Focus or Fold
Inoculate Against FTD! Today!
So the market’s stunned and the credit taps have been turned off.
So what are you going to do about it?
The choice is clear.
FOCUS! or FOLD!
We are in the middle of an epidemic of FTD!
STD stands for “sexually transmitted disease”
FTD stands for “financially transmitted disease”
Both syndromes are highly contagious.
FTD infects you, your team and your customers.
Symptoms include depression, worry, despair, discouragement, panic, fear, sleepless nights, exhaustion and burnout
Are you suffering from FTD?
If so, the good news is that FTD is curable!
But you need to inoculate yourself against FTD today!
And you will need a bias for action and a sense of urgency about this!
Here are 7 action steps to help you inoculate yourself against FTD.
And, every action story needs a real life action hero.
Our real-life super-hero is Bruce Kiehne of OMI, – a local business hero and self-made entrepreneur, who used these 7 action steps to take on the biggest multinationals in the world, and win!
Bruce is a supreme example of the maxims that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going!” and “if opportunity doesn’t knock, then build a door, and turn adversity into opportunity and your lemons into lemonade!”
Our prayer is that Bruce’s story inspires you, because your choice today is very clear.
You either. !FOCUS! or FOLD!
This same choice faced Bruce Kiehne, again and again!
Here are the 7 action steps that the winners take to FOCUS and win! Lesser figures, lacking faith, simply FOLD!
Step 1
Acknowledge The Truth!
- The truth will always set you free but it will irritate the hell out of you first!
- What got you here will not get you there!
- It’s not the strongest or the most intelligent of the species that will survive. Instead it’s the one that’s the most adaptable to change!
- The reason most people won’t change their business strategies is because they’re not hurting enough yet! Why do you have to wait until you are hurting enough before you change?
- If it’s going to be, then it’s up to me!
Step 2
Take Short Breaks!
- Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
- You will never be on fire if you are burnt out!
Step 3
Change Your Questions!
Change your questions and you will change your life and business!
- What else can I do today, to get out of the victim cycle, and achieve the results that I desire?
- What else do I need to learn today to achieve the results that I desire?
- What am I doing well?
- What can I do better?
- Is there a better way to do this?
- What’s the next thing that I could be doing?
Step 4
Redesign Your Battle Plan!
· All the battles of your personal and business lives will be won or lost “in the general’s tent” of your own mind –viz: your ability to plan the right strategy.
· Always remember that you are just like the gunner on the back of a battleship. You are dealing with a moving target viz: your customers’ changing attitudes, and the ebb and flow of the marketplace. Therefore, you need to be able to change strategies and direction in a nanosecond!
· Differentiate or die! The only reason your customers will buy on price only, is because they can’t see the difference between you and your competition, or if there is a difference, they don’t value it!
· You cannot survive commercially unless you consistently have high quality at a low cost. You can only do this when you have a high trust, high excitement corporate culture, in which every single person on your payroll is famous for consistently making and keeping their promises.
· Any asset other than you and your people, is a mere commodity which can be easily duplicated. But the one thing that can never be duplicated is your brand behind your brand viz: you and your people .
Step 5
Hunt Like A Tiger!
- Networking works! There are two types of people – those who hate networking and those who lie about it and say that they love it!
- Dig your well before you are thirsty!
- The tiger does not get fed for stalking its prey from nine until five. The tiger gets fed depending on whether it makes a kill or not. If it makes a kill, it eats. If it doesn’t, it starves!
Step 6
Hold Your Price!
· The market is full of overpriced vendors who won’t adapt to the realities of the marketplace.
· Your product is only worth what you can sell it for, not what you think it’s worth.
· You need to adapt and set a fair market price. You can’t ask for an exorbitant price when the market is as tough as it currently is.
· After you have set a fair market price, always remember that discount price sooner or later equals discount value – The only place that you will ever find free cheese is in a mouse trap – The early bird may catch the worm, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese – Eight out of ten people who consistently panic and price discount, will go broke! – Beware of unscrupulous traders who sell cheap dreams and install expensive nightmares!
· Learn strategies to overcome price objections without price discounting.
Step 7
LEARN TO FALL IN LOVE WITH REJECTION!
When The Israelites saw Goliath for the first time, they panicked and ran for cover “He’s so big, we don’t stand a chance!”
When David saw Goliath, he thought; “Great! He’s so big that I can’t miss!”
And the rest is history as The Bible says!
Bruce Kiehne is a fair dinkum, straight-talking, ordinary Aussie bloke and a “David” of the business world.
He was also a 2008 finalist in The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award
He didn’t graduate from Harvard Business School with an MBA (Master Of Bugger All)
As Bruce tells it, the only time that his teachers described him as “outstanding”, was when he was “out, standing” on the school verandah!”
