Mr. Achievement - Stanley F. Bronstein - Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

An opportunity I simply couldn’t pass up.

Every so often, life presents us with opportunities. High AIQers instinctively know this. SO, when life presents us with such an opportunity, it is our privilege to take advantage of them.

I had such an opportunity on Friday, May 2, 2008. Dr. Ken Blanchard was speaking at Grand Canyon University here in Arizona to introduce his newest book, The One Minute Entrepreneur.

I had lots of other things to do and plenty to keep me busy, but I made sure I put this event on my calendar. It turned out to have been a very wise decision.

Quite simple, I heard more words of wisdom come out of Dr. Blanchard’s mouth in 2 hours than most people utter in a lifetime. That was not intended to be a slam against most people, but a compliment as to Dr. Blanchard’s experience and talent as a professional speaker.

So, What’s The Book About?

Dr. Blanchard dedicated the book to the thousands of entrepreneurs who have braved countless obstacles and hung in through good times and bad to create successful companies.

What stands out to me is that he mentioned that these entrepreneurs hung in, even through the bad times to create successful comnpanies.

Another thing that stands out to me is that Dr. Blanchard constantly mentions Charlie “Tremendous” Jones throughout the book as being one of his mentors. He also mentions how Mr. Tremendous (as they call him) has impacted the world, one life at a time. This has special importance to me as I was fortunate enough to have met Charlie this past October at his home in Mechanicsburg, PA. All I can say is that Charlie is quite probably the most unique individual I have ever met. I have several videos available of him on this website, if you simply put him name into the search box they’ll come up.

So, let’s dive into the meat of the book

Building A Firm Foundation

The book stresses the importance of building a firm foundation. After all, any building built on a weak foundation is doomed to collapse, sooner or later.

The book stresses that at any given time, we are becoming the average of the five people with whom we are most closely associated. The moral of that story is that we should do our best to associate only with high quality people, as they will help us to become someone better.

Charlie “Tremendous” Jones puts it a different way. He says: In five years, you’ll be the same person you are today, except for two things: the people you meet, and the books you’ve read.

So, hang out with good people and read good books. Doing that will provide you with a firm foundation upon which you can grow AND it will help you gain the knowledge you will need in order to succeed in life.

Helping Others

Another point Dr. Blanchard stresses is that if you help enough people in life get what they want, you will get what you want. This point is often stressed by Zig Ziglar in his incredible programs. This is a lesson I have endeavored to incorporate into my life and I hope you will do the same.

Mastering The Basics

Next, the book stresses that you must master the basics of any field before you can rise to the top of it. It also stresses that you should visualize your desired outcomes, IN ADVANCE, so you can achieve them. I agree with these two points completely.

Are You An Entrepreneur?

This is perhaps the most important question posed by the book. Are you an entrepreneur? Do you have the entrepreneurial bug? In order to answer that, let’s define just exactly what an entrepreneur is.

Entrepreneur - A person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

To me, the most important part of that definition is the one that talks about CONSIDERABLE initiative and risk. IF you have considerable initiative, AND you are willing to deal with considerable risk, then you might just have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

Getting Valuable People To Join Your Team

The book stresses the necessity for valuable people to come into your life in order to help you accomplish your goals. Entrepreneurs have found (myself included) that the people who tend to come into your life are the ones you need in order to help you achieve your goals.

Dream Big And Doors Will Open

Don’t bother to dream small. It takes just as much energy to dream small as it does big, so you might as well dream big. You just might accomplish your dreams. If you have the guts and the courage to dream big, you will find that doors will open in front of you and tremendous opportunities will walk right in. HOWEVER, as any good AIQer knows, you must position yourself to be ready to act upon these opportunities when they come and you must indeed get off your rear end and act upon them when they do.

The Best Way To Increase Your Income

The book moves on to talk about an area that stems out of one of my favorite sayings of all time. The best way to make more money is NOT to decrease your expenses, it is to increase your income. After all, you can cut expenses all the way down to the bone and you will have nothing left. If you increase your income, you will make plenty of money and the expenses are less of a problem. That doesn’t mean you should waste money, but increasing income is where you should focus most of your energies.

Being Better Than All The Rest

The book stresses that in order to achieve the type of success to which you are entitled, you must provide service that is better than everyone else out there. If you are the best and become known for being the best, you will achieve the best results. It’s just that simple.

Helping Others In Your Organization To Succeed

If you want to create a successful organization, you have to create an environment where your organization’s personnel all feel like they’re your partner, not just your employee.  People don’t want to be managed, they want to be led.  If you create an environment where people buy into the program and feel like they are sharing in its success, your organization is much more likely to be successful.

Being Generous

The book stresses that the more you give, the more you will receive.  Helping others is indeed the path to helping yourself.

Summary

This book is an easy read.  It is the type of book that will easily hold your attention and it can be read in just a few short hours.  HOWEVER, during those few short hours, you will either come to the realization that you are already on the right path, OR you will realize that some things need to change.  Either way, only good will come out of your reading this book.