Tweet

Lesson #4: “You put out a lot of buckshot, you’re going to strike one.”

Article Overview: Married with ten children, Foreman is unarguably a big family man. As it turns out, one of his greatest business inspirations also happens to be right from within his own family.

Lesson #4: “You put out a lot of buckshot, you’re going to strike one.”

Married with ten children, Foreman is unarguably a big family man. As it turns out, one of his greatest business inspirations also happens to be right from within his own family.

"My grandfather used to go out hunting during the days of the Depression," says Foreman. "The good shooters, the marksmen, shot with one shell." As bullets were expensive in those days, hunters tried to improve their aim in order to save costs on bullets. "If you missed the squirrel, so to speak, you don't have anything but an excuse on the table," says Foreman.

Foreman's grandfather, however, had another tactic. "If you buy these cheap shots, which are buckshots, they scatter," he says. "You come back in with a squirrel. Although you got a lot of buckshot in it, you got a decent meal on the table...I call it the old shotgun tactic."

This was an important family lesson for Foreman. "Now I use the same thing, although you've got to be selective because you have a name to protect," he says. "You know you put out a lot of buckshot, you're going to strike one."

For Foreman, who gets approached by hundreds of potential business partners each year, all of whom are eagerly seeking to put his cheeky face on each of their products, the tactic is an important one in choosing how to move forward.

"You've got to start out early in the morning and look at hundreds, literally hundreds of things," he says. "And it may take a year, it may take three or four years, but you're going to hit something so you have something to put on the table for your family."

To Foreman, there is no harm in trying new business opportunities and failing. Without taking any chances, he would never find those few products that would take his brand even further.

That is why Foreman's face can now be found on InStride shoes made especially for diabetics, UFood Grill, a health-food restaurant chain, and in a reality television series called "Family Foreman." On top of that, visitors to Foreman's website can purchase his cookbooks, one of his ten books on inspiration, comebacks and fatherhood, or, of course, his famous grills.

"And then we have the green cleaning products, which I've been working on for a couple years," he says. "We finally got it absolutely, totally biodegradable." Called George Foreman's Knock-Out Household Cleaning System, he is extending his brand into one more arena. "This is going to be so good it's going to make the big companies jealous, and they're going to outdo me. And I still win," he says. "I still win. Because it makes the planet much better."

Integrity is how Foreman does business. Still, he places no limits on how far he is willing to take his brand. After all, the more he gets his company out there, the more chances he has of making it a success.

Related Articles
  Work at Home Mom - The Secret to Success
  The easy way to close more sales
  Real Work at Home Jobs - Why Cant You Find One?
  How to Say No
  Small Steps to Reduce Climate Change

Article Tags: buckshot, bullets, business partners, cheap shots, decent meal, depression, diabetics, excuse, family man, health food restaurant, hunting, inspirations, instride shoes, new business opportunities, reality television, shooters, shotgun, squirrel, tactic, television series



Related Forum Posts
Re: How did we Live before Electricity - Well, in the good old days (i.e. the 1970's), I experienced life without electricity in three ways (excluding camping trips)... 1. My great gran's cottage in Sussex. 2. The miners' strike that brought down the Heath govt. 3. Visiting a couple who refused to have electricity installed in their house and used oil lamps for illumination. Open coal fires were the order of the day. And a lot of chat. In the case of the miners' strike, we stocked up on candles, sat by the fire, cooked on gas, chatted, and went to bed early. Ah, those were the good old days, indeed!
Re: Unions Ruining America? - Unions Ruining America? Unions ruining the world! As much as I respect bargaining rights and considerations of unions, I'm sick and tired of seeing others held hostage when unions go on strike to forcefully see their demands come to fruition - regardless of their longer term impacts on their business or economy. It erks me when I see government officials on strike too. They have the most cushiony jobs in the entire economy, and still find reason to complain about their situation. What about the poor people working 80 hour weeks just to feed their family? Something has got to give - we cannot continually exceed expectations without inflation or diminished returns affecting us.
Re: Traffic! How do you get it? - [quote="KH_Global":30djuj6c]Thanks Mal for the link. Robert[/quote:30djuj6c] My pleasure Robert, I'm sure you will find it useful as there is a seeemingly endless number of sites on there to link to. Some are fairly quick, some take weeks or even months to link to you but the great thing about it is that once you have set up your details, every page autofills without all the hassle of typing them in every time. All you have to do is pick a category and maybe fill in a captcha code or similar to copy and youre done. A lot will not accept a link unless you pay or at least use a reciprocal link option, neither of which I ever use. I only use the sites that offer a free link and there are plenty of those to keep me out of mischief for many hours, LOL, enjoy, Mal.
Re: Obama mentorship system - Hi there, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL It is a while since I have been here with you. I decided to come back this month. This is certainly not an easy task. First and foremost, he needs all the support of everyone who has voted for him. How? By speaking well of him even if he does something they disagree. Also the whole cabinet to arise and honour him in all his actions. Of course he will make mistakes, but he so well said: 'I learn from the predecessors successes. Will rebellion and strike make it better?
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.


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

Gas bills go up by 18% can we take any more

SEO Link Popularity and the Home Business Website

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.