Wealth-Building Wednesday: Listening to Experts
On Marketing Monday, I talked about the importance of
listening to your audience. Today, I’m going to talk about the importance of
listening to experts in your industry.The Fastest Way To Get Somewhere: Let Someone Who’s Been There Guide You
If you were in Texas and you’d never been to New York, it
would be insane to hop in the car and just start driving. You’d likely get lost
along the way. You might know it was East, but you don’t know how far East you
need to go or what the turns are on the interstate that you need to make to get
there.
Trying to start a business and run it without consulting experts
who have built the kind of business you want to build is just like that. You
don’t want to do it without consulting those who have been there or you’re more
likely to fail than you are to succeed.
The Secret to Building Lasting Wealth: Seek Wisdom
Seek the wisdom of those who know how to get where you want
to be in life. Learn from their experiences so you don’t have to make the same
mistakes they did. Capitalize on their expertise.
When I first started my writing business, I spent a year
ghostwriting for people who had made far more money than I ever had in my
entire life. It was invaluable to me in terms of being able to gain wisdom from
them. It was better than reading a book in many ways because I was able to ask
them the questions I wanted to know.
Some Books To Help You Get Started
Now, yes, I do make money from these links if you click on
them. But that isn’t why I recommend them. I recommend them because of the
wisdom to be found in them and the helpfulness of the content that they
provided.
1. Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends & Influence People
This book was one I read when I was 14 and it continues to serve me faithfully. It has allowed me to get along with people nobody else in the office could stand and to earn respect from people.
2. Michael Port's Book Yourself Solid
Back when I was first starting my business, I was stuck. I wasn't making much progress until I found and read this book. I am still impacted by the simple wisdom found in its pages.
3. The Bible
If it sounds crazy for me to recommend The Bible as a wealth-building tool, I promise you that it's not as crazy as it sounds. If you consider that Jesus took what was essentially a Mom-and-Pop business, the Jewish faith, and turned it into the greatest multi-level marketing enterprise the world has ever seen, where people are still seeking to join its numbers and still singing its tunes, all without spending any money on marketing, you will begin to understand why I recommend this book so highly.
If you want to learn to market like a master, study Jesus. Study how he operated among the people. watch what he did and how he did it. Put yourself in the scene with him, and learn from him.
Most of the greatest lessons I've ever learned on storytelling and marketing - which is an advanced form of storytelling - came from studying Scripture.
I do recommend studying the whole Bible, because that will give you the context to understand much of what Jesus is doing and saying, but begin with studying Christ. You won't go wrong.
Yes, I recommend the Catholic Bible. Why? Two reasons. First, some of the context for what is stated in the New Testament actually comes out of books that Martin Luther removed from Scripture during his break with the Catholic Church. No, the Church didn't add any books. Martin Luther took them out.
For example, there are direct quotes from the Book of Judith which are found in the New Testament in Luke. Judith is a very different kind of woman than Esther, and a woman well worth studying. But she doesn't make an appearance in the King James version of the Bible.
As I pointed out during my Strategy Sunday post, there are always new lessons of wisdom that I find each time I read passages from Scripture. It's the best money you'll spend.
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