Thrive or Survive?

I have two important lessons for you today.

From someone you certainly have heard of, but probably know very little about…

Lesson #1) It’s never too late to start….

When “Colonel” Harland Sanders’ gas station and store (where he developed and sold his now famous chicken recipe) went out of business in 1954 (I-75 had diverted the traffic that formerly passed his location which had allowed it to exist for decades) he had little to show for working all of his life.

Being forced out of business at age 65, all he had to show for a life of hard work was an old Caddie roadster, a small, monthly, social security check and his recipe for chicken.

Thrive or Survive

Knowing he would only basically survive on his social security income, he had a choice to make (the same choice all of us have to make, especially these day).

At the age of 65, he had to choose whether he would be happy simply surviving, or if his desire was to thrive.

What did he choose? To thrive, of course.

So, he took the only two significant assets he had to his name (his commitment to hard work and his chicken recipe), got behind the wheel of his van and set out to improve his lot in life.

His simple plan was to sell his chicken recipe to restaurant owners, who would in turn give him a small percentage of the sale (which amounted to 5 cents) for every piece of chicken they sold based on his recipe.

One down, one thousand eight to go…

The first restaurant owner he called on turned him down.

So did the second.

So did the third.

… so did the 100th.

… so did the 500th

… so did the 1000th

When would you have given up?

In fact, the first 1008 sales calls Colonel Sanders made ended in rejection.

Even after his first 1008 IN PERSON sales calls ended with a “No”, he continued to call on restaurant owners as he traveled across the USA (sleeping in his car at night to save money.)

(Based on what you know about yourself and your commitment to your goals, if you had been in Colonel Sanders’ shoes, when would you have given up?)

After 1008 sales calls, his first “Yes”

Prospect number 1009 gave him his first “Yes.”

After 1008 in person sales calls, his first “Yes” finally came.

What did he have to show for two years of making daily sales calls and over 1000 in person presentations? He had signed up a grand total of five restaurants – that’s a whopping .49% close rate.

He would have had to be twice as successful as he was to hit a 1% success rate (in order to do that, 10 of the more than 1000 restaurants he called on in person would have had to say “Yes”).

Faced with a .49% success rate, after two years of work, sleeping in his car, the fact that he had to travel to more than 1009 restaurants in person to make only five sales, what did that say to Colonel Sanders?

I’m on my way!

To Colonel Sanders all of that toil and those results meant only one thing… “I’m on my way!”

(What would it have said to you?)

To him, it confirmed what he knew all along. He knew he had a great chicken recipe and that someday the idea would catch on.

Catch on it did

Did his idea catch on? As you are well aware, catch on it did.

By 1963 the Colonel had 600 restaurants across the country. All of them selling his secret recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken (and giving him a few pennies per piece).

In 1964 (at the age of 74) he received $2 million dollars when he sold his empire (the USA portion of it) to a group of business people headed up by future Kentucky governor John Brown.

74 years old, $2 million in cash in your pocket, what would you do?

Even though the sale made him a multi-millionaire at the age of 74, the same commitment to hard work and belief in his idea dictated to him that he should continue to work representing and promoting KFC (until he died in 1980 at the age of 90.)

If you woke up tomorrow and found yourself 74 years old with $2 million in your pocket, what would you do?

Would you retire? Or, would you be “on fire” (like Colonel Sanders)?

So, the Colonel Sanders’ story teaches us another extremely important lesson:

Lesson #2) It’s never too late to decide to never give up.

Where are you on your Colonel Sanders’ timeline?

When you wake up in the middle of the night or find yourself day-dreaming, letting your mind wander, ask yourself where you are on your “Colonel Sanders’” timeline.

If you aren’t where you want to be or where you know you could be, think of the two simple Colonel Sanders lessons that took him from broke (at the age of 64) to multi-millionaire (at the age of 74):

Lesson #1) It’s never too late to start….

Lesson #2) It’s never too late to decide to never give up.

Thrive or Survive? It’s up to you…

JG – “TheRefillMan”

I am as prone (and my wife, Annette, would say I am even more prone) as most to watch mindless TV in the evening (Bait Car?  Storage Wars?  Shipping Wars?).

