Vanilla Haagen-Dazs… it must be made from angel’s milk. Sheer ecstasy. What heaven must be like (please!). I savor each lick until my taste buds scream in pain for more. And when I reluctantly swallow my last bite—that’s what hell must be like.

I recently allowed myself to have this sweet-bitter experience at a local Haagen-Dazs store. While eating, I temporarily awoke from my blissful nirvana to see (in horror) that I had licked off all the ice-cream on top. I was not ready to bite into the cone (that is the beginning of the end!). So I went back up to the counter with a big milk covered smile (yes, angel’s milk) and said, as charming as I could muster, “for a real passionate lover of your great product would you kindly add a gratuitous small shaving to the top here (holding my topless cone out to her) to help extend my joy… just a little longer?” Even with a strict policy against such allowances, she said, “It would be my pleasure” and plunked another full (albeit hollow) scoop of vanilla bliss on my cone. The charm must have worked (or the promise to promote this story on my blog – I’m kidding!).

When I came back to the table with my new (free!) scoop my wife couldn’t believe it! One, that I asked… and two, that she gave it me! I said simply, “it never hurts to ask.”

This is true in most instances, most every day. I’m a big believer that you only get what you ask for. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. So why not ask for everything? The worst possible thing that can happen is they say no.

Ask, and Ye Shall Receive. Ye Have Not, Because Ye Ask Not

Ask your way to wealth

The most money you will ever make (penny saved is a penny earned) is by asking for it. Let me give you an example or two…

I was in a retail store recently. I asked the manager, read more »

Now I don’t like this fact. I would philosophically argue against this fact. But it is a fact… and the evidence is all around us.

Who makes the best-tasting hamburger in the world? Doubtful you’d anoint McDonald’s with that title, but they outsell everyone else by many billions of dollars.

What is the best wine in the world? Certainly Franzia (which comes in a box!) wouldn’t be your first or 100th guess, but it is the best selling.

What is the highest-quality bottled water? If you tested it, it certainly wouldn’t be Aquafina (owned by PepsiCo), Dasani (owned by Coca-Cola) or Poland Spring (owned by Nestle Waters), but those are the number 1, 2 and 3 best selling.

Nine times out of 10 it is not the best or highest-quality clothing line, automobile, restaurant, CPA firm, real estate agent, lawyer, furniture manufacturer, refrigerator, etc. that sells the most or becomes the biggest—it is the ones who market themselves the best.

This is the business axiom that I witness all around me every day:
The ultimate success of a product or service is 10% the quality of the product and 90% the quality of the marketing.

Now while I don’t necessarily LIKE that fact, as I believe the success of a product or service should be what’s most important and it should stand ENTIRELY on the value it delivers, that is just not how it works in reality.

Even if you are simply an individual in a sales organization this is true. It is not necessarily the best, the highest quality, highest class, most refined people that make it to the top… it is the ones who market themselves, network themselves, position themselves with credibility amongst their peers and demonstrate their growing and developing selves to the circle around them that end up at the top of the sales organization.

Now, let me also add this: If your product or service is bad… or even if you are bad, unethical or without integrity, no amount of marketing will make you or your product or service successful—especially in this day and age of Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and Google. You and your product or service reputation will die a certain and expedient viral death.

Here is a not so funny (literally) great example of this: read more »

After a keynote training I did this past weekend, a lady came up to me to ask what I thought of Rolfing.

“I don’t enjoy ralphing at all” I quickly responded. Then she explained it was a way to “structurally integrate and manipulate the whole body into gravity.” “Okaaay,” I replied. “Why, do you ask?” She explained she wanted to rise to the top rank of her sales organization so she has been paying a “personal manifestation expert” to train her.

He has her Rolfing twice a week, psychically hugging her inner child three times a day (I kid you not), setting up her feng shui money corner and chanting affirmations out loud in front of the mirror for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night. “How many prospecting calls does he have you making each day?” I asked. “We haven’t talked about that” she replied.

Now the advice doesn’t need to be as off base or absurd as this to be wrong. In fact a lot of ‘expert’ advice is wrong.

Why?

• What works for one person doesn’t always work for another.
• The background or originating experience is different.
• People have different personalities and strengths.
• The timing and application is different.
• Most ‘experts’ contradict each other anyway.
• And frankly, there is just a lot of really bad, wrongheaded and bogus ‘expert’ advice out there. In some cases the advice is dangerous. In many cases it is simply distracting, thus productively damaging and time wasting.

As a 20-year consummate consumer of ‘expert’ personal-development material, I have heard, seen, tried and tested most all of it. As a 16-year business leader in the industry and publisher of SUCCESS, I am in the business of vetting so called ‘experts.’ (That is a big part of our job for you here at SUCCESS—to sort, filter and curate on your behalf, so you get the best and only the real-deal expert advice in SUCCESS magazine or on SUCCESS.com.)

Here is the No. 1 criterion I use to determine if someone is worthy of the ‘expert’ title: read more »

That is a quote from my mentor Jim Rohn. When I first heard Jim say this, I thought he meant giving created indebtedness on the part of the receiver—that you gave so you could get back. But I had it all wrong. Jim taught me that the real gift—the lasting benefit of giving—is what the act itself does for you. In essence, giving to others is the greatest gift you can give yourself.

Giving feels good, but there’s more to it than that. Helping others incites physical and emotional responses within us. When we direct our energy and focus on meeting others’ needs, we push aside our brooding and negative emotions, especially those that contribute to stress-induced psychological and physical illnesses. Studies reveal that when we help others, we release extra amounts of endorphins into our system, and we get what researchers call a “helper’s high.”

Giving has a direct impact on the body’s neurological, hormonal and immune systems—it can even prolong your life. One study found that older individuals who are actively involved in helping others outlive those who aren’t. The physical benefits of helping others have been shown to have a greater impact on longevity than exercising four times a week, if you can believe that!

The benefits extend beyond the physical, also fostering traits that undergird a successful life. As a result, our careers and relationships often improve when we purposefully seek to make a difference in others’ lives. And studies show that people of all ages who actively help others, even in small ways, feel the happiest.

This September issue of SUCCESS featuring Michael Dell and his wife Susan explores read more »

The customer is NOT always right. Sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes they are even a jerk.

I was on a Southwest flight this past week coming home from delivering a keynote talk in Vegas. On walks this guy (late) with two big bags. It was obvious he was (still) inebriated (it was before noon). He started making quite a ruckus when he couldn’t find any overhead space for his gargantuan bags. The cheerful flight attendant politely offered to take his bags and have them checked.

He refused and insisted on taking other people’s things out of the overhead bin trying to force his in. When the flight attendant tried to assist he got more belligerent and cursed at her. The pilot promptly came from the front and expediently removed him from the plane. While doing so, the loud-mouthed guy yelled, “This is the customer service airline? I am a customer, I am right. It’s your job to service me!” The pilot replied, “That is what we are doing sir, servicing the rest of our customers by removing you.” And with that, the rest of the plane let out a big cheer.

This is an extreme example, but I think as a business culture we have gone too far in this attitude of the customer always being right. Of course, the customer is important and it is good business to deliver a great experience, but NOT at the sacrifice of you, your people or your ability to serve other, more appreciative customers. read more »