– Mahatma Gandhi
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
– Colin Powell
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of a greater or equal benefit.
– Napoleon Hill
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
– Lao Tzu
“Remember that failure is an event, not a person.”
– Zig Ziglar
“We see men who have accumulated great fortunes, but we often recognize only their triumph, overlooking the temporary defeats which they had to surmount before arriving.”
– Napoleon Hill
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan
“I believe that the way to pre-eminent success in any business is to make yourself master of that line.”
– Andrew Carnegie
“Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.”
– Lord Chesterfield
“Conference maketh a ready man; writing an exact man; but reading maketh a full man.”
– Francis Bacon
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Isaac Newton was once asked how he had developed the intellect which led him to achieve such tremendous breakthroughs in human knowledge; Newton paused briefly “If I have seen further than other men,” he replied, “it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”
His point, of course, simply means that no one needs ever learn on his/her own. To learn from the experiences of others constitutes wisdom. If we do it right in our business, it constitutes success and profit.
About the Author
Mo Abraham joined the merchant navy in 1980 when he was 17, going on to study marine electronics, communication, and radars, eventually becoming a Radio Officer and earning quite well for a man of his age.
In 1987, he decided to quit the sea and work on ground. He joined a major telecom company at a good post. He wasn’t too satisfied, though, for his aim was to hold a more challenging position, but he didn’t feel he was qualified enough, so he joined a 3-year part time course in Business Management, which widened his horizon. Shortly after his graduation, he got promoted within the same company, but he knew he could do better elsewhere. He moved between four multinational, multi-billion dollar companies between 1994 and 2003, holding key managerial positions at each, and his pay check got bigger and bigger.
However, even then, he felt he still could do better. So in September 2003, he decided to quit his 9-5 job and utilize his knowledge and experience to set up his own business, which was his childhood dream!
His biggest issue then – from which he’s learned a big lesson – was that he just wanted to enjoy himself to the fullest – being young, free and single – and he never saved for the rainy day, as he always thought he could make money whenever he wanted!
It was only when he decided to start his own business that he realized how wrong he was! So he set up his business on a shoelace budget, so to speak, to the degree he couldn’t afford to hire anybody! So he was the owner, the manager, the salesman, you name it. That was a big costly lesson!
But he was so determined to follow through. He worked longer hours, no weekends, no holidays, no help from others, and no social life. That was a tough period for him. It was a big struggle until he won his very first bid for half a million dollar project, which wasn’t only outside the scope of his business, but he had no finances, resources, or experience to implement it. He ended up outsourcing it and managed to hire his first seven technicians to blend them with the outsourced team to learn from them. This project became his flagship and reference. He became known to suppliers, contractors, and potential clients and started to get more orders and gradually grew to over 120 staff in less than five years from the inception of the business.
But that wasn’t how he succeeded. His success goes back to 1990 when he became the regional director of a major U.S. telecom provider. He realized that in order to grow big in a competitive working environment, he ought to be well versed in his job. So he started buying every sales, marketing, management and motivational book he came across, and initiatively, spent years investing in and developing himself without relying on anyone for training or development.
He felt so good after reading each of these books, but knowing that if he didn’t apply what he read, it would most likely evaporate with time, and re-reading them would take a lot of his already limited time as, on average, each book contained around 400 pages!
Imagine the time it would take to read and re-read ten of these books! So he started summarizing the key points of each book and came up with a reference book, similar to this, where he can cover so many key points in the most effective and efficient manner. He felt he was getting better, more effective, more efficient, and more confident and gained more respect. He felt the difference after forming his reference book, and he still reads new books and keeps updating his book, and what he’s about to share with you is the latest update.
This book is the outcome of his experiences in life, which will definitely expand as he goes along and learns more in life. A progressive process in one’s lifetime is personal development, which should not stop as long as you have the need or desire for it and to keep pace with the ever-changing world. In fact, this process should only stop once you cease to exist.
The Formula for Success
Let’s take sales and sales people as examples since this is my core competency, which can also be applied to virtually any field and profession.
Almost all professional salespeople follow a specific pattern in their learning curve. In the beginning, whether by talent, hard work, good training, or plain luck, they progress rapidly: new ideas, new clients, exciting concepts. Success. But then the learning curve slows – a lot. Gradually, they may make a marginal improvement. Keep on doing what you’re doing. Work a little harder. Plan a little better. Build the database of customers a little more. Pick up an extra client here or there to compensate for the lost accounts. Boring, but effective if your market doesn’t change.
But, there’s a much more effective way! Reading this book and other good books will allow your thoughts and techniques to progress exponentially.
Almost all salespeople, even the most successful ones, only half learn their business! For example, suppose there were ten good ways to obtain new clients, and a new salesman was taught four of those ways by his boss. Suppose he discarded one as ineffective, which left him with three ways to generate new accounts. Those three worked, and he used them to make more money than he’d ever made before in his life! Would he be motivated to find and learn the other six ways? Or would he think he ‘knew it all?’
Let’s take another example. Suppose a new salesman started in a strong economic climate and learned and practiced what he was taught. He went on to fame and fortune and became highly successful doing what he’d been taught. Then the market changed, and his billings dropped significantly.
Would