Ross Perot's advice on How to Become Successful

If you want to excel in a particular area, one thing you can do is study whatever works you can find written by those who HAVE excelled in those areas.

For example, when I was studying physics, I also read some of the biographical and autobiographical works of Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman and other eminent physicists. I wanted to get inside their mind and find out how they thought, so I could think the same way.

When I'm interested in business, I like to study the works of those who are the best in business - who have been highly successful as entrepreneurs. Sometimes I read biographies, but I like autobiographical works the best, where people explain in their own words how they believe they accomplished what they did.

A few VERY successful entrepreneurs HAVE written books where they share some of their advice. (By VERY successful I mean that they are multi-billionaires.)

For example:

Ross Perot - My Life & The Principles for Success.
Richard Branson - Losing My Virginity (autobiography).
J. Paul Getty - How to be Rich.

(And there may be more....)

I recommend all these books.

Here's what Ross Perot has to say about The Steps To Success, from his book (p. 104-105) :

"How does a person become successful?

* Pick an industry that attracts you.

* Pick the company in that industry that has the greatest appeal to you. Search until you find something that you just couldn't stand being a part of.

* Serve an apprenticeship in that company. Learn all about the company and the industry - become an expert.

* Look for unmet needs. Look for markets that are not being served.

* Develop ideas to satisfy these needs. Present these ideas to your company. If the idea is sound and your company is sensitive and alert, you will have an opportunity to turn your idea into reality."

Ross Perot put these principles into practice. He was a "super" salesman for IBM, selling mainframe computers.

He then had a brilliant idea - instead of just selling the mainframe computer, why not sell it as a whole package, including software and everything else at a predetermined price?

He took his idea to IBM, and after some deliberation, they rejected it. So Ross Perot decided to strike out on his own at age 32, and he founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) based on his one idea.

EDS started out as a one-man organization, but Ross Perot eventually built it into a multi-billion dollar company with almost 100,000 employees.

This was just a small inkling of what you can find in the writings of those who have proven themselves....

However, some might then ask, can these people repeat their success, or was their success just luck? Is it reproducible?

I'll leave that question for you to think about.... but personally, I think there's a bit of both, some lucky opportunities mixed with some general success principles put into action.... But without the success principles, you may not have what it takes when the opportunities presents themselves.

I hope that learning these sorts of things can help us ALL to succeed.... :)

Dien Rice

Hi Dien,

I see the board here is hopping right along. Good Show!!

In your post you mentioned "unmet needs" that should be addressed when considering starting a business. Here are a few questions a potential customer or client may ask when considering your product or service:

How badly do I NEED this?

How badly do I WANT this?

Most of the time, when an individual is considering your wares, they ask: "What's in this for me?"

I used to be in the search engine positioning business, until I got out of it for personal reasons. The majority of my clients were more interested in that "status" thing of having a #1 position on AV, no matter how obscure the keyword or phrase... and they were willing to pay good money for it. Even though they *needed* the extra website traffic for their business, they were more than satisfied with the top spot whether it brought them traffic or not!!

I know I'm getting off on a tangent here, and pulling one statement out of your post (out of context) so forgive me if this appears to be a challenge. It's not.

I just thought It would be interesting to find out others experiences regarding customers wants vs their needs. Which is more profitable for the entrepreneur?

Did I coin this phrase? "Give them what they need, and sell them what they want." If not, I apologize to the originator.

Whenever I visit the grocery store, I scrimp and save on things that I need. I buy discount stuff, no-name brands, and buy in bulk, as do a large number of others. Why?? Because I WANT to save for that new 19" monitor, or I WANT those season tickets to the Edmonton Eskimo's football games.

I NEED the steak, but I'll buy the balogna instead and save up for what I want... the sizzle ;-)

Ok, I'll stop rambling now.

Respectfully,

Paul Short




My own little "Sizzler" [:o)

> Here's what Ross Perot has to say about The
> Steps To Success, from his book (p. 104-105) :

> "How does a person become successful?

> * Pick an industry that attracts you.

That is, pick something you'd LOVE to do.

> * Pick the company in that industry that has
> the greatest appeal to you. Search until you
> find something that you just couldn't stand
> being a part of.

That should be....

Search until you find something that you just couldn't stand NOT being a part of.

(That is, work with a company you really love.... NOT one you really hate!)

> * Serve an apprenticeship in that company.
> Learn all about the company and the industry
> - become an expert.

This is like what we were talking about earlier.... Do a job for the useful SKILLS you'll learn from doing it....

> * Look for unmet needs. Look for markets
> that are not being served.

"Find a need and fill it".... :)

> * Develop ideas to satisfy these needs.
> Present these ideas to your company. If the
> idea is sound and your company is sensitive
> and alert, you will have an opportunity to
> turn your idea into reality."

ACT on your ideas... :)

Ross Perot shares a lot more stuff too.... I'll be sharing some of that later too.... :)

Dien

Hi Paul,

Great post! :) You said a lot of really useful things to think about.... And you shared your cool phrase....

> Did I coin this phrase? "Give them what
> they need, and sell them what they
> want." If not, I apologize to the
> originator.

I haven't heard it before, so maybe you did coin it! It's a great phrase, I think.... It shows that you are doing what works ("sell them what they want") but also thinking of people's welfare ("give them what they need")....

I agree with you, it is MUCH easier to appeal to people's WANTS than to their "needs".... You can see this in "preventions" vs. "cures."

A good example might be good preventative dietary habits. A lot of people may NEED to eat more vegetables in their diet, but it's darn hard to convince people of what they NEED if they don't want it. What is it they really want?

It's much easier to promote a cure, which is what they WANT. People never really believe they need a prevention (we tend to not believe that anything bad will happen to us), so they never want it.

But if something's gone wrong, we WANT a cure, and we'll pay whatever we have to to get it.

We won't spend a dollar on prevention, but we'll spend thousands on a cure. It's human nature -- part of our general optimism, I think. And it really shows the difference between "needs" and "wants."

Thanks for sharing those great insights, Paul, and your very good phrase.... :)

Cheers,

Dien

I think that the cure versus the prevention is very true for promotions. But when we look back at the original idea it had to do with locating unmet needs.

If you can find needs which are problems without good solutions and develop a solution to that problem then you've accomplished both of these. You won't need to worry about the cure versus prevention because you're automatically providing the cure which is both needed and wanted.

Selling the best solution, one that isn't just marginally better than other solutions, one that really addresses a problem, gets you there quickest.

Doug

Hi Doug,

> Selling the best solution, one that isn't
> just marginally better than other solutions,
> one that really addresses a problem, gets
> you there quickest.

Yes, I agree that's true.... If you can find a much better solution like this to a real problem, then I guess you're right (you still have to market it hard though)....

The process of innovation is something I'm very interested in.... I've really enjoyed the book "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" by Peter Drucker.... I recommend it to anyone who's interested in the process of business innovation. :)

Cheers,

Dien