watching the people with money, spend it!
It’s easy to feel the way they do. Why should you deprive yourself of the experience? No one has to know your financial position. It’s the image you portray that will either make or break you.
I can remember the time I found a lovely ring in Sydney at a Coles store. It had 17 imitation diamonds set in a large, magnificent star shape and all who saw it were fascinated. When they admired it, I thanked them. I didn’t bother to disappoint anyone by announcing it wasn’t real. Why spoil their fun and mine?
SET PERSONAL GOALS
I had a personal goal to have a real diamond ring made as an exact copy of my $3 imitation, and I achieved this goal in my third year in business. The manufacturing jeweller who copied it for me was so impressed with it he asked me if he could include it in a jewellery exhibition the following month at Myer. What a joke!
Life can be so much fun if you do something very different and out of character, once in awhile. For people to believe you’re successful you must empower yourself from within because a facade is transparent. You have to picture yourself as having already achieved the goal you wrote for yourself and totally believe it will be yours and act confidently at all times.
CREATE A POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE
Carry yourself upright, look people in the eye and speak clearly and directly to the person you are asking to assist you fulfil your dreams. A strong handshake is important too, for both men and women. Most men have learnt to accept a woman’s hand if she offers it, especially when greeting them in a business situation, but remember to be firm without crushing the other person’s fingers.
EDUCATE YOURSELF
Read some good books on building self-esteem and confidence. There are hundreds of books today that can help you to change your outlook on life. I’ve made it a habit in the past 40 years to always have a book on my bedside table. My favourites are autobiographies written by successful people. I enjoy re-reading How to Think Like a Millionaire, a book that includes the life story of Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonald’s hamburger chain. His story always inspires me, as he was 53 years old when he began building the McDonald’s empire. It proves you’re never too old to be successful, if you have the desire.
I love telling the story about my first trip to Las Vegas, partly because of my passion to be an entertainer. In 1975 I embarked alone on a world trip and met actor Telly Savalas in a Greek Tavern on the Broadway in San Francisco. He and his friends invited me to watch Telly making the television show KOJAK when I met them again in Los Angeles. I also went to the recording studios where Telly was recording records. He didn’t sing, but had a magnificent deep voice and would talk on his recordings. Then they arranged for me to join them in Palm Springs for a Golf and Tennis Tournament; an annual event for the Music and Film Industry of USA. What an exciting time I had in California and later in Las Vegas. Telly arranged for me to be picked up at the Las Vegas airport in a limousine, enjoy Casino rates at the Stardust Hotel (half the normal room rate) and attend the Frank Sinatra concert. I remember feeling very important on the night of the concert. Sitting in the front row wearing my long red evening gown with red feathers at the neck, I imagined myself on stage one day.
That evening Frank Sinatra’s support act encouraged me to believe I can achieve anything I want to. At the end of his magnificent performance he announced he’d been singing professionally for 20 years. He told us he was celebrating his 80th birthday that week and the audience applauded loudly and gave him a standing ovation. How sad I thought, to have waited 60 years to do the thing he loved and wanted so much, all his life. But it’s never too late.
The same evening while enjoying a coffee with an American woman I’d met at the concert, a young man came over to our table and asked for my autograph. He thought I was a star! That really topped off a perfect night for me. I never did ask him who he thought I was and in hindsight I feel sorry I disappointed him by telling him the truth.
DO THIS EXERCISE TO EMPOWER YOURSELF
Close your eyes and picture yourself experiencing again, the most successful moment in your life to date. How did you feel? Can you re-live it? Wasn’t it a powerful feeling being successful and achieving your goal? Let yourself recall that feeling every time you’re tempted by self-doubt in future. You’ve been a success and you’ll win again. It’s all up to you. Ask yourself this question, “What would I like to be or have before my life is over?” If you don’t know now, your life will be wasted!
CHAPTER THREE
How to Meet the Right Partner
“The most precious of all possessions is a wise and loyal friend.”
Whether it be in business or in your private life, sharing it with a person who makes you happy is very important.
If you’re looking for the right business partner, perhaps Katherine’s story will help you to find them. Not long after completing her marketing degree she was advising her girlfriend, Joanne how to find a wealthy person to finance a new business venture she was keen to establish to help children. “Think of it as a marketing exercise,” she suggested. “Let’s list what you want in a person and then we can define the markets in which they’ll operate and from that we’ll be able to determine where to locate them.”
The two women got excited working on the project that morning and decided the best place to find a very wealthy, businessman or woman was at the Casino on a Saturday night. Saturday, because they presumed interstate or overseas visitors would be looking for entertainment and the Casino always attracted the richest tourists.
They dressed up in the most expensive outfits Joanne possessed. Katherine had to borrow an evening gown as she’d reared five children on a widow’s pension for three years. The two set off feeling very positive that evening and while standing watching the High Rollers, Katherine was tapped on the shoulder by a very attractive young executive who handed her a fist full of chips. “Put them all on red for me?” he said quickly, “I’m at the next table, I’ll be back in a moment.”
She nervously did as she was told and placed a hand full on chips on red numbers. The wheel was spun, the money lost, and she felt devastated. When the man returned and asked what he’d won, she didn’t know how to tell him that she’d lost everything.
“Oh no,” he exclaimed, “I’m broke, they were my last chips, what will I do?” Feeling a little guilty and very empathetic, knowing what it’s like to be flat broke most of the time, she offered him a taxi fare. His response was, “well the least you two women can do is have dinner with me.” Without thinking about how contradictory it was of him to invite them to dinner if he was broke, they accepted his invitation.
Over dinner he discussed an educational business venture with the women and much to Katherine’s delight he was so impressed by her interest in the concept and the fact that she’d studied Marketing while caring for her children as a single parent, that he offered her the opportunity to start the franchise in her city. He financed the whole project and Joanne became a partner in the business. Today the two women are very wealthy, they became the major franchisee in their state and now earn a royalty income from ten additional outlets.
Katherine’s children go to private colleges and she has remarried. Joanne dedicated her life to business and has a wonderful time touring the world opening new branches of the franchised network on behalf of the Australian company.
Were these women lucky? Or did they take a well calculated guess on where their wealthy businessman would be found?
It’s hard to believe this type of thing can happen. But as you can see from the way the meeting was executed, it’s worth empowering yourself with marketing knowledge, there are excellent books and short courses available on the subject.
HOW TO FIND YOUR LIFE PARTNER