The Book Hubby Could Not Put Down

Are you - Able?

Hubby likes men’s magazines and comic books and art books and Sun Tzu.  And that is perhaps the entire repertoire of stuff that he reads.

So it was a surprise to me when he picked up my book -Able, one of the books sent to me for review (one of the more wonderful perks of being a blogger) and surprise, surprise – hubby could not put it down.

What’s to love: the lessons are bite-size, easy to remember, relevant, easy to apply.

So what is -Able?  -Able is Scott Ginsberg’s manifesto of his 35 strategies for increasing the probability of success in business and in life.

Okay.  Let me tell you that Scott met success by wearing a nametag 24-7.  His defense (it is weird): anonymity is the biggest barrier to success.  He says that people are generally shy and reluctant at making that first move.  His nametag helped people overcome shyness (his name was available and thus was invokable), and in consequence, made him approachable (one of the more important -ables).

Not ready to wear that nametag yet?  Well, here are some of Scott’s lessons:

1.  Refuse to slow down long enough for anyone to catch up. That’s how you out-execute the competition.  Always ask yourself, “What’s next?”

2.  Never be stopped by not knowing how. Accept that the planets will never be aligned. Don’t wait until everything’s perfect. Don’t wait until you’re experienced enough. Don’t wait until you know what you’re doing. Don’t wait for overwhelming evidence to trust yourself. Heighten your impatience; enter into the heart of action and jump off the high board hoping there’s water below. Otherwise procrastination – the redneck second cousin of patience – will rob you of the motivation you need to carry in the cavalry charge. Finished is the new perfect. (i like this)

3.  Ambition without focus is bankruptcy. How you spend your day – literally, hour by hour – will determine how much money you make, how happy you are, how healthy you are and how successful you become.

4. Beware of the over-commitment trap. Learn to be respectfully discerning about whom you give permission to participate in your life.

5. Get comfortable with the risk of failure. If you screw up early enough, quickly enough and quietly enough – then make a conscious effort to extract lessons learned from those biffs – only a few people will notice.

6.  Make a public and purposeful choice to play big.

This last lesson was echoed to us by mentor-and-source-of-inspiration Eireen Diokno Bernardo.  She said that in her early years as the eBay queen (she would rather be called eBay princess, thank you – “queen” sounds, well, old),  she had some hand in developing artists and selling artists and featuring their paintings on eBay.  In time, these artists grew bigger and could not help but leave her fold.  She then thought if she could make them famous, then she could also make herself famous. In due time, she did.

So what’s the lesson here?  Again, I would quote from -Able (but please allow me to paraphrase) – the lesson is this – if people would focus on marketing themselves (make themselves public and play big – in short, be invokable) – and provided they have credibility, authority, skill (um, this is important) – they will have the Midas’ touch and their product (any product) would turn to gold.  This is the magic of mindshare versus marketshare. Marketshare is having just a demographics or a segment of the population.  Mindshare is beyond marketshare – the invokable person has groupies here (okay, I exaggerate), but mention of their name side by side with a product would be sure to catapult that product.  Think Oprah, think Louis Vuitton, think of the many others who have successfully created and promoted their brand.

Hubby is seriously, seriously contemplating this, while flashing on his computer screen the words: What’s next?

Article and photo by Issa. Copyright 2009-2011.
Website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
Email: issa@youwanttoberich.com

P.S.  More on Eireen Diokno Bernardo, speaker in the 2011 Money Summit, in the next articles.  If you have not gotten your ticket, you can still get them here.

P.P.S.  Yesterday, hubby was interviewed about his Rescue72 Personal Rescue Devise at GMA 7’s News to Go – a special thanks to Kara David and Nadya David.  It was exciting and we were both excited (will try to post the video).  Please watch out for his other television appearances and the launching of the Rescue72.com website.  You can already sign up to know more about disaster preparedness and awareness here.

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