A friend of mine, Joe Polish, sent me a link recommending this TED talk by Peter Diamandis (if you aren’t familiar with “TED”, check it out after watching the video and if you aren’t familiar with Dr. Diamandis, check this out.)

Though I was ready for bed, I decided to watch it before “hitting the hay” (I’ve always been one to go to bed early and get up quite early, as well.)

If you have been less than optimistic of late (and many, if not most, would say that is being “realistic” these days…), watch this video (it’s only 16 minutes long), listen to the compelling points Peter makes and then re-assess your feeling about “YOUR” future (the only future that counts and the only one over which you have control).

Having watched it (and with it now nearly 10pm), all I can think is, “What a great way to prepare for tomorrow (both literally and figuratively).”

Thrive (don’t just survive)!

John Galt – “TheRefillMan”

Good morning!

Rather than making this into one of my typical (lengthy) posts, here’s what I “ate” for “breakfast” this morning:

Have a great weekend,

John Galt – “TheRefillMan”

Is it the weekend (or Monday), already?

With the week drawing to a close, I have been a perfect example of what not to do to move your business (or yourself) farther along on your mission (whatever that might be).

Though my plan was to write over the weekend (or Monday at the latest), I have been immersed in the working “in” mode, instead of working “on” by business and my important goals (but, I have also spent time working “on” other things I wanted to be working on, but they weren’t the primary things…)

So, sorry for the delay.  Back at it.

What does working “on” your business actually mean?

Before moving to the next step (where we analyze the product of the two numbers provided in the polls), I’ll move to a tangent for a few minutes to clarify a question I received from quite a few of you.

Many of you wanted clarification of what I meant by working “on” your business or your goal and how to go about doing that.

The distinction between working “in” and working “on”…

Let’s say your goal was to eat in a more healthy fashion.  If you eat three times a day the exact same sort of food you have been eating forever, that is working “in” your diet.  You are simply eating what you always eat.

If before you even hit the refrigerator, the pantry or the restaurant you take 30 seconds to  say, “I am going to eat salad, a small piece of fish, drink water and that’s all.” (and then proceed to do so), you are working “on” your more healthy diet.

If your goal was to bring in more customers, working “in” your business would be showing up at the same time, doing the exact same things you always do, answering the phone, email, putting out fires, then realizing it is time to go home without having done a single thing to bring in more customers.

If, instead, you said, “I will spend 30 minutes today on the phone prospecting for new customers from the list I have had, forever.” (and then do it), you have just worked “on” your business.

Where does it start?  With the two elements of “working on” something

Where does the “working on” process start?  With just two basic elements.

Step 1: The first step in working “on” your business (mission, goal, personal problem, etc.) involves sitting down and actually thinking about what needs to be worked on.

I have to think about what should I be working on?

Don’t agonize over this step, just take even five minutes to think about what your brain seems to tell you needs work (use business, life, health, relationship, whatever, as your starting point.)

You’ll find what needs to be worked on usually falls into several main categories:

You can ask yourself a basic starter question like, what do I want to achieve?

For your business, a starter answer to that starter question could be, “Increase revenue”, which could then be further broken down into more specific ideas like, doubling your sales, gaining new customers, resurrecting previous customers, expanding your territory or product/service line, etc.

From a health perspective, it might be losing weight, getting into better shape, improving your diet, reducing your stress, etc.

For relationships, it might be making stronger connections with friends, family members, spending more “quality time” with those people, spending less time with “toxic people, etc.

Other basic questions: What do I want more of?  What do I want less of?

Some people find it easiest to start by asking two types of questions:

What do I want to attract more of?

The answer can be anything: Money, time, great customers, time off, good employees, close friends, inner peace, dependable vitality, etc.?

What do I hope to have less of?

Though this is focusing on the negatives, your answers might include fewer bills, fewer responsibilities, less frequent fights, stress, pain, weight, etc.

Or, set out to identify basic problems or opportunities

You can also set out to identify what your problems are, the issues your business faces, new opportunities you want to explore, trains that are barreling toward you (and how to avoid the wreck), etc.

