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LEGACY LEADERSHIP
Leading yourself and others to greatness,
It all starts with YOU!

17 Building
B l o ck s f o r By
Success in
Business RANDY E. KING
& L i f e!
W A K E U P!
GET MOTIVATED!
&
GO AFTER what America has to offer!
1
© 2010 Randy E. King Copyright 2009 © www.RANDYEKING.com

LEGACY LEADERSHIP

“Leading YOURSELF and others
to GREATNESS”

RANDY E. KING

2
© 2010 Randy E. King www.RANDYEKING.com

Copyright © 2010 by Winner’s Legacy part of the CEG LLC companies
Published by Road Scholar Publishing, Scottsdale AZ. 85255
800-913-1359
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced.

Cover Design: Randy King
Book Design: Randy King
CEG is a registered trademark
Printed and bound in the United States of America

Edited by: Linda Reboh

www.randyeking.com

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Table of Contents
From Me tto YOU!!
From Me o YOU

Chaptter 1
C h ap e r 1
Taking Advantage of Opportunity:
How to Know and Recognize Opportunity

Chapter 2
Waking Up, Getting Motivated, Going After it:
Re-Discover the American Dream

Chaptter 3
C h ap e r 3
Success is not Easy:
Change your Attitude: Putting Your Ego in Your Back Pocket

Chaptter 4
C h ap e r 4
Treat People Like People and not Money Machines

Chaptter 5
Chap er 5
Taking Action: Having a Game Plan

Chaptter 6
C h ap e r 6
Build Your Foundation First, Everything Else Will Fellow

Chaptter 7
C h ap e r 7
Know How to Maximize Your Opportunity When You Have it

Chaptter 8
C h ap e r 8
Staying Motivated: What it Takes

Chaptter 9
C h ap e r 9
Set Your Goals in All Areas of Your Life

Chaptter 10
Chap er 10
Leading the No Excuses Life

Chaptter 11
Chap er 11
Invest in Yourself, Before all Else

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Chaptter 12
Chap er 12
Taking Care of the Little Things, Adds Up to Big Things

Chaptter 13
Chap er 13
Leadership: What Makes a Leader?

Chaptter 14
Chap er 14
Accept the Things You Cannot Change
and Change the Things You Can

Chaptter 15
Chap er 15
Realizing What You have

Chaptter 16
Chap er 16
The Seven Myths of Success: All not True

Chaptter 17
Chap er 17
The Old Axiom: Look for Opportunity in Your Own Backyard

About the Author

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From me to you!

Everything is possible in America! My goal with this book, is to hopefully
jump start your career and have a fulfilled life. It did not come easy for me
in the beginning, I was lazy, broke and I struggled. Finally I woke up and
got motivated to go after what this great nation has to offer. My desires, is
that after reading this book, one or two ideas will trigger the greatness
within you! After all, God does not make junk!

----Randy E. King
“Business Success through people Development”

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Chapter 1

Taking Advantage of Opportunity: How to Know
and Recognize Opportunity
“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprise.”
Demosthenes

I want to thank you for sharing this time with me and downloading
and reading my book.

For the past 23 years I have been employed and self –employed and have had
a lot of leadership responsibility, which I believe has given me a lot of
valuable information on the subject of people development and
LEADERSHIP skills. Over the years I have dealt with thousands of
employees who have gone through the revolving door of opportunity several
times without being able to capitalize on a single opportunity. Now this is
has not been due to lack of great opportunities, but from the employee’s
inability to make the most of what is in front of them.

My success for being able to turn around the sales’ forces for many businesses
and organizations is purely based on getting people to maximize their current
business opportunity, rather than continuing to jump from job to job. My
goal in this session with the hour and a half that we spend together is to help
you implement what I refer to as ‘Legacy Leadership;’ so that you can
accomplish the following things within your life. Let’s ‘wake up,’ ‘get
motivated,’ and ‘go after’ what life has to offer you!

The news media and experts tell us that the “baby boomers” used up the last
of the opportunities in this country, and that the so-called ‘Generation X’ will
be the first generation in this country that will be worse off than their
parents and they can only look forward to moving backwards. If this is true I
wonder why it is that people from around the world still come to the U. S.
when they’re coming to better themselves. How can we be operating in a 100
trillion dollar economy? Why do we have more millionaires in this country
than ever before? How can a man like, Bill Gates, become one of the richest
men in the world in the space of only 15 years? The answer is that the
American dream is not dead.

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We may have reached a sticking point in our quest for opportunity, but we
have another alternative besides turning back. We can look around and take
a step forward. This is what people like Bill Gates has done. They’re looking
for the American Dream and new directions. Opportunity is all around us, if
we are astute enough to recognize it. Often we are facing in the wrong
direction to see it clear enough; this is why the awareness process, folks, is so
important on the path to success in life. You’ve got to have, what I call, the
life acumen and size up the things that have the validity of moving your life
forward.

It can be a difficult talent to develop, but capitalizing on opportunity has
never been easy. But, that’s why the rewards are so tremendous in today’s
marketplace. Too often people confuse, however, the ease of opportunity with
the availability of opportunity. Now sometimes it’s more obvious than other
times, but then again, it’s never easy. But think about it, if building a
business like ‘Microsoft’ was easy, do you think that Bill Gates would be
worth billons? No, not at all!

To capitalize on your opportunity you must change your thinking. You must
start to think like a leader, even though you are not recognized as a leader
yet. You have started that process by reading this book today. To tweak
your awareness process into high gear, you must be careful what you think
about. Listening to the so-called ‘naysayers’ out there - the negative people -
can clog your creative mind just like fatty foods can clog up your arteries.
Now as far as changing the thought process, I want to help you dispel what I
call, the ‘seven myths of success.’

Myth 1:
People become successful overnight. They don’t have to work for it; we
believe this because we only see the results of the success, rarely the
process.

Myth 2:
Successful people were born with a talent that the rest of us just don’t
have.

Myth 3:
Successful people have successful parents who gave them a head-
start on being successful; teaching them how, and introducing them
to the right people.
.
Myth 4:
People succeed by back- stabbing and being unethical to other people.

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Myth 5:
You must sacrifice a good home life to succeed.

Myth 6:
Successful people are only chasing the dollars.

Myth 7:
Successful people have no problems.

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Chapter 2

Waking Up, Getting
Motivated, Going After it:
Re-Discover the American
Dream
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

Now we’re going to touch on each and every one of these individual
myths later on in the book, so that we can take a better look at why these are
false. You start the success process by developing yourself. You maximize
your success process by also helping others into developing themselves as
well. I break this into three areas. It’s called: ‘WAKE UP!’ ‘GET
MOTIVATED!’ and ‘GO AFTER IT!’

Let’s take a look at each of them.
• ‘Wake up’ is developing the awareness process in yourself, so you can
take a viable personal inventory of your abilities and evaluate your
current opportunities.

• ‘Getting motivated’ - my favorite part - it concerns instituting your
self improvement and developing a sense of MISSION about your life’s
activities.

• ‘Going after it’ is what I consider the final step in maximizing
opportunity. Here, you elevate yourself by helping yourself by
implementing ‘Legacy Leadership.’

We’re going to cover these three areas in the session and my goal is that
when we’re finished, you’ll be prepared to do the following things:

1. EVALUATE and improve your success potential.

2. EVALUATE and maximize your current business opportunity, or if
need be – it’s a tough decision, I know – find a new one.

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3. EVALUATE others and help them to develop their abilities and
opportunities around them as well.

If I can just get a few of you to embrace the idea of Legacy Leadership, we
can start a new American revolution and re-discover the American Dream.
To get started, let me share with you my own war story as to how I ended up
where I’m at today, and basically what I needed to do to ‘wake up,’ ‘get
motivated ‘and ’go after‘ things in life.

You know I love spending my life on the road and talking to winners, and I
want to thank you for picking up my book! Because there’s one thing that I
want to do, I want to give you something that you can take back with you and
apply it towards your life. It can possibly make a difference, because it made
a difference for me many, many years ago. Now I’ve titled my session: ‘wake
up;’ ‘get motivated;’ and ‘go after it,’ because several years ago I figured out
what I had to do if I was going to succeed. I didn’t know what I had to do,
and I figured out that just thinking about it was not enough I had to take
action. Let me start from the beginning, if you don’t mind.

You see I wasn’t born with the discipline and drive that I have today. At 19
years of age I met several men who, literally, changed my life. They said,
“Randy, you have got to get into sales.’ I said I hate sales,’ and they said,
‘Randy, you’ve got to get into a profession where you can control your own
destiny, control your income, and have job security - you have got to get into a
profession where your income depends entirely upon your efforts and your
level of competency.”

After I graduated from college I checked out opportunities from A to Z, just
like a lot of you out there. I always keep in mind what Tom Hopkins a top
sales leader told me, which was to find something I could believe in. About
that same time I had read a book by Norman Vincent Peale where he stated,
‘If you go to work on Monday morning you’ll lose. If you go on a mission
Monday morning, you will succeed.’

