Morning Folks!!
Money is the single greatest qualifier there is. Fakers can’t fake money. They can fake comments on a blog, but they can’t fake the money it takes to play.
So when you filter out the fakers, you know your time is being spent with pros. So damn simple and of course it pisses off the fakers. There are 100 fakers for every full time legitimate domainer or businessman.
Now I am not trying to put down folks that are starting out. Just trying to explain things. Trying to have them understand what it really takes.
A willing mind and heart and a burning desire will ALWAYS find a way to make something happen. The rest are the 80% of the universe. There is a way to climb out of the 80% and join the 20%. But it takes discomfort sometimes to get there.
I had a decision to make once. I could not afford that trip, but then again I could not afford not to go on that trip. What to do? It took about 6 weeks to decide.
This was my fork in the road the first time I went to China and Hong Kong and Seoul on my own. I could not afford the $$$ it cost. I did not know which way to turn. On one side was a fire and on the other side was a disaster. The decision to go was the one that changed my life. Long before the Internet. Long before 800 numbers. Just 1 credit card with a $10,000 limit. I was going for broke after already going broke.
I could not afford a loss. There was no second chance. My back was up against the wall. There was just leap of FAITH and then I worked and worked and worked and sleep was just a nap for 1-2 hours if that for over 2 weeks. My future was on the line. Everything. The funny thing is the meeting I had planned to have got diverted by an accidental intervention.
I was in Taipei. I was in the World Trade Center there. I stumbled into a showroom. I had a conversation with the guy there. He said instead of seeing company “A” as you plan, I would go to company “B” as that will be to your advantage. I walked out very confused. I had set a course to see one company and now this second company that I also knew of but was not on my agenda became a very tough decision.
In the hours ahead everything got changed. I had to rearrange my travel and went to Hong Kong. That meeting in the hotel room at the Hyatt that I could not even afford, changed my life. I too was a faker. But as a faker there is a choice. Fake it well or fake it like a loser. So how could I have a life changing meeting at the hotel I could afford? How could I have them take me seriously? So I got whatever room I could get at one of the top tier hotels. The 30 minute meeting in my room lasted 3 hours. The owner of the factory was in tears as he told me his story and I was in tears as I told him mine.
I had no money but he knew of me and what I was doing and agreed to help. Imagine going to Hong Kong meeting somebody that I had never met or talked to before and not only did he agree to sell me directly which would cause him problems with other distributors, he financed me as well. 33% down, 33% 30 days after receiving the goods and the last 33% 30 days later. That was incredible. Because when it comes to importing, you pay 100% in advance or work by letter of credit. I could not even get in the same room with a letter of credit in those days so it was cash in advance only. So to get terms oversees like that was very rare if not unheard of.
When I got home, I collapsed. Litterally. I did not get out of bed for some 3 weeks. I was a sick pup. I pushed my soul to a limit it never saw and I was paying the price. I had a mission and all I knew is every ounce of my being and all of my energy was invested in accomplishing this mission.
That was a life changing moment. So I know both sides of the equation. Even as a faker you have to “Play a part”. You can’t be an asshole and a faker and pull it off. Doesn’t work. The asshole part wins every time and they can't hide it. Really.
I am not the smartest guy. I don’t have to be. I am just smart enough to know what I don’t know. That makes me smarter than a guy that knows something and he is wrong. Got it?
Too many folks refuse to adjust their view in light of new information. I re-evaluate things whenever there is new info and most of the time when there isn’t because things change.
We live in a time in history where more opportunity exists than all of history put together. Yet there is high and long term unemployment and more despair than any point I can remember. Something makes no sense and I can tell you that all the world's problems reside in a 6 inch space between the ears. I say that because all success and all failure comes from within. Outside forces are about 1%-5% of the equation. What's between your ears accounts for the other 95%-99%. Problem is the 80% believe that outside forces are in control. They got the equation upside down and until they get that part right, they can never join the 20% and nobody on the planet is responsible for that except themselves.
No force on earth can stop true passion. No force on earth can hold you back. There is only one person on this entire planet that is responsible for your success or failure. The day you learn that is the day your life will change too. Reject this at your own peril. All I can do is share what unleashed my will and has allowed this underachiever to do things I never dreamed of. I sincerely hope you too experience what I have. The younger you figure it out the more rewards you will reap during life.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
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Guy
blog post of the year
thanks Rick
Edwin Hayward
Great story, Rick. I’d love to hear more about what it is you ended up selling out of that”chance” meeting – certainly goes to support the idea that a lot of luck is”manufactured” and the harder you try, the luckier you seem to get.
Peters
Rick,
Thanks for sharing your remarkable story.
At what age did you go to Hong Kong?
viqi
“There is only one person on this entire planet that is responsible for your success or failure.”
