Dan Peña QLA Lessons 1–2: Model for Success

Now, before we get started, I want to give an example of what this is all about in the

Quantum Leap Theory that I've developed.

There's a lot of guys that have made a lot of money in the country, and there's a lot

of guys that have written books, or tried to write books to illustrate their methodology.

But there are very few of any that have really, in a measured way, put that methodology

down and are throwing the country and explaining what they've done, how they've done it, and

giving, and at the same time give you a model to follow.

Now, there's a gentleman here today named Casey Stevenson, which I think he stepped

out to go to the men's room.

And I want to show you, exactly, a week ago, he attended the seminar on May 22, in Los

Angeles.

He's in the jewelry business.

He's been successful in his own right.

But he wanted to make that next leap, that quantum leap we're going to talk a lot about.

I received a fact, when I was sitting down for dinner from him, this fact, I guess this

week ago, it's not even a week ago, five days ago, I need to talk to you as soon as possible.

It's very important.

Thank you, Casey Stevenson, he's in the jewelry business.

I received his next fact, this is at my home at Duffin Castle in Scotland.

I need to talk to you as soon as possible.

It's very important.

Thank you.

I call Casey, as I'm getting ready to go out to dinner, and it's confident as he is.

There was a little, show we say, panic in his voice.

And he said, my F and D deal is collapsing.

And I said, are you using the manual, are you following the credos?

He says, yeah, but my F and D deal is F and collapsing.

So we talked a little bit.

I gave him a little encouragement.

I go to dinner and I said, I'll think about it, I think I might have another idea when

I get back.

When I got back from dinner, this fact, there is no need for you to give me a call back.

The deal went through and I'm signing the papers right now.

Talk to you about it this weekend.

Thank you.

Now, let's Casey.

We've been using you as an example here.

Now Casey is intense, Casey is motivated, and he went to our seminar in January, excuse

me, in May 22nd.

My primary goal in getting in this business, the personal development business, to try

to change the personal development business, so there's really permanent long lasting change.

A lot of you have been to all the gurus, read their books, listen to their tapes, and

you're still having to go listen to their tapes and read their books.

And what I want and what I will accomplish in the next few years is once you've gone

through this process, and once you've replicated and continue to reinforce it, you won't have

to continue to buy the books, listen to the tapes, and put your derriere's on seminar

seats.

So that's what I really want is to devote permanent change in the industry as a whole, not just

the people that attend.

Now, those who couldn't join us today had a lot of reasons.

I don't need a coach, I don't need a seminar, I don't need to listen to tapes, I don't

need to read a book, and I can do it.

And then I asked them, why in the hell haven't you?

Just estimated that 95% of the people in the world today do not fulfill even 10% of their

potential, 10%, not 90%, 10%.

We always have a reason or an excuse from when we buy a car, if we're going to get divorced,

we should expand and grow our business, or why we're not, our life, buying a new house,

giving bad news.

One of my pet peeves is when people call me, is this a good time to talk to you?

It's always a good time, and it's always a good time to give bad news.

Just as it's always a good time to give good news, taking on new responsibilities.

One thing that we all as human beings frown upon or have some repugnant feelings is when

we've got a change, nobody likes change, we like the status quo.

There never is a right time to do something that will expand or grow you as an individual

or your business, because all the time, every minute of the day, and as you'll see some

of the things that I profess and some of the things that I've done, and some of you know

how I got started, and we'll talk about that in a few minutes, with nothing, and I built

a company that was worth over $400 million.

It's because it was always the right time, because I ate it, I breathed it, I slept it,

much of the sugar in my wife on many occasions, I consumed it, I had passion.

I will speak with great passion today.

One of the things that I'm really excited about is three of the top motivational gurus in

the country are now, we'll use the word mimicking, my methodology, quantum leap, you'll see in

our advertisement now, quantum leap, laser beam focus, you can do it, and I don't think

that's a coincidence that all that's happened just in the last few months.

Now this is a list, we're going to go through it very quickly, of all the reasons why you're

not more successful.

Now just kind of put a little check mark, one check mark down for everyone that applies

to you as an individual.

If I didn't have a spouse and or a family, if I had enough pull, if I had money, if

I had a better education, if I had good health, if I only had time, if times were better,

if other people understood me, if conditions around me were only different, if I could

live my life over again, boy that's a great one, if I didn't fear what they would say,

if I had been given a chance, if I had now had a chance, if other people didn't have

it in for me, if nothing happens to stop me, if I were only younger, God knows, if I could

only do what I want, if I had been born rich, if I could meet the right people, you're

meeting the right person right today.

