Quotes and Video from Roger Hamilton

Speak in Terms of Opportunity Rather Than Requests

“…the language of requests is something that entrepreneur should avoid at all costs.”

“By speaking in requests, you draw attention to what you don’t have… the markets don’t want to know what you don’t have, mentors don’t want to know what you don’t have, even financiers they are not really bothered by what you don’t have; they want to know what you have.”

Roger Hamilton Video

From yourBusinessChannel.com

THE SECRET OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

I wasn’t able to put my finger on the communication differences between successful entreprenuers and… say… me.

I assumed the difference was in the form of some huge cravass of unfathomable length, depth and breadth.

BUT… HERE was the REAL answer - I always make REQUESTS. No longer. I will present true and valuable OPPORTUNITIES. I have learned the power of helping YOU.

Thanks, Roger Hamilton. Ahem… May I kindly offer you an opportunity to provide me an autograph?

: )

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Tags: business communication, Hamilton, Language of Success, opportunity, requests, Roger

Good or bad, right or wrong, I love Boardroom Classics. Theirs is one of the few newsletters I subscribe to. Their books fascinate me. If I had the time and money, I would read them all.

They market relentlessly, but I accept it all with a smile and a fond save-to-bin.

Today, I received an email with the founder’s Secrets of Success. These secrets were good enough for me to want to share here.

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Martin Edelston’s Secrets for Success in Life

hen I founded Boardroom Inc. in the basement of my home more than 35 years ago, I started with just $5,000 and a dream. Today Boardroom is one of the world’s largest publishers of consumer newsletters, as well as one of America’s largest publishers of hardcover nonfiction books, reaching many millions of readers…

The strategies I have followed over the years have helped my company to be successful in good times and resilient in bad times. They also have enriched my personal life. In this difficult economy, these strategies are more important than ever…

Seek out the top experts, and get their advice. …I also go directly to the experts themselves with my questions, and I have taught my children to do this as well…

Think big… plan carefully… execute perfectly. …Our planning paid off. On a Friday, we closed the New York office. The movers, transition team and computer team worked all weekend — and on Monday, the computers in the new Connecticut location were up and running, and all employees’ boxes were by their new desks. Out of 75 employees, all but two stayed with us…

Follow up and follow up again to be sure that it’s done right and on time…

Never accept “no” — and make it easy to say “yes.” …I got a 24-by-36-inch piece of poster board from my art department, handwrote a giant-sized letter and had it delivered to the executive by messenger. He replied to that letter, and we began a very successful business relationship…

Keep it simple. There is a tendency to make things way too complicated, adding bells and whistles without adding efficiency. I don’t believe in using a complex system when a simple one will do…

Seek constant, incremental improvement. For the past 20 years, we have used an employee suggestion system that we call I-Power… The ideas generated have saved us substantial amounts of money…

Show appreciation. I am always on the lookout for opportunities to show people how much they matter. This applies to employees, vendors, freelance writers, friends and family. …It’s important to say thank you…

Never compromise integrity. We stake our reputation on accuracy and integrity. I have excellent editors — and after all these years, I still personally read every page of every issue of our newsletters…

I have an attitude of healthy skepticism. No matter how well-known a source is, if he/she has nothing substantial to say, we won’t run the article. Our readers trust us, and I do everything I can to continue to earn that trust…

Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Martin Edelston, founder and chairman of Boardroom Inc., which publishes Bottom Line/Personal, Bottom Line/Health, Bottom Line/Wealth, Bottom Line/Retirement, Bottom Line Natural Healing, Bottom Line/Women’s Health and numerous books, including The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets, Stamford, Connecticut. www.bottomlinesecrets.com. He is author of I-Power: The Secrets of Great Business in Bad Times (Boardroom Inc., 800-678-5835).

Tags: boardroom, classics, edelman, martin, secrets for success

This was a tweet from Josh Sundquist:

Lunch Friday with @KeithFerrazzi: He said “I’ve never met a truly extraordinary person who was focused on more than one thing in life.”
- twitter.com/joshsundquist

Does this hit you the way it hit me?

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I never met anyone as spread out as myself, nor anyone as un-extraordinary at anything.

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Do many of us really want to be extraordinary? I think it depends on how we define the word. We all want to be a little above ordinary - SOMETHING that makes us stand out from the crowd.

After all, that’s how we get seen and how others get sold on what we have, such as our skills or our products.

I think KeithFerrazi is referring to super extraordinary people who have achieved Gold Medal accomplishments.

Or is he?

We all need to excel in something in order to make a living.

The quote above implies we need to FOCUS.

Understood.

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Tags: extraordinary, focus