Tom Rath – Find Your Strengths
“Forget about your shortcomings, focus on your strengths.”
1. Focus most of your energy on your own natural strengths and abilities, not on your weaknesses.
2. Invest time, effort, and development dollars in your areas of greatest strength, that’s where you will have the greatest return.
3. Quit trying to be well rounded. Focus on improving in the areas where you already show talent. Try devoting 80% of your time to improving your strengths, and 20% of your time to improving your weaknesses.
Tom Rath - Author/Gallup Consultant – StrengthsFinder 2.0
MLB Video #23 – (9:07) - Net Worth = N/A
Michael Gerber – The Entrepreneurial Myth
“Go to work ON your business, as opposed to IN your business.”
1. A business that is wholly dependent on the founder and their abilities is not a real business, it’s a job. This is the entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth.
2. Create a company that works without you, as opposed to one that only works with you. Replace yourself with a system.
3. Develop your business as a system where any ordinary person can produce extraordinary results. This is known as a turnkey, or franchise business system that can be replicated over and over again.
Michael Gerber - Author/Speaker/Entrepreneur – The E-Myth Revisited
MLB Video #19 – (6:08) - Net Worth = N/A
Jeff Jarvis – Elegant Organization
“In order to help people do what they want to do better, bring them Elegant Organization.”
1. Communities already exist. The question you should ask is – How can you help these people do what they want to do better?
2. A good company helps provide an organizing structure for our lives and our communities.
3. Elegant organization provides the means to bring out the knowledge of a crowd so that it can be shared more effectively.
Jeff Jarvis - Author/Speaker – Start With Why
MLB Video #13 – (2:49)
Jason Fried – Think of Yourself as a Curator
“Avoid saying yes to too many features and too many customers.”
1. Try to think of yourself as a curator, your product as a museum, and the features of your product as art.
2. Instead of trying to outspend your competition, try to out TEACH your competition.
3. In order to attract a larger audience, educate your potential customers about what you do and how you do it.
Jason Fried- President of 37 Signals | Author of Rework
MLB Video #10 – (9:38)
Jeffrey Gitomer – What it takes to be #1
“Remember every success that you’ve ever had, and focus on that each time you walk in a new door.”
1. The two most important words in selling are YOU and WHY.
2. The customer buys YOU first. The first sale that is made is the salesman. The first sale that is made is YOU.
3. Ask powerful questions. The more thought provoking your questions are, the more your prospective buyer will respect you.
Jeffrey Gitomer- Author/Speaker - The Little Red Book of Selling – Gitomer.com
MLB Video #9 – (5:37)
Tom Peters – 3 Ways to Pursue Excellence
“The four most important words in an organization are – What do you think?”
1. What do you think? – This means that YOU are a person of value who has an opinion that I want to hear.
2. Find ways to keep your brain engaged. An engaged brain remembers 3x more information than an unengaged brain.
3. Your internal customers are more important than your external customers. Development of your internal customers (co-workers, employees, bosses, decision makers, etc.) is more important in business than your external customers.
Tom Peters – Author - The Little Big Things – 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence
MLB Video #8 – (5:50)
Aaron Levie – Why Freemium Works
“Freemium is a business model that works by offering a basic product or service free of charge, while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services”
1. Lower friction means faster traction. If you can bring down the barriers between you and your customers (i.e. credit card payment) you can often hook them faster and easier.
2. With Freemium, your customers become your marketers and instantly become evangelists for your product.
3. Freemium forces you to make a much better product or service. By allowing people to try it for free, the product or service will have to speak for itself.
Aaron Levie - CEO of Box.net
MLB Video #7 – (5:47) - Net Worth = $7 Million
Seth Godin – The Dip
“Quitting is actually an excellent strategy if you do it the right way”
1. The Dip is the screen, filter, or thing that separates the triers from the winners.
2. Quit what is non-essential in order to remain focused throughout the dip.
3. The worse thing you can do is quit in the dip. Smart people either quit in the beginning, or they don’t quit until the end.
Seth Godin Net Worth – N/A
Tim Ferriss – Critical Business Advice
“80/20 Analysis: Identify the 20% of products or services that produce 80% or more of your profits”
1. You have to have a strong idea of what you ARE NOT to establish a brand.
2. Understand how your value is measured as an employee. If your boss doesn’t have good measurements for your performance, create your own! Why is it less expensive to keep you, then it is to fire you?
3. In order to increase your productivity, start saying NO to people! Especially when requests are irrelevant to the objectives you have set for yourself.
Tim Ferriss Net Worth – $15 Million