So, okay, if I had the talent that some people have, if I dared to assert myself, if I only

had embraced past opportunities, if people didn't get on my nerves, if I didn't have to

keep house and look after the children, if I could save some money, if the boss only

appreciated me, if I only had somebody to help me, if my family understood me, if I

lived in a big city, if I could just get started, if I were only free, if I had the personality

of some people, if I weren't so fat, if my talents were known, if I could just get a break,

if I could only get out of debt, if I hadn't failed, if I only knew how, you're going to

know how now, if everybody didn't oppose me, if I didn't have so many worries, if I could

marry the right person, God, I get emotional over that one, if people weren't so dumb,

if my family wasn't so extravagant, if I were sure of myself, if luck weren't not against

me, if I had not been born under the wrong stars, if I were not true, if it were not true,

what is to be will be, if I hadn't lost my money, if I lived in a different neighborhood,

if I didn't have a past, if I only had a business of my own, if other people would only

listen to me, if, and this is the greatest of them all, if I had the courage to see myself

as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me and correct it, then I might have

a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others,

for I know that there is something wrong with me or I would now be where I would have

been if I had spent more time analyzing weaknesses and less time building allies to cover them,

all of the above are fatal to success. How many in the audience checked at least one of

those allies? Now I'm not going to ask if anybody checked all of them, but I have had

people that checked a majority of them. Now most people take the path of least resistance,

that's why rivers and most people are crooked. Now I borrowed those words from Napoleon Hill,

so I have a great deal of admiration for them and I wish that I could have met him.

We're not going to talk about the path of least resistance because the path of least

resistance isn't the path of super success. Now why do you think that personal development

business is at an all time high a peak now? It's a 5, 6, 7 billion dollar business now and

in the 1950s and 60s it was a hundred million dollar business. Why do you think? Times are

unsure for the first time companies like IBM are laying people off. For the first time in

memory in history, Japan is laying off people in their companies when you've got a job in Tokyo,

it was for life. For the first time we're having a people half the worry about making the

living in the Iron Curtain countries. Times are tough. So what we're going to do today is we're

going to get real focused. Overcome these kinds of circumstances, you have to get focused. You

have to get what I call, ladies are being focused. Now how many of you saw the British open on television

few weeks ago? Greg Norman won from Australia. Does anybody remember the interview that the very

dry Brit's British fellow conducted with him and what he said why the difference from all the

times he almost got there and now he made it and he won. Well what he said was I got focused this

time. I got in the zone and I stayed in the zone and I didn't allow myself to deviate. We're going

to talk about getting in the zone and what I call getting in the alpha state. Well we're going

to talk about is doing things against conventional wisdom, doing things against what, and we have at

least one father, son, team here, against what your father had taught you for 40 years. I mean that two

and two make four, two and two don't make four and you're going to see that. So we're going to get

ladies are being focused. We're going to develop your ladies are being focused because this is very

important. How many family people do we have? Virtually everybody. Almost everybody. You let yourself,

family, business down when you lose focus. Now just think about that from if you don't learn

anything else in today. Every time you lose focus in the future. Every time you stop thinking

about what you started. Just think about all the people and all the entities you're letting down.

You let yourself, family, that's your son, daughter, etc. grandchildren and business down.

It's very important. I venture to say that if you thought about that in the last five or ten

years, every time you lost focus, it'd be easier for you to get refocused. Okay we have a handout.

Now put these face down. I'm going to give you five seconds to look at these afterwards and don't

pick it up, Chuck. Okay. Flip over the handout. Read it quickly. Turn it over.

Okay. John Allen, what did it say? Jim, what did it say? John, would you read that for me please?

No. John, Paris in the Doug Spring, bird in the Doug a hand. Now everybody flip that one over and look at it.

Now we're not expected and this isn't a semantics game that we're trying to do right now.

But when we look at situations, we don't always see what they really are. In fact, I'm going to teach you or coach you today to

believe that almost never is what you see, what you think you see. What we're going to attempt and be very successful at today is

get in you to step outside the confines of the norm. For those of you that are engineers, it will be the hardest.

For those of you that are lawyers, it will be the second hardest. For those of you that are accountants, it will be almost impossible.

But we're still going to get it done. For those of you that are ex-advangeless, it will be easy.

Okay. Okay. What is growth?

In what arena? In the arena of a jury. For me personally, it's going from a million and a half dollars year in total revenues to potentially 3 million this year.

