Special Message from Dr. Lant on his 60th birthday   Friend, I dug back into my library and found this article that I wrote upon the occasion of turning 50. Now it's a decade later and on 2/16/07 I turned 60. It is, I've discovered, a number that unnerves and troubles many of my aging contemporaries. However, I've discovered in myself an almost bounding euphoria now that the day has come. Life still pulsates. Things are good. What things? Certain vanities (I still have all my boyish locks and most of my teeth.) Some practical matters (my health continues to hold up and my long-term investments). And things of the utmost preciousness: my dear friends and Worldprofit business associates George Kosch and Sandi Hunter, continuing companions into life's further reaches. We are all engaged in the great enterprise that is the Internet. And it delights me to think how far we've come (LIVE Business Center!) since I wrote this article ten years ago. The journey, albeit difficult, has never lost its savor and continues to excite, enthuse -- and enrich. Small details in the below report have changed (there is, for instance, no more paper catalog) but the heart of my remarks remains true and worth sharing. After you read them, complete the form on this page and become a FREE ASSOCIATE. Then log in and say hello in our awesome LIVE Business Center.   I welcome the opportunity to assist you now and for many years to come...   REFLECTIONS AT 50, OR WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT BUSINESS SUCCESS IN MY FIRST HALF CENTURY By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Like about 77 million other Americans I'm part of the pivotal Baby Boomer generation. This means I'm just hitting my Golden Jubilee on this planet, my arrival date being February 16, 1947. Almost at once I discovered I was an entrepreneur. I published my first article -- on my neighborhood in suburban Chicago -- when I was five. I set up my first venture -- a roadside kool-aid stand -- when I was 7 and my first publication, the Belmont Star newspaper, when I was 10. And, yes, they made money. It's customary at certain periods in one's life to think back on what's happened, what one has learned, and, with the best will in the world, what one can pass on to others. Well, now fifty, I'd like to participate in this rite of reflection and share some of the entrepreneurial insights I've learned along the way. Insight #1: Sell Value The first secret to business success is to sell value. Everyone wants to make money, but ask yourself why people would want to make you rich. In fact, they don't. They want value for themselves, and the quicker you fashion what you're selling to provide it, the faster you're going to make money. I stumbled on this fact very early in my career. My neighborhood newspaper made money not because everyone thought I was the brightest kid on the block, but because I packed its pages with the names of my neighbors and, more particularly, with the names of their children. I discovered they'd fork over a pocketful of change licketty-split so long as their darlings were featured in its pages. In other words, so long as they got value! This lesson has never left me. The first thing I do when launching a new enterprise (or at periodic intervals in an existing venture) is to review what my competitors are doing, figure out how to do it better, cheaper, faster, then I add even more value "for good measure" until what I'm offering dazzles like a must-have purchase. People, you see, buy. I merely pack on maximum value. Insight #2: Market Value One of the basic mistakes the vast majority of businesses make is that they talk about the features of their products and services... or, worse, they talk about themselves. Pick up most any marketing communication -- brochure, flyer, Web site, space ad -- and you can immediately see for yourself. Is the first thing you see about the company -- its name, address, phone number, logo, how great it is? Then you're dealing with a company that just doesn't get it. People don't just want you to offer value... they want you to market value. That means that they want you to lead with and stress what's in the purchase transaction for them. In short, what do they GET? Why is this so hard for businesses to learn? Because the older I get the more it's clear to me most people are unable to re-see the world from anyone else's point of view than their own. You see, we come into this world thinking we're the center of it, and it's hard, very hard, to shake this perception and understand that other people think the same thing. Until one of the parties changes, no one gets very far. That's why the entrepreneur's essential job is to stop talking about himself, his company, his products and services... instead promoting VALUE in every marketing communication, every chance he gets. Insight #3: Invest Your Time, Energy & Money In Something That Both Profits You And That You Can Be Proud Of At fifty, I've learned that life is alarmingly short. I've learned to ask myself whether any act I might do is something that would be both remunerative and that I'd be proud of. As I review literally thousands of entrepreneurial ventures, it's obvious to me lots of other people haven't yet gotten this point. First, many are involved in activities that couldn't possible make money. Second, even if they did make money it is doubtful they'd make those involved feel proud of what they've done. You be different. Be sure that what you're doing is profitable... but be sure, at the