Determining what those issues are is the first step in the working “on” process (since until you identify what it is that needs addressing, you can’t easily or effectively work on it).

The second and more important part of working “on” something?

Once you have determined what the issues are you want to address, the second (and more important) part of working “on” it is to actually work on it (duh?)!

Avoid “Analysis to Paralysis”

Don’t turn this into massive, overwhelming, complicated, grandiose plan (this is a problem I really, REALLY suffer from, the “analysis to paralysis”, “the plan must be perfect” habit of thinking…)

Start really small and simple

For example, if your mission is to improve customer retention, an easy starting point might be to call customers who recently left or who you haven’t heard from in a long time and open with something as simple as, “We really appreciated your business.  We see you haven’t been back and I wanted to apologize for letting you down.  What could we have done better, differently, etc., that would have made you stay with us or come back?”

Even doing something like that for an hour (taking notes during the call and then quickly analyzing what you have heard) will give you massive direction to help you refine your approach (and might reveal something entirely different than what you might have assumed would help with customer retention had you spent days or weeks coming up with the perfect plan).

For weight loss it might be determining what foods you no longer want to eat, purging them all from the kitchen, becoming a vegetarian, joining a gym, getting a treadmill, simply walking outside, finding a “workout buddy”, “accountability partner”, whatever.

Once again, you may find that getting up 30 minutes earlier and walking around your neighborhood or on the treadmill, whatever, might be far more enjoyable than a giant plan of hiring a personal trainer, joining a gym, soliciting a workout buddy, etc.

But, again, it’s all about the first step.  Take it and pat yourself on your back.

The easier you make it, the more likely you will do it

The easier you make these first items to work on, the more likely it is you will do them until they become a habit (the same with doing the “thinking” part of the equation, don’t do it just “one and done”, do it on a regular basis since your needs, problems, missions, goals will change over time.)

So, that key second step of working “on” something is determine what easy first steps you can do to address your mission and then “just do it”.

Even if you only decide to “just do it” (whatever that might be) 5 minutes a day, 30 minutes every other day, 3 times a week (only you can determine what makes sense for you and your “issue”), if that is way more time than you have been spending on this issue up until now, pat yourself on the back because you are on your way.

Here are the results of the second poll:

Bringing this to a close, here are the results of the second poll:

Next time, the importance of the product of those numbers

In the next installment we’ll look at what the numbers reveal (and I’ll share with you a favorite audio I recently happened upon that, while basic, it tells you a lot about what people who have this process nailed do).

John Galt – “TheRefillMan”

Thank you for your replies, questions and comments!

I received a ton of replies, questions and comments regarding yesterday’s post.  Thank you for those (and thank you, as well, to those of you who said they are looking forward to this venue being brought back to life.  It’s feels good to be back.)

Quick favor – Please respond in the blog (not via email)

Unfortunately, almost every single reply was sent via email to my personal email address (instead of as blog replies.

So) everyone can have the benefit of your input (and my replies), if you have a reply, comment, question, complaint, etc., please just hit the reply link at the end of the post and then everyone can see your thoughts and contribute by responding to those, as well.

Here are the poll results (so far):

I don’t know if this should come as a surprise to anyone, but here are the poll results for yesterday’s question:

What conclusions can you draw from those results?

Take a look at those results and see what conclusions you might come to or theories you might have regarding what happens when someone chooses to address their major problem, mission or goal that frequently (or infrequently, as the case may be).

If you were a poll researcher, what sort of statement could  you make about each group?

Would you say something like, “I would be willing to bet that someone who works “on” their business every day is more likely to have a business moving in a positive direction.”?

Or, “I suspect someone who never devotes any time to work on their major mission, problem or goal will find their issues only get worse.”

Here’s the second question (in the form of a poll, as well)…

The second question my friend asked relating to the concept of working “in” or working “on” something was (and this is related to the first question), “If/when you do spend time working “on” your business (your mission, your goal, etc.), how much time do you devote to that “working ‘on’ it” session each time?”

