Rather than dreaming of success, Mark Fisher encourages us to shirt our way of thinking and grasp success.

The Instant Millionaire is a wonderfully-written fable that shares the story of a young man that is frustrated with his lot in life. He’s working in a job he’s unhappy with, and he’s having financial difficulty. After approaching his uncle in the hopes of receiving a loan, the young man instead finds himself with a referral — an introduction to someone his uncle referred to as “The Instant Millionaire.”

I must admit that I began this book with a few preconceived ideas — I was sure it was going to be another one of those “feel good” Law of Attraction books that are a dime-a-dozen. Sure, I watched The Secret (didn’t everyone?). I was prepared that this was going to be more of the same.

I was in for a big surprise.

The difference in this powerful little book is in the story itself. Fisher gets us to invest in the characters. You feel the young man’s frustration, his fear and his anxiety. You want him to succeed. You root for him. And, dare I say it, you can’t help but see yourself in him.

This book takes you along on the journey with the young man as he receives invaluable tutelage at the hands of the aging instant millionaire. It underscores just how important our own mindset is, and how it can impede our own success. This book has many powerful insights, but perhaps the one that stood out the most for me was understanding how to get out of my own way. This one single insight is enough to make you want to go out and purchase one for every friend and family member you have — and encourage them to read it, perhaps multiple times.

It’s just that important.

Coming in at just 121 pages, this is a very quick read — but one you won’t soon forget.

In today’s marketplace, the buyer’s are in control.

This is the opening sentiment in Robert H. Bloom’s book, The New Experts. Once we recover from the initial sting of that statement, however, Bloom explains how this market shift occurred, and how businesses of all types and sizes can win customers by delivering what they want most during what he refers to as the “4 Decisive Moments” of the purchase progression.

Today’s consumer — armed with instant access to real-time price comparisons, immense choices and product reviews — is no longer brand loyal. The key to garnering consumers in today’s competitive global marketplace is to build Customer Preference. In order to do this, me must remember that:

• In the mind of your buyer, you don’t have to be the biggest in your industry;
• In the mind of your buyer, you don’t have to manufacture the best product;
• In the mind of your buyer, you don’t have to have the most well-known brand;
• In the mind of your buyer, you don’t have to offer a more compelling promise;
• In the mind of your buyer, you don’t have to have the biggest marketing budget.

What you have to do is “deliver a different benefit from your competition, and consistently provide that benefit at each of the Decisive Customer Moments.”

Bloom explains that “preference is not loyalty. Loyalty is steadfast devotion. Loyalty is an unquestioning commitment. Loyalty is being attached — often permanently attached — to an ideal, belief, person, brand, or business. Loyalty is almost extinct in our current business climate.”

The 4 Decisive Moments
Bloom outlines the roadmap to winning back customers by sharing the (4) crucial customer moments in the sales progression. They are:

• Your Now-or-Never Moment: occurs during the buyer’s all-too-brief initial contact with your company’s brand or service;
• Your Make-or-Break Moment: the extended period of consideration, negotiation and/or decision to purchase;
• Your Keep-or-Lose Moment: the period in which the customer is actually using your product or service;
• Your Multiplier Moment: your opportunity to turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer.

This information-packed book is a short, enjoyable read of just 145 pages; don’t let that short length fool you. I would recommend keeping a highlighter and/or notepad handy to jot down notes — you will come across dozens of examples to help you improve your own conversions.

As the business community struggles to recover from the aftermath of a profit-draining recession, The New Experts is both timely and thought-provoking reading. Bloom shares expert advice, seasoned with years of “in the trenches” experience. It is one business book that is relevant regardless of your niche, product or service.

If we wish to succeed in this new, always-connected marketplace, we must learn how to survive in a customer-centric economy. Bloom’s book is the perfect how-to guide.

About the Author:
Robert H. Bloom is a widely respected authority on business growth and the author of The Inside Advantage: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business (McGraw-Hill, 2007). Bloom advises firms of every type and size on their growth strategies.

As U.S. Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, the centerpiece of the $4.6 billion global marketing services company, he helped craft and implement the growth strategies of some of the world’s largest companies and brands, including BMW, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, and Novartis’ Theraflu and Triaminic. As an entrepreneur, he grew an advertising agency into a successful national business. Robert Bloom lives in New York City and Italy.

On the book jacket of The New Experts is a QR code. It is a recent development in the multitude of new technologies and illustrates how to stay connected with the “New Experts” throughout their purchase progression. More information is available at http://www.thenewexperts.com.

