously prepare the fire, get your hands dirty, and make sure the thing blazes away, you deserve to enjoy the heat, but not before. Entitlement, arrogance, socialism, shoddy service, and impatience robs many people of excellent referrals in business. It’s not about the money, honey. I don’t even know what I paid for the washer/dryer stuff – I just chose the most expensive and bought it. It’s all about the service.

“If you want a friend, BE a friend” – good advice. If you want benefits, you have to contribute. When the contribution stops, losers don’t understand why they’re not still enjoying the benefits. Create massive, unexpected, glittering value, and you can rest assured smart people will reciprocate. We bought expensive hardwood flooring from Home Depot and had it delivered and unpacked. Then we sent it all back again three days later since the floor was too uneven. They collected it and didn’t charge us a blue cent. They even paid the delivery and the installers. They didn’t have to. Now we’re loyal customers, and this article will be read by thousands of people.

Yes, what goes around comes around. Keep your promises, deliver on time, be friendly and helpful, and you will have little competition. Give additional service and go the extra mile, and your success is all but guaranteed if you’re serving good people. If not, you’ll wake up one morning to find you have been replaced by someone who understands this. We help those who help us. The good news is that you can use Joint Ventures to create MASSIVE additional value that your competition can never equal, at no cost to you.

Robin J., Elliott
 www.JVWisdom.com

Would you like to know the most valuable lesson I learned from Mr. Arthur Honey? Mr. Honey, who was an ex boxing champion and one of the seconds for Roger Bannister, when he ran the first four-minute mile, owned the Continental Hotel. I was his hotel manager. Mr. Honey was a wonderful hotelier, trained in the old school, and a real gentleman. After I completed my Hotel School Training (city and Guilds directed), I managed a German restaurant for a year and was then employed by Mr. Honey. It was the best management training I ever got.

One morning, he asked me why I had not arranged to have the one kitchen’s extract screens cleaned. I had simply forgotten. Here is the gist of what he taught me:

“Robin, any manager who forgets things is not a manager, but a DAMAGER. You may be wearing your morning suit, but when you forget, you are not managing. You will not build trust, respect, and a good reputation if you don’t deliver on your promises. When you forget, you insult the other person and yourself. When you’re late to do what you promised, you further damage your reputation and the business. Forgetting costs money and loses hotel guests. I carry a paper in my inside jacket pocket, and I write down EVERYTHING I need to remember. Anything you ask me, anything the accountant tells me, anything I notice (he used to use a white glove to search for dust), is written on this list. When I return to my office, I transpose the list onto my desk list. I never forget and I always do what I said I would do. That has made me successful. Do the same, Robin, and you will be successful. In my hotel, you will not forget anything, because you represent me. Understood?”

Mr. Honey taught me many valuable lessons (including how to knot my tie correctly!) but this was the one lesson that has helped me more than most of the things he taught me. I worked for nine straight months without a day off for that man - he was the best manager I ever had the privilege of working for. He was absolutely reliable, never compromised, and always delivered. I modeled him and even joined Rotary when I became successful because Arthur Honey was a Rotarian. In South Africa, you had to be wealthy to become a Rotarian. You had to own a business, as well, in order to even be considered as a Rotarian. My entire business and life revolves around lists, and it works very well.

Remember when you were five years old and you felt like you owned the world? You liked yourself, you were proud of your accomplishments, you were strong and courageous, and you loved people. You believed everyone loved you, too. You could dress up like a cowboy and you believed you were one.

When people asked you what you were going to be when you grew up, you answered without any doubt that you would be an astronaut or a beauty queen or a doctor. The world was at your fingertips. You believed in miracles and dreams and you had no limitations.

When You Grow Older, You Let The World Show You Limitations

As you grew older, the world got in the way and disappointments, failures, and painful experiences started to corrode your optimism, discount your self-esteem, and wear down your expectations. You started to become cynical, skepticism crept into your heart and you began compromising.