Let’s role play for a minute…

Take a look at your poll answer from above and role play for a minute.

Let’s pretend your best friend told you they had a really, really big problem (mission, issue, goal, dream, etc.), one that if they addressed it properly would have a dramatic positive impact on their situation (or if left unaddressed, as in the case of a “problem”, could lead to a really bad outcome or a worsening of an already bleak situation).

If they said the amount of time they were devoting to something they believe to be of major importance in their life was the amount of time you indicated you spend working on your business (goal, mission, etc.), what would your response be to them?

Would you laugh, shake your head, ask probing questions?

I won’t turn this into yet another poll, but upon hearing how much time they spent on this serious issue, would you laugh in their face, shake your head in dismay, ask them caring, “true-friend” questions to help them determine whether they really believe they had devoted the time necessary to achieve their goal?

It’s always so easy to see what friends are doing wrong, but…

Why is it that all of us humans seem to have the gift of instantly seeing what our friends are doing wrong (like never stopping to think about the problems they are facing, never trying to figure out the solution to those problems we can so clearly identify, never taking the time to undertake the simple solutions we would suggest for them, etc.)

And, we are usually stunned that they can’t see their “forest for the trees” as easily and clearly as we can see it for them.

But, most of us apparently lack that same ability to see the “forest for the trees” when it comes to the issues we are facing.

(In fact, I find it easier to pretend the problem I am facing or mission I want to work on and conquer is one my friends, co-workers or acquaintances are facing and then ask myself what I would tell them to do if they asked for my “sage” (“snarky”) advice.)

So, let’s turn the question around…

So, with that little bit of role playing fresh in your mind, take a look at your answer, again, turn the question around and ask yourself whether the results you are achieving in your business (on your goal, mission) are completely in line with the amount of time you have said you spend thinking about and/or working “on” your “mission”.

Alone, the answer to each question is helpful

My buddy, Ryan (who brought this topic up at the mastermind), indicated that the answer to each of these two simple questions should reveal to you a great deal about your commitment to solving whatever issue you are facing and how devoted you are to the successful resolution of that mission.

Combined, the product of your two answers reveals your future

Ryan said a more telling  indicator of your chances for success with regard to your mission is revealed by multiplying your answer to the first question (“How often do you spend time working on…”) by the answer you gave to the second question (“When you do work on your “mission”, how much time do you spend…?”) and looking at that number.

(Though I’ll cover this in more detail in future posts, clearly the bigger the number, the more time, effort, resources, thought you are putting into addressing that “something”.)

So, a rhetorical question:

Since we have yet to collect the results from today’s poll question, I’ll draw today’s post to a close with a rhetorical question:

“Do you believe the people who proactively spend the greatest amount of time spread out over the greatest number of days working “on” their business/mission (instead of merely working “in” it) are more likely to be thriving or simply surviving?”

Have a great weekend!

I’ll post more over the weekend (or on Monday),

John G. – “TheRefillMan”

A quick reminder about the purpose of this blog (and an apology)

A couple of years ago, it struck me that so many people I came in contact with were walking around like “zombies” with their heads down,”deer in the headlights” look in their eyes, just paralyzed over what was going on in the world, the economy, in their lives.

The epiphany I had was that there was one powerful, common element I saw in the relatively few people I knew or saw who didn’t have that outlook.

Their common element was that they all had a mission, a purpose, a plan.

Their mission had nothing to do with surviving, their mission was to thrive.

Since many of these people were my friends, a few were my mentors (and some were just people I knew of), I wanted to share what I had learned, the concepts and philosophies I had been exposed to by them (the ones I use to thrive instead of simply survive) so all of you (my TRK customer/friends) could set out to do the same.

I apologize for the false start and this time, I assure you “Thrive or Survive” is here to stay (with frequent fresh content and many, many contributions from guest visitors.)

I belong to a number of “Mastermind” groups

I belong to a number of “mastermind” groups (I first came across this phrase while reading the Napoleon Hill “Think and Grow Rich” classic, when I was in college back in the early 70′s).

In the masterminds I attend, a bunch of us (15 – 35 people, almost all of them way younger than I am) get together several times per year to share our thoughts, ideas, problems, etc.

