Be Hungry or Starve as an Entrepreneur.

Here is a great article I came across by Grant Cardone on Entrepreneur.com. Always remember if you help enough other people get what they want, you eventually get what you want.  Have a servant attitude and go after it. You have a product or a service that people want, they just don’t know they want to get it from you. Be bold, be daring and remember that your a champion that is unstoppable. 2016 is the year everything changed. Believe it, Conceive it and go Achieve it.

All the Best in LIFE,
Alex Nickerson

When you win the Super Bowl, in life or in business, you cannot ever win again if you do not immediately go back to training — you must stay hungry, win or lose, success or failure. Whether the Panthers or the Broncos win the Super Bowl this year if they stop training they will never win another Super Bowl. Success requires constant attention and the moment you stop hunting for it, it will escape you. You must approach the creation of success as a must-have obligation, do-or-die mission, gotta-have-it, hungry-dog-on-the-back-of-a-meat-truck mentality.

Let your customers know you are hungry. Don’t act like you don’t need their business. There is an old saying that tells people to “fake it ’til you make it.” Well, this doesn’t apply here! Instead, you want to “act hungry to make sure you don’t end up hungry.”

I challenge you today to do two things:

1. You must change your mindset.

No one likes people who act like they are better than others and never act so important you don’t need people’s business. If you didn’t need their business you wouldn’t be in business. Everyone appreciates someone who goes the extra mile and really shows others that he or she wants, needs, and values others’ business. You will never create a powerful, solvent, prosperous, and abundant economy with an attitude of arrogance.

In almost every seminar I conduct, someone will say to me, “I’m afraid I might seem weak if I act like I want the business too much.” My response is always the same: “The biggest mistake you can make is not to act like you’re hungry for the business!” Let’s face it: You need clients more than they need you in any economy. An attitude of, “they need me more than I need them” always fails; treat your customers as though they’re more valuable than you and your company—because they are.

Every moment of every day act like your life depends on every transaction. And if you have to tell someone that you really want his or her business, well then, you probably aren’t acting hungry enough!  Acting hungry means that you’re aggressively ambitious or competitive. Perhaps it stems from a need to overcome poverty or past defeats or it is because your desire to succeed is so great. Regardless of your position in life, if you want to stay on top, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to earn more business—during good times and bad.

2. Take massive action.

What you did last year means nothing in the market today. History is laden with companies that were number one in their field but who only exist nowadays between the pages of books. Sears and Kmart are two perfect examples of these. Both dominated their fields at one time, but their arrogance cost them their positions—and now they’re struggling in the market.

Spend all your time, energy, creativity, and resources in advancing your goals and getting so far ahead of the pack that you seize your competitors’ business along the way. The real world of business is the most brutal battlefield in the world; it will not tolerate conceit or people who are living in the past. Customers don’t value excuses, timing, reasons, ratings, yesterday, position; they only value results. If you want to create your own economy, you have to know what you are dealing with. You must be willing to do what others won’t do—and even take actions that you might deem “unreasonable” at activity levels that seem “obsessive”.

Any absence of effort is likely due to a lack of awareness, an abundance of arrogance, or a combination of the two. Be useful, courteous, accessible, humble, and now more than ever, willing to go the extra mile.

Surpass any and all expectations, act like you really want someone’s business—and do whatever you can to earn it. If you give your clients genuine reasons to like you, demonstrate an authentic willingness to do anything for them, are consistently helpful, and never quit, they will want to do business with you, whatever your business is. Remember that the only way to increase appointments is to increase the number of people to whom you speak—and then amplify the reasons why they should make time for you.

Personally, any time someone who serves me continues to exhibit that hungry desire to do anything humanly possible to earn my business, I find every reason possible to support him or her. I stick with that person as long as he or she keeps exhibiting that kind of hungry attitude, and I don’t think I am unique this way. Most people want to be taken care of and paid attention to, and they crave this type of service from people because it is lacking in our culture.

