Key Person Of Influence

Without a doubt Steve Jobs will go down in history as the greatest creative entrepreneur in history, rivalled only by Thomas Edison.

He is one of only a handful of people to ever build more than one business worth over a billion dollars and his creations have been revolutionary.

After creating the first personal computers and building a billion dollar company while still in his 20′s, Jobs was fired from Apple at age 30.

Steve Jobs went on to acquire Pixar from George Lucas which released Toy Story, a blockbuster success at the box office. After growing and merging his second Billion Dollar Company, he became the single largest shareholder of Disney.

He then returned to the stagnating Apple Corporation in 1997, where he rescued the business from insolvency by creating the iMac, a computer that looked like something that you wanted to play on.

He then changed the game for the music industry with the innovative iTunes and iPod combination. In doing so he added billions to Apples sales and resurrected the failing technology giant.

From strength to strength he went on to use the innovations he pioneered after being fired to create the most respected opperating system in personal computing and bring the Mac range of computers back to life.

After that, he set about creating a device that would fundamentally put a computer in your pocket as well as a phone. Some say, the iPhone has become the most game-changing device since the PC. Today we can’t imagine life without a smart phone for maps, searches, games, music and of course calls.

Not content to rest up despite his cancer, Steve led the innovation team that would create the worlds fastest selling technology device; the iPad. Not only a ground breaking device, but when matched up with the Ap Store it sparked a new wave of creativity in software development world wide.

Under the visionary gaze of Steve Jobs, Apple has become the worlds most respected brand for innovation.

In under 10 years of Steve Job’s tenure his business bounced back from the edge of bankruptcy to become the worlds most iconic brand.

This inspiring entrepreneur has transformed the way the world relates to computers, software, movies, music, phones, books, magazines and screens.

Not only has Steve Job’s story has inspired millions of entrepreneurs, his innovations have become the platform of choice for some of the most creative people on the planet as well.

His most lasting legacy will not be his success at Apple or Pixar. It is the culture of innovation that he’s infused into society and the future innovators that he has enabled, empowered and emboldened.

I never met him but I will never forget him. He will inspire me for the rest of my life. Rest Peacefully Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

Ten years from now there will be millions of “Global Small Businesses” (GSBs). There will be so many that it will surely form a new category of business.

A GSB isn’t like a big global business and it’s not like a traditional small business either. As the name suggests, these are businesses that have less than 10 staff but aren’t limited by geography. They have reach into cities all over the world and could easily be making millions in sales despite a relatively small headcount.

Most commonly they will be service providers however many will also sell high value physical products that can be sent whizzing all over the globe to customers in far away cities. A lot of GSBs will also have valuable Intellectual Property that they license to their “local partners”.

GSBs will have incredibly well developed brands, making them look much bigger than they are. They will be built around a “micro-nich” and they rely heavily on a few Key People of Influence.

They will communicate on Skype, market themselves using social media, manage their operations in the cloud and be based wherever it makes sense from a tax and ip protection standpoint (I predict Singapore being a front runner).

The GSBs will have their top talent working from home and meeting in rented boardrooms on a weekly or monthly basis. Due to multiple time zones the edges of work and play will blur. Performance will be more important than hours clocked – “the only truth is the results” is the new mantra for managing employees of GSBs.

GSBs will become an attractive alternative to white collar employment. Professionals like lawyers, accountants, consultants and managers will define a “micro-niche” and then leave traditional employment in favor of their own GSB startup.

Lifestyle and flexibility will be a huge advantage for a GSB. Correctly structured, the owners of GSBs will pay little tax compared to their employee counterparts. Many GSB owners will split their time living in 2-3 locations to avoid income tax altogether.

Having an GSB will create an enviable lifestyle. A GSB isn’t like having a traditional, local small business that prevents the owner from traveling and limits the money they can make to the local economy.

A GSB on the contrary, expands as you travel and is only limited by the size of the micro-niche and the creativity of the team. Many GSBs will earn millions in revenue and have only a few staff (some of whom will be based in low-labour-cost countries like the Philippines). For this reason, many GSB owners will earn 7 figures comparatively easily.