(The concept of the “mastermind” has been around for a long, long time (some use Jesus and his disciples as a well documented first example of a mastermind).  For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, here is Mr. Hill explaining it:)

An interesting question revolving around the words “In” or “On”

One of the things I heard recently at one of the masterminds was to ask yourself this question, “Am I working ‘in’ my business or ‘on’ my business?”

(That value of asking that question doesn’t solely apply to business.  It can be used for anything you feel is important to you just substitute whatever you want to improve on in place of the word “business”.)

Statistically less successful, if…

According to the person who posed that question, statistics show those people who constantly work “in” their business are so busy with their normal day-to-day operational duties they are far less successful than those business owners who spend time working “on” their business.

What does “less successful” mean?

We all have different definitions of success, so whether less “successful” means they make less money, have less vacation time, spend less time with their family, work longer hours, etc., you can choose which of those represent being less successful for you.

(And, again, if applying this question to other important elements of your life, the more time you spend working “on” improving that important element, the more likely you will be more successful at it than if you were just simply involved “in” that element.)

How many of us find ourselves asking this question?

The individual presenting that “in” vs. “on” question also posed a corollary question.  How many of us ask, “Where did the day go (or the week, the month, the year, even a decade or multiple decades)?”

Doing extra homework on the concept of “working in” vs. “working on”, I found the people who spend more time working on their business (their “mission”, their goal, whatever that might be) are more likely to:

1. Not ask that question
2. Know exactly where the day “went”, if they do ask that question

Easier to work “in” than work “on”

Discussing this concept in the group, all of us agreed it’s so much easier to work “in” something (and so much more compelling) than it is to work “on” something.

(I get up, I “must” read my email.  I “must” check the sales numbers.  I “must” see if the changes we are working on for the web site are completed.  Next thing I know, I’m asking, “Where did the day go?”)

Working “on” something is EASY!

But, the good news (for me, at least) was hearing this individual explain that working “on” your business (or on your health, your family relationships, your diet, etc.) need not be overwhelming and is actually “easy” (assuming you commit to it).

Even spending 5 – 10 minutes as infrequently as once a week, can make working “in” your business much more productive.

Drawing this to a close (for today) with a question (a poll, more accurately)

Since I am committed to  keeping my renewed “Thrive or Survive” mission fresh (and update it more frequently), I won’t go much farther into this topic right now, so here’s my final question (actually, it’s a really simple poll):

Tomorrow (yes, I will actually post something tomorrow, as well!), I will have another critical question for you (and will post the results of this poll).

Tell your future with the answers to those two questions!

When combined, your answers to those two really easy questions will tell you with tremendous accuracy how successful you are likely to be at your stated goal.

(By the way. if you want to get a quick alert when new content is posted here, click on the “Subscribe” button on the right)

JG – “TheRefillMan”

P.S. I didn’t forget my promise for the “50%GreaterSavings” code (that’s the code, copy and paste “50%GreaterSavings” into your shopping cart at checkout and you get a 15% discount off of your purchase (as usual, that discount won’t apply to name-brand, big-money, OEM cartridges, but it sure applies to everything we produce and sell!)

This might seem like a simple one (and as many of my best tips/tricks/secrets will be, ones you have heard before), but it will NEVER let you down.

I’m “on a Tear” of Late

Ask any of the members of our team, and they will tell you that my Monday morning meetings for the last few weeks have not been “more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

In fact, a few of my last meetings have been outright “slap you in the face and tell you the straight scoop” sorts of meetings that leave people walking out looking like deer in the proverbial headlights.

(Don’t misunderstand, we have a great team here (heck, most of you have dealt with them so you know how great our team is), but occasionally you need to really let them know what you expect.)

“You Don’t Have to be Bad, to get Better!”

BUT, good as they normally are, as a new buddy of mine, Matt Mathias, recently contributed, “You don’t have to be bad to get better.”

