The Entrepreneurial Savant

Expert poker players know that the way to win consistently is to fold whenever you have a hand that is weak and hang in there when your hand is strong. They also know that when you have a good hand, it gets better as more cards are on the table. Extremely successful investors also know that it is vital to have a plan to cut losses quickly and to let profitable positions ride until they run out of steam. As obvious as these tactics seem, very few humans make good poker players or successful speculators because it is our nature to hold onto losing positions until we can regain our losses. We also tend to grab profits right away instead of letting them build. The key to changing this destructive behavior lies in having a plan to control your exposure to risk.
Whatever you do for a living, it is a good idea to know the point where you will stop putting energy into a losing situation. When you make your plans, build in a set of indicators that tell you that things are not working out and that it is time to exit gracefully, accepting your small losses as an investment in experience. By doing this you’ll leave yourself the energy and resources you need to go on to other things.
Conversely, when things are going well and you have begun to profit from them, you must resist the temptation to get out while the going is good. The best time to take your winnings is after the tide has turned and your project is running out of steam or changing. Getting out too early will not put you into the black. It works like this:
Imagine you get five bad hands in a poker game or five stock market picks start going down. The person without a risk control plan will lose a little too much money on each losing situation as they hope for a turnaround, adding up to considerable losses, possibly even breaking the bank. The player with an experienced attitude towards risk gets out as soon as it is apparent that things aren’t working out, taking a small loss. On the winning side, the participant without a plan who finally gets a profitable position will usually get out too early because of the desire to ‘protect’ their winnings. The experienced player knows that he must bet the pile on the winners and stay in there, taking money away from the little profit takers and making up for all those little losses he accepted earlier. One 100% gain wipes out nine 10% losses and shows a profit. One 100 % loss puts you out of business.
The secret of risk control is to have plan and stick to it, no matter what.

No Comments yet »

Human beings are always in search of things that can change or improve our life. Paradoxically, nothing we have is permanent and the future is always a mystery, no matter how carefully we prepare for it. All of our work up to this moment can be undone in an instant by forces beyond our control or those same unknown forces can suddenly propel us forward into entirely new territory, unexpected and exciting.
The result of this lost past and uncertain future is that we are, by nature, seekers. Those who choose to try and define their life by today’s standards will end up struggling against the inevitability of change. Their lives are defined by the past. Others may always be looking forward, trying to discern the future when things will be better. They are locked into a reliance on uncontrollable forces. Realizing that things will never be the same as this moment helps us focus in on what we are doing now and gives life its sweetness; the sweetness that comes from experiencing things which will never be again. Sometimes in our search for personal and professional success we become too focused on what has been and will be. Now is the moment in which we actually live. Appreciate it.

No Comments yet »

“If it’s so good, how come everybody isn’t doing it?”
Every visionary, entrepreneur, artist and creative thinker has heard this one. The answer is that ‘everybody’ seldom follows through on their dreams and it always takes a powerfully determined individual to take action on their ideas and visions. Sure, someone may have thought of your idea before. I doubt there are too many new ideas out there after thousands of years of human thought. Embracing that idea and pursuing it diligently separates you from the crowd and that’s why everybody isn’t doing it. Follow your dream. You may succeed and if you don’t, you’ll have the satisfaction and experience of having tried.

No Comments yet »

The definition of success not only varies from person to person but also changes as you define and achieve your goals. Those things that seemed so important and unreachable at age 20 now are run of the mill or replaced by totally different priorities. As we grow through experience, our goals change, often from material things to spiritual or personal growth goals. We may take on bigger, more visionary projects or simply try to be good parents, community members and workers. The ultimate message of this site and the ultimate definition of success have more to do with experience of achieving than the achievement. Life occurs in between the peaks and every time we conquer one, a whole new vista, previously unseen, unfolds. Enjoying the journey is the true secret of success.

No Comments yet »

When you look back on how you met your friends, spouse, got your job, found your vocation or learned your skills, you’ll almost always find that you were led in an unexpected direction by something or somebody. A painter is asked to paint some theatrical sets and discovers a fascination with acting. A teacher and student discover a mutual passion for French cooking. A book about exceptional investors leads you to an interest in psychological modeling. An attempt to define your goals and learn more about the process of achievement leads to a book about the ‘Secrets of Success’. When you let a conversation or research project take an unexpected turn you never know what may lie immediately ahead. It might be something that changes your life.