Here’s 7 flow-on effects I predict to look out for:

The leisure industry will boom – with millions more people able to earn six and seven figure incomes from anywhere in the world, the leisure industries will boom. Hotels, resorts, casinos, attractions and the like will see big demands.

Global mail/call forwarding services – these are integral parts of running a GSB and will grow in demand.

Global couriers – Shipping goods around the world is a vital component to GSDs.

Members clubs – People need a place to meet and do business without the need for a full office setup in one location.

Prosumer AV equipment – GSDs rely upon the ability to communicate with customers all over the world. This means regular videos on the web, photos and audio recordings.

Tax clamp-downs – Get ready for the day when more and more western governments demand that you pay taxes on income earned everywhere in the world.

Weakening middle class – In the next 10 years a lot of money will move towards the people who “get it” and they will find it easier than ever to avoid tax. The middle class will thin out and they will be shouldered with more and more debt and taxes.

By 2020 Global Small Businesses will be in full swing. Now you know, what do you want to do about it?

Want to grow your business? Here’s the answer…

… Make a name for yourself.

People are always looking for the secret to wealth and success and it’s often staring them in the face.

Consider all the people you know who make great money, who live exciting lives, who have influence and success in abundance. I can guarantee you that they are well known in their field – They have made a name for themselves.

So which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do you become successful and thus make a name for yourself or do you do the things required to make a name for yourself and then become successful?

In my humble opinion, if you do the things that impact your reputation in a positive way you will attract more opportunities.

In my book I talk about 5 things you should be doing to make a name for yourself…

Pitch: Learn how to pitch yourself really well so If you get into a conversation with someone you are able to engage their imagination, be memorable, credible, clear and believable. It take practice but it’s a MUST.
Publish: Write down your key ideas, create articles, blogs and even a book about what you do. With little exceptions, it’s nearly impossible to make a name for yourself if you aren’t publishing your ideas somewhere.
Productise: Make 2011 the year that you break the shackles of trading only time-for-money. Not everything you do of value requires you to be in the room, your sales pitch could be put onto CD or made into a download. Your orientation session could become a workbook. Buy back your time by turning some of what you do into a product.
Profile: Raise your profile online and in the media. Make sure you dominate the front page of Google when someone searches for you. Connect with all the right people in LinkedIn. Get featured in a press article and post it online. If Google can’t find you in 2011, you are in serious trouble.
Partnerships: You don’t have enough time in the day to do everything. If you put your time into creating a brilliant product, partner with someone who has wide reaching distribution. If you have a great brand, partner with someone who has highly functional products. Network, connect and partner with the key people in your industry and 2011 will be a top earning year – recession or not.

Never has there been a better time in history to make a name for yourself. New technology and the widespread sharing of resources makes it easier than ever to do all five of the steps listed above.

No need to look for some special secret to wealth. The secret is, you are already standing on a mountain of value but you need to let the world know about it. After you’ve made a name for yourself, expect to see more opportunity, more fun, more inbound enquiries and even a lot more money.

The year ahead will be your best year ever if you put more focus into building your reputation, enhancing your brand and making a name for yourself in your industry.
Best of luck.

I’m convinced that people get addicted to their struggles. Whatever chemicals are created in the brain during a struggle must be the equivalent of class-A narcotics considering how reluctant people are to just let go.

Consider a Rubik’s Cube. It offers absolutely no pay-off for solving it and yet its one of the most popular and addictive toys ever created. Once someone picks it up, they will most likely become engrossed in the struggle of getting all the sides to match up.

The funny thing is that if you tell someone with a Rubik’s Cube that there’s a tutorial on the internet that reveals how to solve the puzzle in under a few minutes, they still don’t put down the puzzle and watch the tutorial, they just keep on going with the struggle.

If you tell the person that spending time playing with this toy is hardly going to offer any great rewards and that other activities would be more fun, rewarding and fulfilling, they still don’t listen… they are addicted to their struggle.