You know it’s funny, I thought about interviewing for sales positions at the
time; I owned one suit, two shirts, and one pair of shoes. I drove a 1972 Ford
Fiesta with a broken sun roof. I didn’t have much, but I did recognize that
working for this great company that I’m working for now was a real
opportunity, and I managed to get hired. Even though I had a good
opportunity to work with, I wasn’t making the most of it. It was tough for me
to get up in the morning. I loved to sleep in, and I still do. I can remember
when I first got started I’d begin my work day at 10:00 a.m., make two sales
calls, and then go workout in the gym. And then I was home by four o’clock
in the afternoon.

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Now in my business at the time, you had to do between 12 and 15 interviews
a day and literally knock on 50 to 60 doors to get the desired results per day.
With my current work schedule, I was making about $9,000.00 a year; not a
whole lot of money. Even so, my overhead wasn’t much. I really wasn’t that
motivated to get out of bed and go after it. Besides, remember, I loved to
sleep in. I was basically a lazy individual. I had reached a point in my life at
24 years of age where I was fearful that I was stuck, and that fear was
holding me down.

I don’t know about any of you out there, but it’s a scary thing. You see, fear
can do one of two things: it can keep you down, or it can move you up. I was
going down fast. I finally got to the point where I didn’t have enough money
to pay my roommate and of course, the rent was due at the time. He was not
very sympathetic to my situation, but he did accept this payment: my nice
leather jacket; my stereo; and my cordless phone - the only possessions I had.
Unfortunately though, I had to still move out.

I’m here to tell you that for two weeks I had to live out of my car and shower
in a health club while getting my act together. What was interesting at the
time was that I knew all the right stuff - I knew the motivators, I listened to
CD’s – but I wasn’t applying the principles. I looked good, smelled good, had
all the attributes of a winner, but again, I was not applying what I knew. I
was a walking, talking, and a POSITIVE, broke individual. I was eating
tuna fish and beans for four nights straight. I had to take a second job as a
security officer and work 12-hour shifts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to
make ends meet.

You know the crazy thing about all of this is that when I look back the top
sales rep working for the company at that time was making over a
$100,000.00 a year. Now his job description was the same as mine. It wasn’t
happening for me because folks I was lazy. Obviously, I had to change
something and it’s called ‘get out of bed,’ ‘get motivated,’ and ‘go after it.’
The first thing anyone will tell you is that if you want something and if you
desire it bad enough, the first thing that you have to do is get out of bed, take
a shower, shine your shoes, put on your suit, and go out there with a
POSITIVE attitude and make things happen.

That’s easier said then done, I realize sometimes. I was miserable. I was
beginning to think that sales weren’t for me. I had 15 to 20 success books full
of answers at my bedside, but I wasn’t doing anything with them. You see, if
you would have met me back then you would have thought I was a champion.
And the one thing that continually repeated it’s self in my mind that Tom
Hopkins had told me the sales leader was, ‘Hey, you fake it until you make

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it.’ Well, I guess I was half way down the road to success because I had the,
“fake it” part down.

Let me tell you a little more about the car that I owned when I first got into
sales. Remember the 1972 Ford Fiesta with the missing sun roof? Now
picture me driving down the road to my next client - and it’s a rainy day –
and I have this piece of plywood that doesn’t exactly fit with the glass where
my sun roof used to be. To keep it in place, I had tacked a little piece of rope
in the middle of it and I had to try to hang on to the rope while steering and
shifting gears at the same time. Another “deluxe” feature was that I had to
open the car inside, out. Now there was no door handle on the outside of the
car, so I had to do this.

Arriving at an interview on a rainy day one day I rolled up the windows and
locked all the doors without thinking that after the presentation, there was
the prospect of watching me get into my Sherman tank. I had to take off the
plywood lid and crawl through my broken sunroof. I’ve been there, folks. I
understand. I really do.

Now we can sit back and laugh at all of this, and thank goodness. However,
the incident made me realize that I not only needed a better car, but a better
game plan.

So I bought a brand new car on three post-dated checks. I literally rolled my
’72 Ford Fiesta up to the show room and said, ‘Hey, I need a new car. I am
employed, can you help me?’ They laughed, but I got my new car. I was
destitute at the time and I even managed to get a roof over my head, literally,
and, I had a brand new automobile. You know I look back at the time and I
didn’t know how I was going to get paid, or how in the world I was going to
sell my product.

I will never forget one day, standing in a used-car lot waiting for the owner to
finish talking with a customer. I was now working for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce as a salesperson. There was all these little pigeons running
around and of course, pigeon droppings were all over the pavement. Now
while I was politely waiting to speak to the car lot owner, a pigeon flew over
and made a nice deposit on the top of my head. Not only did the owner laugh,
but when I asked him if he felt a little sorry for me and would he please buy
my product or service, he said, ‘no.’ He basically escorted me out of the lot
and so did the pigeon - I thought - so I got double rejection that day.

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Chapter 3

Success Is not Easy: Change your
Attitude: Putting Your Ego in Your Back
Pocket
“All things are difficult before they are easy.” John Norley

Now times have not been easy for me in the profession of sales and
they’re not going to be easy for you. But you’ve got to do some things to get
your attitude and things moving in a POSITIVE direction, so that you can
move your life forward. Back then the company didn’t have any type of
training. When they interviewed you for the job they shook your hand and
felt for a pulse. If you had one, you were hired. Now the sales training
manual can be summed up in one sentence: ‘Hang in there, you’ll do fine!’

That’s okay, because for some reason I was meant to be here, and believe me
at the time it was scary. I used to wait around on Monday morning to get my
pay check in the mail. One day my pay check showed up and there was
nothing in the envelope. I spoke to my girlfriend and she said, ‘Hey, give it
one more week. Let’s see what you can do if you give it 100%. And besides,
it’s easier to get a job if you’re employed.’ I gave it my all for the week, and lo
and behold, when I did exactly what I was told by my area manager, it
worked.

I did exactly what they asked me to do and I succeeded. Now I’m not the
smartest guy in the world, so I needed to quit trying to reinvent the wheel. I
quit trying to do it my own way and quit making excuses. That week I
figured out one of the main things that have taken me where I’m at today. If
someone has something to offer me, I’ll put my ego in my back pocket, and I
would learn and listen. If you want to succeed and develop to your full
potential, you can not afford to have an ego leading you around by the nose.
If you aren’t as successful as you want to be, first ask yourself, ‘where is my
ego?’

My initiation into management wasn’t much better either. I remember when
I interviewed for the District Manager’s position for the Los Angeles district.
The manager making the final decision to promote me told me to fly out to
Los Angeles and meet him that evening for dinner. He later called and told

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me that - and I guess the gist of the conversation was - ‘Go have dinner and
fend for yourself and send me the bill. By the way, I guess you’re hired.’

That was my first welcome to management. I had no help, but nothing to
lose, so I went for it. I had to ‘get up,’ ‘get motivated’ and ‘go after it,’ once
again. ‘Welcome to management!’ they told me. ‘The eight or nine district
managers in Los Angeles, by the way they informed me, have failed before
you have. And that “you” have got to be doomed to fail, as well.’ After all
how in the world can this 25-year-old guy from North Carolina possibly get
the job done in a major city like Los Angeles, California when eight district
managers prior to him, had failed?

I’m here to tell you friends that during my first hiring campaign, my first
recruit and assignment, I tried hard to find the champion sales force in Los
Angeles. In those days you would answer an ad in the newspaper and it
would tell you all about what we do. One of the things that I will say is that
you were like the Paul Revere of the 80’s. We sold the free enterprise system.
You’d have a presentation that had to be memorized word for word. One
person actually showed up dressed in a Paul Revere outfit with little pointed
shoes, a ponytail, and puffy shirt and said, ‘Hey! I’m here to apply for the
position with your company.’

I was desperate for reps in those days, and I only had one rep at the time and
he had been with the company for 25 years. He was nearly 65 years of age
and getting ready to retire. So there was not a lot of production that I could
expect from this gentleman. So I asked the guy in the puffy shirt, ‘Would you
mind cutting your ponytail? If you would, I’ll buy you a new suit and I might
hire you?’ Fortunately to my benefit he said, ‘no thank you,’ and moved on to
bigger and better things. The first rep that I did happen to hire, committed
suicide. It was not a great start, but I kept going. Later I was talking to one
of my managers and he said that after he heard the story about the suicide,
he knew that if I did not “pack it in” and head back to North Carolina, that I
was going to make it!

Now that gives you an idea where I’ve come from and why I’m here today. I
want to share these stories with you because if I can touch maybe three of
four of you out there today, I’ve done my job. And that’s what I live for!

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Chapter 4

Treat People Like People and not Money
Machines
“Leadership; Your people – their family – the company & then you…maybe?”
Me

I received a phone call from one of my top representatives many years
ago, basically thanking me for putting her first and production second. You
see she had an illness that she thought was going to be terminal. Thank God
the doctors found out that it wasn’t. This woman had in been in sales for 30
years. She was a veteran. She was a winner. She stood out because she was
among the top 25 representatives within the organization of nearly 450
representatives. She had fallen off course just a little bit, because of her
illness. But I think the thing that really touched my heart was that she took
the time to say, ‘Randy, I want to thank you for your support.’

