is a case in point. In his former life, he was a retailer. When he began, in downtown Baltimore there were 14 competing menswear stores, each independently owned. As giant national chains entered the market, 13 of those stores closed. The last store standing, one of two thriving stores owned by Bill, ably withstood heavy, direct competition from the giant discounter, Mens Wearhouse. In fact, his stores enjoyed double-digit annual growth while his industry went flat, and his stores consistently generated per square foot profits 250% higher than the industry average. How could this be?
For one thing, Bill is an ingenious, aggressive marketer, who violated his industry norms, made extensive use of direct-mail, and overall developed such unique and effective marketing he was able to package it and sell it to thousands of other retailers for their use. Another, he is extremely disciplined, so he insisted on his salespeople performing; booking appointments by phone with customers rather than standing around waiting and hoping for somebody to walk in. But possibly of greater significance is his attitude about competition, his conviction that he can always reposition his own business and out-maneuver the big behemoths or anyone else. He approached his business from the standpoint of someone totally and completely in control of results—not someone with results subject to the control of others.
Entrepreneurial success requires a very, very strong sense of autonomy. My dictionary says “autonomy” means “self-governing.” Simple. Good. It says a lot.
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For example, it says you make your own rules. You feel free to ignore or violate or, at the very least, challenge and test all established norms of your industry. To ignore competitive pricing and, instead, devise a marketing system that has you selling in a competitive vacuum—which happens to be my specialty as a marketing strategist and consultant. You decide to do business on your terms, to fit your preferences, which I talk a lot about in this book’s sister-book, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs. It says you organize and operate your business to meet your objectives, to suit your preferences, as discussed in great depth in No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits. Andrew Carnegie, one of America’s first from-scratch billionaires and the inspiration for the all-time bestselling book on success, Think and Grow Rich, spoke of the need for a secret sense of superiority. The sense that ordinary rules and restrictions are for ordinary people, not you. This explains why so many super-successful entrepreneurs quite literally change the entire industry or profession they are a part of.
It also means you govern your own thoughts and emotions, and do not let others dictate how you should think or what you should believe.
The truly legendary mega-entrepreneurs I admire and have studied exhaustively were or are intensely self-governing.
Walt Disney, for example, violated the established, universal, ironclad amusement park industry “rule” of multiple entrances and exits. Against all expert advice, he designed Disneyland with but one entrance and egress. Although he did not do so for purely mercenary reasons, it’s impossible to estimate the enormous volume of souvenir merchandise sales that occur precisely because everyone must “walk the plank” past the stores and merchandise carts to get out of the park. In many other ways, as Disneyland, then Disney World developed, Walt insisted on building based on his beliefs, often in direct opposition to how things had always been done before.
Walt was one of the great “Unreasonable Men”—a description that fits most terrific entrepreneurs. My friend and speaking colleague, Mike Vance, who worked closely with Walt for many years, tells the true story of Walt being told by a waitress that “something didn’t seem right” about the Bayou Restaurant—then abruptly shutting the entire thing down, shooing away all but a few of the customers, sacrificing revenue and creating havoc, then conducting an impromptu focus group to get to the bottom of what “didn’t seem right.” It turned out to be the absence of fireflies, which Walt demanded be fixed by importing fireflies. Time and time again Walt drove his bean-counter brother crazy, demanding things be done, often expensive and difficult things, to achieve the exceptional authenticity the parks are famous for.
Walt put Disneyland in a location no one thought could possibly work.
The cliché “he walks to the beat of his own drum” applied magnificently to Walt. As it does to Trump.
Donald Trump is so famous he needs only one name, Trump. Like Cher. Most established experts in commercial real estate development avoid branding their properties with their name, as the traditional industry belief has been that doing so made it difficult to attract top tenants or to later sell the property. Trump has been sharply criticized and ridiculed for slapping his own name on every building he develops. However, he says that as soon as the Trump name goes up on one, its value pops up by 10% to 15%. Trump is much maligned, criticized, made fun of, and has certainly had his downs as well as ups, but he has also made himself fabulously wealthy and into a famous and valuable brand.
“Sam Walton was less afraid of being wrong than any man I’ve ever known.”
—DAVID GLASS, RETIRED CEO, WAL-MART
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Invitations to Glazer-Kennedy events like the ones featuring George Ross from The Trump Organization and Ivanka Trump, Gene Simmons of KISS, Peter Shea of Entrepreneur Media, etc. are available to Members. The entry door is at www.FreeGiftFrom.com/business. Discussions about my books that I had with Kristi Frank from The Apprentice can be viewed on-demand at www.NoBSBooks.com.
I appeared as a speaker on a program with The Donald, and we have had his right-hand man and chief negotiator, George Ross, Ivanka Trump, and Bill Rancic and Kristi Frank, competitors from The Apprentice, as speakers at Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ annual SuperConferences. I have quizzed them all for insider info and insight, with all the answers verifying my observation that Donald Trump is autonomy on steroids.
Men like these are self-governing. They break rules, re-write rules with impunity, daring and, often, even arrogance. With some it is blatantly apparent. With others, masked—such as with Buffett.
This attitude can have its costs. It is, itself, risk—risk of embarrassment and humiliation, risk of accumulated envious and resentful enemies eager to celebrate a fall. But this attitude seems at the core of every extraordinarily successful entrepreneur I know. Many could easily be clinically diagnosed as narcissists and have considerable difficulty with relationships. Most live with constant peer disapproval, criticism, and conflict. This is the price tag of so consistently getting their own way and getting things accomplished beyond the bounds—often even beyond the imaginations—of 99.9% of the population around them.
Mental Toughness Required
The autonomy you develop will stand you in good stead when your business hits some of the rough roads. Which it will.
One sad truth about business is that you never finish with the same people you start with. Partners, friends, key employees, and others will fall by the wayside for one reason or another as you go along. You will outgrow some. Others will become jealous and resentful of you. I can assure you that, at some point, you will have to make a decision that will be very unpopular with everybody around you. Then you will ultimately decide that the only indispensable person in your business