You found that being politically correct and turning the other cheek made your life easier, and you could avoid confrontation by backing down.

Previously exciting dreams and goals got shelved in favor of mediocrity and concession. Your attempts at improvement became lackluster and half-hearted. You liked yourself less. You put yourself down and lowered your standards. You stated focusing on survival instead of great success.

The Real You is still there, deep down inside. You are a winner who has behaved like a loser. You are an eagle that is living in a chicken run. You are a king or queen, clothed as a beggar, a champion with a loser’s name. You are still that five-year-old hero, and it’s not too late to return to your real self.

You can regain your belief and excitement. You can make all your dreams come true. You are the shiny sports car that simply needs the grime washed off, gas in the tank and a tune up – a “Check-up from the neck up.” The future is not equal to the past. A hundred dollar note may be crumpled, dirty and torn, but it’s still worth a hundred dollars.

You have unlimited potential. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. You are ready. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. You are powerful, smart, and wonderfully made. You have the opportunity to start over, today, by choice, regardless of your circumstances, IF you believe that. You’re not a has-been; you’re a Gonna-be! All you need is to make the decision that you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. Nothing can stop you from recreating yourself and your life, starting right now, and repeating it every single day.

You might be down, but you’re not out. You can get back up off the canvas, my friend, and become the champion you were always meant to be. It all starts with the realization of who you really are. The real you wants out – do yourself a favor and be free. Throw the shackles of self-limitation off. Walk out of the prison of doubt and fear. Fearlessly create the life you want and deserve.

It is said that duplication and leverage are the two most powerful forces in the world. Think of a virus or compound interest, and you will understand how a mail carrier can earn a million dollars a year through Network Marketing and how a simple Joint Venture that took an hour to set up can turn into tens of thousands of dollars in pure profit. There is a hard way and an easy way to make money, and I think it’s better to go the easy way.

I am thoroughly enjoying Ray Kroc’s book, “Grinding it Out” – written in 1977 about how he built McDonald’s. It’s an inspiring read of courage, vision, risk, sacrifice, and success, as well as a revelation of how dishonest some people are and how Mr. Kroc survived them. It’s very gratifying to me that I can show people a better way to wealth, a path that is not inundated with risk, sacrifice, fear, and chance. This route is the means I have chosen to build wealth – it requires no selling, risk, sacrifice, or sleepless nights.

Mr. Kroc succeeded against all odds, but he chose a business model that is extremely difficult. Joint Venture Brokering allows me the freedom of time and money, and I can operate in many areas, in many industries, and at many levels simultaneously. While franchising is definitely leverage, I choose to leverage multiple resources in many different ways, all at the same time, with no risk, overhead, leases, royalties, inventory, capital investment, or employees, and little time. I can be a creative and as adventurous as I like, without investing a blue cent.

Am I as wealthy as Mr. Kroc was? Of course not, but it is definitely as possible to attain the same level of wealth, faster, with none of the risk or costs involved, using Joint Ventures. Most entrepreneurs work too hard and earn too little. The average business, in my estimation, can easily double and quadruple their profits with no cost or risk using Joint Ventures. One JV that I got into took a profit center in my business from $4,000 per month to $20,000 per month in four days. Leverage: it’s an amazing force that is available to all of us, whether we have a business or not, and regardless of our circumstances or background. Life can be a grind, but I prefer the beach. You don’t have to sacrifice, sweat, and grovel anymore, once you discover the magic of Joint Ventures. Replace fear with fun, sweat with skiing, and risk with reward.

I sat and watched vulnerable, desperate people running - running to the back of the seminar room to waste money they didn’t have on junk that didn’t work and that they would never use.

A woman in front of me burst into tears and told me that she had spent $1,200 the previous day on material that explained how she could buy properties all over North America with no money. She had been whipped up into an emotional frenzy by the smooth taking con-man  that posed as a caring mentor in the front of the room. She couldn’t afford what she had bought, she was in her fifties, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and earned minimum wage as a security guard, and she was a single mother with two dependent children.  Disgusting.

