What kind of Warrior are you?

Do you were a frilly pink skirt and frolic along with your wicker basket singing "La La La" or are you fit, camouflaged, well (but lightly) armed, and ready to decisively "do in" every opponent who crosses your path? All else being equal, the winning businessman is the more ruthless.

- Craig

Over my 40 years in the business community I have found the exact opposite to be true.

I can't count the times a "ruthless" businessman has climbed over me on the ladder of success; stomping my fingers ... then watched as he took a headlong dive back down.

Those who truly believe this hogwash are those who have never made it - or - they are making it now by being ruthless (until the day of reckoning which inevitably comes).

Hey ... I been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt, too.

Jim


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Howdy group!

Is Jim right? Let's voice our opinion. Will someone volunteer to create an internet poll on this subject?

- Craig

> Is Jim right? Let's voice our opinion. Will
> someone volunteer to create an internet poll
> on this subject?

my opinion is that everyone can succeed, from
the dali lama to attilla the hun. Let's face it,
a lot of mean s.o.b.s succeed and don't fail.
And a lot of nice guys too. Don't think you can
make a rule. Can't think of his name right now,
but the former navy seal that now writes under the
name of the rogue warrior, has made a fortune
teaching people to be tough in business. Quite
frankly, I think this country needs that. And
Dan Kennedy makes the point that if you don't have
a thick skin you'll never succeed in business.

I think a lot of people think you can succeed in
business without a backbone because they want to
believe it...it sounds nice. But having a back-
bone doesn't mean not having values and ethics.
Look at our new president (gee, isn't it great
to have someone in the oval office who is a good
example?), he stays on course, on message and is
going to do what he came into office, but he's
cordial and civil at the same time.

So, I guess I'm back to what we've always known,
it takes all kinds.....

With all the businesses I've started...in many different market areas...never once did I concern myself with my COMPETITORS!

MY "focus" was on ME...and what "I" could offer the market...NOT what my competition was doing. The only reason I bothered to spend any time at all looking at what my competitors were doing was to see exactly what they were doing so I could "sell myself and my team" on the fact that I had a better "mousetrap".

As far as spending any time trying to run over or squash my competition...hogwash. I was too busy getting sales...AND, whenever a prospect mentioned a competitor to me or any of my salespeople we simply said we did not "Own or have any control over our competitors...and whatever they did or didn't do...was no concern of ours!"

I never blasted my competition or even cared what they were doing...except to say that once in a while when they got a job away from me or found a beter way to do something...my "competitive juices" started flowing.

Here's an example: Many yrs ago I created a new idea for a PhoneBook Cover. I hired salespeople, trained them and sent them out.

Well...as will happen in most "sales organizations"...at least one of your salespeople will consider going in competition with you after you've spent money and time training them.

Well...I set up my first program in Aspen, CO (where I was living at the time)...hired some salespeople...trained them and sent them out. And, as is usually the case...some will drop out.

Well...I finished with Aspen...and then decided the next area would be Grand Junction. To my surprise (but not shock) when we started selling we found that someone else was ALREADY THERE offering basically the SAME product and program.

Turns out one of my salespeople took my product and program and started an identical operation in GJ.

This got me "fighting mad". What this sort of thing does is MOTIVATE me more. So, I came up with a few extra goodies that would make MY program better...and for the next 4 weeks MY sales meeting were held at 4:30 in the afternoon instead of 8am...which is the time my competitor held his AND...I made it a point, every morning, to drive by my competitor's office at 8am and see his and his salespeople's cars sitting there in the parking lot...while I was on my way to my first sale.

This spurred me on to "sell like a demon"! And the results being I sold out my program in record time while my competitor took twice as long and only got the program half-filled.

Competition has only motivated me.

Also...while I'm on my soapbox...still, to this day, I hear the comment;
"You can't go into THAT market...it's SATURATED!" Or, "Someone is ALREADY doing that!"

Horsehockey! I've NEVER found a market I thought was "saturated"...there's ALWAYS ROOM for a "good competitor" like ME!...and if I found I wasn't as "original" as I thought because I found someone else doing the same thing...that only
REINFORCED my thinking about my product or service.

SO...go about YOUR business without concern for competition...and IF you stay MOTIVATED and FOCUSED...you WILL get your market share.

And...as far as trying to go out of your way to "Trounce on competition"...forget it! Spend your time on YOUR biz!