This one sentence says it all.
LS Morgan
You should write more posts like this.
There are a lot of people out there in the world, myself included, who are still pretty young and early-on in our journey’s into the world of business and can really benefit from practical wisdom of this nature.
My personal favorite was when you talked about the importance of ‘getting the oil flowing’, worry about the details later. I was at a startup meetup a few months back and mentioned that idea. It inspired a great discussion amongst our table.
luizh
All people have the tools to be within 20% of anything in life. To can professional success is not very difficult.However,if the goal is to reach the top the situation is quite different because you almost always will have to manipulate,to run down,changing deeply the destiny of other people.This idea horrifies the 80% of the universe but this is the way how the things move, everything looks like to have success through an explosion,on the cosmos, in the attitudes or ideas and so will always be,as well as being smart you must want to change.Anyway,I am still trying to be a successful domainer but that is another story.Best regards!
Poor Uncle
Seriously, making a lot of money in the good old USA is still not that difficult if that is your only mission in life. I understand that hyperboles are important to a promotor. But imagine if you channel all that energy to do good. Life would be that much more fulfilling. And, you get to keep porno.com while doing it. I would rather divide people between the decent and the indecent, instead of the faker and the pro.
Christopher Bon
Great post, Rick. The ONLY issue I have with the first sentence. It may be a truth but it is an obscene one. You call it as it is but when I read it I was reminded how shallow this industry and so many others are and how empty the lust for money is.
Domains, Oil, Gold, Land, and Food
I think your first sentences are well put. It’s just a Fact that money is power, power controls, and power makes things happen.
I don’t see that as a put-down on anyone. It’s just a fact of how business works to a very large degree.
David M.
Would you mind sharing your age during this life changing trip?
It could help put things in perspective…
whatever
Nice post….
Garry
Awesome post Rick. One of the best I’ve ever read from you. Thanks for sharing.
Steve O'Brien
It is good to reflect back Rick – that is what helps us continue to aim forward. Very inspiring story… taking it all the way to the edge to get a business going. Many folks just do not get the part that it takes leaving their comfort zone, weekly paychecks and same old routine – to make a change in their lives. If you never take the jump and the risk – then the fear of failure is small, but you will also never win big. Thanks Rick!!!
James
You’re one of the best self-help writers out there. I get the feeling you’d like to expand more on the psychology of success.
Danny Pryor
Hey Rick. You’ve shared parts of this story on other posts, but I’ve never read the start to finish. So here’s my official comment: Wow.
Thanks for this.
Steve Cheatham
Excllent post sir.
The part about”Being smart enough to know what you don’t know” is the only way I know of to suceed as an entrepeur.
The second part is.. make it your buisiness to find out what you don’t know and become smarter by learning it.
Most entrepeurs do not want to share their secrets. But it is not the secret that makes them successful. It is their drive to actually do it.
Some of the more successful domainers (of which I am one but still working on getting to the top tier) were”lucky” enough to get the early premium domain names. But only because they had a vision. Many of those people were verterans from the PC era (that is me) and have been working on the”Internet” plan since the BBS days in the late 1970’s.
Success ids about the implementation of the idea, as in Rick’s trip.
Sometimes it is blind faith, but faith that is made up with education and experience. And one really good idea you can’t resist.
Mark K. Term
People are not easily swayed and often times lose out on chances. the silly thing is people are so afraid to be wrong that when they are wrong (because eventually is wrong at some point or another)they refuse to believe it. On occasion I’m guilty of it as well.
ScottM
You weren’t a faker Rick if you made the trip overseas, had the meetings at the Taipei Trade Mart or the hotel in Hong Kong and the factory was willing to work with you. I was a that same Taipe World Trade Mart several times in 1987 and thereafter too looking for many consumer electronics items and sunglass factories. I also was in Seoul and Hong Kong too. Sometimes the supplier you see and meet with at the mart or a tradeshow isn’t the actual factory making the products, they could be the”fakers” and only want a presence there to snare naive buyers that they then push their orders to their larger factories, they’re aggegators. In the late 80’s many items were made actually in mainland China, but obstensibly shipped to the U.S. via Hong or Taiwan because of export restrictions. Even in the case of something seemingly simple like sunglasses, one factory makes frames, another makes just lenses, another makes just cases, another makes screws and nosepieces, they’re all subcontractors to one master factory that finalizes the shipment. Everything business happens at a much faster pace in Asia it seems, like time speeds up. And their business culture there which has made them so successful (“the Asian tigers”) is that to them nobody is a faker, everyone to them is a real potential buyer and they”must have your name card” and”we have sample for you”. They never miss an opportunity.
Bruce Tedeschi
The mistake people make is thinking they can build a business alone. You can’t live in a vacuum. It has to be a win-win partnership with others that make for long-term business partners.