Anticipation

Do you have a Radar O'Reilly Award?

In upscale magazines, Seabourne cruise lines runs an intriguing ad.

Its headline: "Seabourn believes clairvoyance is a job requirement"

The ad advances the idea that Seabourn will anticipate your every want and need on the "World's Best Small Ship Cruise Line".

It reminded me of an important concept in a book about Disney World.

If you have not, please read Tom Connellan's "Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney's Success".

It is full of great strategies from Disney's people.

One of the ideas is to create a Radar O'Reilly Award at your business.

Radar, you may remember, was either clairvoyant or had the most sensitive ears in Korea. He heard the medical helicopters coming long before anyone else.

The award would go to someone on your team who anticipates your clients' needs and wants before even they know or ask for them.

For other great Success Strategies, "Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs" has the top, field-tested concepts of 22 business owners, coaches and consultants.

It's available at JerryBellune.com

The best gift of all

Norman Vincent Peale's stories made points.

Good stories always do.
In one, a young Swedish girl lived with and helped an American family.
She had little money for Christmas gifts.
And the Americans already had so much.
Then came a divine inspiration.
She bought baby clothes with her money.
She sought the poorest baby she could find.
A Salvation Army bell-ringer helped her.

He found the family.

Together they delivered her gift.
On Christmas morning, she told the family about the gift.
She revealed that she had done it in their name.
Everyone felt blessed by the spirit of the gift.
The family felt blessed for seeing her in a new light.
The poor family felt blessed by her unexpected gift.
Giving and receiving are both blessings.
But the love behind the gift is the best gift of all.
Think about that as you do your Christmas shopping.

And now a few words from our sponsor.
Looking for a gift for someone who has everything?
Consider our new book on success. It’s called:
“Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs”.
It’s written by 22 of us who share our secrets with you.
Email me for personally autographed copies.
JerryBellune@yahoo.com

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The power of persistence

Calvin Coolidge inspects
state militia during the
Boston police strike

Blog reader Doug Schreiber passed along this pithy quote.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
“Talent will not. Many unsuccessful people have talent.
“Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
“Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts.
“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Who said that? Gov. Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge.
Coolidge ended the Boston police strike the only way he could.
He fired the strikers and called up the state militia.
That gave him time to replace them with qualified officers.
That took political courage. He went against a strong union.
But he would not leave Boston residents prey to criminals.
His courage inspired voters. That led to the White House.
Think about the hard coin of courage in making decisions.
People are watching us. Stand tall and do the right thing.
Persistence has played a major role in our family’s lives.
We have started businesses against well-financed competitors.
We knew only persistence and hard work would succeed.
This meant many late nights and 90-hour weeks at work.
After midnight, I would drive by our competitor’s office.
It would be closed. The lights out. I knew we would succeed.
We might not have been the smartest business people.
But we were the most persistent. We eventually won.
After nine years, our competitor asked us to buy him out.

There are many paths to success.
Our new book outlines 22 important ones.
It’s written by 22 entrepreneurs and entitled:
“Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs”.
For details, email me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com
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Brainstorming by yourself

How do a few people come up with many ideas?
What’s their system? Could we use it?
Those are questions Ken Blum poses for us.
He does it in our new book coming this fall.

It's "Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs".
Here’s the system Ken developed for himself.
It requires 15-30 minutes of your day, every day.
Ken calls it, “Seeding,” a daily creative ritual.
1. Set aside 30 minutes a day.
Make an appointment with yourself.
Early morning or late evening.
You need to be free of disruptions.
2. Use a timer. That’s important.
3. Develop six topics in key areas of life.
Here’s Ken’s sample list:
• My personal and professional life.
• Personal financial plan.
• The book I want to write.
• Losing 20 pounds.
• Improving my golf or tennis game.
4. Set your timer for five minutes.
Start with #1. Write in your journal. Let your ideas flow.
When the timer rings, start on #2. Five minutes.
Short on time? Set the timer for three minutes.
Get to all topics. Then you’re finished for the day.
Your conscious mind works on each topic five minutes.
Your subconscious mind works on them 24 hours
What's the title of our book?

“Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs”.

Great ideas like this give you a competitive edge.

This will take you to the next level.
To order an advance copy, email me.

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For more on purpose in life, please click here.

How to think creatively

Are you a convergent or a divergent thinker?
Are you perhaps a bit of both?
Divergent thinkers find many solutions.
Convergent thinkers find the best solution.
Both are strategies to think more creatively.
Both draw on experience, knowledge, hunches.
For example, what’s the best use of a brick?
To smash windows or build homes?
That’s convergent thinking.
Now think of other ways to use bricks.
Paper weights. Door stops. Garden walls.
That’s divergent thinking.
Both are important. They fuel creativity.
Blue sky problem solvers generate solutions.
Many ideas may be whacky or unrealistic.
Your absurd idea may spark a brilliant one.
There is one rule in this kind of problem solving: No ideas are rejected or their creator’s chastized.
Such behavior discourages creative thinking.
Generate many solutions, whacky or weird.
Then pick the solution most likely to succeed.
If you have more than one, set priorities.
Try the most likely one first.
If it doesn’t work, go to Plan B.
Next week we’ll discuss another strategy.
It’s Ken Blum’s creative thinking formula.
You don’t want to miss this.

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For more on purpose in life, please click here.

How to sell an idea

Frederick the Great knew

how to create a hot potato

In today's Success Blog, we have a big idea for you.
In the 1750s, German peasants died in famines.
When the wheat crop failed, they had nothing to eat.
To help them, King Frederick came up with an idea.
He introduced the lowly potato as a wheat substitute.
The idea fell flat on its face.
Peasants thought the potato was revolting.
They refused to eat it.
King Frederick rebranded the potato as a ‘royal’ vegetable.
He proclaimed it for the royal family only.
Guards were placed around the royal potato patch.
This established that these potatoes were special.
The guards were ordered to guard the potatoes loosely.
Frederick wanted his people to slip in and steal them.
The peasants made off with as many potatoes as they could carry.
The famine was licked. The people survived.
Potatoes became common in German cooking.
What had King Frederick accomplished?
He used ‘great creative’ to re-introduce the brand.
He used social media and Word of Mouth advertising.
This communicated a perception of the potato’s value.
Frederick became Frederick the Great — for his great creative.
Marketer Ken Gasque cites this story in our new book.
Ken, I and 19 others will publish this book in October.
Its title: “Killer Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs”.
It’s filled with great stories of failure and success.
You’ll learn more about how succeed than you can imagine.
To reserve a copy, email me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com
To contact Ken, email him at Ken@Gasque.com
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