Here’s the worst part: some of these “seminar leaders” actually sell courses on how to manipulate peoples’ minds and emotions and have them spend money on overpriced rubbish, get them running like idiots to buy stuff at the back of the room,  only to regret the purchase for years afterwards.

Intelligent, well grounded people will not rush to be ripped off, so the victims are generally less intelligent and hard-up for money, with poor self-esteem. THINK before you leap into an investment scheme or a tax saving deal. Get solid advice first. Don’t believe the discount stories and the scarcity pitches.

In Business Do You Due Diligence - It’s Worth It.

Ayn Rand said,

“Rationality is the recognition that nothing can alter the truth, that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise - that the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind. Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgement, that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life - that the vilest form of self-debasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertion as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middleman between your consciousness and your existence.”

Do your due diligence before getting into a Joint Venture. Check peoples’ motives. Read between the lines. Don’t sign ANYTHING before taking the contract to your lawyer. When you DO, i recommend a simple Memorandum of Understanding. Do not buy expensive things without sleeping on it first (Use the 3 Sleeps rule).  Things look different the next day. Instead of crying, “WHAT DID I DO? I must be crazy!” Be glad that you had enough self control to consider the facts. And this manipulation is far more widespread than most people realize. Take control of your mind, be an independent thinker, and demand freedom.

The best way to maintain your rationality and objectivity in an increasingly manipulative world that operates sans conscience and sans consequence, is to pour realism into your mind by reading the right information, immerse yourself in the philosophy of Objectivism, and connect with like-minded people.

Successful people are very careful how they spend their time, and even more careful about WHOM they spend their time with.

The most successful salespeople I have ever met were all very cautious to PRE-QUALIFY people before they wasted any time with them, by asking them very specific questions. If you decide to only spend your time with great, qualified prospects, you will make better presentations, work less, and make a lot more money. Qualify them on their interest level and qualify them on the money (can they afford it?) before you spend any more time with them.

It’s senseless to fish in a lake without fish. It’s stupid to fish in a lake where the fish are not hungry. It’s crazy to use the wrong bait. And you can’t force the fish onto the hook.

Remember, you already have the information and the business. You’re in control. You don’t need everyone in the world - you only want only a few good ones out of the millions out there. Spend your time very selectively.

Some will, some won’t, so what? NEXT!

YAHOO! You Always Have Other Options.

How do you qualify someone? BEFORE doing the presentation or arranging the meeting, ask, “If I could show you a way to reach the goals/solve the problems you have told me about, and you were comfortable that the system would work for you, would you take immediate action?”

If they say, “NO”, respond:

“I’m curious - may I ask why?” Determine their level of hunger before you try to sell them food. “The investment required for you to participate in this system is $1,000. If you feel this is the right solution / vehicle for you, is that something you can afford?” If they tell you they definitely can’t afford the program, even if they agree that it’s the best thing since sliced bread, MOVE ON. Someone’s Waiting! NEXT!

Seek Out The Producers And the Winners (That’s Only 3% of the Population!)

Would you rather spend ten hours with ten losers who never do anything, don’t show up at meetings, forget (or refuse) to return calls, and are always late, or with one real go-getter who is reliable, responsive, proactive, hard-working, eager, and positive? You may LIKE someone, but that’s never a reason to do business with them. Remember that. Seek out the producers and the winners. That’s 3% of the population: 9.9 million people in North America (out of 330 million.)

Walk away from losers and to winners. When the eagle mask slips and you see a loser underneath, hit the road, Jack. Talk is cheap - look for action. Forgive them twice, then kick them to the curb where they belong and go looking for a champion. Working with winners is very rewarding and satisfying. It’s stimulating to work with creative, positive people who take the initiative and motive you. You look forward to their calls and enjoy your time with them, and you all make lots of money in the process.

Robin J. Elliott