You must show great appreciation and gratitude for every opportunity you get. Be willing to bend over backward, sideways—even do handstands, if necessary—to let people know that you’ll do whatever it takes to earn their business. Don’t let yesterday’s successes give you a false sense of security and make you feel like you don’t need success today and tomorrow. You must have your attention on the future to create one.

Always, always, always demonstrate your hunger and desire to grow your business by displaying how service-oriented and interested you are in your clients on a daily basis. Follow up relentlessly and do anything you can (ethically and professionally, of course) in order to obtain someone’s business. Be hungry!

Getting to Know Kaizen Leaders: Alex and Leighann Nickerson

Hey everyone,

Here is a post about Leighann and I that my good friends Claude and Lana Hamilton had written for their blog. This was originally posted a few months back on Claude’s website. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it, so I thought I’d repost it for the few people that maybe didn’t see it.

We owe all our successes to Claude and Lana. We appreciate them so much and all that they do. I hope that you enjoy the article. It was great being interviewed by Bethany; Leighann and I really enjoyed getting to know her better, as well.

This is an awesome time in LIFE Leadership!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Getting to Know Kaizen Leaders: Alex and Leighann Nickerson

Originally published on CLAUDEHAMILTON.COM
written by Bethany Sampson

When I first met Alex and Leighann (via Skype, that is) I was struck by their outgoing and enthusiastic nature. Parents to four children under the age of five, the married couple of six years is still full of energy and zest, talking easily about their woven past and their exciting plans for the future.

Both Alex and Leighann were still in university when introduced to this industry. Leighann, a kinesiology student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was studying with the intent to pursue medicine. Alex, a small business and entrepreneurship student at St. Mary’s University, also located in Halifax, planned to execute his business education in a traditional route.

Leighann, at nineteen years old, was introduced to the profession first, describing this as the “night [her] whole life changed.” She’d expected to make money the conventional way: go to school, get a good job, and then work 45 years. Realizing that she could live her dreams and one day be a stay-at-home mom was an opportunity that changed everything for her, and she committed from the very start.

As a single female in a couples-dominated industry, Leighann set forth on her own, hoping to achieve success and freedom, while also paving the way for those that would follow behind. She described this experience as a way to show other women that “it doesn’t matter if you’re a couple or if you’re a single, the opportunity is the same or everyone. As long as you commit and follow the pattern, it can work.”

Still, this experience was not without challenges, and Leighann remembers saying in response to other couples, “Well, of course they can do it. There’s two of them!” Claude, she assured me, was always able to help her focus on the positive, by reminding her that when she makes the money, she would get to keep it all.

When Leighann began, she was insecure, had low self-esteem, and was afraid to talk to people. She’s able to laugh now at the irony, as she was getting into a people business. Claude and Lana began directing Leighann to books and CDs, while providing her with constant encouragement, which is what allowed Leighann to grow in what she calls her “incubation period.”

“It really just became eliminating distractions,” Leighann says. “Staying focused on the prize, and just putting my head down.”

With the help of this focus, Leighann met her now-husband, Alex, for the first time in 2001 by sponsoring him through his sister. Leighann was looking for anybody ambitious, focused, and outgoing. Alex’s sister and brother-in-law thought of him immediately. Alex was a full-time university student at the time, but Leighann recalls him recognizing the opportunity immediately. He, too, saw this as a chance to achieve financial freedom.

Alex was a business student, but he saw this profession as a more outside the box approach to what he had been studying. He was excited to learn more, as he saw this as a chance for both he—and others—to change the directions of their lives and move ahead.

Though Alex was ambitious from the start, the journey was not without challenges as he stepped outside of his comfort zone. He struggled, initially with public speaking, laughing at the memory of his first attempt. Leighann, he says, describes it as a special evening, occasionally using the word “terrible.” Alex struggled to relate to the crowd, but as he grew older, more experienced, and delved into learning as much as possible, meeting people and public speaking became easier.