It’s not often that the writing of a behavioral economist is thought-provoking and easy to read at the same time. But if you pick up Dan Ariely’s new book, The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home, you’ll find it’s like having a conversation with an old friend, a very wise old friend.

Ariely’s self-depreciating humor and enthusiasm for human eccentricities will help you identify ways to improve how you love, work, innovate and manage.

Some of the questions he answers:

• Why large bonuses can make executives less productive.
• How confusing directions can actually help us.
• Why revenge sometimes seems so important.
• Why there is such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy.

Ariely also uses some of the research presented in his first book, Predictably Irrational, one of the most popular books on a previous best seller list. It deals with biases and unwise decisions.

Through fascinating anecdotes, he shows the negative and positive effects irrationality can have. He focuses on what we do at work and in relationships, what really motivates us, and how unwise actions can become habits.

The author says this is a highly personal book. In the second part, he draws partly on his difficult experiences as a burn patient. While he includes plenty of research, his reflections make for a well-balanced read, whether you read it cover-to cover or one part at a time.

If you are interested in prescriptions about how to defy logic and improve how you love the one you’re with, or how to improve at work, Ariely has some advice for you.

Maybe you’ve lost your job or your home. Maybe you’re struggling to get by. But tough times are what you make of them — you can’t allow any setback, big or small, to keep you from trying again.

In his book, “Pink Slip Proof: How to Control All Future Paychecks,” businessman and author Paul J. Meyer stresses that Americans need to cultivate negative capability, or “the ability to bounce back from failure, to overcome obstacles and to take calculated risks.”

People with negative capability do not allow bad times to get them down. They face every day as a new opportunity to succeed. Sure, it might be easier said than done, but developing negative capability is hardly impossible. Meyer offers the following advice to Americans looking to bounce back from current hardships:

Learn to expect obstacles. While many people repeat stories about entrepreneurs who find instant success, most endeavors require persistence. You are going to face objections, hang-ups and last-minute disasters — they are parts of life. Know to expect them.

Don’t give up. Even if you acknowledge that you’re going to face some sort of obstacle, that doesn’t mean you can anticipate every possible bad outcome. Unexpected obstacles can put a hitch in your plans — but you can’t ever give up on your goal.

“Unfortunately, when many people encounter strong unanticipated obstacles, they become frustrated and overwhelmed, begin to question the validity of their goals and often decide to quit,” says Meyer. “They just needed to dig a little and remain persistent. The fact is, 90 percent of all failure comes from quitting.”

Learn to see obstacles as opportunities. You know to expect obstacles, so learn to see them as normal. Don’t allow negative emotions to dictate your reactions. Instead, learn to see hindrances as opportunities to learn the lessons that will take you to the next level. Rocks in the road aren’t impossible barriers, but hurdles that you, with a little creativity, can learn to leap over.

As Meyer says,”When you cease to view obstacles as threatening or even inconvenient, you become unstoppable.”

For more information about Paul J. Meyer or his book, “Pink Slip Proof: How to Control All Future Paychecks,” visit http://www.pauljmeyer.com.

Editor’s Note: Entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, husband, father, grandfather, Paul J Meyer passed away on Monday morning, October 26, 2009. Meyer had been battling cancer. He is survived by his wife Jane, five children and 15 grandchildren. He lives on through his family, his writings, the more than 40 businesses he still owned, and the innumerable lives he touched during his incredible life.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” Setting a goal, whether it be to lose weight, earn a promotion or spend more time with your family, is easy — it’s carrying through that proves problematic.

And yet, the world’s most successful people are intensely goal-orientated. They know what they want, and they focus on achieving it every day. So what’s the difference between a top executive and everybody else?

“The fact is that successful people fail far more than unsuccessful people,” says Brian Tracy, a top management consultant, in a recent Q&A with SUCCESS Magazine. “Successful people try more things, fall down, pick themselves up and try again — over and over before they finally win.” So how can you learn to quit giving up on your goals?

SUCCESS Magazine offers the following tips for more successful goal-setting:

Write down a list of goals. Cynthia Kersey, author of Unstoppable: 45 Powerful Stories of Perseverance and Triumph from People Just Like You, suggests focusing on how you want to be remembered. “List the qualities, deeds and characteristics for which you would like to be remembered by your friends, spouse, children, co-workers, the community and even the world.”

Set out a plan to accomplish your goals. Tracy suggests listing what little steps will take you to your goal, then organizing them by priority and sequence. Figure out how much time and money you will need to accomplish your goals, and revisit and revise your plan accordingly.