conclusion of your career, you'll look back on it with pride saying, "I feel good that I spent some of my limited time on this planet, some of my limited resources doing that. It was the right thing to do!" Insight #4: Set A Financial Objective Over the last half century, I've worked with more business people than I can even remember, thousands and thousands of them, in dozens of ways. Most of them didn't get rich; many barely made a living. A substantial percentage of them went broke. Some, however, succeeded spectacularly, literally having more money than they could spend in a lifetime. When you look at all the time, treasure and trouble spend by all these people you've got to wonder what the crucial differences were between them, why some did so well, and so many others failed. One thing that assisted the successful ones was that they had an objective. They knew at any given time how much money they wanted... and then set about succeeding it. Life is a mathematical puzzle. You've got so much time on this planet... you want so many material advantages when you're here. Well, then, every single day must help you achieve your objective; or else, it fails to do so. There is no other possibility. Do you know, right now, what TODAY must produce for you in terms of income and success? Or are you just living through today without a clue as to where this day fits in your overall plan? I regard it as one of my most crucial advantages that I learned, long ago, the value of a day... and where it fits, how it can be used to achieve both my short- and long-term objectives. Can you say the same? Or do you have the uncomfortable feeling (which gets worse the older you get) that you're letting time slip away? Insight #5: Diversify Take a look at my catalog, a free copy of which is available upon request. I now offer literally hundreds of products and services, covering dozens of catalog pages. This didn't happen by accident. It happened because I know just how uncertain the world can be... and how risky to have all your eggs in one, or even in two, baskets. Since I was a child, I've been an avid reader of history, and a lifetime's study has given me a perspective on the rise and fall of civilizations and the people in them. As a result, I've learned to spread the inevitable risk of entrepreneurial activity over many products, services, and ventures. One failing might be troublesome, but not fatal. Lots of people haven't gotten the message. Far too often people approach me with one venture... a venture on which they've staked everything. Should it fail, they'll have real problems. This is daft. Successful people understand that the risk of failure in this world is high. Most successful people have become successful because they've learned from their failures and marched ahead. And one thing they've learned is that prompt, considered diversification is a keystone of ultimate success. Insight #6: People Will Let You Down When I think back over the many years I've been in business, one of the troubling insights is how foolish people can be, how regardless of their own interests, how delighting in anger and self-defeating behaviors, how mindless of the feelings of others and what it takes to foster productive business relationships. Baby boomers on the whole are people who think the world is their oyster, that they can do anything they want, go anywhere, achieve anything. It's an exhilarating point of view. Unfortunately, it fails to take into consideration the fact that to achieve anything in this world means having to work with other people who may well not share your success habits and who are so both short-sighted and self-centered that rather than do their part to promote success... or let an existing successful venture prosper -- they will destroy everything, merely to show the world that they could. I have sadly experienced this troubling phenomenon more than once in the last half century. I think, for instance, of an Oklahoma partner I had who literally stole thousands of dollars from me because I was foolish enough to trust him; not only did he destroy the partnership, but he destroyed the ventures that produced the money in the first place. What made it more galling was that he considered himself a fine Christian fellow, and told the world so, at the very time he was stealing money from me. Or, the consulting client who wouldn't pick up the phone to speak with me and then blamed me for the failure of our relationship when, inevitably, things didn't work out. One of the hardest lessons of my life has been to learn that other people do not share my high standards and that they can excuse failure, even involving criminal activities like theft,... so long as they can place the blame on someone else. Insight #7: Delegate Sooner I'm very much a "self-help" kind of guy, as anyone knows who regularly reads my books and articles. When there is something to be done, I don't mind doing it. To achieve success, however, means bringing in other people, however, as soon as possible, so that you can concentrate on what you do best. This means assembling, as soon as you can, your success team, including bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, graphic designer, mail shop, Internet programmer, and all the rest. People often ask me if I work alone. The answer is that I've never worked alone, not for a day. I have always, since the day my mother helped me write my first article at age five and worked with me on my kool-aid stand, benefited from the assistance of many people. And I