What this story brings home is that you’ve got to treat people like people first
- whether it’s yourself, your boss, your employers, or your customers – dollars
have to come second, and employees first. The company comes third and it’s
got to come in that order. The company will benefit, tremendously but just as
long as these people are happy doing what they’re doing.

Now I’m here to tell you sales managers, you sales people – leaders in the
community as well as corporate America – that you’ve got to do several things
with your people, because I believe that your people are your most valuable
asset. You are only as good as your people are going to be. It is your job to
develop your people. They look up to you! And we will talk more about that
when I get into LEADERSHIP styles a little later in the program.

I have another story. A few years back, one of my reps had called me on the
phone on a Friday night and I had just gotten off the plane from Dallas, and I
was tired. I had just spent three days training some top sales reps out in
that area and this representative asked me, ‘Randy, how do you stay up and
motivated on a day-to-day basis?’ Well, you know, it was Friday night about
nine o’clock my time and quite frankly, I wasn’t too motivated. But I had to
reach into my bag of sincerity - not my bag of tricks, mind you - but the
things that came from my heart.

Now I’m here to tell you that when you feel as though the person saying,
‘Please help me! I believe in you as my leader. Give me some inspiration,

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give me some MOTIVATION, and please tell me what to do!’ and whether it’s
three o’clock in the morning, or twelve noon, you have got to reach down and
you have got to help this individual succeed, and pull them out of their
slump. I told this rep, ‘Listen! Getting in shape is not easy. Financial
success is not easy. A marriage is not easy. And neither is long-term
employment.’ Whether it’s sales, service, manufacturing - whatever the case
might be – you have got to find out what motivates you and you have got to
work at it on a day-to-day basis.

You see I believe that the opportunity does not lie within the job, it lies
within the individual. I’ll say that again, and write this down: ‘Opportunity
does not lie within the job, it lies within the individual!’ I mean think about
it, just because you and your spouse happen to get into an argument, you
don’t holler ‘divorce,’ although, 51% of today’s couples do, unfortunately. And
I hope that we can change that, just like in the employment situation we can
change. Lower employment, higher employment – just because times are
tough, too many people today holler, ‘I quit,’

There’s a book out, “Why America Won’t Go To Work:” pick it up if you’re a
leader; pick it up if you’re in sales; pick it up if you’re an employee; pick it up
it up if you’re unemployed. Find out what the masses are doing and do the
opposite, and you’ll do very well. As the title of my series say, ‘wake up,’ ‘get
motivated,’ and ‘go after it!’ we’re going to talk about this later on.

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Chapter 5
Taking Action: Having a Game Plan
“Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”
Fredrick Wilson

There are several rules that I live by, and one of them is: ‘positive
affirmation without discipline often leads to delusion.’ Now say it
again: ‘positive affirmation without discipline often leads to delusion.’
You see if you’re POSITIVE you’ll succeed at whatever it is that you
discipline yourself to do. Let me ask you a question out there: would you
recognize an opportunity if it was standing right in front of you? You see, I
had a great opportunity with the company that I’m employed with, but I
didn’t know it at the time. If you have an opportunity, never lose it for the
lack of hard work. And that’s one of my foundations.

I never want it said that I lost the opportunity for the lack of hard work.
Good positions are like stock. Your stock broker calls you up and says, ‘Hey, I
want you to invest in a particular stock.’ You still have to EVALUATE
whether or not it’s a good opportunity. Now that seems obvious, but so many
people only EVALUATE the opportunity in their job when they’re first hired.
You need to set your goals and then see if your current opportunity allows
you to meet what you set. That is what I call, ‘waking up.’

Many years ago one of my goals was to own a brand new sports car. I got it
and I worked hard for it. It was a beautiful candy-apple red. Now I’m not
bragging about it, but I just want you to know that you can go after the stuff
like I did. It’s out there for you. I mean it took me five years to get out of
high school. I’m no one special. I just show up and work hard. Now that
doesn’t take a lot of brains, does it?

Anyway, I probably had about 200 miles on the car and I decided to take this
thing for a drive down to Tucson, Arizona. So I got up at 6:00 a.m. in the
morning and went out to the front of the hotel where I left the car parked the
night before with the top off and the windows rolled up. And I noticed that
there was a stain on the side of my window. Now what happened is some
jealous individual had thrown a large coffee with cream inside my brand new
$75,000.00 sports car. A business owner at the time, who I had known, was
watching me trying to clean this mess up. And he said, ‘Randy, isn’t it
amazing how jealous some people can be?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Bill, you’re
right. But if this person would just work as hard as I do, and put the time

18

and effort into whatever it is that they’re doing, he or she could probably
have a sports car like this as well.’

You see there are 24 hours in a day. And I recommend that you only work
half a day - whether it’s the first 12 hours or the second 12 hours - it’s
entirely up to you. But if I can get you to maximize your output, you’ll do
very well at whatever it is that you’re currently doing. You know I know that
I talk a lot about success, because that’s what we want, isn’t it? I mean,
whether it’s financial success, marital success, fitness success, or job success,
it’s out there for everyone if you just go out and get it.

So, why not you?

Why can’t you have the things that are out there to be had? You can, if you
just go after it. But you got to be able to recognize the opportunity in front of
you - just like the eagle does.

Let me talk about the eagle a second: the eagle soars high above things; he
has sharp eyes; he has the ability to look down; he sees the food, the meal,
the feast; he swoops down with great speed; he dives into the water; he grabs
his feast; he takes it with him; he recognizes opportunity. He’s not sitting in
the nest having a pity party because things didn’t go his way that day. The
weather may be bad and his feathers may be ruffled, but he has to make
things happen.

It is called ‘survival.’

We have to become more like the eagle and not the parrot. You see the parrot
sits on his cage: ‘Feed me! Feed me!’ All he can do is to say, ‘Feed me,’ and
maybe he’ll say a few words. Don’t be like the parrot, be like the eagle. This
country was founded with that spirit, and it’s the symbol of this great nation.
Be part of it, will you? After all, how many of you want more out of life, but
don’t know where to go and get it?

If I pointed you in the right direction and I gave you the right opportunity,
how many of you would lose it though lack of effort or hard work? When I’m
talking to sales managers I often ask them this question, “‘Would you go to
work for you?’ In other words, are you your best friend, or your worst enemy?
What is your mind constantly telling you on a daily basis? What are you
filling your mind with? What are you filling your body with? I hope good
things. After this cassette program, you’re going to! Promise me. Say ‘yes!’

19

For those of you that want more, are you willing to pay the price; put up with
the pain, and do whatever needs to be done to succeed? You know Colonel
Sanders the founder of KFC, he literally knocked on a thousand doors before
someone said, ‘Yes, I’ll buy your chicken recipe.’ How many of you would
have quit, possibly after the five hundredth door? Possibly, I would have too.
I don’t know.

You see, you never know what you’re made of, until you actually push
yourself. And that’s why I ask these sales managers and leaders of the
community, ‘Would you go to work for yourself?’ because if the answer is ‘yes,’
then you’re in the right position. If the answer is ‘no,’ chances are you can’t
lead people and you’re in the wrong position, and your employees are not
going to be effective.

How many times have you said to yourself, ‘If only I had done what I needed
to do, when I needed to do it?’ I’d be much better off today - we all have,
because regrets of life are something that we all run across on a day-to-day
basis. Now what I’m trying to do and why I am excited and so intense about
this, and why I spend so much time on the road, is to get people to recognize
the opportunity in front of them; to have them ’wake up’ ‘get motivated,’
and have them ‘go after it,’ because if you don’t, somebody else will.

It’s that simple.

You have to be careful that you do not surround yourself with people who do
give you, what I call, ‘false hope;’ those who give you the delusions about who
you really are, because critiquing in life is so critical. You see sometimes
we’re too hard or too soft on ourselves. How many people who are truly
attractive think they’re attractive? Very few people do. How many of us are
self-conscious about a certain thing about our body, yet people are constantly
saying, ‘Hey, you’re crazy!’ Or, how about the woman whose 110 lbs. and
thinks that she’s overweight, and her friends are telling her, ‘You are not
overweight! You’re okay!’ But still that nagging little person inside her mind
is saying, ‘You’re overweight. You’re ugly. You’re not up to speed. You can’t
do it.’

You have to get counseling from somebody whom you respect and trust;
someone that will help you recognize opportunity, and help you develop your
own personal talent. We all have the tendency to get advice from people who
are more messed up than we are.