Manage your mindset. Keep your focus by surrounding yourself with people who will help you accomplish your goals. Arrange your workspace and home so you’ll be reminded of your commitments. “When you form the habit of starting your productivity earlier in the day, associating with more positive people, managing the news and information you feed your mind, controlling the language you use — especially the ways in which you describe yourself — you will find it easier to succeed,” says Jim Cathcart, professional speaker and founder of the Cathcart Institute Inc. “Become the person who would achieve your goals and who would deserve them.”

For more information, visit http://www.success.com.

Even if you’ve never so much as sold candy door-to-door for a school fundraiser, you have sales experience. You sell an idea when you persuade someone to your point of view or an image when you meet someone for the first time. So, even if you don’t plan on becoming a professional salesperson, you adapt some of the traits of a master salesperson.

“I’ve met a tremendous amount of talented, successful people. They’ve taught me a great deal, and I’ve appreciated every one of them,” said the late Paul J. Meyer, author of Pink Slip PROOF: How to Control All Future Paychecks. “When you look closely, it’s no secret how they arrived at their present income and position.”

In his book, Meyer listed five basic qualities shared by every master salesperson:

• All master salespeople are persuasive and convincing. The ability to persuade isn’t limited to leaders — any time you help someone see something your way, you have made a sale. Top salespeople use every technique at their disposal, including stories, dreams, color and humor.

• All master salespeople focus on service. Meyer cited the “golden rule” of service — serve others as you would like to be served. A salesperson who goes out of their way to focus on service will likely win their customers’ loyalty.

• All master salespeople are honest. If you’re a known liar, no one’s going to trust you enough to buy what you’re selling. “Top salespeople are honest, keep their word, work hard, are responsible, incredibly dependable and act with complete integrity in all they do,” said Meyer.

• All master salespeople are self-motivating. Master salespeople motivate themselves to accomplish goals, no matter how they feel or what other people say. “Self-motivation requires the development of inner strength, conscious will power, overwhelming desire, and the determination to reach any goal you personally want to achieve,” said Meyer.

• All master salespeople care about other people. The best salespeople genuinely want to leave their clients better off than they found them — they’re not selling to make money, but to give their clients a needed product or service.

For more tips from Paul J. Meyer, purchase the book Pink Slip PROOF: How to Control All Future Paychecks.

Editor’s Note: Entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, husband, father, grandfather, Paul J Meyer passed away on Monday morning, October 26, 2009. Meyer had been battling cancer. He is survived by his wife Jane, five children and 15 grandchildren. He lives on through his family, his writings, the more than 40 businesses he still owned, and the innumerable lives he touched during his incredible life.

Consider the chance of success for people who never went beyond the eighth grade, never drove a car or had electricity.

That describes the simple lifestyle of the Amish people. But it turns out that they have a greater chance of success in a new business than the non-Amish. U.S. Department of Labor figures show their five-year failure rate is less than 5 percent, compared to 44 percent of small businesses in the United States over a four-year period.

In his new book, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, author Erik Wesner tells what he learned while living with the Amish for three years. For example:

The simplicity of their lifestyle carries over to an employer’s relationship with his employees. Owners say, “I would never ask an employee to do something I would be unwilling to do myself.” Sometimes they will work right beside their workers and may do part of the dirtiest work themselves. One boss says this aligns their interests with his.

Another Amish construction boss occasionally takes all of his workers out to breakfast, and they are paid for the time. While turnover is high in the construction industry, most of his workers have been with him for nine years or more.

A rigorous work ethic is the norm. Sometimes bosses and workers rise in the wee hours of a morning to be on a construction job on time.

The book shows the importance of cultivating strong relationships with employees, customers and other business owners. It illustrates the creation of long-term goals, taking the welfare of others into account, and maintaining personal integrity.

Wesner gives take-away ideas in a 10-point summary at the end of each chapter.

Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, by Erik Wesner, 256 pages is available through all major bookstores and online.

Authors Chip and Dan Heath wanted to find out why people gladly make big changes in their lives, like getting married or having kids, but fiercely resist changes that are far less encompassing.

Two psychologists helped them find the answers. People have two separate “systems” in their brains: a rational, logical system and an emotional, impulsive, instinctual system. If they are not aligned, change can be difficult.

In their research, they studied people in the workplace, people trying to lose weight, and those trying to make big changes in organizations. They discovered that there were striking similarities in the steps they took toward success. In their new book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, they give a game plan available to everyone in order to show how changes in life can be a little easier.