Instead, he graduated from The University of Life and Hard Knocks and is an MCA (A Master Of Character Acquisition)
He doesn’t live in New York City although he could if he wanted to.
Instead, he lives in Logan City because he prefers the lifestyle here for his family.
So the good news is that Bruce is just like you!
He has faced the same challenges that you currently do, including the ravages of FTD.
Bruce is a classic example of choosing to FOCUS! or FOLD!
And he says that if he can FOCUS, you can too!
Bruce turned adversity into opportunity through a potentially life-threatening needle-stick injury to his brother-in-law.
As a consequence of this potential tragedy, Bruce discovered his passion and it became an obsession viz: to find a way to prevent a similar fate befalling other people.
Bruce is the inventor of the world’s first affordable, retractable syringe and the founder and driving force behind OMI (Occupational And Medical Innovation Ltd)
First of all he made a prototype.
Then he quit his job and made a business plan
And here’s the first lesson
Bruce first quit his job.
Why?
So that he wouldn’t then have a safety net to fall back into again!
Bruce had taken a lesson from Alexander The Great, called “dying before you go into battle!”
The story goes that Alexander The Great arrived on the East Coast Of India, in readiness for yet another crucial battle.
Before the battle started, he called all his soldiers together and instructed them to “burn all our boats!”
When questioned why, by his anxious troops, he replied, “because we either go back in their boats, or we don’t go back at all!”
Very early on, Bruce learned to fall in love with rejection because he embarked on a roller coaster of highs and lows, acceptance and rejection – cash-flow and cash drought, beginning and beginning again countless times, eventually scraping down to his last A$50 and trying to launch a public float in the middle of the dot.com crash in late 1999 when not one broker or venture capitalist would help.
Then with a suitcase of products and ideas in hand, an empty wallet and a big hear, Bruce went door-to-door and pounded the streets of Brisbane – wearing one set of shoes out after another.
Armed only with an unsophisticated business plan, our little “David of the local business world” became battered by the continuous knockdowns and rejections from the “Goliath multinationals” who knocked him back again and again, because as they saw it, they were already making enough money, and Bruce was threatening to slaughter the sacred cows of their business practices and technology, because Bruce believed that they make the best burgers!
So Bruce then decided to become their opposition and force them to buy into his brainchild, because he was taking their market share!
So he tried to get a manufacturing plant established here in Australia. Once again, Bruce was knocked back again and again.
Fighting his way through this dense fog of doom and gloom, Bruce and a loyal band of friends and business associates of “true believer” s, then found a partner who was willing to put up $100 million to establish the manufacturing plant in China.
Then another multinational“Goliath”, a corporate giant, whom everybody was terrified of, and who had never lost a court case, came out of the shadows, huffing and puffing, and organized an army of legal mercenaries to knock Bruce down again. So what did Bruce do? His choice was clear – FOCUS! or FOLD! You guessed it! Bruce decided to FOCUS! with the precision and intensity of a laser beam that can drill a hole in a diamond and wipe out a cancer.
Bruce took this corporate and legal “Goliath” through a series of federal court cases in Australia –and obtained a “first” in Australian law viz; a declaration of non-infringement
Our little “David” had stood up to and beaten the giant “Goliath”
Bruce and his team of “true believers” had chosen to FOCUS! and apply the 7 action steps outlined above and as a consequence., just like the great philosopher Virgil wrote many centuries ago:
“Persistence Triumphs!”
The rest is history and the stuff of legends.
Bruce is an action hero who sums it up by saying
“Rely on innovation not imitation.”
And by the way, for Bruce, the source of the force is his faith in God.
In conclusion, if you follow these 7 action steps outlined above,, just like Bruce Kiehne of OMI did, then you will be able to combine a business and a life, with balance, harmony and fulfilment.
The secret is that:
The winners FOCUS!
The others FOLD!
And always remember this:
Never judge each day by the harvest that you reap!
Instead, judge it by the seeds that you sow!
And now that you’ve heard it, go and do it, before it’s too late!
(Sergio Carlo Maresca is a world ranked international keynote business speaker, corporate trainer, and the bestselling author of FOCUS! or FOLD! This book contains hundreds of practical strategies that will enable you to FOCUS! and thrive, and not just survive,in the current market conditions
For further information see www.maresca.com.au
As a gesture of practical goodwill towards the business community, Acumen Business Magazine is proud to present and sponsor a free life and business-changing presentation or workshop with Sergio Carlo Maresca in conjunction with your local Chamber of Commerce. For further information, and expressions of interest, please contact us.
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