So many business people I have met over the years were lost on their way to nowhere, unclear about where they were going, consumed by the business of their endless days, wishing business could be easier, that people would be more responsible, that something, anything, would change for the better, that work didn’t have to be so hard, so boring, so tedious, so…well, you get my point. So many business people I have met over the years…tens of thousands of them, in fact…have been anything but happy. Have been hoping for an answer, a miraculous answer, to the puzzle called doing business the way they were doing business, the way their business was working out, struggle, struggle, struggle, a miraculous answer to the unending question…What’s the Secret?, what’s the Secret?, what’s the Secret?, wishing someone would answer…”Here it is! Oila!” And everything after that would be just fine, just fine. And every one would live happily ever after.

And because what I just said is so true for so many, and always has been, there are no end to the number of magicians only too willing to provide you with The Secret, with a flash of the lights, and the twist of a hand, and, yes, as I said it, Oila!, The Secret unfolds before your very eyes, in its full, blooming, rich-rousing luster, with the fireworks exploding, and the noise clanging and clashing, and the wonderful promise of…First-You-See-It-and-Now-You-Don’t…how did he do that?, how indeed, my friend, how did he do that one? And of course, you paid for it, that little trick of his. And of course nothing changed whatsoever in your business…no, the sales didn’t go up, nor did your people get any better, nor did your customers clamor for more, more, more. No, everything went right back to the way it was, and the way it will always be, as it always has, and it always will when the magicians come around.

Which is to say, if you’ve gotten this far with me, I need to tell you there is no magic at the end of this little tome of mine. None. Zip. Not at all. No, I have never been a magician, never wanted to be. All I wanted to do from the time I was a little boy, was to tell the truth, tell the truth as I see it, tell and tell and tell and tell, to anyone who would listen. And the truth I wanted to share with you here, as one entrepreneur to hopefully another, is that there is no Secret. Never has been and never will be. That there is only the shift of your mind, the way you think, the way you look at yourself and everything you do with your self in your business, and by shifting the way you think, something miraculous will happen, I can absolutely guarantee it, and I won’t have done anything, you will, because if there is A Secret, a Big, Fat, Wonderful Secret to transforming your business, and you with it, it is only You Who Will Find It, and you will find it inside your head, waiting there in the dark, hoping you wake up in time, hoping you let go of the hope that someone is going to solve everything for you, that the only hope you’ve got whatsoever is that You Will Wake Up, and stop doing it, doing it, doing it, what you do every day in your business, working for a living, making it, selling it, shipping it.

In short, all these folks working so hard out there in their own business have missed the point completely. And here’s the point I believe they’re missing. To get where you’re going, you need to know where it is! Let me say that again: To get where you’re going you need to know where it is! And where it is is not where you are. Where it is is someplace you have decided it is. And what you have decided it is is what is called an Exit Strategy. An Exit Strategy which states: when you are done doing it, doing it, doing it in the business you own, your only true hope is that you can Sell It! And to Sell It, you need to know how to sell it, and to whom.

And if you would like to know how to do that, tune in to my next column, next month.

See you then, and keep thinking between now and then: Sell It? Sell It? Sell It? How, and to Whom?



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