Gordon, fantastic post! It pays to look to those who have "walked the walk"....

Gordon, Thanks!

It has been a year since we "officially" opened our "doors" and an eventful year at that! Sowpub is going from strength to strength.... :)

Also, thanks Gordon, terrific post! If anyone is qualified to distinguish the winners from the pretenders, YOU are qualified, thanks to your Ben Suarez-sponsored study of 20 years of entrepreneurial success in remote marketing....

I have a copy of that issue of the NPGS update hotline, thanks to Gordon, and it's one of the best things you can read.... However, Gordon has given you the essential results here -- the WINNERS.

Thanks for sharing that! :)

By the way, I'm planning to join www.bmyers.com on Sept. 5 too (I hope he lets me in), because I think it looks like an incredible deal. Bill Myers is a good guy to look to as a role-model, he's "walked the walk" very successfully and is out there producing products and selling them (like you do too, Gordon)....

> It took me several months of research and
> tracking down the real successes. We wanted
> to know WHO had accumulated the two decades
> of success. And ALSO who were the NEW GUYS
> on the block that we wanted to study. See,
> one thing I learned at SCI, which is a 125
> million dollar a year corporation that
> employs over 500 people full time here in
> Northeast Ohio was this:

> They don't have all the answers. And a guy
> like Ben Suarez still goes looking for other
> models of success that can be duplicated.
> Maybe that is why he has built such a huge
> business when so many others have fallen by
> the wayside?

That's an important point.... Ben Suarez may already be a multi-millionaire, but he isn't resting on his laurels, but always trying to do better....

> The result of my research was published in
> ONE issue of the NPGS UPDATE HOTLINE. 99% of
> what I discovered has never been made public
> (until now).

> Let me share what was published in issue
> 7920of the NPSG UPDATE HOTLINE (NPGS stands
> for Net Profit Generation System) with the
> title:

> TWENTY YEARS OF BIZ-OPS THE WINNERS, THE
> FLUKES AND THE LOSERS

> The following people/businesses were named
> as "winners", they had withstood
> the test of time. Melvin Powers and Wilshire
> Publishing, Jeffrey Lant, Chase Revel, Jerry
> Buchanan, Paul J. Meyer of Success
> Motivational Institute, Alan Shawn
> Feinstein, Ben Suarez, Joe Karbo, along with
> Specialty Merchandise Corporation, The
> Mellinger Company, Mail Order Associates,
> Dean F.V. Duvall Sr., and Steven Nowlin.

Thanks! It's good to know who to look out for....

I've heard of most of these except for Jerry Buchanan and Steven Nowlin.... I'll try to find out more about them....

and more....

> Ben Suarez, Rod Napier, Joe Karbo, Harvey
> Brody, Ken Roberts, Owen Bates, Hubert
> Simon, Jerry Buchanan, Anthony Robbins,
> Joanna Jordon, Daniel Crandall, Gil Turk,
> Dean DuVall, Gary Halbert (whom Ben started
> out with) Rick Peterson, Jeff Paul, E.
> Joseph Cossman, David McGee, Alan Shawn
> Feinstein, Carl Torey, Joseph Murphy,
> Jeffrey Lant, Jay Barnes, Dan Kennedy, David
> Oglivy, Joe Sugarman, Benson Barret, Ralph
> Ginzburg, Chase Revel, Ernest Weckesser,
> David Schwartz, Mark Haroldson, Howard
> Hudson, Lee Howard, Ted Nicholas, Harry
> Loryane, and scores of others, like

> Runyan, Haylings, Cortezi, and Robert Allen
> and the modern TV infomercial gurus, which
> included Ben's brother Rick who practically
> invented the fitness industry with the
> introduction of the gut buster and by
> applying NPGS formulas to make his company
> huge in the industry.

Thanks, that's a great list of people to look to as examples and role-models.... :)

> Whew, I get tired just remembering all the
> work that went into the project.