Okay. So what Casey just described in a personal way, it's the process of growing, it's the process of developing.

How many of you think that you as an individual forget business grew as a person, and I don't mean in the metaphysical or religious sense, in the last 24 months.

Okay. How many of you think that are in business that you've grown in the last 24 months?

I'm here to tell you you didn't. I'm here to tell you that was a Pavlov reaction.

Because my definition of growth and the reason that you're here and your definition of growth are like at two different ends of the continuum.

And when we get the goal setting, I'm going to tell everybody just to add three zeros to the end if it's a financial growth, just add three zeros or free knots as they say in the UK.

Some of you I will suggest multiply times ten. Some of you bless you. Some of you I will suggest multiply times a hundred.

And some of you I will suggest multiply times a thousand. Now I asked this question before and I don't want the psychiatrist to answer it.

As for this example, we're just going to assume everybody's got a hundred IQ. Now for some of you I'm going to get, I'm giving you a little, with a hundred.

And for some of you I'm taking away a little. And for this exercise, we'll just assume I've got a hundred.

I'm probably giving myself a little bit. Okay. Now, Marsha, can anybody be ten, if we're all a hundred IQ, can anybody be ten times smarter or have a thousand IQ?

She's right. Okay. Master Stewart.

Okay. So would you agree that nobody can be ten, if we're all have a hundred IQ, nobody can be ten times smarter than we are?

Yeah, I agree. Okay. Well, then why are there people that make a thousand times more than you?

Are they a thousand times smarter? Are they ten times smarter? Are they twice as smart?

There are people in this country, myself included, that have made a thousand times more than anybody in this room.

Why is that?

You've got damn right.

Boy, from your lips to the Lord's ears and back to them. Now, there are several ways a business can grow.

There's several.

Aerithmetically, one plus one equals two.

Geometrically, exponentially, and what I call quantumly. Now, I'm not going to get into definitions because there are differences between geometric, exponential and quantum.

There are differences.

But exponential growth is increasingly rapid growth.

Geometric is progression with a constant ratio between successive quantities as one three nine twenty seven eighty eight eighty one.

And these are some examples. Most of your businesses grow by five plus five.

What we're going to talk about and what we're going to put together by the end of this evening is a plan, a work plan.

So you can go at least five five times five or five plus five squared or five squared plus five squared.

But our real aim for today and for the rest of your life is to grow by five squared times five squared.

Now, though, they're all the same numbers.

And the way we're taught in the B schools, and by the way, I didn't go to a fancy school.

And I'll talk about where I went to school in a few minutes.

I went to a school you have to explain.

I mean, it's got twenty two campuses and it's got this and that and I was on the...

I mean, we'll get to that later. I didn't go to a like Harvard or any of that.

And by the way, God didn't talk to me. A lot of the guys could do this. God talked to them.

And I know at least one person who I think God talked to, probably not recently, but a long time ago.

But God didn't talk to me. He didn't come down and touch me and say,

Dan, I want you to go and do this. He didn't do that.

Some of the guys that you pay a lot of money to, they'll tell you about how God told them to come

and help humanity. So I don't want to make that...

I want to make that differentiation very clear.

But that's the kind of growth that we're going to talk about.

Quantum leap is sudden, high significant advance. It's a breakthrough.

What we are going to do today is we're going to teach you to think how to break through

not at five plus five, but five squared plus five squared.

And there's a book. There's two books that I highly recommend people read.

One is Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, who I'm a big admirer of.

And the second book is called You Squared by a gentleman named Dr. Pritchett.

He's in Dallas and he wrote this book three or four years ago.

And I just found out about it about a month ago.

And I would highly recommend it because it's about quantum thinking, thinking that is breakthrough

thinking. I mean, some of the things we're going to talk about are the exact antithesis of how

you built your business and your life, the dead opposite, the absolute opposite,

being at the absolute other end of the continuum.

No, I haven't. I'm still working on it.

Now, physicists studying quantum mechanics know that particles make these jumps without a parent

effort. And this is going to be hard to understand. I was able to grow great lessons from 820

dollars to 400 million with no apparent, great increase in effort.

We're talking about marginal shifts in effort for quantum results.

I don't like using this example, but because a lot of the other

reported gurus used it, but I'm going to think of a better one. I'm going to continue to use it.

The difference between being in the National Baseball Association, adding 250 and 350,

you've got 350, you get paid three, four million dollars a year, you've got 250, you get paid

three, four hundred thousand dollars a year. That might be wrong, but that's roughly it.

