Formal Education

Bachelor’s of Business Administration and Management from the University of Phoenix in 1998.  

   Diploma 

Self Education

I have a commitment to a life time of self-education, one of my favorite quotes is by the author Jim Rohn.  “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn.

As an entrepreneur you are always learning, often I come in to the office and realize that there is some new situation that will require me to study to research or to think through a problem or situation that I have never encountered. However, this is management by fire and trust me I have learned a lot in the school of “Hard Knocks.”  I have also learned that over the years it is best to manage by objective. Thus I have found it very important to continue my education though, seminars, books, focus groups, and even professional coaches. Education is about being observant in all situations.

Hard Knocks

This has been a very expensive school. Having owned and operated my own business now for almost 20 years going through good times and bad times. Experiences the highs of being chauffeured around in private jets and limos and the lows of trying to figure out how to pay the employees and if I can do that make my mortgage payment. I can say that I have learned a lot, I have learned how to stay perceptive and patient. I can say I have learned how to motivate and uplift employees. I know how to measure production and make adjustments. I have worked with sales, marketing, legal and all other aspects of developing a successful business. I know that product helps but its the people and systems that make a great company. I have pages and pages of things I have learned just ask if you are interested.   

Seminars

I love to attend seminars what a great place to network to learn and to improve. Now over the past few years I have attended a dozen or so seminars put on by some of the very best internet marketers including Russell Brunson, Ryan Deiss and the follow up sequence giant Infusionsoft. I have attended copywriting seminars by some of the best including one of the original and best copywriter Dan Kennedy. I have attended seminars on public speaking by some of the best including Dave VanHoose and Dustin Mathews, and many others. 

Books

As someone that believes in continuing my education I have always been a reader. I don’t read as much as I used, I find it more convent to subscribe to Audible.com and listen to books. This way I can listen while I am driving or exercising. Having read and listened to hundreds of books over the year I have found that my favorite Author is Malcom Gladwell. Malcom has a way of researching his topic and incorporating stories to get his point across. One of his greatest books is David and Goliath where he explains how David beat Goliath because he didn’t play by his rules the played by the rules that would all him to come out on top. Below you will see a list of my top 20 books they are in no particular order.