20

Chapter 6

Build Your Foundation First Everything
Else Will Fellow
“There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer that ability. It is the
ability to recognize ability.”
Robert Half

You know sometimes during casual dinner conversation, friends of
mine who are not quite doing so well will attempt to give me advice about
something. I don’t listen to them. I’m polite, but I just don’t listen. It
absolutely amazes me. Let me share with you a story about this. I had a rep
that had left who didn’t do very well, and although she said that she liked
sales and wanted to succeed, she couldn’t cold call and do our particular
profession and succeed at it. But what was amazing to me is that she had
called me six months later and said, ‘Randy, I have a wonderful opportunity
and I wanted to share it with you.’ I could believe it! This woman could not
succeed in my sales organization, yet she was trying to give me advice on
selling another program. Now I’m not putting down other programs, but
basically you have got to have a solid FOUNDATION to you move on, and
we’ll talk about this.

Someone had deluded her into believing that she could succeed without
changing that FOUNDATION. Well, back to my story; this woman wanted
me to enter into a business partnership with her and her husband, so they
came over to the house and I listened. They had a used BMW; they had the
Rolex that they were probably paying on with installments; they lived in an
area that could be considered upscale; they were an attractive couple.

They were definitely ‘faking it, until they made it.”

But her FOUNDATION was no different when she failed with my
organization. Now I felt that I needed to give this couple some advice, and I
saw very clearly where they were going wrong. I said, ‘Listen, you’re a
wonderful couple, but let me give you something that you can take back with
you that can hopefully change your life; because I can tell the two of you want
to succeed and you’ve got to do something first, and you’ve got to develop a
stronger FOUNDATION than what you already have.’

21

‘You see, you’re coming to me, because you think that I can make you a lot of
money.’ I asked the husband, ‘What kind of car did you drive up here in?’ He
said, ‘Well, a 10-year-old used BMW.’ I said, ‘Hey, and the house?’ I
commented, ‘Is your house and the car you drove up in more expensive than
my house and car that I have?’ He said, ‘Well no, not at all.’ And I said,
‘Then why in the world should I listen to you? What do you have to offer me?’
He said, ‘A wonderful opportunity.’ When I had asked him if they had
succeeded at the opportunity that they are involved with, yet, he said, ‘Well
no, they’re just getting started.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to bust your
bubble, you’re excited and I can tell. And that’s okay, but chances are - and I
hope that I’m wrong – but a year from now from now you won’t be in the
program.’

Well, lo and behold, a year later, guess what? They’re not in the program,
why? Because it just didn’t work out for them. Why didn’t it work out?
Because they’re not who they said they were. You see, if you’re really solid
and you’ve got a really solid FOUNDATION, you’re going to make it. If you
change your job before you change your FOUNDATION, it’s not going to
work. It’s that simple. Now this couple had not changed their work ethic, so
they were destined to fail regardless of the opportunity.

There are many aspects to a solid FOUNDATION: spiritual; family; physical;
and career. When I used to interview sales people for positions throughout
the country, I often ask them, “What do they want to make’ in terms of
income for the year.” Their comment was usually between ‘$70,000.00 to
$100,000.00 a year’. I was not familiar with their FOUNDATION, or their
ability at that time, so I would ask them, ‘Why do you feel that you want to
make that, and why do you feel you’re worth that type of income”. When I
would know the year before they had an averaged only $30,000.00. Most
didn’t have a good answer.

Now there’s an old rule of thumb: ‘if you want to earn more, you have got to
become more.’ It’s that’s simple. If you want to increase your income, you
have got to develop a value to the market place, which will enable you to
make a good income. It’s not simply a matter of wanting it, showing up, or
setting goals for it. You have got to educate yourself. You have got to
become more in order to earn more.

Here’s a great question, and I get real excited about this: “Are you an asset,
or a liability to your current company?” Think about this. Now I come to this
from a different angle than most trainers do. I take a long hard look at

22

different opportunities and different companies. I get motivated and I
motivate my people, and hopefully, I can motivate you.

I ask you to check your FOUNDATION that we’ve talked about. Are you who
you say you are? Are you an asset, or are you a liability to your current
employer? If you think about this do you need your company more than they
need you? If the answer is yes, you’re in trouble. And I’ll say that again, if
the answer is yes, if you need your company more than they need you, folks,
you’re in trouble. It’s because you have not developed any type of network
that that company would want to invest in, other than having you fill in a
vacancy, a territory, a seat, or an open spot. It’s that simple.

You have to ask yourself, ‘What is my value?’ What is my net worth from an
employer’s standpoint, or a customer’s standpoint? You see, if you weighed
190 lbs. would you be seen as a 190 lbs of in-shape muscle, able to pull your
load, and able to carry your weight and be productive? Now, a 190 lbs. of fat
is just taking up space. Do what you have to do to make yourself a valuable
asset to your company. And that’s the bottom line,

You see folks, you can’t beat the system. The system is going to beat you.
You know down deep inside whether or not you worked hard enough to
validate your current situation. It’s as simple as that. If you’re not
maximizing your efforts, if you’re not doing everything that you can do to
maintain your job security, ‘shame on you!’ because you’ll be unemployed.
And let me tell you my friends, if you think that being unemployed is easy,
and that you’re going to roll into another great opportunity, you got another
thing coming.

Now they’re out there, believe me, but you must realize that statistics show
for every position paying between $35,000.00 and $50,000.00 a year in
income, there are 375 applicants with your ability standing there in line
waiting to fill that employment opportunity.

For those of you who are trying to find a six-figure income, it’s going to take
from two to three years to land an opportunity. It’s unbelievable! Seventy-
four percent of Americans said that they would have a difficult time finding
another job. That’s ¾ of America. Yet, we don’t hang on to what we
currently have. It’s amazing to me. So, if you’ve got a good deal, if you’ve got
a good opportunity, and you’re happy there, make it work. Don’t lose it
though lack of hard work. Promise me! You have to ask yourself if what
you’re currently doing is moving you toward or away from the goals that you
want to obtain. You have to look at several areas in your life: spiritual;
family; success, your career, as well as your health. That’s very, very
important.

23

Within your current opportunity, are you able to maximize what you want
out of life? If the answer is ‘no,’ you might need to move on, and that’s okay.
But remember, the opportunity does not lie within the company, it lies within
yourself. Look at that couple I mentioned earlier where the woman got into
the multi-level program. Someone promised her the ‘pie in the sky,’ and
because she was looking for the easy way out, she fell into the trap of
changing the job, rather than changing the FOUNDATION and her work
ethic.

24

Chapter 7

Know How to Maximize Your Opportunity
When You Have it

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence,
regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
Vincent T. Lombardi

A while back I attended an opportunity seminar; there were about 60
people in the room, and the speaker was making about 150,000 to
$200,000.00 a year. He was showing a wonderful business opportunity to the
audience. After it was over the speaker said, ‘hey, are there any questions
that we can answer about the opportunity?’ And of course I stood up and
said, “Yes, I have a question.”

The question that I asked the audience, as well as the person showing the
plan was, ‘How many of you in this room are currently maximizing your
opportunity?’ Now they wondered what I was talking about. When I asked a
particular person to elaborate on his current situation, employment-wise, he
said that he was in sales and that the top income earner in the company was
making about $200,000.00 a year. I then asked him if he was even near this,
and he said that he wasn’t even close to that, and that’s why he was
attending this meeting. I said, ‘Young man, even though this may be a good
opportunity, it’s not going to work for you, because you have to build your
FOUNDATION of success before you can move on to something else.’

The things that you need to do to succeed in a new opportunity are the same
things that you would need to do where you are currently employed if you
wanted to make $250,000.00 a year. Keep in mind that the opportunity is not
within the job, it’s within the individual. So, take a look at what you’re
currently doing. If you’re not getting all that is out there to get from your
current situation, you have to go back and build a solid FOUNDATION.

Have you ever heard the story of ‘Acres and Diamonds?’ And this brings my
point close to home. You see there was this farmer in South Africa who sold
his farm to travel the world in search of diamonds. To make a long story
short, today, that farm that he sold is the site of the largest diamond mine in
the world. So, sometimes the acres of opportunity are right under your feet.

25

My goal is to help you implement what I refer to as ‘Legacy Leadership,’ so
that you can accomplish the following 4 things:

1. Get the most from your current employment opportunity. That’s very,
very important.

2. Develop a better game plan and achieve greatness throughout your life.

3. Help you perform to your full potential.

4. Go after whatever it is that you want to go after.

When I became a manager I had no training. I had a lot of negative sales
talk and a lot of negative feedback. I had no choice at the time. I had $800 in
my pocket. I took off in my Grand-Am from North Carolina to drive to Los
Angeles for the ‘golden opportunity.’ At that time I didn’t know what I
couldn’t do, I went out and basically had to make things happen, also at the
time I knew I had six months to make it or break it. As you can imagine the
turnover rate in that managerial position was quite high.

I looked up at the person who hired me and I took copious notes about what I
needed to do to succeed. I put my ego in my back pocket and I knew it was up
to me to get the job done. Basically, they threw me out to the wolves and I
didn’t walk away. I kept going for several reasons: I wanted to better myself
and saw the opportunity to do so. I recognized that if this was the
opportunity for me and someone else was doing well- why not me? I was not
going to lose this great opportunity through lack of hard work. I broke down
the opportunity into its components and decided that, ‘yes,’ there was
something worth going after and something that I was going to have. I was
going to work hard enough to get it and make it happen for me.