Now, if that's 250 batter and that's 350 batter, the difference is one hit

for 10 times at bat. That's a 10 percent increase for the difference between making 300,000 and

making three or four minutes, just 10 percent. That is a marginal shift in effort for quantum

difference. That's what we're talking about. From 1986 to 1990, I was one of the highest paid

executives in the United States five years running. Why? I didn't work a hundred times harder than

anybody else. We're talking about marginal shift in effort. Now, certain industries I know more

about because I was part of them, brokerage industry, I was part of it. I know and my examples

will run about along the lines of industries that I've been a part of. Every example I give you

today, every page in that manual, I personally did. There isn't one goddamn word of theory there.

I personally did it. I didn't borrow an idea. I didn't borrow a theory or a notion. So when I talk,

I'm talking to you with the Lord knows because I did it, not somebody else. And that's a big

difference between what you're going to hear today from me and then what you've heard before and

what you've read before. It's important to remember, quantum leaps require you to take the offensive.

You cannot achieve exponential gains in your success from a defensive posture. Most of you in this

room, if not now, have it one time run your business from a defensive posture. I'm not even going

to ask the question because a lot of you just lie and tell me you didn't. You can't remain in a

passive stance and make a quantum jump. A quantum leap is a move. You're already prepared to make.

You just haven't done it yet. Everything that I'm going to tell you today, you're already ready to do.

I'll use the phrase and it's not meant to be a shovingistic phrase. And by the way, I'm very graphic

in my examples and I talk about religion and I poopoo a lot of things and I'm not here to offend

anybody. I apologize up front. But what I'm going to ask you to do is suck up your panning hose.

I mean, if you want to be big time successful ladies and gentlemen, you've got to suck up your

panning hose. There's no other way. There's not an easy way. And my examples, I know that people

want to balance life in the 90s. Children, church, family, that's great. I do that now. But when I

was building the company, I didn't do that. I don't know how to do it that way.

Quite frankly, I don't know anybody that knows how to do it that way.

They write all their books after they made their tons of money and then they spend time with their

family. I don't know. I just don't. And so if it sounds like I'm dogmatic about it, I am.

But I only know how I did it. And quite frankly, the other very successful people that I know,

they did it the same way. So I don't mean to offend people that it doesn't sound like a 90s

kind of comment. So I'm apologizing up front. But I think that I don't think I know by the end

of the evening you'll have an appreciation for being super successful isn't for everybody.

Talks Chief takes money to buy whiskey in West Texas. At least you used to do it, John Allen.

Okay. Now, because what I am going to get out of you, drag out of you, pull out of you,

kick out of you if I have to, is so you can be all you can be. Does anybody recognize that saying?

Does the Army commercial? Does anybody recognize the name Joe Baton?

He's the one that wrote it. Now, Joe Baton, for those of you that don't know, is the mentor of a guy

that's been pretty successful. His name's Ross Perot.

Joe and I were on the dies together a few weeks ago. Talking for the Center for Entrepreneurial

Management at one of their CEO, President Los Angeles, he was the main speaker and I was a guest,

kind of a really nice being interviewed. I guess to see if I could talk, which they found out.

And Joe is 70 years old and the book, Tough Minded Management, was the Bible for Ross Perot. He

made all his 45,000 employees carry one every day and Joe wrote it. And he's been a management consultant

since the 50s and he's a very dynamic man and he goes around the country of the world for that

matter and talks about being all you can be and the Army borrowed that. I don't know if they

came for it. Really, I forgot to ask my hope they came for it. Be a great residual, great royalty.

But Joe now says and has this Ross Perot and for those of you everybody in Texas got to know

who Ross Perot is. But I mean Ross Perot did it the old fashioned way. But I call the Vincelambardi

way. I mean, and God knows Ross isn't considered a 90s guy. I don't think by anybody in the whole

wide world. I mean, I just don't think so. So I'm at Ross's end of the continuum. I mean, but

if you want to be all you can be and you don't want to let down your family, your business,

et cetera. What you're going to learn here today will you will benefit and will be

in Calcubo at value to you. Okay, because contrary to what you've been taught, you're paid in

life or not for what you know, ladies and gentlemen, but what you can do and what you can get others to do.

You're not paid for what you know. If I was paid for what I know, it's shuddering to think

what I'd be today. But because I've been able to do and get people to do, because what we're

going to talk about is your maximum leverage in life is other people. You can't do big things

without other people's assistance and motivating other people to do your bidding, your wish.

Ideas are dime a dozen. The person who puts them into action is priceless.

And we all want to be in my judgment, that person, the priceless person.

