Why do so many people insist on reinventing the wheel?

You see it everywhere…

…wanna be entrepreneurs that start and struggle because they are too stuborn (or stupid) to go to the local library or book store.  Hidden away inside these 2 locations lies the secrets to massive success.  Formulas that anyone can copy with similar success, but few do. They think they are smarter… and can figure it out in their own… WHY?

…new realtors or mortgage brokers who take the training they need to get their license, then forget to actually talk to those in their field who ARE successful.  Ya think that maybe… just maybe, those who achieved the success you want may just have something to sdhare that will shortcut your success.  A small chance yes.

… the list could go on, but that is not my point.

My point is: FOLLOW THOSE WHO WENT BEFORE YOU!

It will save you time, money, and some serious heartache.

I am in reminiscing mode… starting with my twin daughters turning 9 soon… and ending with my memories of the one person in my University program that taught me something applicable to entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Not to say that my business degree from the University of Calgary (double minor in entrepreneurship and marketing) wasn’t helpful… just that most of it is targeted at corporations and management level employees.

But, there was one teacher there that taught me some of the most valuable life lessons I have ever learned.

Lessons that continue to push me forward, and continue to help me achieve breakthrough after breakthrough in my business.

It all started in my last year of my Commerce degree.

Shannon Goodspeed was my professor

for Sales and Marketing

Now, I will be the first to admit that I was lucky to even make it to the last year of this program. I was not an A student, nor was I head-deep in my books. Most of the time I was elbow deep in some cold beer, living in a house FULL of partiers and non-students (who couldn’t quite understand this studying thing. To them, studying all ended in grade 12 – earlier for a few of them)

I was fascinated by entrepreneurs (having grown up in an entrepreneurial family – which is another point I want to make later). I read inspiring stories of entrepreneurs. I tried my hand at a few gigs in high school.

Throughout University, I paid the bills and tuition by owning a College Pro Painters Franchise in my summers (making more in a few months than many people made in a year).

But when it came to “what do I do after I graduate?”… I was at a loss. I wanted to run my own business – but my parents (yes, the same ones who were entrepreneurs) pushed hard for me to take a corporate job.

To them, and I love them dearly, entrepreneurship was full of hard work and heart-ache… and they wanted me to have it “easier”.

To me – money spoke… still does.

Ms Goodspeed mentioned one class that she had worked for Hewlett Packard, and had loved their corporate culture. They were a people-focused company, with good values and exceptional products.

Not long after she mentioned this, I was looking at the job posting for new Commerce graduates (the big companies started their interviewing process months before the graduates were done classes).

There were 2 postings that caught my eye: Xerox and Hewlett Packard. Both had openings for corporate sales type positions… and both were offering top salary positions (the best salaries you could get as a new graduate were for technology related companies).

So I did what ever single person in Shannon’s class

SHOULD HAVE DONE…

I went and spoke with her.

She was very open to sharing her thoughts on my strengths and weaknesses, and how best to position those in the interviews that I would be going through.

She helped me understand critical things like:

- what the big corporations are looking for

- what is involved in a sales position for a large company like this

- how to prepare myself for the interviews

- what to say, do and ask the interviewers

- how to follow up with them

She handed me a formula for landing one of these highly coveted jobs.

Guess what?

No one else in her class took the time to ask her for ideas. No one else took the initiative to actually research the companies they were about to interview with.

Few of them were prepared for what was about to happen…

Xerox was the first to start conducting interviews.

So I went off and did my research on the company, the interviewers, past employees, trends, etc – just as Shannon told me to do.

Then I got real busy preparing myself.

I found my “interview song” which I listened to religiously before every interview (another tip from Shannon… my choice on the song… “Hit me with your best shot” by Pate Benetar was very fitting for interviewing). I listed out my strengths and my weaknesses – and prepared for how to address both sides of the coin. And every chance I got, I was in Shannon’s office letting her guide me down the right path.

Xerox had 320 some people apply for the spot, myself included.

Interview #1 – done. Passed to the next.