As I mentioned earlier, when you’re looking to develop for success, you need
to first ‘wake up’ and take a personal inventory of who you are. Next, you
need to ‘get motivated,’ change your thinking and develop a reason to
succeed.

Let’s talk about getting motivated. MOTIVATION is something that can be
difficult. MOTIVATION is like working out. Everyone wants the perfect
body. Everyone wants to be motivated all the time. But how many of us are
willing to take the time, the effort and discipline to get up and get the perfect
body that we want? When bathing suit time comes, we wish we had.
MOTIVATION must come from inside you. External MOTIVATION will only
work short term. You can get inspiration from external sources, but lasting
MOTIVATION is internal.

26

To stay motivated takes work and time. Many people claim that they have
no extra time, because of the things that they already do. But how much
time do you spend watching television? People in this country, folks, have
been fed on TV and fast food. You know ladies and gentlemen, I did not own
a TV until five years ago when we built our house. There was a big blank
space on one wall that needed something - what I felt - a nice big screen color
television would fit just fine. Now I only use it to watch DVD’s, because
commercial television is one of the most negative things out there. I have no
disrespect for good educational stations, I’m just not a television fan. I also
love DVD’s, but TV. is a waste of time; in my opinion. It’s negative, because
negativity is easier to sell than POSITIVE information.

Rather than spending time watching someone else’s negative program, you
should be spending time developing your own POSITIVE program. Talking
about television, I’m reminded of what Groucho Marx had to say on the
subject. He said, and I quote, ‘I must say I find television very educational.
The minute someone turns it on, I go to the library and read a great book.’ I
love that quote by Groucho; make it a part of your life. Spend more time
developing yourself than watching TV.

Many years ago I had an opportunity that I didn’t recognize, and at the time I
didn’t know how to take advantage of it. Would you know an opportunity if it
ran across your forehead, or possibly stood right in front of you? Now that’s
the first mile to the road to success. The second mile is MOTIVATION. At
first I did not succeed because I was unable to get internally motivated. I
didn’t know what I wanted. I didn’t know how to get out of bed and go after
those things that I wanted.

I’m going to share with you some thoughts and ideas that will ‘wake you up,’
‘get you motivated,’ and get you ‘going after’ your dreams day after day,
week after week, and year after year. As I mentioned, you have got to get out
of bed to get motivated. It seems like I have several sales representatives
that have difficulty getting out of bed every single morning. When I talk to
them, they’re always crying poor mouth. They’re broke. They can’t pay their
bills. Now they want more out of life, but there are many times that they
have called their manager and said, ‘Hey, do me a favor; give me a wake up
call, would you?’

This is unbelievable! These people are between 35 and 50 years of age, and
they still need a wake up call. Wake up America! There’s something
wrong with this picture. If what it takes to get you out of bed is someone
holding your hand, you’re in trouble. You’re in the wrong system. To get out
of bed, though, you have got to have a purpose. I talk to a lot of people

27

around the country and it consistently amazes me how so many people lose
an opportunity because they have a reluctance to act. I’m here to tell you
today that if this is the case, I want you to change. It’s a fact that in this
world you either deal or get dealt.

It’s that simple.

28

Chapter 8
Staying Motivated: What it Takes
“The worst bankrupt in the world is the person who has lost his enthusiasm.”
H.W. Arnold

This great country was founded on freedom, hard work, and a
determination to “go for it!” It’s called the free enterprise system and it
creates the wealth this great country has to offer you and me. I didn’t have a
purpose, either, many years ago. It was very difficult for me to get out of bed
and get going when there was nothing to look forward to except the first cup
of coffee in the morning, the long drive to the office, or that rejection by that
negative client you have to deal with on a daily basis.

You have got to put things into a POSITIVE framework. It takes more
energy to be POSITIVE than it does to be negative, because you have got to
make the decision to be POSITIVE. If not, the negatives will creep in by
themselves. You make a lot more money, you have nicer friends, and you’ll
have better relationships. You’ll be healthier and you’ll have better kids if
you decide to have a POSITIVE attitude. If you don’t, people will not want to
be around you, and chances are you’re employment situation is not going to
last either.

Another way to stay motivated is to develop pride of ownership within your
company. Your employer’s going to notice, your productivity will increase,
and guess what? You’ll start making more money. So take pride in what you
do and develop your MOTIVATION, internally. Maybe you don’t feel like
being motivated right now, well I have news for you: ‘fake it, until you make
it!’ Have a zip in your walk, have a smile on your face. Your employer’s
going to notice and you’ll be a more valuable asset to your company.

By reading this you have already done something that most people won’t do.
Basically you’re reading this because you want more out of life. You want to
grab one or two ideas from this book to take with you so that you can increase
your enjoyment of life, increase your net worth, and increase your happiness.
I hope that I can help you do that; it’s what I live for.

Another part of MOTIVATION is activity. Activity and effort generate
results. It’s interesting though, one of my sales representatives who has been
with me for a long time is consistently home between the hours of two and
three o’clock in the afternoon. Now, his activity stops too soon and holds him
back. I believe that if you put at least 80% of your effort into your work,
you’re going to do tremendous things. A. L. Williams writes in his book, ‘All

29

You Can Do Is All You Can Do.’ He states, ‘You beat 50% of America by
working hard. You beat another 40% of the people in America by being a
person of integrity and standing for something.’ The last 10% ‘is a dogfight
for the free enterprise system.’

Many people feel that just showing up, and working hard is enough. If this is
our attitude, we’re in trouble as a nation. We have to get over this. It takes
more than showing up in this country. Just showing up is not good enough.
When I read A. O. Williams’ book many years ago, I thought, ‘Hey, if I show
up, work hard, and have integrity, I’ll have 90% of what this company and
country has to offer….hey, count me in, I’m going for it.’

Since then I have developed a love for what I do - and let me say this - if you
have a passion for what you do, you will be unstoppable. As I mentioned, this
country was founded on hard work, discipline, dedication, and going for it.
Now I sell patriotism on a day-to-day basis, because I love it. I believe in this
country and that’s what keeps me going. I will never let it be said that I lost
an opportunity through lack of hard work. Don’t lose the body you deserve
through lack of hard work either, and do not lose your opportunity through
the lack of hard work, as well. If it’s out there, grab it! I look at it this way,
‘why can’t I have everything out there if this guy has it…..why can’t I have
it?’ I know that I can, if I just work hard enough.

For example, I used to always look at people driving nicer cars than mine.
My wife and I used to drive down the streets and see someone in a nice car
and we’d always wonder what this person did for a living. Have you ever
done that? In other words, would you drive by a nice neighborhood and
think, ‘Wow, what do these people do for a living?’ I know I used to many
years ago. I can tell you what they’re not doing, and I can tell you what they
are doing. First of all they don’t sleep in until ten or eleven o’clock in the
morning and hey don’t stay out until one or two o’clock that evening,
drinking, destroying their bodies with bad things that cannot move you
forward in your career and your in life.

Remember, discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons. It’s an
important point: ‘discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons.’
Think about this for a second - going back to the disciplinary statement that I
mentioned. Could you imagine when your child was first born - if you put
$20.00 a month or $100.00 a month into a conservative mutual fund program
- where would your child stand, financially, 20 years later? The child would
be very well off, but it takes discipline. Discipline is the key to
MOTIVATION. If success takes hard work, discipline and integrity, you can
count me in!

30

I hope that we can count you in, as well.

Show up and work hard. Hey, is that not the premise of life? Yet five million
sales people are out there today and less than one million of them make a
decent income. Now, according to Charles Gibbons in his book, ‘Wealth
without Risk,’ 96% of those people who retire, retire with less than
$13,000.00 a year in income and, with less than $40,000.00 socked away in
investments.

Jim Rohn is a very successful business man, speaker, and author - and
teaches children in the eighth grade, how to be wealthy by the time they
reach 40 years of age. Now I believe Jim, because you’ve got to start today.
You can certainly have it when you really want it, if you just start today.
How many of you would love to retire right now? Let me see your hands.
Well, I know I would. Two hundred nights a year on the road is tough. But
you know, I have a passion for what I do and I love it. And let me talk about
passion for a second, because it is another key to MOTIVATION.

If you truly enjoy what you do, you’re going to be motivated to get it done
and do very well at it. Therefore, your income is going to rise. Believing in
your job is a form of integrity which, in turn, is a form of passion.

Now, another part of MOTIVATION and success is helping others to succeed.
As Zig Ziglar puts it, ‘If you help enough people get what they want, you’ll get
what you want.’ Because, essentially, you’re putting them first and yourself
second. If you start putting yourself in front of people and treating them as
secondary individuals, it’s not going to work for you. In other words, if you
chase the dollar, I truly believe you’re going to lose. You have got to chase
the MISSION and purpose.

Put people first.