Okay. Now, I've often said, when people ask me if I was ready, I always tell people I'm

born ready, but that's not true. It's not being ready to be successful. It's being comfortable with

success. And we're going to talk a lot about the trappings of success. And they're heavy.

Whoever said it's lonely at the top is a smart guy or a smart gal. And we're going to talk about

it's even harder to stay at the top, which I have some personal experience that I can relate to,

that I can't do too much detail because I go to court on the 16th and Houston, Texas here,

but I mean, it's tough. It's tough. And although I would, I will coach you to, you should surround

yourself with the smarter people as you can find, because being a CEO or being an entrepreneur is

like riding a bucking bronco and everybody's trying to knock you off. And the trick is to stay on

there. But I've prepared myself over a series of years to be successful and to be successful

and to be comfortable with the trappings. Now, I'm going to real quickly run through some of the

main points that we are going to cover today. I've already briefly touched upon the many faces

of conventional wisdom. There's a few opportunities to change your life to lead to the next level.

We're going to redefine your formula for success in a geometric sense.

Half of it, in my judgment, is recognizing the proverbial knot. This may be yours. We're going to

establish quantum leap goals, not any kind of goal that you've ever thought of before. I assure you.

We're going to talk about confrontation with the dooms sayers. The name of the seminar used to

be called, you can't do that because there's 86 times in this book manual that people have told me

I can't do it. All 86 times that. In fact, it's about 93 or 4 miles. It looks not up to date

since I started this business. But almost by definition, when they tell you you can't do it,

you ought to do it. I just recently saw the movie Alexander Graham Bell on the right story

with Don Amici in Henry Ford. Henry Ford looks like his bar mitzvah picture. It was about 19 years old

in the movie. And the famous scene when he spilled the acid on his leg and he poxed to the wire

and the telephone was invented. But that was his 10,000 experiment. He was wrong, 9999 times.

Now I have to admit, I'm not sure that I could last 10,000 times. And I'm a pretty

person for him guy. I mean, I don't know the word no, you can't do it, give up. But I mean,

I think Alexander Graham Bell was a psycho myself. But I mean, I mean, 10,000. Everybody said he

couldn't do it. And then even after he invented the damn phone, he had a group of all the people of

wherever city it was in at that time, all the industrialists and the money people on the bankers

and other inventors. And then they thought it was a joke. They thought it was a, it was like a

lounge act from the Reno Casino or something. They thought it was a big joke and they just said

it'll fail. Nobody will ever do it. And then ultimately one or two guys put up money. And then

as soon as the deal worked, of course, Western Union stole it. And so then he went to Ford and

fought Ford, which I can relate to this. He fought Ford and he almost lost it. All his money,

all his time, all his effort went into defending this idea. But 10,000 times, now just think about

how many times you started something that at once priced five, eight. I use an example. The last

year I taught pro bono at the school I went to, I teach a workshop. And it's a 10 hour workshop,

it's on Saturdays. We started with 450 students. We cut it down to 80 students. They had

essay contests to be the final 15. And then I was going to take a group of them to the castle

for the castle seminar. The essays from the, and I read the essays, I didn't grade them,

Professor did. And when I read the essays, I thought these were the ones we rejected.

These were the cream of the crime. These were the winners. I was appalled. In my judgment,

with the greatest respect, college students of today aren't worth the powder to blow them to hell.

I mean, they have no perseverance for the most part. They've got little intellect for the

most part. And it's a good thing that the iron crumbled because they did our lunch. I mean, we just,

but anyway, so I teach this workshop. And the more pressure I put on the students, the more

of them dropped it, the more pressure I put on, the more of them dropped it. Ultimately, we went

from 415 to one, one student, who now works for me. His name is John Macias, who auntie my

assistant knows, and who Leanne's have talked to. Now, the point of the story is, they were looking

for internships. I think they called jobs for the summer. And they sent out resumes. And they were

all down in the dumps. And we have them over to my house. We have catered. And a lot of them

have never been to a catered event in my housekeeper's black and Ruth who thinks that these kids are

worthless. She doesn't like even waiting on them. But she says, Mr., as she called me,

they all want to work. No, they all want to paycheck, and none of them want to work. They

wouldn't know bad times if they bit them in the ass. She says, work in his pickin' Pevaca,

he's from North Carolina. Cotton was easy. Pevaca is hard. So we're talking about resumes,

and I'm a very good friend of mine. The youngest mayor in the United States, his name is Fidel

Vargas. He's the 23 years old Harvard. He went home after his graduate, or his undergraduate

degree at Harvard. And he saw that the city that he lived in was in chaos. So he ran for mayor

in one, 23. He took the respite between that and his MBA. And now he's on, because he's a

Democrat. He's on Clinton's committees and all this. But he came over to my workshop as a role model.