have never thought it diminished my standing in the world in any way to say so. Insight #8: Master Necessary Technology I was put on this world without any innate interest in or mastery of technology. When I was in high school my tested mechanical aptitude was at the 5th percentile... which means that 95% of the population is more mechanically apt than I am. In a technological universe this, I admit, has its disadvantages. But I've learned to overcome much of this disadvantage and integrate technology into my life, realizing that maximum business success cannot be achieved without it. Look at your office right this minute. Have you got a telephone answering machine, separate fax line, Pentium computer, Internet access, Web site, e-mail, etc? If not, what are you thinking of! You are competing against people every single day who use these things to help themselves and help keep you where you're at. If you wish to compete at their level and for your maximum success... you must have all of it... and every other technological advantage that's coming down the pike. One thing that'll keep you young and your intellect limber is staying abreast of technology and using it to achieve ever greater success. Without it, you'll be like some of even my fellow boomers who have determined that they've learned enough and won't advance another step. How silly they sound... and how that attitude inhibits them, not least in the amount of money they can make. Insight #9: Start Investing The First Day You're In Business Over the course of my entrepreneurial life, I've had my ups and downs like any other business person. No one's life is effortless ascent. But one thing I've done in good times and bad is invest. And now, at fifty, the sagacity of that course, which has always involved relative deprivation for future advantage, is paying off -- every year in a bigger and bigger way. You do the same. Whether, at the beginning, you can only save a buck... or a thousand is not important. What's important is that you get into the habit of putting aside a certain percentage of your income every single day into your personal investment program, into your pension plan. What gives people financial substance is steady investing habits and time. Do you do this now? Or are you hoping against hope that you can make up for lost time later by investing more when you're older? That is not the sensible course. Instead, invest what you can today. Then invest the same amount, or more, at fixed regular intervals. Don't try to second guess the stock market; even professionals lose at the market timing game, as Jeff Vinik learned to his detriment with the Fidelity Magellan Fund, the world's largest. Instead, review a series of mutual funds. Select one with a good long-term track record and then use dollar-cost averaging to purchase shares at regular intervals, perhaps through a vehicle like automatic monthly debits from your checking account, a device I've used for so many years now I don't even remember when I started. Wealth is the easiest thing in the world to accumulate if you're sensible, have good steady habits, are willing to be patient, and do not expect overnight riches. Insight #10: Never Give Up These days I am constantly praised by people who write or call me to talk about how they see my articles everywhere, have used my products successfully, are impressed by my enterprises on the Internet, etc. I am grateful for their kind words, but I am not surprised. You see, I never give up. When I get my heraldic coat of arms done, my motto must be "I shall persist." Over the course of fifty years, if one is relatively alert and active, one sees much. One thing that has distressed me is how many people I have seen burst on the scene with fabulous promises, only to disappear even faster, often after having taken advantage of large numbers of others. I play a different game. I play for today and for tomorrow and for the day after tomorrow. That is why my name is on most of my enterprises: because I honor it so highly that I will not dishonor it by failure. There will be days in your life where you will despair of success. That is everyone's lot. What distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful is that they never let that draining feeling triumph. They examine each event in their lives and see what they can learn from it, how to use it to leverage future success. I am one of these people. In the course of fifty years, one experiences failure, often heart-breaking failure. But I learned early to use failure as the necessary handmaiden for success. In high school, I kept a chart on a huge piece of posterboard in my clothes closet, where I had to see it every day. I listed every success in my life... and, unmercifully, every single failure, too. I came to learn that failure can crush you... or it can spur you to the achievement of ever greater successes. I chose the latter route... and, if you are to be successful, you must, too. The Best Is Yet To Come At fifty, I know that over half my life is now over. That thought must trouble even the most sanguine. And while it troubles me, too, it also spurs me. You see, I am determined that in the time remaining I shall be an even better, even more ubiquitous, value-offering, successful entrepreneur than ever before. In short, you ain't seen nothin' yet! Dr. Jeffrey Lant The future of online business is here. It's Worldprofit's LIVE Business Center. To see it, register at www.worldprofit.com and LOG IN! 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