A few days ago, I pointed out to you how very successful people can have significant differences. I used as an example the differences between Sam Walton and Donald Trump.

However, one of the principles that they both practice if you study them, for example, is hands-on-management. You’ll find if you read their stories they both pay particular attention to details.

Trump drives people nuts. One of the most recent things that I read about him is he’ll tour his hotel and if he spots cob webs or dust in a corner the next time he’s in that hotel he goes right to that corner.

He doesn’t make note of it, he remembers it. Of all the stuff he’s got to deal with he remembers that that corner in that restroom wasn’t the way it should have been. And he goes back to check. And then if it’s not he will stay there until somebody corrects the problem.

What’s this guy’s time worth?

I don’t know – thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour if you took his annual income and broke it out into the number of hours a year he could work his time might be worth that much. But he’ll stand there and wait until they correct that problem in the men’s room.
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In the previous post we have been discussing one of the most important characteristics of the truly successful entrepreneur which is the ability to handle crisis.

I pointed out that in order to really understand this, you need to study people who not only handle crisis, but are able to handle crisis where the recovery can take place in the blink of an eye.

The next step we can do then is when we are certain we’ve identified someone or some series of people with a common characteristic that can turn us to success we can emulate them. We can make a point. And there’s a difference between emulate and copy. We can emulate them. We can model our self after their performance of that particular characteristic.

Perhaps the best way to accomplish this is by identifying principles as a result of our study.

What’s the principle behind those people?
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I have been talking about what is perhaps the most important characteristic of success that truly great entrepreneurs possess, which is the ability to handle crisis. Now I want to point out a related characteristic that is perhaps even more important which is you need to fine tune the ability to such a degree that the recovery takes place in the blink of an eye.

You can’t go somber and be in depression or irritation or frustration for a day or a week or a month or a year. It’s like this and then you’re on to the next productive thing and that’s the characteristic of these highly successful people that we observe.

How do you get in step and stay in step with such people? That of course is why we crack the back of a success book isn’t it? That’s why we push play on a CD. That’s why we subscribe to an online course. That’s why we attend a Boot Camp or seminar. That’s’ why we move forward.

We try and educate ourselves more and learn more about how we tick so that we can do a better job of getting in step and staying in step with those highly successful people.

I suggest to you that there are these things that we can do. One is to really study such people and I don’t mean in a cursory manner. You know when you say to somebody did you read Iacocca’s book? A lot of people say, “Yeah I read Iacocca’s book.” And if you happen to be in their home or office and you look at their copy of Iacocca’s book it could go back on the shelf of the bookstore and be resold it’s in such mint condition.

Well they read it but boy they didn’t study it did they? Cause if you really study a book the thing looks like it’s been shoved through the garbage disposal and run over by a truck.

That’s how most of my books look – highlighted, written on, corners folded down, bottom page corners folded up to separate that from the time I folded them down, notes stuck in them, battered, bruised, abused, studied.

So you study those people. You don’t just read about them. You don’t just take notice of them you study them.