He's talking to the students. We're talking about resumes. And how many did they send out? 6,

8, 11. Not a one of them that got a job argument. So I bring in mayor Vargas. I said, Fidel,

how many resumes did you send out? 700. 700. How many job offers did you get?

One. Did you take the job, Fidel? He says, yes. Now when he said 700 to these students,

I can assure you their faces turned as white as this paper. They couldn't believe it.

The most resumes any of those students had sent out was 30. 700. 10,000 times to make the phone.

How many times have you, and I don't ask the question anymore, because I've learned

after doing this a few times, because I don't like to put people, make people that uncomfortable,

because I can already see people getting uncomfortable, because they're starting to figure out,

why they haven't been more successful. But you're going to feel real comfortable by the end.

Okay, we're going to talk about the five credos and how and why they'll work for you. And these are

credos for my success and for your success that I developed from 1976 to 1978, which we'll talk

about. We're going to talk about managing growth, preparing for diversification, big dreams,

big problems, big rewards. If your life is not, if one, and I know challenges is the 90s word,

I still call them problems. If your problems are not being replaced by geometrically

greater problems, one after another, you're not growing.

Now, in the last 48 hours, as I told somebody last night over a few drinks, I mean the last 72

hours, I mean, I had a series of challenges, each one was 10 times bigger than the one before,

and I had 10 of them all in three days. Must mean I'm growing. And I told my wife that on the phone,

a couple days or yesterday, because all these plans she has when the kids and people visiting the

castle, and basically she's got to come here right away. And she says, well, Dan, well, what about your

dying grandmother, my dying mother and father? And she went to a list of about 25 things. I said, Linda,

I know you can handle it. I know you're up to it. She says, who's going to take care of the kids?

I mean, we just, the nanny, we just let take 20 days off. The housekeeper, we just,

is in Vegas, Ruth, the tobacco pickers in Vegas, which is her favorite place to go. She says, Dan,

I said, you can handle it, Linda, I got to go now. I got to go back into the, you know, I'm getting

ready for trial. She's okay. I'll be there. Click. Now, if your business is not experiencing that

kind of what you'll call chaos, then you're not testing your limits. You're not pushing the edge

of the envelope as they, as they say. We're going to talk about managing for unexpected events,

we're going to talk about what you can probably already figure out, did the end justify the means,

answers yes. And we're going to talk about why a race source wears blinders. Why does a race

source wear blinders? You damn right. Stay focused. We're also going to talk about exit strategies.

Most people's exit strategy in this room, I, I, I, a lot of these questions, I don't ask anymore

because people raised their hand and I know it's not true. But most exit, people's exit strategy

in this room is dropping dead. That's your exit strategy. And hope that there's enough insurance

to cover your estate tax. By the way, you know, how many of you are partners in business with somebody?

Okay. Okay. Do you know you got another partner? IRS. They want 55% of your business. The government.

Yeah. Financial planner. Brad here is sitting in the front from Chicago.

You've got another partner. I've sat in an audience where people sat. I don't have to deal with

that kind of stuff. Then I have no partners. This is what you do. 55% is, you know, unless you plan

and do certain things, it is, is, is going to the, uh, the federal government.

Okay. Pardon? Yeah. Now, um, and you don't have to sound like me to be successful because there's

a Henry Kissinger way of doing it. And there's the Norma Schwartzfall. Now you already know which one

of the two I am. But you can, Henry Kissinger is very effective. There's two different ways.

So don't get the idea. You have to sound like Dan and pound the table and rant and rave the screen.

Because I've seen people be very successful in doing it the Henry Kissinger way.

Ignorance is a steep hill with jagged rocks at the bottom. That's me. Dan Peng has said that

because a lot of what I'm going to say today and you're going to go out and put it into practice,

people are going to see it crazy. There's a lot of ignorance out there. A lot of ignorance.

They're going to say you're crazy. And again, it's how much you want to suck up your pantyhose.

This isn't a case that taking a big chance. It's a matter of giving yourself a big chance.

It really is. It's a matter of giving yourself a big chance. Now, as I've already mentioned,

most of everything I say is against what the normal conventional wisdom tells you it's a

different way of decision-making. It's not a great which quick scheme. There's no elevator to

the top. I assure you it's one form of opportunity and it's not for anybody. Everybody, excuse me.