31

Chapter 9

Set Your Goals in All Areas of Your Life
“It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very
often get it.”
Somerset Maugham

Let me say this about MISSION. If your company currently has a
MISSION statement, find out what it is. Define it! Own it! Personalize it
and run with it! And you’ll be top in that company. If it doesn’t, then you’ll
have to develop your own MISSION statement. MISSION statements are
important in today’s society. It’s easy to succeed out there. All it takes is
hard effort, yet we have so many people in the welfare system, so many
people with their hands out; we have so many people blaming the school
systems; blaming our communities; blaming others for their failures.

Stop it!

I have a system in our hiring process that I put together many years ago to
teach sales companies how to attract the best and brightest. It kind of goes
like this:

1. I show the applicants the presentation of the company. We feel that the
orientations are very important to this company, because if most people
understood what they’re getting into, there would be less employee
turnover.
2. I ask this question: how many of you got into an opportunity, or know of
someone who has gotten into an opportunity and then three or four
weeks later, they go ‘Whoops! This is not what I’m looking for!’

So they went on to something else. I have seen resumes that show a person
having five or six jobs in the last five years. I understand that some of this is
beyond your control. But if it is within your control, you should not have that
many jobs over the four of five years that we’ve talked about.

I want to cover control and work ethics for a second, because if all of us would
get up and work at just 80% of our capacity, I believe that most companies
would be “light years’ ahead of their time to where they currently are now.
Now there’s no reason that we should not put forth the effort. Before the
owners of any company decide to manufacture their product or sell their
service, they think of the idea long and hard before they decide to invest their
hard earned dollars into the project. They’re offering the good opportunity.

32

And if the good opportunity is good enough for them to invest their hard
earned dollars in, shouldn’t we take advantage of the opportunity as well;
especially if all we have to do is invest in our effort, and hard work and time.

Let me share a story with you – and I love stories – one of my sales reps, at
the time, gave me a call. This guy had a lot of potential. He called me on the
phone and said, ‘Randy, I want to apologize to you. The reason that I’m not
succeeding is because I can’t keep focused.’ Now, folks, this was a 45-year-old
man telling me that he couldn’t keep focused. I said, ‘Robert, let me give you
a little example of not keeping focused.’ You have two lovely children, and
let’s say they go to college – a very, very expensive college down the
road……let’s say ‘Harvard.’ You invest money in them and they’ve invested
time, and one day they call you and they say, ‘Dad, I’m flunking out.’ Your
first question is going to be ‘why are they flunking out?’ And they say it’s
because they can’t keep focused. How many kids in this country would love
to go to ‘Harvard?’ And yours “blew it,” because they can’t keep focused.
What are you going to say? Who’s to blame, the opportunity, or the
individual?

His comment, of course, was not pleasant. Reality checks are not always
pleasant. Then I said, ‘Let me talk to your wife.’ He said, ‘No way, Randy!’
He knew better and he understood the point. If all it takes is focus, then I’ll
buy you the eyeglasses, the binoculars……whatever it takes. It’s up to you to
get focused. Now, hopefully, this taped series is going to help you. And I
thank you for being here, because, as I mentioned, you’re already doing
something that most people won’t do.

How many of you look forward to going on vacation every year? Let me see
the hands! You look forward to getting up, getting out there, and going on
vacation spending two weeks with your family. I have a planning session
twice a year with my managers, and the first thing that I ask them to do is
plan their vacations; spend two weeks, go somewhere with your families,
because you’re going to work hard the rest of the year. But, we’re going to
plan the vacation and get it out of the way. Then we’ll plan our work year
the same way.’

Now, most people spend more time planning their vacation then they do the
rest of their lives. What a sad situation. I want you to plan your work with
the same passion that you plan your vacation. How many of us look forward
to getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m., getting on the freeway, and going to work
every morning? And then we have to face the boss and sometimes at very low
pay. Now very few of us look forward to doing that. You see, many years ago

33

I didn’t look forward to it either. I had to create something exciting in my
life.

Remember the story about the guy who wanted to get someone to give him a
wake-up call and get him out of bed and get him going? What if someone
doesn’t show up? Now this guy’s in trouble. Remember, the inability to get
up in the morning is not an excuse. Now a lot of us need to get a different
type of alarm clock; it’s called a “reality check” clock.

You see, I believe that “God doesn’t make junk!” So, don’t give me the excuse
that someone else is better than you, because I don’t buy the story. If that’s
the case, then you go out there and you become better than they are. You’ve
got to get the books, get the tapes, and go to the seminars…..get the fitness
programs! Go to the professionals who understand how to dress you and how
to cut your hair. Now I’m a tyrant when it comes to my people, because I
want them to succeed. I live for their success…..they succeed, I succeed. It’s
a win-win situation.

It’s that simple.

34

Chapter 10

Leading the No Excuses Life
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
Winston Churchill

Now excuses are something that I don’t buy in my organization and I
don’t want you to buy them either. I don’t want you to listen to excuses
anymore and I don’t want you to come up with them! Look at yourself in the
mirror and ask yourself, ‘Am I doing everything that I can possibly do to
maximize my efforts today?’ If the answer is ‘no,’ then change; if the answer
is ‘yes,’ and you’re still not getting what you want out of life ,change the
opportunity. I’m telling you that that’s okay.

There are a lot of great companies out there and there are a lot of great
individual, entrepreneurial people out there starting their own endeavors.
This country was founded on the concept of free enterprise. There’s no reason
that you can’t have it; it’s out there! If your current opportunity is not good
enough, you can always create your own. Small business creates 42% of the
gross national product – ‘GNP’ – in this country. Eighty-seven percent (87%)
of the work force is working for small ‘Mom and Pop” businesses. Get into a
business that can get you where you need to be, but don’t make the excuses.
“No excuse management” is what I tell my managers. Just like the new
cadets at ‘West Point,’ we should only answer questions in one of four ways:
‘Yes, sir!’ ‘No, sir!’ ‘No excuse, sir!’ or, ‘I don’t understand, sir!’ It’s called “no
excuse living.’

If I can get people to work at 80% of their capacity, then guess what; they’re
going to succeed. Accepting responsibility is something that I drill into their
minds on a day-to-day basis. After all, we are not paid by the quality or the
quantity of our excuses, but by the “bottom line.” It’s called “results.”
Remember, ‘discipline weighs ounces, regret weights tons.’ Do it now!
Make it happen!

There’s a rule and I want to change it. And I want you to help me to change
it, but it’s going to take a long time. And if I can change it, then I’ve done my
job. It’s going to take your help as well. It’s called the ‘80-20 rule.’ It’s
called, ‘some will, some won’t, so what?’ I speak to a lot of winners and I
talk to a lot of people about the ’80-20’ rule. Some are in ‘101’ and some in
groups like this.

35

About a month ago a woman came up to me and said, ‘Randy, hey, great
seminar, but the challenge is, in my organization ‘some will, some won’t, so
what?’ And I said, ‘we have got to change that, because if you’re part of the
‘some won’t’ and the “so what?” category, you’re in trouble.’

There are very few “some wills,” and we’ve got to change that. I want to add
something to your life today. I want to give you the information that will
inspire you to become part of the “some wills;” because 80% of the results are
being brought in by 20% of the work force in your company. Think about
this! It’s as old as I am. It’s as old as you are. It’s a fact folks, that 80% of all
results are generated by 20% of the people in your company. 80% of the
wealth in this country is generated by 20% of the population.

That’s okay if you’re part of the 20%, but it’s not if you’re part of the 80%. I
want you to try to shoot over to the 20%-ers to have 80% of the goodies.
Ninety-seven percent of the actors in the ‘Screen Actors’ Guild,’ make less
than $10,000.00 a year. Now don’t ask me why; it’s just one of those things.
Here’s another figure: 97% of those people who retire, retire on less than
$13,000.00 a year in income. Remember the 5 million sales people…..less
than 1% make a living folks, and we’ve got to change this ’80-20 rule.’ Will
you help me? I know you will.

You know, we all to succeed and we all want the “wealth of life,” but we’re not
always willing to work for it. We’re always looking for shortcuts. If the
lottery in Arizona hit $50,000,000.00 and only one outlet sold tickets, and it
opened up at 4:00 a.m., and the news media made the comment that tickets
would be sold out by 9:00 a.m., I guarantee you that the majority of you
would be out there at 4:00 a.m. trying to buy those lottery tickets.

Do you know why? Because I see you out there; I’m standing right behind
you in line – no, I’m just kidding. You see, guys like me don’t win the lottery.
I’m an optimist, but I’m not looking for shortcuts to success. First, it’s
because the odds are against it from happening. And second, if there is an
easy way out, the chances are I’m not going to hang onto it. I’ll squander it
away, and I mean that. So, I don’t blame you if you can’t get out of bed if
you’re not looking forward to your day. But change. Don’t let people control
what you do. You control it.

If someone had a bad day, tell them, ‘hey, I don’t want to be part of it. I’m
going off to bigger and better things.’ Now, most people don’t like winners. I
teach my new sale’s reps that there are two groups out there that basically
want you to succeed: Your company; your family; yourself, and that’s it. How
many of you, when you have a bad day, you have a bad week, or you possibly

36

get into a slump, and you look at your manager and you say, ‘hey, I need
help.’

