This is the presentation I do every year for Young and Motivated, about I've learned in 30 years of business and 55 years of living. Most of them are based on lessons I paid dearly to learn the hard way.
Two seconds on what 800DENTIST is and how it works. How I got here. took 8 years to finish college, and did everything from carpetlaying to bartending to cooking in Europe and selling frozen meat door to door. I moved to CA got a job writing copy for a packaging company, and then found my way into an ad agency and I realized, these are my people. I became a copywriter. I hope you find your place. It took me ten years. I am still a copywriter. I do most of the TV spots for 1-800. Here’s one.
People ask how I got here in business. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is the willingness to go the distance when everyone else goes to sleep. There are two types of people, those who do what they think is required, or as little as possible to get by, and those who do whatever it takes to finish. Talk about using your time right.
Almost finishing is the worst waste of time.
I know dozens of overeducated underachievers. Persistence and determination will win every time over IQ.
JFK flunked the NY State bar twice before passing. I was in two failed startups before 800dentist. Nothing guarantees you won’t fail. But I guarantee that failure will teach you something, and in the end won’t be a waste of time.
People all want to win the lottery and have money and have to do nothing and never have to work. It’s a colossal misunderstanding about the point of life. Trust fund kids are the most unhappy, drug-abusing time-wasting depressed bunch I’ve ever met, unless they work hard at something.
WIN LOTTERY. TRUST FUND KIDS. POINT OF LIFE.
The only way to close these gaps is by doing something. You take away most people’s need to work and they’ll do nothing, and then their self-esteem and self-worth erodes to nothing. Accomplish something if you want to feel good about your day. And your life.
DO HARD THINGS. PUSH YOURSELF. YOU’LL BE AMAZED AT WHAT YOU CAN DO IN THAT LAST PUSH. DO THE DOLLAR DEMO.
Close your gaps one inch at a time, one day at a time. Learn the piano, learn a language, write a book. In a year you’ll have 300 pages of a first draft writing a page a day. How many people don’t waste at least a half an hour a day? People get road rage over getting cut off. It cost them five seconds. This is the same person that surfs the internet or watches TV 4 hours a day.
Looking backward is only good for a learning experience. There’s no time machine. Move on.
Imagine if your best bud helped you to get where you wanted to go, encouraged you in your dreams, and never shot them down? Nobody needs coaching to screw off. A good friend helps you get where you want to go by encouraging you to go every day. To study, to practice, to eat right, to exercise. When I lose weight, I declare it to my friends so they can help me when I’m eating out, which is every day.
Do what you love. Mellon painting. There’s always a way to have enough money if you do what you love. And there’s never enough money if you’re doing what you hate.
We save the worst for last. We put off doing things we hate, and thereby ruin the day or the week. FIRING PEOPLE. BRUSHING TEETH. I have to give myself a shot, and I used to hesitate. Do it now, I say, if you know you have to do it. This person has made a conscious decision to torture himself. Most of us do it unconsciously.
Do the thing you don’t want to do first, so that it doesn’t ruin the thing you do want to do.
Spending money you don’t have so you’re always hanging by a financial thread.
How many lived on less money than you have now?
We know we can live on less because we’ve all done it.
one of the greatest acts of self love is living below your means. Stop torturing yourself and say with me, I love myself.
{show the clip from 40-Year Old Virgin “Instead of asking myself what I was doing to cause this behavior, i broke up with her.”]
Stop blaming your parents, your height, your gender, your teacher, your ex, your IQ. Take control of your life.
Corollary: bad stuff will happen.