Читать книгу No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy - Dan S Kennedy - Страница 11

CHAPTER 1

THE DECISION AND DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances,

but are unwilling to improve themselves.

They therefore remain bound.

—JAMES ALLEN, AS A MAN THINKETH

Contrary to a great many textbook assertions, having the best product, the better mousetrap, a whiz-bang new idea, the top location, the best market, the smartest accountant, the neatest bookkeeping system, or a ton of capital—or all of them together—does not ensure success. On the other hand, having the worst product, a mediocre mousetrap, a silly idea, a bad location, a weak market, an accountant who can’t count, a shoebox and paper bag bookkeeping system, or no money—or all of these things together—does not ensure failure.

I have seen people succeed under the most improbable conditions. I’ve also seen people who have everything going for them still manage to screw it up. In all of these cases, it’s the person making the difference. That’s why there really are no business successes or failures; there are people successes and people failures.

For an extended period of time, the incredible dysfunction and dereliction of duty of CEOs running some of America’s corporations and business institutions as well as literally hundreds of thousands of small business owners was concealed by a wildly over-generous economy fueled by stupid credit. Businesses that were manufacturing debt far more than anything else seemed to be prospering and the buffoons and criminals running them were widely accepted as successful. The inevitable bursting of multiple bubbles—unchecked, outrageous real estate appreciation, easy money and foolish credit, and public corporation values so far out of whack with incomes or legitimate assets they seemed to defy all laws of economic gravity—replaced a Santa Claus economy with a violently angry Grinch one. People who only appeared to be successful because it was just about impossible not to appear that way were stripped naked and shown to be losers. If you strip away all the layers of deceit, of stupidity, or irrational exuberance, of poor business practices, of abusing customers and investors, what you eventually get to, behind every business failure, is a person who has failed himself and those around him, by failing to adhere to fundamental principles of successful achievement.

In short, every outcome is the product of someone’s decisions.

We’ll get to the decisions about marketing, sales, and management required to make a business perform profitably, in a sustainable manner. But first, here, let’s confront the most basic of all decisions: the decision to succeed.