Claude also played a part in Alex’s success, lending life experience to the then-25-year-old Alex, who describes his younger self as “very young, very immature” and lacking life experience. Since then, Claude has become more than just a mentor to Alex, but also a friend. Alex describes him as someone you can go to anytime to help overcome anything. The two, Alex says, are best friends—brothers of sorts—with Claude even standing at Alex’s wedding.

Today, Alex is able to name his business as one of the greatest things in his life, as it’s given him and Leighann the ability to live the life they’ve always wanted. Despite the personal success it has brought, they’re both quick to say their favorite part of the business is helping other people.

“The only way it works for you is if you help other people.” Alex says. “There’s no success without helping other people create success,” he says.

Alex now finds himself lending advice to those embarking on a journey in this industry, encouraging them to “dive in and learn all [they] can.” The only thing he says you need to begin is a “hunger level to learn.” Once you know what you’re doing, it all comes down to hard work.

“Dive in with both feet and we’re going to show you the ropes,” Alex says. “The faster you go, the more exciting everything gets.”

For Alex and Leighann, the most exciting chapter has just arrived—parenthood—bringing with it a new set of challenges.

THE COUPLE NOW HAS FOUR CHILDREN

The couple has four children—Jaxon (5), Marik (4), Baileigh (3), and Brooklyn (8 mos.). Though they had kids before Claude and Lana, they still found their mentors to be a huge resource for them in learning to balance their business with marriage and kids. Leighann says it’s with Claude and Lana’s guidance that she was able to figure out how to be a mom and a business owner and Alex’s wife, and how to do of all of those things really well.

The two also point out how the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired as business owners has helped to make them better parents. They describe parenting as “raising little people to be responsible adults, and to eventually become leaders themselves,” which is why they find the skills and knowledge of both roles—parent and business owner—often coincide.

Thanks to their hard work and their business’ success, Alex was able to leave his construction job when their youngest son was just ten months old. Getting to both be stay-at-home parents is something Leighann says you can’t put a price on. This lifestyle also allots them the time and means to embark on international travels. They both laugh as they attribute their fresh tans to a recent trip to Mexico, and tell me with enthusiasm about their many upcoming adventures taking place across North America in the next few months.

This freedom, they say, is a direct result of the decision they both made to pursue this alternative route and the hard work that followed.

Together, they’re looking towards their bright future, already excited for what it might bring.

“We’re really just getting started,” Alex says. “We haven’t even really made our true mark in this yet.”

1st Annual Kaizen Round Table House Boating Trip

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to give a few details on our first ever Kaizen Round Table House boating trip. Leighann and I flew out to Toronto on July 22nd and were picked up by our great friends Paul and Tara Ferrusi.  We than drove up to Bobcaygeon and the Kawartha Lakes.  After getting to Bobcaygeon we headed to the grocery store and loaded up on food.  We than got dropped off at Happy Days Houseboats on Piggott Lake and began to unload our stuff into the kitchen and bedroom of our luxury house boat.  Captains were chosen for each one of the house boats, Wayne MacNamara was to captain his boat and Terry Franks for ours.  We then met Frank (Owner of Happy Days) and he gave us the run down of everything we needed to know about our boat.  Then came the practicing of docking the boats and getting use to the controls, Wayne and Terry were naturals from the get go.  We stayed at the dock the first night as the rest of our party came throughout the night.

The next morning we set sail for Wolf Island, which is a 3 hour steam from the dock.  We got to go through the Locks systems in the Trent waterways. Trent Waterways was founded in 1833 and today have 44 Locks and 39 Swing Bridges.  It was really cool going through the Locks as we watched the water lower and rise depending on the lake we were entering.

As we entered Lower Buckhorn Lake we decided to head for Deer Bay and try out the Blob. This is where things became interesting. As we blew it up, all we really could go by was the video from my last post on how to use it.  So Claude jumped in the water and tied it to the boat.  All we could do next was use trial and error method to launch people off the blob.  The first day we set it up it was in the middle of the boat and we tried to jump from the top of the boat and catch our balance on the blob, then crawl out the end. Vary few made this happen, but the one that did make it out got launched at 14 – 16 feet high. That was just enough to entice us to try again in Day 2.

