An Exclusive Interview With Author Dan Kennedy No B.S.: What Entrepreneurs And Salespeople Need To Know About Business, Wealth, Sales And Time
In this interview, I talk with Dan Kennedy about his three new, outrageous, confrontive and controversial 'No B.S.' books. Dan is a world-famous speaker, with a 29 year career including 9 years on the #1 seminar tour in America, addressing audiences as large as 35,000, repeatedly appearing with former U.S. Presidents, General Norman Schwarzkopf and Secretary Colin Powell, top athletes, Hollywood celebrities, legendary entrepreneurs like Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), Jim McCann (1-800-Flowers), Ben & Jerry (Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream), and other leading speakers including Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn. Dan is also a highly successful entrepreneur who has built, bought and sold businesses; a high-paid consultant and advertising copywriter commanding $20,000.00 to $70,000.00 and more per project; and the consultant to a group of about 50 different niche-industry consultants, in total assisting over one million business owners annually.
- Q We're going to tackle business, sales and time management in order. Let's start with business. What DON'T most entrepreneurs know about achieving truly exceptional success, about getting very, very rich from their businesses?
- A Answering that begins with a discussion of intent, understanding the purpose of business and the prime responsibilities of the entrepreneur. I've discovered that most entrepreneurs surprisingly aren't totally focused on getting rich, so they are not making their business decisions based on that intent. Truth is, most people who call themselves 'entrepreneurs' aren't; they are 'small business owners', and there's a very important difference I discuss in the new NO B.S.BUSINESS SUCCESS: THE ULTIMATE NO HOLDS BARRED, KICK BUTT, TAKE NO PRISONERS TOUGH AND SPIRITED GUIDE.
- Q That title has attitude, doesn't it?
- A Well, yes it does. It's not a marshmellow, warm 'n fuzzy book, nor is it theoretical or academic. It's straight talk from real entrepreneurial experience in the real world - where they eat their young every morning.
- Q In Chapter 5 in your book, you talk about how entrepreneurs really make big money. Are people confused about this?
- A Sure. Most business owners suffer from three basic, false premises. One, that they should be focused on increasing sales and revenues, on growth of gross. Two, that there are rules and norms for their particular type of business or industry they need to adhere to. And three, that their creation of wealth is fueled foremost by working in and on their business.
- Q Well, all three of those seem reasonable…
- A Sure. Most business owners suffer from three basic, false premises. One, that they should be focused on increasing sales and revenues, on growth of gross. Two, that there are rules and norms for their particular type of business or industry they need to adhere to. And three, that their creation of wealth is fueled foremost by working in and on their business.
- Q If you had to summarize what this BUSINESS book is all about in just a few sentences, what would you say?
- A First, about managing yourself, the entrepreneur. About staying sane in an insane world. About surviving the entrepreneurial experience. Second, it's about being the master of your business, not a slave to it.
- Q Rattle off a few of the most provocative ideas in this book.
- A You have to reject the entire idea of limited choices - so I talk a lot about re-examining your own beliefs about your business. The isolation of the entrepreneurial experience is dangerous - so I talk about how to very carefully and creatively assemble your teams and networks and coaches and alliances. Optimism can be virtue or vice depending on application - so I talk about the differences between silly positive thinking versus engineering good reasons to be positive, about creating a legitimately motivational environment to work in vs. trying to force yourself to be motivated. 'Do It Now' may not be the best advice. This book challenges you to think differently about every aspect of business.
- Q You have 21 'No B.S. Eternal Truths' for entrepreneurs. Name several.
- A #3: Failure is part of the daily entrepreneurial experience, and #4: How you deal with failure determines whether or not you ever get the opportunity to deal with success. #19: A normal business can only yield a normal income. To earn an extraordinary income, you must develop an extraordinary business.
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