Don Alm

> Do you were a frilly pink skirt and frolic
> along with your wicker basket singing
> "La La La" or are you fit,
> camouflaged, well (but lightly) armed, and
> ready to decisively "do in" every
> opponent who crosses your path? All else
> being equal, the winning businessman is the
> more ruthless.

> - Craig




Unique, Home-Based bizes

Hi Craig,

Well, those who have posted already are themselves highly successful in business, so they know what they're talking about....

I've read Don Alm's posts over the years, and I ALWAYS pay attention to what he says. He's someone who's succeeded MANY TIMES in business....

Jim Straw is a HUGE success too, his many successful business ventures are well-known (just read a few of his reports).

I agree with what Joe Makowski said too -- you gotta have a backbone. But you can still be a nice person and also have a backbone too.

Even if you want to go the "warrior's" way, no country ever survived by being in a continuous war. War is draining to both parties....

Think about it -- the ultimate aim of war is peace. Continuous war is not what you want.

Someone who takes this approach will make many enemies, and I believe that's what eventually will probably be their downfall....

I've studied military strategy to a degree (out of interest), but now I believe it has only limited application to business.... The reason why is because war is a "win/lose" game. If someone wins, someone else loses.

Business is different. While there are *some* "win/lose" aspects to business, there are also "win/win" aspects too. Military strategy is not developed to recognize or take advantage of "win/win" situations, which is why it is limited in its scope when it comes to business.... Here's an example.

Why, do you think, do you often tend to find a large number of Italian restaurants clustering together in one part of town?

At first you might think this is silly to do, since each restaurant will just be taking business away from each other. These restaurants are often right next door to each other. It would seem to make more sense for them to spread themselves out among the city, so they compete with each other less.

But that's an example of "win/lose" thinking. However, it's a fact that restaurants do cluster like this.... This shows that there's some value in it.

The value is that it increases the quality of that *area* as a place to go eat Italian food. So, if someone wants to eat Italian food, they'll be willing to drive further just to eat in that particular area.

"Win/lose" thinking is about how to slice up the pie.

"Win/win" thinking however is about increasing the size of the pie for everybody.

So, let's say that if ten Italian restaurants were each in their own area, each of them would get 100 customers per week (or 1000 customers total between them all). But let's say that ten of them cluster together, the TOTAL number of people who would travel to that area specifically to eat Italian food from around the whole city might now be 1500 per week. That breaks down now to 150 customers each (if they divided themselves equally among restaurants). This is how an understanding of win/win situations could create added profits....

I don't think there's an equivalent to "increasing the pie" in military strategy, because you can't create more land. But profits is not like land, you can "increase the pie" for everybody when you're talking about profits, which is one way in which business is different....

Just my opinion.... :)

- Dien

I don't think that Bill Gates's business is "reproducible."

Some incredibly good luck, along with some skill, combined to give him an effective monopoly. When you have a monopoly in something that people need (like he does), then you can effectively dictate what you're going to do.

However, very few companies are in that kind of position.... I don't think it's something easy to achieve (a lot of luck is required, I would think)....

That's why when I look the the billionaires, I personally prefer to study those whose histories look more "reproducible" -- people like Warren Buffett, Kirk Kerkorian, Richard Branson, and so on....

Many of these have had multiple businesses (like Kerkorian and Branson, for example)....

With Bill Gates, if he lost Microsoft and all his money, I doubt he'd be able to do it again. How do you get another giant company like IBM to give you a deal with such an incredibly wide open loophole for you to exploit? And, it's been said that Gates's mother was on the board of IBM too.... How do you reproduce that?

But I have no doubt that if Warren Buffett, Kirk Kerkorian, or Richard Branson lost all their money, that we'd see them back again, with great financial success once more!

That's why I personally don't think Bill Gates is a very good role-model.... Better to model yourself on those who, if they lost their money, could do it again....

- Dien

Bill Gates did indeed have competition along the way, but in the tradition of a great warrior one by one he decapitated them. Your example of losing their money is the old Henry Ford line, I would put my money on Gates against your three, he is much smarter and more cold blooded. If you don't think he is ruthless, and he wouldn't have achieved the success he has without being a killer at heart, just ask Oracle's Larry Ellison, or many others. Contrary to Jim Straw, he stepped on people all the way to the top, and if Jim got in his way he would step on him also, and I don't think there would be much he could do about it other than pout.

Another example of a business warrior is Sam Walton, in his down home way he destroyed Kmart, Sears etc, by being ruthless in a good old boy way. Sam Walton is one no one speaks of in being a tough businessman (I know he is dead), but just look at the competition they know he was one bad dude.

SS