We then docked on Wolf Island for the night were a had an amazing supper.  After we got everything cleaned up after supper we all went out by the fire and got to share in the vision of our Life businesses. It was an amazing night that we got to share with the top Leaders in Kaizen.

Each boat had a designated couple that would cook breakfast and supper for the boat.  These were also a highlight of our trip, the food was incredible and we definitely were never left hungry.  Scott Staley went fishing and even landed a great size pike for supper, even thou there wasn’t any takers.

We talked all night and PDCA our lack of progress with the blob and day 2 was better. On this day we tied the blob to the side but now it was at the back of the boat and we could hop on from the lower level and crawl out to the end.  Their was a few small injuries on day 1 that limited the number of people willing to give it an attempt.  The best for me from the day was this video of Denis Leger doing a complete flip in the air. Enjoy.

Day three’s plan was for us to steam over to Big Island to camp for the night.  This would take a big chunk of our day, so we got up at the crack of 8am started breakfast and wanted to be on the water by 9 at the latest.  As we pushed our boat off the island and started to set sail, we noticed our second boat was floating towards the shallow rocks.  At that very moment we heard the sound of metal grinding against rocks.  Come to find out they had hit the rock pretty hard while backing up.  Claude got them to shut their engine off, we then used our boat to pull them to the middle of the lake to assess the damages.  As you can see by the picture they broke the propeller pretty good.  Happy Days come to our rescue with a new propeller that arrived by speed boat a few hours later. We had a few hours to kill waiting for the propeller so we decided to throw the anchors down and play a few games.  The ladies on one boat and the men on the other.    Once we installed the new propeller we decided to get our last day of blobing in.  This was by far the best day.  It was like we were dialed in.  A little less air in the blob,  and we were hitting new heights.  A couple of high lights from the blob was watching Terry Franks jump on the blob and fight his way out to the end (which was the toughest part) then get launched.  Another impressive moment was watching my wife Leighann attempt 2 times to make it out to the end without success and getting catch in the rope both times, then attempting a third time with success.  This is a picture of Leighann above the tree line, one of the highest launches of the weekend.

As we finally got under way to Big Island we were told that the Locks close at 4:30pm.  This meant that we wouldn’t make it thru Lock 31 in time to get to Big Island for the night.  We then found a marina while looking for a few supplies and fireworks.  They didn’t have a lot to choose from and didn’t have any fireworks.  They told us about this amazing location where we could dock close by for the night and even had two guys come out on a zodiac to make sure we found the right spot.  It was the best location by far, our own private island on a quiet lagoon. They then took Joce into town by zodiac and picked up some fireworks and came back.  We started a fire and ate supper.  As it got dark we began setting up for the fireworks.  Claude cleared the ground for the set up of the fire works and he got me to light them off.   We had the ladies stay on the top of the boat while us men set up a truly awesome firework display.  Here is a short video of the fireworks.

The end of the night concluded with all of us gathered around the camp fire talking about the next 12 – 24 months and the strategy we are going to use.

The last day we got up bright and early at 9am and steam back to the Happy Days dock.   As an added bonus Claude decided to meet all of us at The Keg for a closing out supper which is one of my favorite places to eat.  Thanks for an awesome meal pal.

I want to say a special thanks to Claude and Lana Hamilton for helping set this week up and for supper at The Keg, also to Wayne and Raylene MacNamara for finding the house boats and organizing the costs.  Also thanks to Terry and Anne Franks and Jean and Tammie Belenger for being amazing  boat mates. Also like to say congratulations to Joce and Cynthia Dionne, Denis and Lisa Leger, Scott Staley, and Stuart & Carrianne Hall for all being part of the first official Kaizen house boating trip.  What ever you do run hard and be at next years trip, this was an unforgettable 5 days.  If you were part of this round table trip or someone who would like to comment feel free at the bottom of the page.

All the Best in LIFE,

Alex Nickerson