One quote: “What do you do, in the first hour of the first day, to teach a monkey how to ride a skateboard? The answer doesn’t involve punishment.”

Tell people what you want them to do in a way that they will understand. The government’s Food Guide Pyramid says we should eat 5 to 7 teaspoons of oil a day, suggesting people should eat less oil. The Heaths found a a public-health campaign in West Virginia that urged people to drink 1 percent milk. A glass of whole milk has as much fat as five strips of bacon. If you switch to 1 percent, you’ll eat less oil.

Appeal to the emotional side. A picky accountant obsessed with details and forms visited a group home where he could see the kids and the problems. He was moved to simplify the way the home could request funds.

The authors’ lessons are backed up by anecdotes that deal with many facets of home life, business life and organizations. It is an entertaining and educational must-read for executives and ordinary people who want to make changes.

The middle of a recession is an odd time to publish a book called SuperCorp. But its subtitle, How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, paints a promising picture of the future.

Author Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s optimism is clear. To Kanter, companies that do good also do well.

She is a well-regarded professor at Harvard Business School. Kanter and a team of researchers spent more than three years doing 350-plus interviews at 15 different companies in more than 20 countries. Along the way, they searched for common practices. Kanter distills those best practices into lessons at the end of each chapter. She also lists the characteristics of their leaders. Among them: They should stress innovation, create networks, and treat employees as if they were volunteers.

Business Week reviewer Nanette Byrnes says the book’s most persuasive sections tie acts of social good to financial success. For example, IBM staffers’ help for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami provided a course in management for young Indian workers plus technical innovations IBM went on to sell through its “Smarter Planet” initiative.

An emphasis on social good at Brazil’s Banco Real began with cleaning up dirty alleys near its offices. It morphed into, among other things, a line of loans for environmental upgrades to cars and homes. Its microloans to small business have a default rate of only 4 percent.

India’s ICIC Bank’s handheld fingerprint reader helped illiterate customers and is becoming a standard in the industry. At the root of these innovations is a corporate philosophy that strives for some kind of good beyond profits.

With so many people out of work during this recession, it should come as no surprise that many are thinking about starting their own businesses.

And with so many jobs moving offshore, even the people who are still employed should consider starting a business as a back-up plan. Unfortunately, most of these start-ups will struggle to survive … but they don’t have to. There’s an easy way to mistake-proof any business – all it takes is a little time using free online tools and search engine research with Google.

Mistake 1: Not Listening to the Voice of the Customer Most business entrepreneurs become enchanted with an idea and pursue it without thinking it through. They end up with a garage filled with unsalable merchandise and wonder what went wrong. Others open a store and name it something cute, like a hair salon named Curl Up And Dye. Or they start an Internet business but don’t bother to understand what customers really want. Why do they fail? The answer is simple; they didn’t understand the “voice of the customer.” Businesses large and small can use a voice of the customer matrix to describe what customers want and how to deliver it. Toyota uses this kind of matrix to design better cars, and you can use it to design a better product or service.

To succeed in business, it’s best to figure out where the crowds of customers are going and then get in front of the crowd. In the old days, this would involve lots of market research, focus groups and money. Today, these answers can be easily found on the Internet for free with Google’s key word tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Let’s say you want to start a pet food bakery that makes healthy treats for dogs and cats. Just search Google’s keyword tool for “pet bakery” and “pet food.” You’ll quickly discover that there are over 500,000 searches a month for “pet food” but only 8,000 a month for “pet bakery.”

There are also 33,000 searches a month for “wellness pet food.” From this one might conclude that “pet food” is too broad and would have to compete with the big chains; “pet bakery” is too narrow; but “wellness pet food” might be just the niche to explore because these customers are probably willing to pay a premium.

Mistake 2: Not Speaking Your Customer’s Language As learned from Mistake 1, customer language can differ from our own. Based on the search terms above, it might be smarter to name your store “Wellness Pet Food” (customer language) instead of “Bow Wow Biscuits” (your language) because that’s what the crowd wants. Don’t paraphrase (using healthy instead of wellness); use the customer’s exact words. Then check domain name availability for “Wellness-pet-food.com” or “Wellness_pet_food.com.” If it’s available, register it (try a site such as GoDaddy); if not, try adding other key words likely to attract customers such as your location.

Be aware that Google cannot identify compound words, so registering a site like “WellnessPetFood.com” won’t be as effective as “Wellness_Pet_Food.com.” Separate the words with a dash or underscore to improve the site’s search engine ranking.