No Comments yet »

This is a simple yet powerful way to achieve your goals. Many of us depend on appointment books and calendars to organize our life. Taking this one step further, as part of your goals achievement process get a five year calendar that is on one page. These are available as poster size planners at office supply stores. Use them to make specific appointments for each step of your goal achievement process. For instance, if you are a musician and you dream of making a record, break your dream down into realizable steps. These might include getting 12 songs together, rehearsing with other musicians, saving a certain amount of money each week for expenses, playing a certain number of gigs to prepare for recording, looking at studios and talking to others who have put out records, booking your first recording session, finishing recording and mixing, having cover art done by a designer, having CDs duplicated on your own label and selling them to stores, opening social networking pages etc. Each step can be entered into your calendar as a specific appointment or deadline by which you hope to have things ready. This project may stretch over one or two or more years but you can always see the next step and have a good idea where you stand. Not only that but your five year calendar will keep having new projects and goals added to it, serving as a record of your dreams and achievements.

No Comments yet »

Every salesperson knows what a ‘cold call’ is. Its a telephone call to someone you don’t know that you make for purpose of furthering your cause. If you’re selling something, you may be seeking an appointment to make a presentation. If you’re raising money for a cause you may have a similar goal. If you’re trying to learn about a new career or resource you may simply be trying to find the right expert for advice. Whatever the reason you make the calls, they are often the only way you can accomplish your goal(s). Unfortunately a very human and common fear of rejection keeps most of us from making cold calls and we get stuck, unable to make forward movement.
There are many methods of beating the fear. Use a script so that when fear freezes you up, you can keep going with what you wanted to say. Rehearse your script ahead of time with a co-worker or spouse. Find common ground ahead of time through research so that you can turn a feared encounter into an opportunity to share interest. Most importantly, make a certain number of ‘cold’ calls everyday. These shots into the dark can lead to many new resources and profitable relationships.
Give yourself an incentive to make your calls everyday. Think of them the way a salesperson might. A good cold caller knows exactly how many calls they need to complete to make an appointment and how many appointments it takes to make a sale. Knowing their average profit on each sale, they can assign a dollar value to each and every call, no matter how successful. For instance a real estate agent may call on homeowners to get houses to list and sell. She knows that for every twenty calls she completes (reaches a person), she gets one appointment. One half of her appointments result in listings for which she averages a commission of $1500 each. The math shows each call she makes to be worth $37.50. ( 40 calls = 2 appointments = one listing @ $1500. 1500/40=37.50) It kinda warms up those cold calls doesn’t it? Take your goals and reduce them to the value of a phone call done three times a day, day after day. The value of each of those dials may be a pleasant surprise.

No Comments yet »

Synergy is defined as the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Synergy is what makes planning so important. By planning how to reach your goals through a well defined set of steps you get the added bonus of synergy. It works like this: Every effective action you take multiplies the effect of any other actions you take. If you are seeking publicity for an event you’re working on you make a plan to reach every potential source of publicity. You call the radio and TV stations with a good story about your event. You send press releases with pre-written anecdotes about the organization, perhaps its history or influential founders. You build a website, place ads on Google and send out an email blast, all according to your basic plan. What happens? People hear your event announced on the radio on the way to work. You’re in their E-mail later that morning. The paper features a story about the eccentric millionaire who started your group and mentions the fund-raiser. That night, they flip on the news and there you are again, building the decorations. Wow, they think, this event must really be the thing to do. And the power of synergy reinforces and reminds them about something that now seems much more than just an event in the paper.
Professional promoters and public relations people do this all the time, but there is no reason why you can’t get in on the action. The event you are promoting might be yourself. Maybe you want a new job or a new client. Make a plan and use the power of synergy to make it many times more effective.

No Comments yet »

Breaking down your goals into steps is important and making those steps achievable is even more important. You can go even further and break them down into steps that can be accomplished on a daily basis. This really gives us the sense of getting somewhere with our plans.
An important thing to keep in mind when planning these incremental gains is to think them out ahead of time and make sure they are realistic in the context of your overall goals. Don’t set them each morning but rather, know them ahead of time. This done by taking the bigger steps in your plan and breaking them down into a series of tasks. These tasks may overlap each other or be unrelated activities that are spread out over time. Just try to identify the ones that can reasonably be accomplished in a day and put them on your calendar.

No Comments yet »

When we set goals for ourselves or others, we have to also determine the steps required to achieve those goals. A common mistake in goals work is to set goals that are so distant that it is difficult to imagine reaching them. Even when we make our goals more realistic, we often define steps that are too far apart. This makes it difficult to stay motivated and on track.  It is important to put achievable steps into your planning so that you give yourself and your co-workers something to celebrate. These early victories serve to recharge your engines and get you psyched up for the next stage of your project. So, even if you include difficult steps in your goals process, put in some intermediate ones so that you can celebrate some early victories.

No Comments yet »