Bebo

Leggi i capitoli

	My Motivation
	My life story. I was born on August 9, 1963 in Novosibirsk, Russia. My Father was a Civil Engineer and Architect, and a real expert in his field. Many government buildings in my City were built based on my Father’s blueprints, such as the City Railroad Station, and a lot of Administrative buildings and railroad bridges. My Dad worked day and night, and died from ruptured brain aneurysm that no one, including himself, was aware of at the time. This is what I found out about brain aneurysms while doing a research for the book: “A brain aneurysm is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain. Brain aneurysms are often discovered when they rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or the space closely surrounding the brain. Blood hemorrhage from a ruptured brain aneurysm can lead to a hemorrhagic stroke, brain damage and death. 10 to 15% of all patients with these symptoms will die before reaching the hospital and over 50% will die within the first thirty days after rupture. Of those who survive, about half suffer some permanent neurological deficit…” My dad wasn’t lucky at all. He died on the way to the hospital, at an early age of 30, right after Christmas, during a cold winter of 1969. I was 6 years of age at that time. My Mother who was a technical writer all her life and who never re-married ever since, had to raise me by herself. As if she made a promise to my dad to do the best she could in my upbringing. At the age of seven, I joined my first grade of school No 10 in Novosibisk, the “Elite” school which was specializing in English and Mathematics. At the same year, my Mom put me in a Boys Choir and Music school within the City’s Conservatory where I took violin classes for 5 years. That was my first time when I got exposure to fame and success. We traveled a lot with the Boys Choir, I was chosen to announce the songs and occasionally play violin in between the numbers. I remember when I saw myself on TV for the very first time. I was only about 8 years old or so, but it made me feel very special. When I went outside, I felt as if all eyes of all people were glued to me, I was a center of attention, and I could almost heard them whisper, “This is the boy I just saw on TV! He plays violin and sings in boys choir…” Even the ice cream tasted sweeter to me that day, I felt so thrilled! Music surrounded me all my life. I even joined Music College after finishing eighth grade, but all of a sudden lost interest in music. I guess something told me that I would never be a professional musician, so I decided not to pursue Conservatory degree. My mom still thinks that was the wrong decision on my part. But I never regret it because it was my first time when I made my own decision. And it felt good ever since – my ability to make decisions, like Rich Schefren says, “Even in the face of uncertainty!” So, after spending 1 year at College, I abandoned it, went back to High School and then joined Novosibirsk University. At the end of my third year, I staged and produced a play for the year’s Final Exams called “Tina, the Laughing Hyena” where my groupmates played all the characters. The play won the first prize that year, an they put me in charge of all Student Productions ever since. I had to leave University for 2 years because I was drafted in Russian Army. During my Army days that I spent in Moscow, I formed a rock band where I selected all songs for the band, made all arrangements for voices and instruments and where I also was a lead singer. With that band, I was traveling all over Moscow and the area, and we won a number of awards and first prizes at Military Band Contests. And, by winning those Contests, we gained a lot of popularity in the Military Music circles, to the point that the girls would shower us with flowers, the Generals would shower us with vodka and caviar, and General’s daughters would throw themselves to our feet… Those days were so great, I didn’t even want to leave Moscow when the time came to leave the Army! But I did go back to Novosibirsk, to my wife and Son, who was only 3 years old at that time. And I finished University, even though I had to work full time at the Fire Station and study at night time. During those years, I realized how hard it was to work, study and support my family at the same time, and it was then when I started thinking to myself – there has to be a better way! Right after I finished University, I started working in Foreign Trade. At first, I was with a factory that sold Lathe Machines, and then I also represented Association of Siberian Cities and helped Russian companies find foreign partners and sign joint ventures with them. My biggest business achievement at the time was signing of 2 large joint ventures in China – one in Electronics Manufacturing, and one in Wood processing. I was representing 2 Russian companies there. I went to China, did all negotiations with Foreign Trade Association of Northern China and after 2 weeks of negotiations both deals were signed. I did it all on my own, without anybody’s help, and I felt very proud of myself. That was the first time when I actually started identifying myself with a more entrepreneurial crowd, and that was what led me to believe that I could be successful if I started a business of my own. My 3 businesses and my 3 biggest takeaways. Woland: (Read “Woe Land”(:-) Soon after the fall of Communism took place in Russia, I started and ran a currency exchange business there. I became so successful that 2 mafia groups came after me at the same time. I had to fold up that business very rapidly and move to North America. The Secret of my success with that business was: The Right Offer – To the Right Market – At the Right Time. But... Even though I did have the right offer to the right market, and the timing was good, and I was able to build some momentum with that business, ultimately it did not really matter because there was something wrong with the place where I was trying to do it. And that’s why I had to pay the price and forced to move first to the U.S. and then to Canada. Digitizer: In my first North American venture, I was trying to sell Videophones. My partner and I signed a contract with the Distributor, a company called Aastra Telecom and then we tried to retail those videophones to the Toronto market. Those were big and bulky devices with a chip made by 8X8, a company from California, sort of like a mini Intel. The connection was shaky, the picture would freeze and was blurry, and you still had to pay long distance charges because they used standard phone lines for the connection. What I learned from that business was: there’s always a danger in trying to sell a novelty item. Despite the fact that we were very unique, we did not really know what our market was, we did not have a good offer, and essentially we could not provide any value. And my lesson from that business was: you need to do a great deal of research before you make a decision to sell a novelty item to the public. And you need to know precisely what your target market is, if there is a demand and if someone would really buy it. Not if they just ‘might possibly’ buy it, but that there is a distinct, identifiable group of people that would really buy it, and what kind of price that group would be willing to pay. AdCalls Agency: Fast-track to 2005, we signed an Agency agreement with another California firm called AdCalls and became their distributors. AdCalls created their own VoIP dialer – a software that was free to install and to use for long distance calls through your PC. But the only way you could make money in that business was through signing advertisers who would be interested to promote their products and services on the screen of that dialer. And that again was a novelty item, and new type of advertising. AdCalls failed to gain momentum and, eventually, they failed as a business. And they should have known better because, as I learned from Rich Schefren much later, “If there’s no momentum –there’s no business”… So, their business did not work for the same reasons that our Videophone business didn’t work. And on top of that, the way they structured it was through multi-level marketing, and that was another big reason why advertisers wanted to stay away from it. My lessons from that business were: 1) you can’t make money with someone else’s business, whether it’s a franchise, MLM or an affiliate program; the key issue is that you have no control of that business, you can’t change the rules, and thus you should not be involved in anything like that in the first place. 2) and in general, you can’t build your business on the wrong foundation; you have to build the business that works for YOU; it has to be based on YOUR strengths, YOUR passion, YOUR desire to help the market that YOU already know. And this is how the idea of this book was born. So, why would I care about you? Simple. I wrote this book for my Dad. I wrote it for my friend Vlad who died early, and never had a chance to see real success, even though he worked day and night as a computer programmer. I wrote this for all my clients - those who were struggling before they met me, and those who are still struggling right now. Finally, I wrote it for myself. They say “You can’t carry three, but you can help a thousand.” I tried to carry three – been there, done that. Not any more! I want to help thousands, millions now! Why? Because I know how hard you work. I know what price you’ve paid to get where you are. Now, in recognition of your achievements, I want to give credit where the credit is due. I want to help you, I honestly do. And I want you to succeed in whatever you do.
Scrivi una recensione >>>