You see, again, your ego can trip you up, but you’ve got to put your ego in
your back pocket. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. Figure it this way, if
you’re failing and you don’t seek help, who is to blame? The only time that I
hear from my average sales people is when they have a great day. But the
ones who are champions, the ones who are winners - when they have a bad
day or a bad week - guess what they do? They call me. They call the so-
called support group within the company.

I’m in tune with people. I’m in one of the two groups that want them to
succeed. You leaders, if you’re not in tune with your staff, you’re going to lose
them. And I believe that I’m like a professional basketball, football, or
baseball team owner in that the happier that I can make them, the longer
they’re going to stay with me. And maybe they’ll be a little less likely to be
looking for a bigger and better opportunity.

Let me see the hands of those of you who have looked in the newspaper or the
internet during the last six months, looking to see what else is out there,
because times are tough. I often laugh, because when times get tough people
start looking for other employment. This is wrong. If you’re looking for
employment, look on a high note. Remember before you move on make sure
that you have maximized your current opportunity. Remember?
Opportunity lies within the individual and not the position.

37

Chapter 11
Invest in Yourself, Before all Else
“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Probably my favorite group to talk to is sales people, because I’m in the
profession. I understand that it takes training to do well, but what’s
interesting to me is that we have a lot of people who want to try sales. They
feel that they can just step in and “wing it” until they can get the hang of it.
Can you imagine approaching most professions that way? It’s like a person
wanting to try brain surgery. That individual might be motivated as all “get
out,” but without him investing the time to become properly trained, I doubt
that you would volunteer to become his first patient.

To be paid well and to be competent, a doctor must invest in educating
himself correctly in order to succeed. He doesn’t just open an office and
operate on a few people for a few weeks and hope to get the hang of it. Even
if he could, he’d probably quit after a few weeks of frustration, after not
succeeding on a few patients.

What’s the highest paid profession in the world? Yours and mine. Yet the
vast majority (of people) fail, because they fail to invest time in training
themselves. I truly believe that if you mastered your techniques, if you hone
your skills, if you understand human nature, you’ll become a winner in your
industry. I promise you! But a lot of people try sales and they go at it with
the approach of the “want to be’ surgeon. They’re nervous, they’re
scared…..join the crowd. I was, too, many years ago.

You know, I got sick of starving and I was sick of living in my car. I had to
make a change. I began getting up at a reasonable hour and I started doing
the things that I was supposed to be doing. It’s called, ‘building that
FOUNDATION.’ Would you not agree with me that if you do as your trainer
asks you to do - in the company’s training program – that you’re going to
succeed? Do they hire you to fail? Is it not to their advantage that you
succeed? Absolutely! But it’s amazing to me that sales people will come into
the company and do the opposite of what they were trained to do. And then
they blame the company for their failure. Now, what I tell my sales reps
after they do this is to say, ‘Harry, I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for you,
and I know that you tried to do it your own way…..and by the way, I want to

38

thank you, because you helped us with your ‘research and development’
program at your own expense.

A lot of these people that fail, claim that they don’t have the time to study
after work hours to improve their skills. They’re the same people who don’t
have time to workout and stay in shape either. But I’ll bet you that if you
monitor their home activity, you’ll find out that they do have time to watch a
couple of hours of television every single night. Remember, you make other
people money by watching television and you make nothing for yourself. One
of the most non-productive things that you can do is to sit around and watch
television when you can be doing something to advance your career. Do you
want to soar with the eagles, or do you want sit in your cage like the parrot?
If something is truly important, you’ll find the time and energy to move
forward and complete the project.

Absolutely!

Now the challenge is that there are a lot of things that are very, very
important that we should be doing, but we feel that we don’t have to do these
things for various reasons. If some things are important, you have to make
the time. Make productive things your priority.

People who talk one way and spend time doing something else are not being
true to themselves, or anyone else. You have to be who you say you are
because if you’re not, people are going to see through you. It has to do with
that internal MOTIVATION that I mentioned earlier. Have you ever been
around someone who says, ‘hey, have a great day,’ or do you have a boss who
possibly has false MOTIVATIONS and tells you to keep fired up, but isn’t
fired up himself? You can see through false MOTIVATION. Internal
MOTIVATION can not be faked.

Now when I first started with the company that I’m with, I had some
discipline. I was in the gym every morning and I understood work ethics,
somewhat. But I didn’t take the same work ethic with me to work and that’s
why I wasn’t successful as I needed to be or, that I wanted to be. My point is
that I had to strengthen my FOUNDATION in all areas of my life and
internalize my MOTIVATION. I did not know it at the time, but I can look
back now and see how important the FOUNDATION was for business
success.

And I am internally motivated, not externally motivated…..I have to be! I
have no choice, because I am paid for my attitude. If I rely on outside
circumstances to pump me up, I will be on an emotional roller-coaster and my
performance will be up and down as well. You did not come here to see me

39

and pay me good money for me to stand up here and say, ‘hey, I’m not going
to perform for you 100% today, because, quite frankly, I’m a little tired. I got
in late last night and I’m dealing with a two-hour time change – which also
caused me to miss my workout.’

I wouldn’t be offering you much, would I? Would you possibly walk out, or
tune me out? Who knows? I possibly would. So realize that we are basically
paid according to our attitude, and that is something that we can control.

40

Chapter 12

Taking Care of the Little Things, Adds Up
to Big Things
“Do it now! You will be glad you did later.”
Me

Let’s talk about the little things that keep you motivated for a second.
How did you feel when you brought that new car? How did you feel when you
brought that new suit? How did you feel when you got into that new
relationship? You felt wonderful, didn’t you? Now ask yourself this question:
does that car still look brand new today? And one thing that I preach to all
my reps is to clean your car on a daily or weekly basis. Keep it looking brand
new.

Have you ever seen a car that looks brand new and someone says, ‘hey, it’s
about four-years-old……’ don’t you find that a little impressive? Keep the
things around you in good shape and it will keep your attitude in good shape
as well. So clean that automobile. It’s going to make you feel great every
single morning when you hit the freeway and you go to work. You’ll feel good
when you take the client out. You’ve got to look the part, you’ve got to act the
part……. be the classy individual you are. I know that you want to be that
way.

Also, take care of that new suit. Now, when you take care of that suit, you
don’t throw it in the closet. No! You hang it up, neatly. You brush it off,
because that’s what people see you in all the time. Your clothes, your house,
your kids and your family, they are no different: keep them clean; keep them
healthy; keep them organized.

Now I’m a bit of a fanatic about this subject and I drive my wife crazy, so you
might not want to pattern yourself after me. But when I come home from a
business trip, I don’t want to come home to a mess that makes me feel
disorganized, and I get grumpy. So before I leave, I vacuum. People come
into my house and ask if anyone lives there because the carpet looks brand
new all the time. I take care of my things. When I come home after a long
trip, my mind feels good. So, clean things up before you leave. That way,
they’ll look brand new all the time.

This goes for your sales kits and your presentation material as well.

41

I often look at a person’s shoes. It’s funny, because shoes can tell a lot about
an individual. I make sure that my sales reps shoes are polished every time
that we’re together. About 10 years ago I called on a client that turned out to
be one of our larger accounts. I came in and introduced myself, cold, and I
told him that I needed a few minutes to discuss my product and services. I
asked him if his office was available, or if we could talk here. He looked me
up and down and then said, ‘You have five minutes. I like your shoes.’

I said, ‘Excuse me?!’ I was 26 years of age at the time - you know, a young
guy – and he said, ‘Young man, come in here. I want to tell you something. I
can see that you take care of your shoes. It tells me a lot about how you take
care of your customers.’ I walked out with a $2,000.00 check, made payable
to the services that I was selling.

I’ll never forget Harvey McKay’s book, ‘Swim With The Sharks Without
Getting Eaten Alive.’ Mr. McKay said that ‘little things don’t mean a lot, they
mean everything.’ Here’s how much a “stickler” that I am about the little
things: I used to check out the anchor man on national television to make
sure that their tie was straight. It amazes me that a person making two to
three million dollars a year will appear on national television – sometimes
worldwide – with a crooked tie, or the tie that’s not quite up to the button
where it’s supposed to be. I’ll say this folks, and I hate saying this, but you
only have one time to make a first impression; you have 30 seconds with that
person across from you to determine whether or not they like you, or trust
you.

Now that’s wrong and I know it, but that’s just human nature. If it’s not
what you believe, then you need to change your thought process on this
subject. When you walk into someone’s office to interview with someone, or
meet for the first time, they size you up in 30 seconds. It may be 10 minutes
later that they get to know you, and that’s okay. But if you can’t get that first
impression off to a good start, they’re not going to give you the 10 minutes get
to know you.

And it’s that simple.