Recently a woman came up to me for advice. She said “I’m struggling to try and start 3 different businesses and all three aren’t getting off the ground… I’m desperate to make some money… what should I do”.

To me the answer was simple. “Get a temp job so you are no longer desperate to make some money and then focus to start one business, do it well and get it right.”

This wan’t acceptable to her. “All three of these businesses would offer great returns if I could just get them going. All of these opportunities are brilliant.”

“Yes, they might be all good opportunities, but you simple don’t have the time or energy to be starting three things at once.. especially if you have no money.” I replied.

The conversation went on like this for another 5 minutes. She got more and more frustrated that I wasn’t helping her. What she wanted was for me to say “keep doing the same thing you’ve always done and a completely new result will emerge, you are so close now, don’t give up.”

I couldn’t say it though. I know she does this, she always has three things on the go that are “surefire, easy-wins” because she thinks that one thing will magically produce a big payoff, she won’t need to worry about money ever again and then she can finally begin to do what she has always wanted to do (but thinks she cant make money from it). More to the point, she is addicted to the struggle.

So here’s some useful questions to see where you are doing this too:

- What is the struggle I am addicted to?
- What is it I really want?
- What would have to happen to let go of the struggle and to just get what I want?

Hope that helps. Leave a comment below…

Where I grew up in Queensland, Australia there is an ancient group of volcanic mountains called the Glass House Mountains. As teenagers we would climb the imposing Mount Tibrogargan, the tallest of them all.

It would take about 6 hours of struggle to summit this giant and when you arrive at the top you are surrounded with rubble, weeds and bugs, but the view is incredible.

From the summit you get a view of how massive all the other smaller mountains are and it doesn’t feel like you are standing on the tallest mountain of the group. From that lofty vantage point, the peaks are equalised.

Most people I meet are already standing on a mountain of value however they can’t see it. They remember the struggles that got them where they are, they look down and see rubble, weeds and bugs and from their vantage its easy to see the mountains of value that other people are standing on.

It is difficult to see your own value. It is very easy to see value from a distance, so you see the value in others so effortlessly but you fail to notice the immense value in yourself.

This is why people go chasing. They climb down from their mountain and try to go and climb someone else’s … Only to find that all mountains have struggle and all mountains have rubble, weeds and bugs at the top.

Your success is in your story. You are already standing on a mountain of value, none of your struggles were pointless or a waste of time. If you take the time to look closely, you’re real value is right where you’re standing.

Influencers Film (Full)

Recently I watched this short video about Influencers. It was beautifully shot but it didn’t say very much. Just some very basic observations about people who have been influential in the past.

The opening line says something that I flat out disagree with. It says “An Influencer has a certain confidence that not many people have”.

Take a look at Kurt Cobain, John Candy, Michael Jackson and Princess Diana and you won’t see people who were supremely confident. You will see people who were perpetually tormented by their insecurities, plagued by self doubts and a lack of confidence.

Influence is not about confidence, influence is about output. You can lack confidence, you can have self doubts and you can secretly fear a imminent alien invasion BUT if you create amazing output you will gather influence.

Influencers are producers. Often when we see influential people, we know them by their prolific production value.

We see Seth Godin writing a book every year, we see The Beatles creating the worlds most valuable music catalogue in just 8 years, we see Jay-Z producing dozens of his own albums as well as other artists, we witness Steve Jobs driving innovation at Apple and creating game-changing products.

It is production that creates influence. It’s your ability to write and publish, record and duplicate, design and produce. It’s your ability to finish the job and put a completed product into the world.

The idea that Influencers are simply cool, hip or trendy is superficial. It overlooks the enormous amounts of energy that Influencers put into constantly reinventing their output.

It does not matter if you are confident or not. Produce something of value, create a product, publish a book, make a video, prototype a widget. If it’s excellent output, you will gain influence.

I’ve worked with dozens of people in creating something new. Most of the people I’ve worked with had self doubts to begin with, but we pushed to keep producing. Often the confidence came after the project was complete, but not before.

Confidence can only come AFTER you have done something. It may never come at all. Fear not, it doesn’t matter, keep producing and your influence will go through the roof.