Top 20 Books

1. Seven Habits:  This was one of the first business books I read and I reference back to it often.  I believe that the point the Dr. Covey was making is that finding the right habits will help you be successful in all you do.  It will help you create a system that will help you produce great results over and over.
2. First things First:  Focus on what matters and the rest will work itself out. 
3. Steve Jobs: My summery on Steve Jobs is more about perfecting one’s self.  Jobs never let others really get to him he tried to learn from every circumstance, and better himself by being around the best, by pushing the best to their limits.  He was the example of a pure entrepreneur. 
4. Color Code:  If you haven’t read the Color Code it’s a simple book about understanding your personality and other as well.  Then learning how to integrate the best of your personality and the best of others to create a great relationship.  The color code is good to help you understand that we all see things differently.  Not good or bad but differently. 
5. Its’ Not about the Bike: When one is faced with adversity one can either run from it or embrace it.  Armstrong chose to embrace it learn what he could and fight the fight of his life.  This pushed him to work hard and be the best.
6. The Alchemists:  This is one of my favorites because it tells in a very simple and easy to read story about a boy who dreams about finding his fortune in faraway places and his journeys and struggles along the way.  Only to find out at the end of his journey that his fortune was right under his feet.  It follows the archers of diamonds by Earl Nightingale idea.  But sometimes we must go through trials to see what we have.
7. 177 Mental Tough secrets:  This book is always a great reference book for me.  It 177 quick one or two page reads to keep the professions mentally tough and on target.  The author references hundreds of books so it’s a great place to find another good read.  The author focuses on all aspects of business from, mindset and goal setting to employee recognition and finding great mentors.  
8. Winning (Jack Welch):  This is a great book to read for introspection and to understand that running a successful business isn’t about your ego.  It’s about managing a team it’s about being the leader and lead not driving.    Winning is a team effort not an individual effort.
9. The E-myth:  There is a difference between an Entrepreneur and someone that is self-employed {Hyper Link}.  Self-employed people usually are really good at what they do and believe they if they aren’t doing it it’s not going to get done right.  
10. Who moved my Cheese:  Are you focused on the negative are you focused on being a victim or are you one that can look ahead project, anticipate and move with the markets.  All too often we get stuck in the mundane and expect that to be status que when that changes most people don’t know how to act or react.  Continue to grow this is why I do my best to continue my education.
11. Think and Grow Rich:  You can look at this book as something to help you grow rich monetarily, but is not just a monitory reward.  Many people have lots of money and no joy no richness in their lives.  However, this book is about the importance of setting Goals, reviewing them often and not settling for anything less than what you believe to be right.
12. Good to Great:  As I am writing the summary of all of these books, I find that my theme is team work.  Good to great is another book that focuses on great leaders just helping their teams build great systems and motivate them for greatness.  This reminds me of the book Alexander the Great.  Empower others to greatness and you will succeed yourselves.  
13. Trust me I’m lying:  Great book about how advertisers and internet marketers manipulate people into thinking they are telling the truth.  How they are actually the ones that create the controversy to get the free publicity.  This book will open your eyes as to the world of marketing.  Unfortunately, it will help you understand that you can’t trust marketing.
14. Outliers:  One of my favorite authors, this story is about success Gladwell explains that the reason the successful are very successful isn’t necessarily about their drive and desire but more about their preparation.  My biggest take away from this book is that if you want to be an expert you need to put in about 10,000 hours of effort towards this.
15. Blink:  Thinking without thinking, this goes along with his book the outliers, when you have put in the hours and understand your business, things may not seem right, not being able to understand or explain why, one should go with their own impression of what they know.  
16. David and Goliath:  Gladwell has a way to tell stories to get his point across.  In this book he hits home on several stories about how playing by everyone’s rules will not set you apart it will not help you succeed.  The ones that are successful separate themselves from the others by doing something different.  David did not play by Goliath’s rules of hand to hand combat he stayed his distance and fought how he knew best.
17. The Innovators DNA:  Innovators are people that step outside of their box and can look at business that have nothing to do with ones one and discover process, products, systems etc. that can help them solve problems.  Innovators learn to associate with people in different areas, they question everything and observe everything.  Being innovative isn’t about developing a just building a product.  It is about being innovative in your sales process, in your development, in your customer relations.  Every team needs innovators, people that can network, look outside the box.
18. Spin selling:  This book outlines how important it is to ask questions, to understand before being understood.  When prospects come to a self-discover of what their issues are and how your product can solve their issues.  It really teaches you how to ask the Situational questions then lead into the Problem questions and then move in to the most important needs pay off questions.  Most people only ask the situational questions which are important but this book will really help you improve your selling techniques.
19. Washington a life:  George Washington, one of the greatest founding fathers and one of the greatest men this country or any other country has ever see.  By reading this book you will get a new understanding of the trials and struggles that our founding fathers and soldiers went through.  You will see how one great leader can command attention and motivate a nation to fight and win against all odds.  This book really outlines that there is a supreme being that really brought to pass the greatness of our nation. 
20. It’s not the Big that eat the small it’s the fast that eat the slow:  In business we sometimes thing that large companies always come in and gobble up smaller ones.   With the change in technology the playing field has been altered.  Small companies that can move fast innovate and create movement, a cause for their employees to grab a hold of and run with can over take large competitors.  But you must learn to be agile and innovate in the process. 

Movie list

I am not a huge movie buff, but over the years I have watched my fair share and when I do I observe, I note and listen to the message not just watch for entertainment. I prefer to watch, what I will refer to as “underdog movies,” or true life movies of people that against all odds are able to overcome trials or circumstances to find inner greatness and succeed. Or I will watch with my children and we watch animated movies which always seem to have a great message.

