Tweet

Lesson #5: There is No Greater Good Than Your Gut

Article Overview: Huizenga was able to achieve the success that he did because he loved what he was doing. He loved being able to take an idea and try to sell others on it to make it happen. But what was behind Huizenga’s confidence in those ideas? What made him believe so strongly that they would work when others might have already tried the same thing and failed? The answer is quite simply, gut instinct.

Lesson #5: There is No Greater Good Than Your Gut

Huizenga was able to achieve the success that he did because he loved what he was doing. He loved being able to take an idea and try to sell others on it to make it happen. But what was behind Huizenga’s confidence in those ideas? What made him believe so strongly that they would work when others might have already tried the same thing and failed? The answer is quite simply, gut instinct.

Huizenga relied on his gut instinct to give him the faith he needed in his ideas to take them to the next level. Where his gut told him that he could make something happen, Huizenga went full force ahead to make it a reality. That is why, the more successful Huizenga became, the more he wanted to get out of his company; he did not want to be an administrator, which is what tended to happen as his businesses grew larger and larger. Huizenga wanted to be the ideas man, the one who could let his imagination run wild thinking of ways to take his companies to the next level. As soon as he found his imagination constrained, Huizenga knew it was time to get out.

It is Huizenga’s gut that has allowed him to pursue businesses that others chose to avoid, to try and change the very way people shopped. Think about the car industry: What kind of a reputation do car salesmen have? How difficult is the process of buying a car from start to finish? To what lengths do people go to avoid having to buy a new car.

Huizenga reformed all of that with his company Autonation. He removed the middleman. He removed the angst that came with making such a large purchase. He brought new standards and reputation to an industry that was the butt of jokes at every dinner party. He changed the industry forever. And, he did it all at a time when the economy was suffering, when economic advisers were telling everyone to get out. Huizenga checked his gut, saw the opportunity, and stole it.

When Huizenga was building up Blockbuster, he became known as the “Toilet Man” for his tendency to check the state of cleanliness in his employees’ bathrooms. He thought that if those bathrooms were not clean, the rest of the store would be in the same condition. “The good things take care of themselves,” he says. “We want to find all the negatives.” Still, despite his reputation for hanging around in the dirtiest part of his stores, his gut was as good as golden.

It was also Huizenga’s gut that told him what his customers wanted. After all, he believed he was his own best company. More than anything else, people wanted to be treated like people. More than the price of a product, more than its convenience or utility, Huizenga’s gut told him that people made their buying decisions based on their own buying experience, on how they were treated by his staff in stores. He believed that if he gave the customer not only what they wanted, but in a friendly and efficient manner, they would not be able to help but come back for more

It worked.

Related Articles
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  The Right To Be Rich
  Three Marketing Lessons from Realtors
  Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?
  The Gravity of Failure

Article Tags: autonation, blockbuster, butt, car industry, car salesmen, confidence, dinner party, economic advisers, economy, faith, full force, gut instinct, imagination, jokes, middleman, new car, next level, reputation, tendency, toilet



Related Forum Posts
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods - We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her. Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails. I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out. So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.
Re: Networking - Good work, just remember to continue to plug away and dont stop. Good luck, Matt Belock
Re: SEO for your small business: 4 tips - Good post....thanks for sharing. Good to know. Thanks for a great source.
Google Pagerank update inprogress - Hi All, Good news! Google PR update is in progress & my new blog (3months baby) acquired PR2 yesterday but I am seeing a SERP drop. Lets hope for the best. Good luck to all ! -Mr.Ven
Using youtube disadvantages? - Youtube embedded players play instantly. Good. However, if you use a youtube embedded player on your business website and click it twice, it takes you away from your site and on to youtube's where a prospective buyer can wander endlessly and perhaps never return. Good or bad? Does anyone know how to alter the html so that it plays only and doesn't link to youtube?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You My Mentor

What is an Adaptive Organization

Build Corporate Credit for Your Small Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.