But because I did it and because there are people in this room, which I'm going to ask the

talk, maybe they won't, that I know they've done it using that black book in just the matter of

months. I'm not one for extrapolating out how successful one's going to be because if Casey doesn't

stay at it, I can tell you where that success will go down with a pitiable man.

If Casey doesn't stay at it, even though it's worked for him, that's where it's going to go.

You have to stay after it and or you have to get people to stay after it for you with you.

Now, for those of you that are engineers again, I mean, this perfection equals paralysis.

We're going to talk about it doing it good enough. I was a detail-oriented person until I was 31

years old. I took more notes, by the way. I kept more records. I was successful by normal standards.

I made quite a bit of money. Then I attended a seminar, which we'll talk about a little later,

and I stopped being detail-oriented, and I took on the good enough. It's good enough.

Since I adopted the good enough method, is when I obtained all my success, 95% of it anyway,

and I built a successful, very large company. Most successful people do it poorly until they do it well.

Just keep flundering. You cannot wait until the time's exactly right. We're going to talk about it.

It's not being ready. It's being comfortable. You're never ready. Normish Workstop was not ready

to lead Man at Desert Storm. Normish Workstop was comfortable with his ability to succeed.

I was not ready to be a CEO of a large company, but I was comfortable with my abilities.

You are not ready for those of you that have had children. You're not ready to have that thing.

I mean, come out of your body. You're not ready. You're not. You're not ready when they make a

cardinal of hope. I mean, it's not a matter of being ready. It's a matter of being comfortable.

And there's a big difference. And for those of you that get comfortable with it,

it's going to be a lot easier for you. Because success leaves clues, and the one thing I do agree with

that all the speakers, or mostly all the speakers, talk about, is the pattern themselves after somebody

that's been successful. Most of us do life pattern ourselves after our father, our mother,

our older brother. And unless you're blessed with a super successful father, mother, older brother,

older sister, I'm afraid that I got bad news for you. You're going to wind up just like them.

John Allen Chalk, many years ago, gave me some advice. This is being tried. I think before I had

children. And he has very successful children. And I take my hat off to him. Maybe John will share

some of these things a little later. He said, damn, he says, I learned a long time ago. He says,

I want to, if I want my children to grow up this way, I have to put him in that environment.

And that's what he did. If you want to be successful in life, in business, you have to put yourself

in that environment. This is that environment. I'm one of those kind of people. I will stay here tonight

and answer questions to the way hours. I talk to the participants just as I've conversed with KC,

he faxed me at the castle. I do that. Some of the motivational gurus that I know that I consult with

and talk with, they said, Dan, that's a bad precedent to set, talking to all those people.

He says, you won't have time to do that. Why not? He says, Dan, I mean, the thousands, I mean,

and that's how they think, unfortunately. I will not have a masseur or a metaphysical psychic here,

like some of these guys do. And I won't tell you, I have a migraine and I just not with it today.

I would be up here, unless I drop dead from a heart attack today, I will be just as motivated

tonight when we end as I am now, because I owe you that. Now, this is a very interesting

statistic and it's important to understand, because people are looking for a balanced life,

especially now in the 90s. The pro-Lin Hill stated, oh, I got to hit him.

Things should be done poorly, because it's normally 17 times,

we have to do something 17 times before it replicated 17 times statistics prove before it becomes

a part of you. Tennis, it would mean more than 17 times, and golf would mean more than 17 times,

but 17 times, I just think of the things that you tried to accomplish that you did less than 17.

Probably most of them. A question, Mike, here.

Hey, well, I want to ask, kind of goes along with this frame, but it's more from that other one.

And that's about being comfortable. I can understand not being ready, because I can think back,

all the things I've done, I don't think I was ever ready. But being comfortable with quantum growth,

what did you do? How did you know you were comfortable when you were starting, when you were

undertaking quantum growth steps, like with the $50 million deal in the UK? When did you know you were

comfortable? All through my career, most of the time people told me to do my childhood,

which I'm going to talk about a little later, you can't do that, and you're basically worthless.

For a while, I think I probably even believed that, not too long, but I think I did it a time for time.

And what I tried to do, and I think I was very successful, is that, and we're going to talk about

the mentor mastermind theory, and how I don't think the mastermind theory is so good, and I think the

mentor system is better. I tried to, wherever I could, associate, be around, even in a peripheral

manner, around very successful people. I wasn't much for reading. I read to every time I think

it was a minute. I mean, I didn't read to, this is a hard thing to say, but I've only read

until recently, three books in my whole life, and one of those books I read twice. I read the

Life and Legend of Chai Quavera twice. This is even a more awful thing to say. I read candy once.