This “get in front of the crowd” strategy also works for service businesses. Let’s say you are a hypnotherapist in Denver with “HypnoDenver.com” as your site. Many other hypnotherapists in town also have hypnosomething.com as their site name. What are prospects searching for? They don’t want “hypnosis;” they want to “stop smoking” or “lose weight.” Domain names like “Stop-smoking-Denver.com” and “Lose-Weight-Denver.com” would be a great start.

With more than 100 million Internet users in the U.S. and billions of Internet-capable cell phones, no business can afford to ignore the power of the web. Even if you don’t plan on having a Web site, you will want to own the domain name to prevent others from using it. And, if the business succeeds locally, having the domain name will make it easy to expand into a regional, national or global Internet business.

Mistake 3: Not Making Your Product or Service Better, Faster or Cheaper Too many entrepreneurs try to enter an already crowded market. Search the Internet for your product or service to find out how many competitors are out there. When searching for the key words, “pet food Denver,” Google finds 726,000 results. “Wellness pet food Denver” yields 149,000 results. If Google reveals too many competitors, consider another line of business. If Google reveals no competitors, that can be just as bad. Someone, somewhere should be offering a similar product or service. If not, there are no customers.

“Pet food” for example, is crowded with low cost super chains. From the voice of the customer perspective, customers want you to be better, faster or cheaper than the competition. Are you more innovative? Do you provide better customer service? Are you more effective and efficient? When customers can’t distinguish one business from another, they default to the familiar or low cost one. If you’re not sure what customers want in a particular product or service, start by asking your friends, family, neighbors, and even people on the street. Capture their responses. In general, are they saying:

• “I want better ________ (e.g., pet food).”
• “I want cheaper ________ (e.g., cell phone service).”
• “I want faster ___________ (e.g., healthcare, service, delivery, repair, etc.)

Then ask: “What is the competition offering (better, faster or cheaper)? What can we do differently?” If you can’t answer these questions, neither can your customers.

Mistake 4: Not Testing the Business Concept Once Google has revealed what customers want (in their language, not yours) and you’ve identified a unique value proposition from the voice of the customer (better, faster or cheaper), it’s time to test the concept. For this, Google offers another powerful tool: Adwords (adwords.google.com). Google makes its money by putting ads around its search results. Many entrepreneurs use Adwords to test business and marketing concepts before they throw a lot of money at it.

Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, used Adwords to test various titles for his new book. He bought pay-per-click ads using various titles (Adwords will alternate them for you) and each ad took the Internet user to a different Web page about the book. Ferriss let the “wisdom of crowds” choose the best title for him.

All of this research might take a few weeks and a few hundred dollars, but it’s a lot cheaper than wasting your hard-earned money on a doomed startup.

Mistake 5: Not Bootstrapping the Business Most people start looking for a “business loan” (3,350,000 Google searches) before they think about a “business plan” (1,500,000 searches). Entrepreneurs don’t always need a lot of money to get started. If Mrs. Robin Andrew’s third grade class at Pelham Elementary School in Pelham NH can start The Bow Wow Biscuit Company (www.bowwowbiscuits.org), you can too.

If the business is a product, don’t make 10,000 of them. Put up a Web site; bake a few in your kitchen and sell them online or give away free samples to test the response. Or make a prototype and get people to try it and provide feedback. Post-it™ notes are a classic example of this and look at how successful they are. When customers start clamoring to buy your products, then get money to do a production run.

If the business idea is a service, print some business cards (carefully crafted with the crowd’s keywords and phrases) and pass them out at local business meetings.

This is how entrepreneurs bootstrap businesses that grow. It’s also how they avoid sinking huge sums of money into bad ideas. This “crawl-walk-run” strategy works as well for new businesses as it does for new babies.

If the first business idea doesn’t click, try another one. Walt Disney went bankrupt several times before succeeding … but then again, he didn’t have Google. Good luck with your start-up!

About the Author:
Jay Arthur, the KnowWare Man, works with companies to fire up their profits with Lean Six Sigma. Jay is author of Double Your Profits. He spent the last 20 years helping organizations maximize revenue through the “Lean Six Sigma System,” a collection of audio, video, books and software. Jay is also the author of Lean Six Sigma Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide and the QI Macros for Excel – Software for Six Sigma, SPC, DOE. To plug the leaks in your cash flow, sign up for free Lean Six Sigma lessons online at: http://www.qimacros.com/freestuff.html.