Test #1 – passed. Passed to the next.

Interview #2 – passed.

Test #2 – passed

And on and on this went.

If I recall right, there were 4 or 5 interviews and 2 or 3 tests I had to complete, which I did, and which put me in the top 3 list.

Then I blew it.

They called me to tell me I was not the one chosen. And I dropped it, planning to move on. Which I did. Later I heard that all they wanted from me at the time was one last call in to them telling them why their decision was the wrong one – and why I was the right one.

That was all it would have taken to land the top job at Xerox.

Moving on to Hewlett Packard – NEXT!

Now I was a kingpin of interviews and putting myself at the top of all those being interviewed. Hewlett Packard was similar, over 260 people applying for the position this time. And their process was just as intense.

5 or 6 face-to-face interviews, plus 1 or 2 paper tests.

This time I was funneled down to the final 5 (from 260).

This time I was NOT going to blow the deal.

I persisted. Another trip to Shannons office for final ideas to close the deal.

From there, I was off to my final interview.

And I NAILED IT!

Out of 260 candidates, I was chosen to work out of the Calgary office (interesting enough, at the time, there was no Calgary position… it was for Winnipeg… brrrrrrrrr. They actually created a spot for me in Calgary.)

As they say, the rest was history. I was treated like gold and shuttled off to Silicon Valley for training for 6 months. My long career at Hewlett Packard lasted a whopping 3 years – when I finally realized the big corporate world wasn’t for me – the entrepreneurial companies WERE for me.

Thank you Shannon Goodspeed!

The skills you taught me during these interviews continue to this day to drive me to greater heights, and greater sales.

And hopefully you took out some of these ideas she passed on to me to reach higher, achieve more, and stand out from the masses…

1) Find your BIG reason why – I had my big dream put on paper, the income I was to earn, and the lifestyle I was to enjoy. This dream was in front of me every single day during the interview process.

2) What’s your song? Mine was “Hit me with your best shot” and it STILL fires me up when I hear it. I become invincible listening to that song, and it worked like a charm for an instant confidence booster. Find the song that fires you up and listen to it before every sales call, and before any event where you need a “shot” of adrenaline.

3) You can never over-prepare for something like business. I spent hours and hours pouring over annual reports, newspaper articles, books and press releases – looking for hot buttons to bring up in the interview – and to show them I knew why I was there and who it was I was sitting across from.

4) Become part of the culture. The HP (and Xerox) executives who interviewed me felt like I was one of them. Why? Because I had spend hours and hours on the phone with their employees. I had invested hours of my time talking to EX-employees, finding out what they liked, and disliked about their old employer. I knew what it was like to work for them – long before I did.

5) Never assume you have the deal until it is in writing. In my graduating class, there was a significant number of fellow applications who felt it was owed to them to have a good job like this, paid the high salary like was offered, and to work in an environment like that. To them, they didn’t have to try as hard. To them, this Troy guy was not nearly as popular in the little “cliques” so he was not real competition. I was. And I beat every single one of them in the HP process… and I beat out 317 of them with Xerox – it was my own fault (assuming the interview process was over. It wasn’t. One more call would have closed the deal).

6) A lesson Shannon didn’t teach me – but as the end result of all this. If you have a dream (mine was running my own business), you can take side roads to get there – but never forget to come back to your dream and make it happen when you are ready. My listening to my parents delayed my entrepreneurial journey a few years – in the end I came out living my dream, and loving my life.

7) Be careful what the big dogs in education will do. After I had graduated, I heard that they laid off Shannon from the teaching program because she didn’t have a PHd. The BEST teacher they had – gone. The WORST of them – still there (hey, they have their PhD, they must be great teachers – right? Wrong.)

Last… when you have a proven system that is working for you – keep using it. Simple, but often ignored. Advertisements, web pages, sales letters – if they are working to the best of their ability, never switch them. You can try and improve them, but never stop them.

You can go it alone and figure it all out from scratch… or take years off the learning curve by copying the formulas others are willing to share.

I know the smartest path… I follow it… and recommend you do too!