Ross Perot: Why Learning From Experts Accelerates Your Success!

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is—

Wow, sorry, what was the message?

So the question today is— Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is—

Study the business. Over to you, Ross Perot.

My advice to a person who's considering starting a small business is number one, serve an apprenticeship in an industry you're really excited about. Let's assume you have a master's degree in business from Harvard. Go to work second and third shift on the factory floor, learn it from the bottom up, really know that business. Work there a few years, insist on doing every job, and one of these days a light is going on in your head and you're going to have a really unorthodox idea, an unmet need, The way you find it is by burying yourself in an industry you adore. That's the way you identify the unmet need, and then you have the germ of the idea to start your own company.

So what do you think?

Uh, you know what? Before I got into the career of dancing, running the dance school, I wanted to be a marriage counselor, so I went into psychology. I started getting my education by working on my bachelor's. Through it, I realized that it wasn't for me. Then I changed career paths. I wanted to be a police officer. I became a security guard to see what the nightlife, night shift life, dealing with people who are not necessarily always happy, how was that? I realized that that wasn't for me. In each of these career choices, I went into the field to see what it's like, to experience some part of it, and figure out if it's right for me. With TDS, Toronto Dance Salsa, it was the same thing. I started as a student, I went to become a helper, assistant, I became instructor, and when I had the opportunity to run basically the business, I realized that it was for me because of all the experience that I had to see what it's like and the environment, and I love the environment, so why would I want to be somewhere else? So absolutely, I connect with them. If you want to go into a different industry, if you want to start your own business, see what it's like, see what kind of experience you can get. Work for someone else. If you want to be a lawyer and you want to open up your own business, work for a law firm. Figure out if that's the kind of environment you want to have, and then from there you can figure out if you want to open up your own law firm.

Yeah, I've always been a big believer that you shouldn't just jump full in on a business. Go work for somebody who's done what you want to do. Work for a company that has 10 employees or less in the industry that you want to be in and go work for them. You're getting paid to learn, you're getting paid to make mistakes, you're getting paid to get connections in the industry. Normally you pay to go to school. Here you're getting paid to do it. And you're gonna make all the mistakes on somebody else's dime, and then when you're ready to start your own company, you have the connections, you have the experience. One of the reasons why I know so much more about entrepreneurship is after I sold my first business— listen, I only had one company, it was a biotech software company— when I sold it, I joined a venture capital company. And it was these guys who were in their 60s or 70s, and I was this young punk kid joining them, and they taught me a lot about all sorts of different business businesses. You know, every day we had new companies coming in, and I was able to kind of leech off of their decades of collective experience to learn how different industries are run. And it got me there so much faster than if I was just trying to do everything myself. So I love the idea of if you're just starting out but you want to get into business, you can start your business on the side, but go work for a company that you respect and look up to, that you want to be like in a couple years. Learn as much as you can from them. And when you have enough money from your own thing that you can afford to quit your job and go do that full-time, that's when you make the leap.

So the question of the Today is: Would you be willing to take a pay cut to work for someone who's the expert in the industry that you're thinking of breaking into, and why?

I like it. Leave it in the comments below. We will join in the discussion. Also, finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Jean-Philippe Delisle. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. I really, really, really appreciate it, and I hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. We believe in you. We hope you continue to believe in yourself—

the wrong way—

believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love and And we'll see you again tomorrow morning for another Shot of Espresso.

If you want to be successful in starting a business, then you study what people have learned. And everything that people have learned, they've written down or shared in seminars or put onto audio programs. I learned this from a very wise man named Kop Kopmeyer, who spent more than 50 years studying success. And he had developed more than 1,000 success principles that he had derived out of something like 6,000 books. And when I met him, I asked him the question you would ask. Of all these 1,000 principles, because I had studied it all, which is the most important principle of all? And he said, Brian, he said, it's simple. He said, use proven success methods. He said, learn from the experts. He said, Brian, you'll never live long enough to learn it all for yourself. So what I find is that successful people are those who learn from others who've gone before them. Unsuccessful people try to make it all up, like a cook going into the kitchen, taking ingredients out of the cupboards, throwing them all in a bowl, and wondering why it doesn't taste good. This is why people's sales careers— why 80% of salespeople are functioning well below their potential, only 20% make all the money, why 20% of businesses in any industry make all the profits, why 20% of the professionals in any service make 80% of the money and so on. It's because they follow proven success principles, proven recipes, proven formulas, proven combinations, and they just do them over and over again until they master them. Then they can do more and more of them, faster and faster, easier and easier, at a higher level of quality. And all that translates into greater results.

If you did not have the rich dad in your life, what would you be doing today?

It's hard to say if I didn't have my rich dad because As a young kid, starting at probably about the age of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, I really wanted to be rich. So I think number one is desire, you know, and then you naturally seek your role models and teachers. And in my lifetime, I've had multiple rich dads. You know, my rich dad was my best friend's father starting at the age of 9. And then today I still seek mentors and wise men and wise women because that's how you get wiser, is by hanging out with smart people.