(Matt’s a customer of ours and he owns “Fox’s Pizza Den” in Boulder, Colorado…  If you are in that area, stop in and tell him “The Refill Man” sent you.  Also, Google “fox’s pizza den boulder” and you will see Matt clearly understands the value of “Google Places”.  Also read the testimonials about his restaurant and you will see exactly why I like Matt.)

He emailed me his, “You don’t have to be bad, to get better.” phrase when he sent in several suggestions on how to make the instructions for one of our kits better.  It really hit home.  I felt great that he liked our instructions.  But, I also came away feeling good understanding his point, exactly.  “Your instructions are already good, but here are a few things that could make them better.”

Have you ever watched an Olympic Relay Race?

In fact, recently I had a meeting where I laid it on the line and said I viewed all of us as members of an olympic relay race  team.  In those races, every member of the team must turn in gold medal performances or none of the team members would have a chance at the medal (we have corporate goals that I won’t share at this point, but they are aggressive and they are the  equivalent of “the gold”).

First winner to last loser difference?  Less than one second…

I pointed out that there have been countless races where the difference between first place and last place was less than a second (and not just in short distance races, but in races of tremendous length.)

So many try, few make it

And, for the olympics, how many people set out to make the team that never even qualified by similarly slim margins? Thousands and thousands and thousands.

If you are and employer, or a parent, or even a sister or a brother and have someone (or many people) who you know have more in them, the conundrum is, what can I do to draw out what is in them and help them become what I know they can become?

You can lead the horse to water…

What kills me though, is that after all of these years (25 years of employing other people in addition to working on myself and “helping” my wife become all she can become – she LOVES when I help!) is that the number of times I can recall where my input made a difference you can count on one hand.

That’s not to say I might not have had an impact on people who only made use of that “wisdom” years later, but of the hundreds of people we have employed over the years, I can count on one hand the number of people who stepped up while still in our employ and never looked back.

Okay, I will admit that I am a “hillbilly” at heart, spending my formative years in DeKalb, IL, home of NIU and the FFA and their purple jackets ruled (if you aren’t a familiar, check this out: FFA)

So, with that being said, I do occasionally like watching “high-brow” shows like “Most Daring” on truTV (like I said, it’s “high-brow”)

While I was gearing up for one of my Monday morning meetings, I happened to see a video that was stunning.  Stunning would be an understatement.

But, right there in front of my very eyes was someone who personified the point I was trying to make (and, in case any of the team is reading this and still doesn’t get it, the point is, these days, we are all in the “the economy blows and the world is wacky” olympics and the difference between thriving and surviving is measured in seconds)

This video sums it up for me

Take a look at this video and fast forward to around 1:35 and you will see someone I would hire without even needing an interview because their actions tell me everything I would ever need to know about they stand for…

When interviewed (after finding she had stress fractures in her tibia and fibia that completely broke – three complete fractures and she still crawled over the finish line!) she non chalantly said there was never a thought in her mind that she wouldn’t finish.

Why?  Because my team is counting on me

Why?  Because her team was depending on her and if she didn’t finish, everyone else’s hard work would have been in vain.

Of course, I am not expecting every one of our employees to break their legs for our company, but asking them to answer the phone with enthusiasm, to say, “Please” and “Thank you”, to proof read everything they turn out before it goes public, to step up when interacting with people, to triple-check every box that we pack up… is my equivalent.

What kills me is that with 1.2 million people unemployed in Florida alone, you would hope people would “get it” and go that extra mile (without having to “whip them”…) in the same way that no one was anywhere even near Claire Markwardt (in the video) to prodd her along in her time of need, let alone even helped her (notice no one even slowed down to help a girl with broken bones in her leg?)

It might not be as dramatic, but…

So, the point I am making is that while that “one second” difference, that “breaking your leg for our company” isn’t anywhere near as dramatic as what goes on in the Olympics or what went on in Claire’s race, putting in that seemingly unimportant extra effort while putting our products in a box, answering the phone with enthusiasm, making certain a shipment goes out today (when the customer didn’t expect it to go out until tomorrow), etc., those are the things that at the end of the “race” (our “race” with our competitors, our “race” with our customers, our “race” with ourselves…) will mean the difference between winning and losing.