I feel that all of us are in this situation and we can learn a lot about attitude, persistence, or life if we will just apply one of the techniques of the Innovators DNA and that is to be observant. If we take the time and observe everything we can learn from it. I’m not going to summarize each move individually but as a general summary there is much to learn from each of these movies. As a summary of each movie I have added some of favorite Quotes.

• Forever Strong —“It’s Important you know this upfront. You spend a whole lot of time in the gym, you eat right, you sleep enough and you work your tail off and someday, someday you’ll have a body like mine” — “You never do anything to embarrass yourself, your team and your family” — “Good decisions don’t make life easy they do make it easier.”
• Pay it Forward — Jerry: You ever been on the street? — Arley: My mom took us pretty close. — Jerry: Well, you can’t know. Not until you look at a dumpster. But when you climb into that thing for the first time and you pull those newspapers over you, that’s when you know you’ve messed your life up. Somebody comes along like your son, and gives me a leg up, I’ll take it. Even from a kid, I’ll take it. —
• Evan Almighty — “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?” — “If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?” — “If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other? “
• Starwars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace —“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.  
• The Pursuit of Happiness — “Just get away from disappointment” — “Go and be happy – don’t lose sight of your goals” — “Don’t let someone tell you, you can’t do something, protect your dream.” — “Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something, you got a dream you have to protect it.  You want something go get it.” 
• Sandlot  — “But I’m not good at anything, Mom Face it, I’m just an egghead. Honey, you’ll always be just an egghead with an attitude like that.”
• Hoosiers — “I think you’ll find it’s the exact same measurement as our gym back in hickory.“
• Secretariat  — “The will to win if you can and to live with it if you can’t.  I’ll find a way if I can and if I can’t I’ll live with it.” — “This is about life being ahead of you and you run at it because you never know how far you can go unless you run.”
• Batman Begins  — ” Alfred: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
• Alice in Wonderland — “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?  That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. I don’t much care where– said Alice. Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.  So long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation. Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.”
• Invincible — “Just because I told you not to get your hopes up doesn’t mean I wasn’t.”
• Kong Fu Panda — “Your mind is like this water my friend when it is agitated it becomes difficult to see but if you allow it to settle the answer becomes clear.”
• Cinderella Man — “I know what I am fighting for this time – Milk”
• MegaMind — “You did it you won, I finally had a reason to win” — “I have it all and yet I have nothing” — “I guess that destiny isn’t the path given to us, but the path we choose for ourselves.” — “There’s a benefit to losing you get to learn from your mistakes.”
• Ferris Behuler’s Day Off  — “Life moves pretty fast if you don’t stop and look around every once in a while you could miss it.”
• Hitched — “Life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath.”
• Forest Gump  — “Life is a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get.”
• Rocky VI  — “The world isn’t all sun shine and rainbows. It will beat you to your knees if you let it.” —“Life ain’t about how hard you can hit its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
• Eat Pray Love — “If you want to get to the castle you got to swim the mote.”
• Dead Poet Society  — “You must strive to find your own voice but the longer you wait to begin the less likely you are to find it at all.”
• Ratatouille  — “Change is nature the part that we can influence, and it starts when we decide.” — “You must be strong hearted you must try things that may not work and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from.”
• Seabiscuit — “Listen to me you have a gift.” — “Everyone loses a couple but you either pack up, and go home or you keep fighting.”
• Rookie — “I’m talking about wanting something I’m talking about having dreams if you don’t have dreams you don’t have anything.”
• The Kings Speech — “it was my job to get them believe in theirselves.”
• Rocky IV  — “Until you believe in yourself you ain’t going to have a life.”
• The 7th Son — “Wrong questions get wrong answers”
  

I have the philisophy that we can learn from any situation as long as we stay open minded and as long as we observe are that we can. We cannot just stand idoly by and let life happen. Its a great journy that we should experience and not let pass us by.