So that was the extent of my literary background growing up, but I went places

to see people that were successful, and they didn't always want to see me. Believe me,

but I made it my business to be around them so I could be comfortable. When I bought things

ahead of the curve, I had a brand new Mercedes Benz. I had a Rolls Royce when I was 25.

I mean, I still remember Linda and I driving into my silver cloud this is a long time ago,

and taking it to a 49 cent car wash, drinking beer in the front seat, and Linda wearing cut off

jeans with pig tails. Linda looked about 12 at the time, and then I still remember them breaking

the antenna off, and I still remember getting irritated with them. But then Linda says, well,

Dan, we went to a 49 cent car wash, maybe we should have taken one of those places they hand

wash it. But I've always been ahead of the curve. I've bought, and when it gets in the gold

setting, I thought about owning a castle before I owned one. In fact, one of the things that I will

suggest, and I'll show you, and I'll pass it out later, is that I used to read the Robberport

in the late 70s, and this is a magazine that's got only a subscription of about 18,000 people

or something. But the average net worth is the people that subscribe to this magazine is $4.5 million.

The average net worth is the prospecting tool. The average net worth is the people that read Forbes.

Does anybody know? 277,000. Fortune Forbes, all those are between 170 and 260,000.

$4.5 million. I happen to know more of PoVitch and Connie Jung read this. I happen to know a lot of

very successful people read this. And I had, before I had any money, I was reading it, and I was

looking at Rolls Royces and Rolexes and things like this. And this issue, the reason that you can

look at it during the break, is because this is where rich people, the people that subscribe to

this magazine, pick the very best from cars, restaurants, investment bankers, books to read,

country clubs, vacation spots. I used to go to vacation spots where successful people would be,

way before I was successful. I remember being at La Quinta. Linda and I, let's see, I was 26. Linda

was 21, 22. We went to La Quinta to stay to play golf, and I remember sitting in the bar,

in the men's grill, and they came to me and the bartender said, excuse me, is there a Mr.

Pen, Mr. Pen, Mr. Pen, Mr. And I said, yes, yes, they said these whisperances, there's a woman that

purports to be your wife at the front gate at the lobby. And I said, what do you mean purports?

And she says, yes, because Linda, we had pig tails, she looked about 15 at the time, and they

weren't coming, they were afraid of some side of scandal. I said, if she's got pig tails,

she's blind, she's got blue eyes. I think that that woman that purports to be my wife is my wife.

She says, oh, so she comes in, you know, and it wasn't big. But we were staying at La Quinta.

She comes in in the men's grill, and I mean, and everybody looks at her, and everybody still probably

thought she was my daughter. But the point is, we were staying at La Quinta, and I was playing golf

for guys that were 60 and 70 years old, that had been members of their 30 years and played with

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. I used to caddy. I caddy for Bob Hope when I was a kid. I can't

use the caddy, the regular person I caddy for was Alice Marble. A lot of you are two younger

remember Alice Marble, which US Open tennis champion. And I used to like caddies for her,

because she used to tell me about Wimbledon, things like that. Unfortunately, it didn't roll over

into my tennis gym. But I used to do those things, and I suggest my children do those things.

There's a fine line, raising kids, I'm no great expert at, but I mean, there's a fine line,

because now my kids think everybody lives in a castle, everybody's had chauffeurs, and my daughter

thinks she's going to get married at the castle, she's going to have a 100-foot train.

That's the thing. You walk a 100-foot train walking up to the wall garden, and she expects a cardinal

to marry her. When she said to Pope, I said, I'm not sure I can arrange that to Pope. I don't

know if the Pope marries anybody, but you put yourself, just as John Allen chalk said about raising

children, you put them in that environment, you put yourself in that environment. And it's always

when you can't afford it. I couldn't afford Lakinto, but I was there, and I got used to it.

One of the reasons my wife and I are still married, because we've grown together, is because Linda

thought, this was a great idea. And we've accepted these challenges. My kids, my kids, you

fly from London to Los Angeles by himself today. My two sons, 10 and 11. I mean, we don't have to

go get to pay $25 to have the flight attendant walk them from here to there, because they feel

comfortable, because they've been exposed to those things. So what I did, because we're going to

talk about where I live in the graffiti, you're going to see some pictures in a few minutes,

I put myself in that position, so I felt comfortable.