> I also picked 10 "must have" books
> for your library. These were:

> 1) 7 Steps to Freedom by Ben Suarez
> 2) The Lazy Mans Way to Riches by Joe Karbo
> 3) Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
> 4) Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.
> 5) How to Get Rich in Mail Order by Melvin
> Powers
> 6) The Unabashed Self-Promoter by Jeffrey
> Lant
> 7) The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og
> Mandino
> 8) Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
> 9) Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier
> 10) How to Win Friends and Influence People.

> I still think that is a pretty solid list of
> books to have on your bookshelf.

Again, thanks Gordon.... I've got most of those, but still have a couple missing (I don't have Jeffrey Lant's book or Robert Collier's) but I'll try to "fill the gap" in my entrepreneurial library....

I can vouch for the rest, though -- I have those and they are all fantastic. :)

> Now there were SEVERAL people that never got
> mentioned in the newsletter, but we and I
> especially were very much aware of what was
> taking place. I knew of "Guerrilla Bill
> Myers" and his emergence at a "by
> the sea" type of seminar. Also Don Alm
> was making waves with his locked floppy too.
> We knew of J.F. (Jim) Straw, and 101 other
> guys, like Dan Lee Dimke, and Jeff Gardner
> and everyone else who was running ads or
> doing business via remote means.

Yes, all good examples.... all people who have "walked the walk" and NOT just "talked"....

> OK. OK. Enough history for now. Suffice it
> to say, you can find 1001 MENTORS or MASTERS
> if you want to take the time to learn and to
> study and apply what you learn.

> I personally don't take advice from front
> porch gurus or arm chair quarterbacks. Even
> if they talk real purty, I'm very cautious
> about who I listen too, there is only so
> much time in the day, and to spend it
> listening and responding to the critics, is
> for me, a waste of time, so I don't bother.

YES, I agree Gordon. I think finding mentors is important.... They can be mentors in print (through their books or newsletters), or mentors in person (if you are able to communicate with them personally).... But like any personal relationship, it has to be give and take. You can't just take, you also have to be willing to give something back, to do what YOU can in return as well....

A few posts down I mentioned working for someone for free. I have done this in an informal way for those I admire and respect as role-models, and I believe it has always been time well spent! Learning the essentials directly from someone who knows what they are talking about can save you several years of trying to figure it all out for yourself....

If you can't learn directly from someone in this way (it takes time and dedication), getting info-products from those who have really done what they talk about is also invaluable! I have a whole bookshelf full of these kind of books, and to me they are incredibly valuable.... Sometimes I think something isn't important, but then 6 months or one year later I discover otherwise, and I go back to one of these books and can soon find the necessary information I need....

> First thing you must do is to know what you
> want. Not something I came up with, but it
> seems to have been the starting point for
> almost every success I've ever talked to or
> researched.

> Then to EXPEDITE the process, that is to
> take a SHORTCUT away from the briar covered
> bushes of personal experience is to find
> someone who is doing what you want to do, or
> closely approximates it, and LEARN from
> their mistakes and successes.

> So, when a Jim Straw or a Don Alm or a Bill
> Myers or Melvin Powers or Dean DuVall or Ben
> Suarez speaks to us from their personal
> experiences, and it is in harmony with our
> own desires, then you have found the only
> known shortcut to success there is. ONLY if
> you are committed to having what you want
> and FOCUS upon it with everything you've got
> to give.

Excellent advice! :)

> The downside to the Internet has been the
> emergence of the guru. Holy Smokes, there
> has to be a million and one, right?

> Again, the best advice I can offer is to
> find someone doing what you think you want
> to do and watch, observe, study, apprentice
> if necessary, work with or for that person
> and then do the things that you can
> duplicate.

Yes, Gordon, I agree.... This is my own personal way of working.... I like to work with others who I admire and like as well. I always try to bring something to it too -- my own time and labor, and knowledge if it's applicable -- so that hopefully it is absolutely win/win and both give and take, so that everyone benefits!

Thanks Gordon, a fantastic post! :)

- Dien Rice