The first impression is everything. Maintain the neatness in your car, the
neatness in your shoes, and the neatness in the way you look. The complete
package must be there. Let’s put it this way, can you imagine if the great
company that you’re currently employed with basically had shoddy products,
or shoddy business cards? Maybe the logo is crooked or you name is off
centered, or your presentation material possibly wasn’t as professional as it
needed to be. Let me ask you a question: ‘Is your company in business to

42

make a profit, yes, or no?’ Yes! Are you in business to make a profit, yes, or
no?

Remember, you have to develop what I call ‘pride of ownership.’ So I tell
my staff they’re going to be sharp. It’s part of their FOUNDATION and part
of developing their internal MOTIVATION.

If you are not big on little things now, change your thinking. You have to
change your thoughts to better your life. We all want something out there
and you’re listening to me for a reason; probably because you’re looking for a
better way to better your life. Watch all the little things in your life: financial;
physical; and spiritual. They all go in balance, but you have to change your
thoughts to improve your life.

You know, real estate, financial investments, and the insurance industry are
- in my opinion - some of the best money-making opportunities out there. But
so often though, if it doesn’t work out for somebody in two or three months,
they think, ‘Whoops, this is not what I’m looking for; it’s not happening for
me.’ And off they go chasing the opportunity of the week. Remember, work
ethic is part of a solid FOUNDATION. You cannot expect results to change
if you have bad habits. Find a way to change your habits.

And let me give you another personal example.

Earlier I told you that I’m a person who likes to sleep in. I could sleep in
until eight or nine o’clock in the morning, but how do I get up and get going?
Here’s what I did to motivate myself. When I built my house, I made sure
that the architect understood that my bedroom was to be very bright and
cheerful, and a lot of sunlight should pour into the room very early in the
morning. It’s hard for me to sleep in a sunny room, as it is I’m sure for a lot
of you. Another thing that I do to get rolling in the morning - and it makes
my wife laugh - is that we have a mirror at the bedside and when I wake up
in the morning I look at myself in the mirror and say, “It’s going to be a great
day,’ even if only one eyeball is barely open.

You and I both know that if we have a bad day, a bad week, and possibly a
bad month…..the bank, the car note, the mortgage…..no one cares. You have
to make it happen. You know yourself better than anyone, so find something
that you can you use to make yourself correct your bad habits. I did for
getting up early in the morning. As the old saying goes, ‘work harder on
yourself than you do on your job, and you’ll succeed.’ Now it’s not as
easy as I mentioned, but I stay in shape – physically - and I have not missed
a workout in 33 years. Now it’s difficult, yes, but it does take discipline, but

43

the outcome is endurance, the outcome is higher income, the outcome is being
a better person. It’s a solid FOUNDATION in the making.

Speaking of fitness, I recommend that you take care of your body, because the
body and mind go hand-in-hand. If you had a million dollar racehorse, would
you keep the racehorse out until four o’clock in the morning; pounding down
the alcohol, or whatever else you do to that racehorse? Scientists have said
that it would take nearly a billion dollars to build one of us. How are you
treating your billion dollar asset? I hope very well. So take stock of your bad
habits and develop your personal game plan to get rid of them. No one can do
it for you. It’s all up to you.

How exciting!

Motivation is a personal thing. What motivates you does not necessarily
motivate me, and visa-versa. MOTIVATION – and it concerns money – as I
said earlier; if you are going to chase the dollar rather than the MISSION,
you’re going to lose. If you make a good income, and you are able to help other
people, do it!

44

Chapter 13

Leadership: What Makes a Leader?

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a
trail.”

This is the final step in maximizing your own opportunity and
basically passing this on to someone else. At this point when you are really
going after success, you are implementing what I call Legacy Leadership.
So making money is good, as long as you do it legally, and as long as you do it
ethically and morally. My philosophy is: Use money to make people, don’t
use people to make money.

I want to cover LEADERSHIP, and it applies to you if you are currently in
top management, or want to be. It is the final step in maximizing your own
opportunity. I feel at this point it’s your obligation to help others to develop
their own FOUNDATION and to pass on the Winners Legacy. For you who
are not quite leaders yet, let me explain. I use the term ‘leadership,’
because in my opinion the word management is no longer viable. The
management tactics used in the ‘90’s and today, need to be taken a step
further and possibly redefined.

Most of us have heard about ‘TQM,’ or ‘Total Quality Management.’ I loved
‘TQM,’ when I got into management at 26 years of age and started to build
the championship districts that served me well throughout my career.
However, ‘TQM,’ in my opinion, is not focused on pulling people up to better
their careers, but mainly getting them to perform better at their current level
of responsibilities

Typically a manager thinks in terms of people doing a better job in where
they are, and not in terms of moving them up. Legacy Leadership says,
yes, get your people to do better at their current job, but then train them to
be your replacement. Now keep this in mind as a leader; you cannot be
promoted if there’s no one to fill your shoes. In other words, duplicate
yourself. This country needs great leaders that can develop a legacy for
success. We’re losing great leaders, in my opinion. We need to develop this
Legacy Leadership to move people into leadership positions.

Let me go a little further with my definition of Legacy Leadership: It’s the
ability to move people under you toward the goal - or goals - that you have

45

established as a team that are beneficial to them, their family, and then you.
And they must be in that order. If you look at individuals as nothing but
producers, they’re going to fight you. You have to look at them as individuals
first, care for them, and then production will follow.

It’s a win-win situation for everybody!

Imagine this. I happen to be your leader and I call you up on the phone one
night, and every single conversation goes like this: “Well John, how did you
do today? What was your bottom line?” After 5 or 6 of the same
conversations, this is going to get old; would you not agree? A person feels
like saying, ‘Hey Randy, I’m here, I’m an individual, I have other challenges,
and I would like to share them with you. Will you listen? Will you be open
enough, and be sensitive enough to hear other things besides asking me what
my bottom line is?’

In the 21st Century the term management is totally out in my opinion. Even
the word ‘LEADERSHIP’ is somewhat outdated. That’s why I refer to
Legacy Leadership, and there is a fine line between the two. In a
professional selling situation, the prospect doesn’t feel that he or she is being
sold. They feel like they are buying. If the sales person is a champion and
has developed his techniques, and understands his product, understands his
clients, he has what I call, his PHD. in selling skills.

The same can be applied to leading people. They must not feel that they are
being managed but instead, are looking to you for LEADERSHIP. Controls
must be there to maximize results, but your people should see them as tools
to help them build their FOUNDATION for success. There’s a fine line here,
as well. I talk a lot about Legacy Leadership, because I don’t want any
decisions unless my management team under me - and the reps under them -
understand all that needs to be done, and they are in agreement with the
MISSION that needs to be accomplished. It’s a balance of control and
participation.

If you’re going to make a decision, and there is no one in favor of what you’re
going to do, you’re going to get lousy results. You have to have the
congruency on all levels, so that everyone understands what needs to be done
and we can get the job done as a team. Keep in mind as I mentioned earlier,
that you need to foster pride of ownership. When you get your employees and
the people that you lead involved in what I call, pride of ownership, the
company will have fewer challenges down the road and you will see increased
profits.

46

I believe this ladies and gentleman, because there are companies out there
that are doing just great and I see them all the time. I also see companies
that are doing lousy. Now the difference is the balance of control and
participation. Ask yourself, as a company, does your company have a
MISSION statement? You as a sales person, you as a leader, if you don’t
have a MISSION statement then you’re in trouble. I want to share my
MISSION statement with you.

‘I will do everything I can do to help people achieve the level of
success they are looking for, professionally and personally.’ What a
powerful MISSION statement! I am in the business to help people grow and
develop their full potential.

What I ask you to do after listening to me is to sit down and establish your
personal MISSION statement. It’s going to take time, but you need to do it
because it is going to be the “rudder of your ship” to steer your team, to steer
you to great treasures and increased profits. There’s also something else to
keep in mind; as current and future leaders we cannot sit still. To move
people forward we must continue to have new things to offer them. We must
develop our own program of betterment classes, and self improvement.

Here’s a funny story - and let me share it with you - and I have fun with
this…..because it brings a point across on what we’re talking about. Would
you go to a doctor if you were aware that he or she had not taken, what we
call, a betterment class in two or three months? Chances are you wouldn’t.
Imagine - God forbid - that your spouse or child is injured. And when you
take them to the emergency room, your doctor sits back and folds his arms
and says ‘Gee, I know that there’s a great new procedure that would fix your
child’s injuries, but I’m not really up to perform that, and I slept in during
that part of my medical class training many years ago. I’ll be happy to give it
a try, though.’ If he said that, I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t return to that
particular doctor and you’d probably grab your child and leave the emergency
room as soon as possible.

Most of you are aware that sales people make more money than any other
profession in the world; it’s true! The highest paid profession today is
competent sales people. But if they’re not competent, chances are that
they’re not going to succeed just like the doctor that I just mentioned. If I
looked in your car right now would I find a “betterment” tape? Would I find
something other than junk that’s on the radio which does not fill your mind
and help you to earn a good living?

Remember, you are in the people business. When you understand people, you
rule the world and your destiny for success. So get yourself on what I call a

47

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