03.25.08
Total, True Commitment
Total Commitment is like a canary yellow diamond - extremely rare and valuable. If you want to ensure your success as a Joint Venture Broker, or in any venture, for that matter, you need to understand a simple analogy.
You’re walking along after the theater at night with your wife, and a drug crazed thug rushes up and presses a sharp hunting knife to your neck. You feel a warm trickle of blood running down your neck. He’s raving and shaking and wild and desperate for drug money. How would you react? If this sounds extreme to you, A friend of mine was walking along in Vancouver (a very drug friendly place) and a drug addict rushed up, stabbed him in the neck, and ran away. My friend nearly died.
In business, there are people who would steal your last cent, sue you, rip you off, steal from you, bankrupt you, ruin your reputation, badmouth you, just like this attacker. You know that is true, unless you’re seven years old. And when you’re focused on making it in your own business, you win or go bankrupt. There is no kind uncle coming along with a handout. It’s win or lose, life or death. It’s the real world.
Your “attacker” in this context is not only your opponent, but simply a way to communicate commitment and focus. Do you try to negotiate with your attacker? Offer him your money or your wife? Give him directions for the local free injection site that the collectivists are so proud of? Try to gently remove his knife? Tell him you’re poor? Let’s hear what expert Tim Larkin has to say: “The person motivated to ‘protect’ himself/herself grabs the wrist and tries to wrest control of the knife. The person motivated to hurt the other guy shifts their torso, penetrates forward and delivers a closed fist punch to the other guy’s Adam’s apple. Two totally different responses, with totally different results…”
Half-hearted commitment, holding back, keeping a back door open, a mediocre attitude, a lukewarm motivation and a distracted, interrupted focus will kill your business like a sharp knife to your carotid artery. People work ten hours a day and commute for ninety minutes to earn a small salary. Then they start their own business, work three hours a day, forget to shave, and expect to get rich. No wonder they fail. There is no real hunger - they’re snacking on success. There is no passion, no real commitment. They treat their business like a hobby - “We’re just trying it out” - a test drive - a diversion. They are addicted to comfort and compromise. Weak. No killer instinct. So they fail, and blame everyone else. True commitment is 24/7/365, whatever it takes, kill or be killed.
I don’t see many “entrepreneurs” who are prepared to attend a meeting at 4am, yet that is a great way to recruit winners - tell him to meet you at a remote place at 4am and you’ll know if you have a whiner or a winner. A Champion will not even hesitate, and he’ll be there in a suit, twenty minutes before you get there. A real warrior will be totally, absolutely committed to success, even if it means working through the night. You won’t hear excuses from a real Eagle about their kids or dog or their toothache or how busy they are. They’re never late, and they are always well prepared.
One of the most successful warriors I know of was General Patton. He was not only an intellectual, but also an expert warrior and someone who understood the warrior mindset. Naturally, he is hated by losers. When he prepared the minds of his soldiers, he taught them, about total commitment, because he knew that was the only way they would win. He said, “We must be eager to kill, to inflict on the enemy - the hated enemy - wounds, death, and destruction. If we die killing, well and good, but if we fight hard enough, viciously enough, we will kill and live. Live to return home to our family and our girl as conquering heroes — men of Mars.”
You have to hate losing and failure, mediocrity and compromise, as your real enemy, and you have to love your business, your objectives and goals as much as your family, and it has to be reflected in your every thought, word, choice, and deed. Every second counts. Every thought has a repercussion. Every deed has a ripple effect. Every word has a consequence. Total, true commitment is a GUARANTEE of your success in any venture, and you will have very little competition.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
